On 2006-01-19, Meguey wrote:
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Mark points out that IWNAY can be addictive, co-dependent, and lead to an abuse of power (especially, I read, if one person is the habitually vulnerable and another the habitually 'supportive'). He's totally right. I also expect any game or play style could go septic. I think it rests in the hands/hearts/heads of each person and/or gaming group to self-monitor for the extremes. Designers certainly can't be expected to consider and plan for *every* possible configuration. I think designers CAN take a certain level of responsibility for letting folks know what could reasonably happen in the game, and provide tools/terms/mechanics to assist. Ron providing the lines and veils in Sex & Sorcery is possibly the best example of such a tool. Just for the sake of clarity, I want to sketch where I see NGH, TtP, IWNAY, and lines and veils intersecting. Lines = how far do we go? This is part of TtP and NGH, clearly. Knowing where the lines are, or having some mechanic in place to alert fellow players when a line has been reached ( Sydney's Forge post). Veils = how opaque is the detail? This is it's own thing. I can imagine a hard-core, hard-hitting IWNAY game in which lots of detail gets glossed over, and fairly easy-going NGH where there's really explicit scenes. Also, there may be games where the Veil is opaque about violence but transparent about sex, or whatever. IWNAY = willingness to go through difficult/painful issues together. This is about the judicious crossing of Lines. As above, I expect the Veils could be all over the place. |
Some maybe useful links: Complete Index of Entries Search for a Post or Comment Search the Forge Forums This makes... WMW go "Thanks, Meg" That's where I was headed. Not 'IWNAY bad, because X' but 'ethics of gaming/game design' turf. |