What is Player Agency?

[Nifft]

Like anything, this is the point where the idea of agency jumps the shark and goes screaming off in to the woods with its underpants on its head.

Hyperbole; unhelpful mockery.

Agency is a tool, not a goal.

The goal is to give the players a fun, exciting, and engaging game. No other goal matters. The role of "Agency" is to facilitate that, because players tend to have more fun, and be more engaged when their actions and ideas matter (and I say tend, because that is not an absolute rule, some players just want to watch a story unfold).

Accurate in parts, but with some very misleading text in the middle.

The goal is not to give the players a good game. The goal is to enjoy a good game with the players.

The DM is not selling a book, the DM is not selling a video-game, the DM is not selling an interactive dining experience. The DM is playing the game with the PCs.

That said, it's accurate that agency is one tool with which a DM can improve a game.

Setting "Agency" as the goal is putting the cart before the horse - providing agency at all cost serves no benefit if the players are not having fun, and aren't engaged.

The thread is about one aspect of fun.

If you fail at this aspect, there will be less fun.

Improving the Agency aspect of a game is not somehow in competition with improving the fun. It's one part of how to improve the fun.

I am not interested in the opinions of third party campaign-monitors who are going to go through my DM notes and mark me out of 10 on "Agency" or any other false goal. The only people that matter to me are the people around the table. If they are happy, I have succeeded at what I aimed to do. If they have not, I have failed.

When you fail, would you prefer to be able to improve your game?

Or would you prefer to have no options for improvement?

It sounds like you're saying: "I don't need that tool right now, therefore there's no point in anybody ever using that tool."

Gotta say, that's about the least-constructive attitude I've seen here.

For that reason, I strongly dispute the collective sniffing being done at illusionary agency. It is just as an acceptable tool as real agency if it achieves the goal of helping the players enjoy the session. And the fact is, illusionary agency has its place.

"Because illusionism sometimes works, therefore real agency is not important."

You're saying something very strange here.


Overall, it seems like you have one specific truth which is accurate ("Agency is a tool") but you don't understand the value nor the limitations of that truth.