PC "Back story", why is that a thing?

[Max_Killjoy]

Nothing I said can be constructed to be a Strawman. "Strawman" does not mean "somebody analyzed my statement in a way I dislike", or that "someone drew conclusions other than what I intended". A strawman is something specific. In order for something to be a Strawman I must:

A) Argue against a point that you didn't make.
B) Claim that my defeat of the argument means that your position is false.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man


In that post I pointed out what I believe to be a natural conclusion of the statement you made:


I made no arguments against any point. I have not for example claimed that it is wrong to say that CRPGs are inferior to TTRPGs. I've made no claim on the issue of if "some choice" is superior to "no choice" or not. Simply pointing out an implication of a statement is not a Strawman. If you want to claim I missed context or lack reading comprehension such that the logical implications I draw are false is one thing. However, those things aren't a Strawmen.

Given the texture of this conversation I don't think it was unreasonable of me to read the statement broadly. The entire thrust has been about the merit and quality of a game being contingent on the degree to which player-written backstories are accepted & Incorporated.

See A above, emphasis added.

No one was talking about all character choice, the context of the conversation has been entirely about character backstory specifically, and my statement followed on from that, and was clearly not meant as an assertion about all character choices ever. Your statement as follows had NOTHING to do with ANYTHING anyone on ANY side of this discussion has ever claimed.

If this was true it would mean all play should at character creation, as once the you've written (or been given a pregenerated) the backstory all choice and possible outcomes of that character have already been explored. For a lack of choice in backstory to be equivalent to choice at all, it means by definition that no choice can exist outside backstory creation.

Not a strawman? It certain looks, walks, and quacks like a strawman.

Or would you prefer "attempting to move the goalposts", or just "non-sequitur"?

Whatever you prefer to call it, it's certainly NOT a reasonable inference, especially given the context of the discussion for multiple pages now.