Is Erfworld Parson's game?

[Aliquid]

Is Erfworld Parson's game? I am thinking not.

The reason I think this is that Parson's personality really doesn't match a cute game world. If he made a game it wouldn't have cute monsters, it wouldn't censor swear words, it wouldn't use teddy-bears as cloth golems. It wouldn't have "findomancers" etc etc. Erfworld doesn't fit Parson's style at all.

[Madalin]

Do we really know so much about his personality and/or style that we can somehow tell he wouldn't make such a game?

And he could be trying something different, something quirky.

[SmartAlec]

Could very well be Parson's game. Remember that The Battle for Gobwin Knob is still in beta testing. The names and shapes of things - Gwiffons and their looking like peeps, Dwagon, Twoll, Croakamancer - could well be fill-in names for things until Parson finishes getting the rules right and can move onto the fine detail. The Orlies could be Parson's own homage to the ORLY? meme. Someone pointed out that there's a superficial resemblance between the real-world Ashna and Wanda Firebaugh - is this because when imagining Wanda, Parson unconsciously assembled her out of Ashna's shape?

[Om]

There's another thread, albeit slightly outdated, on this.

Personally though I wouldn't make any bets on it. It would make sense if this was Parson's game but I'm waiting to be sure.

[Sereno]

Not to mention, the mountain on Parson's game board looks almost exactly like Lord Stanly's castle ... same switchback road leading up to what looks like an extinct volcano.

But, I've got to agree with Aliquid, Parson seems like a hard-core gamer; they cutesy names don't seem to fit, even if they are just placeholders.

I'm hoping it just turns out to be one hugely improbable coincidence! That would be funnier ... falling into your own gaming world is a tired cliche....

[ObadiahtheSlim]

I think its a distinct possiblibity. However the only real "proof" is the peep connection. Other than that, stuff like "cloth golems" were just from whatever he had lying around and where then added to the reality of the game.

[Bluelantern]

Additionally, The spell was going to search the perfect warlord. Who would be a better player than the guy who actually invented the game? Also, Parson would probably know things that don't even people inside the world would.

I agree that he is not the kind of guy (who wears a Hamstard t-shirt) that would like such cute-game creatures, but it is possible that a) like mentioned he used things around him, and most of the names and looks are only for the beta test, b) maybe,maybe,maybe he wants to sell this game or something similar and the game is target to younger group.

[Aieon]

Then there's the Gwiffon, the one the lady rides. It's one of the marbits, or whatever the hardened marshmallow ducks were =)
That combined with the mountain and the resemblance between the two ladies has convinced me. Besides someone whose greatest escape is gaming must be a little kuckoo in the head :P

[Aliquid]

Do we really know so much about his personality and/or style that we can somehow tell he wouldn't make such a game?

Yes, I believe we do. He is a cynical bitter hard-core gamer.

Additionally, The spell was going to search the perfect warlord. Who would be a better player than the guy who actually invented the game?

That's assuming the spell worked properly... sure getting the inventor of your reality would be good.... but I think the spell went a bit wonky, considering that Wanda is a croakamancer. So, the spell grabbed someone from a different reality who happened to fit the description of: eating marbits for breakfast etc.

Not to mention, the mountain on Parson's game board looks almost exactly like Lord Stanly's castle ... same switchback road leading up to what looks like an extinct volcano.

Yeah.... that is a factor I haven't been able to explain yet.

Could very well be Parson's game. Remember that The Battle for Gobwin Knob is still in beta testing. The names and shapes of things - Gwiffons and their looking like peeps, Dwagon, Twoll, Croakamancer - could well be fill-in names for things until Parson finishes getting the rules right and can move onto the fine detail. The Orlies could be Parson's own homage to the ORLY? meme.

Ok, I could buy that theory, but is Parson the type of guy to have teddy-bears hanging around his hobbit-hole of a home?

[Aliquid]

There's another thread, albeit slightly outdated, on this.

Thanks, I didn't see that

[Madalin]

Yes, I believe we do. He is a cynical bitter hard-core gamer.

Actually, if I think about it, it sorta fits.
If he's as bitter and cynical as he seems, he could make a game that is made from pure distilled sarcasm, making everything all cutesy and disguistingly heartwarming, just for kicks and giggles.

[TinSoldier]

I don't believe that it is Parson's game.

One thing to consider is that if he is an avid war gamer he is likely to have a large collection of miniatures and he would not be forced to use things like peeps and stuffed animals as units.

[skreweded]

For some reason, I think so. Just get the feeling he knows where he is.

[skreweded]

For some reason, I think so. Just get the feeling he knows where he is.

[skreweded]

Actually, if I think about it, it sorta fits.
If he's as bitter and cynical as he seems, he could make a game that is made from pure distilled sarcasm, making everything all cutesy and disguistingly heartwarming, just for kicks and giggles.

Exactly, thats why I think it is.

Internet went tweaky.. sorry for double post.. thing...


hm.




Ok... sorry for the triple post thing.
-_-

[Erk]

I strongly doubt it. As tinsoldier points out, Parson would have his own miniatures. More importantly, I think the similarities between this world and Parson's are there because the spell looked for someone from a world that was similar... but it goofed up, because Wanda is not a findamancer and Stanley kept making it harder. Instead of being from a world with gwiffons, the spell found someone from a world with gwiffon-like peeps... et cetera. Hence the massive number of Earthlike pop culture references in Erfworld: they are products of the similarity between the worlds, nothing to do with Parson designing the universe.

