Why collaborative storytelling is a meaningless phrase

[Max_Killjoy]

Word definitions are pointless to argue. You can reach an understanding about how someone is using a word. You can't convince them that their definition is wrong.

However, it is entirely fair to expect people to be aware of the implications and baggage of a word or term they're using, instead of insisting that only their chosen or personal usage matters.

Now if I ever meet someone who uses the term "collaborative storytelling" to mean anything other than "I hate understanding rules and want to feel superior to other people via my own ignorance" then I might care be more sympathetic to the play style they mean with those words.

There are plenty of gamers who aren't against learning the rules of whatever system they're using, but whose approach to gaming can truthfully, accurately, and fairly be described as "collaborative storytelling" with all the implications thereof. It's a perfectly valid approach -- it's just not a superior or universal approach.

What you're running into is people who are using "collaborative storytelling" incorrectly along another axis, rather than the one at the core of this thread, for a whole host of possible reasons. One possible issue is that the rules being used don't work well with their approach or expectations... it can take a lot of work to make D&D-like rules fit with a heavily story-focused / "narrative" approach. There's also the "stormwind fallacy" -- which can by extension be viewed as the false assertion that rules knowledge and roleplaying are mutually opposed.