Thanks for those of you who responded to my last question.
What I find particularly interesting is several of you seem to think that "collaborative storytelling" is a description of what players and GMs do when playing an RPG, at least the roleplaying part of it. And possibly technically accurate. But that you don't think the best way to phrase it is "... about Collaborative storytelling".
The reason I find this interesting is "... about collaborative storytelling" is almost exclusively the way I see it used. Either "Roleplaying is about collaborative storytelling" or "RPGs are about colloborative storytelling" or "D&D is about collaborative storytelling." And when I say see it used, I mean by posters in these forums. It's a very common statement used to describe RPGs and roleplaying.
And that's one of the primary reasons I object. I don't believe any of those are true as a general statement of what they are about, the why or the purpose or the goal. That's obviously a different issue from a statement of how it's being done, the method being employed. (Even though I also disagree with the latter.)
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Also Tinkerer, please note although I primarily think of storytelling, in regards to roleplaying games, as narrative mechanics or narrative resolution, as opposed to a predetermined story, that's just what leaps to mind. As I covered in post 438 that's not the only definitions I accept. An emergent story is a story. In other words, my definition of story in RPGs in the first post is my 'Strong' definition, but there is a valid broad one that includes recounting emergent story.
Or to put it another way, I accept that more broadly, a story is an account of events.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/shows...&postcount=438
I just disagree
strongly that a player describing intent and approach, followed by GM resolving them and describing outcomes and possibly consequences, is an account of events. That is events happening in the in-game world. The mere fact that communication is necessary for events to occur in the in-game world, just because one of them is (necessarily) playing the part of the universe resolving the outcome of things being attempted, does not convert it from "event" to "account of events".**
(Edit: **important disclaimer: I am not saying that all RPG playing is done this way. What the player and DM are doing, their purpose, their goal, is what causes the division between "events occur" and "an account of events". Some people it's discussing established facts and describing them, others it's establishing the facts.)
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Let's add another question, that just occurred to me while typing up that last paragraph:
If talking to a DM necessarily is an account of events, when we replace the DM with a computer, and the player enters commands by keyboard and mouse instead of vocally, does gameplay suddenly change back from an account of events, to actual events occurring?