I could be wrong. Parson being in his own game would be much more cliche though... and the world does not seem to suit either the sense of humour in Hamstard, nor the description of his game as he gave it just before being plot'd out. If he'd designed a bitter cynical game where the good guys were the Plaid forces, I don't think the plaid forces would be cutesy as well... it would be the semi-serious forces against the cutesy ones. It just doesn't ring well with me.

[Renloth]

Despite the names, I've really been expecting it to be Parson's world.
Makes a good story, and that's what is really important.

The biggest evidence for me though, is in the detailed look we get at the mountain on the table on page 16, panel 6, and the approch to the castle on page 3. That the mountain looks exactly the same might be explained away, but the fact that there is a castle on each that appears to look exactly the same as well is too much of a coincidence for me.

Also, while I'm thinking about it, Stanly requested that everything should seem familiar to the summoned. Most of the other things stated came true in one way or another (eg. eating peeps and marbits, wanting to go, big) though not all entirly as intended. Maybe familiar was taken to mean the one that created the game?

[Erk]

Those coincidences could just as easily be because the spell looked for a person who would have seen things eerily and otherwise inexplicably similar to erfworld. I think had Wanda been a findamancer, Parson would be a master warlord from a very similar universe with similar physics. Instead, they got a warlord from a world where everything is eerily similar, but entirely because of bizarre coincidences, making Erfworld familiar but at the same time weird as heck (as we all know). I don't htink it has anything to do with Parson creating the world: that is a really overplayed take on the Stranger in a Strange Land theme and I strongly hope Erfworld doesn't go for it. It doesn't seem to me like it will though.

Ed: woops, just realised I posted pretty much the exact same thing two posts back. Sorry folks.

[Symbolis]

Maybe Parson has a younger brother/sister into gaming? Hmm...

[dragongirl13]

I don't know if it's his game, but the idea of the Summon Perfect Warlord spell summoning the DM is interesting... and on the battle grid we did see something that looked vaguely similar to Gobwin Knob.

[Aliquid]

I'm still saying "no"

Although many people in the "episode 23" thread are thinking "yes".

When he says "not exactly", it seems that he is thinking "This is quite similar to my game... but not exactly".

And he certainly didn't create the creatures, name the spellcasters, or name the places. Otherwise he wouldn't have laughed at the name Gobwin Knob.

[The honest illusionist]

Maybe he designed a game that had similar layout to Erfworld, but with slightly different names and units.

Perhaps he was channeling Erfworld and was subconsciously inspired by it when he designed the game.

Or maybe he took a level of psion and became a future-psychic.

[RyanJ]

Check panel 4 on page 16.
No cute fluffy stuff in Parson's house, eh? Looks aweful familiar... ;)

[Aliquid]

Check panel 4 on page 16.
No cute fluffy stuff in Parson's house, eh? Looks aweful familiar... ;)

Good eye.... but none of the cloth golems that we have seen look like that creature. He certainly doesn't seem to have a full stash of teddybears

[zachol]

My guess is this is Parson's game.

However, those of you how play, say, Age of Empires. You don't know each guy's name, right?
You don't even really have names for the places, correct?
At most, you have a few "heroes," but it's doubtful any of those heroes has a name beyond a simple description, or if they do it's because you're playing through a historical thing (Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, etc).

However, in the game, they theoretically all have names.
When you build a "town hall," and people go in and out, you don't actually see what's happening in the building, nor do you really care.
However, if you were somehow in the game, you could likely actually see inside the building.

I'm thinking that Parson has the whole thing set up, but he doesn't know that the "head wizard" is actually Wanda, or that the player's "avatar" in the game is actually Stanley the Tool.
You'd never see that as a RL player playing the game, and it isn't described.


He doesn't recognize Wanda because, as a real person creating the game, he would not detail such things.
But, it's still his game.

Eh?

[Erk]

I still don't think it is, as I said in the ep23 thread. I don't see how him recognising gobwin knob's geography makes a difference... we already knew he had a miniature of gobwin knob on his table. In fact, I think the fact that he did not recognise the town name suggests far more that he did not create the world. The idea that he did, but "the names of people and places have been changed to protect the innocent" is pretty darned silly too, if I do say so myself.

I suspect that this is his Oz. It bears many similarities to his own life and probably many games he has played or created. It has many relics and recognisable traits from his world. Like Oz, they are mixed and mangled and put in weird places, but sometimes easily recognisable.

[Illiander]

here's a waky thought:

what if erfworld is a game he thought up when he was young, and he just got it into a state where he's happy for other people to see it when he's ploted out, erfworld could be the version of the game he had when he was still living at home, mabey when he was about 8 (at the oldest) then it would be his game, but not in a state he remembers

I know, wacky, but these guys go deep, so I might as well try to second-guess them

[Maerad of Pellinor]

I'm not sure if this has been said already, but what if Erfworld is Parson's game world but with different names? Because he certainly didn't recognize the name "Gobwin Knob," so he couldn't have made that up....

[oogabooga]

Something similar occurred to me, Illiander - it might explain the names and stuff. But it seems unlikely to me (though I have very little experience with tabletop games) that a kid would design a game like that. I suppose it could be some kind of crazy mix between the two.

[zachol]

Again, I don't think he'd give a name to the things.
He didn't recognize "Gobwin Knob" because in his world "Gobwin Knob" doesn't have a name.