Ursula Banteux’s last blog post..Black. White.

With the approach of viewing roleplaying as a medium, it allows us to borrow theories from studies, that analyses different media, and as the film-medium being so much younger than literature and theatre, and yet been able to generate it’s own theories and analytical tools, so can it be done with roleplaying. So I am not arguing that we should use either literature or film-theory on a 1:1 basis, but I am arguing that we should look to other studies to gain tools. At present roleplaying have been studied from several viewpoints already, from ritual-studies, play-studies and anthropology (examples are in the Knutepunkt books). With roleplaying being so young a medium, we haven’t developed any school of studies yet, which is why the amount of academic studies as of yet are so limited, and thus still in the developing phase.

The thing with roleplaying is, that it allows us to tell stories in a manner, that is different from traditional storytelling, from literature, from theatre and from movies, though we can easily see some comparisons.

It seems that I’m quite in agreement with Ravyn, and though we at the present have slightly different viewpoints on this, Madbrew, I’m enjoying the discussion, and I’m looking forward to your next instalment. I do hope, that you’ll dedicate one instalment to the media-approach.

Morten Greis’s last blog post..Systemløst rollespil – variationer

@Ravyn: Ok, I had a page of well thought out material to add, but I am going to boil it down. I think that approaching an analysis of roleplaying as art (or a medium, I am thinking these terms are synonomous in this context) using methods intended for more traditional methods is fine at the beginning. But there will no doubt be instances of form unique to roleplaying that do not hold up under traditional critical analysis. Therefore an approach unique to roleplaying that recognizes traditional elements would be in order.

Also, objectives and techniques viable in one medium may not translate well in another. We can see an example of this by looking at storyboard art. While many of the techniques employed by storyboard artists are similar to those used by sequential artists, not all the ideologies work for both arts. I think Scott McCloud wrote a whole book on the matter.

This difference can also be seen in movies versus literature. Movies offer a different experience for the audience, and thus employ different thought during their production. This fact is the reason we always hear the phrase, “The book was better.” Of course the book was better because the book had unlimited time to be digested and the unlimited budget of your imagination…

I recognize roleplaying inherits and shares many elements found in other mediums, especially since roleplaying directly utilizes many forms of art in its production.

I have not truly put much thought into the idea of roleplaying as a medium/art, but I think I will be going down that path eventually, though after much reading and research. Much of my reservation for discussing roleplaying in terms of art/medium stems from the issue that art is very speculative and subjective.

I want to thank everyone who has commented thus far, it has been awhile since I’ve put this part of my brain through the paces.

To be honest, I do take a rather literary approach to my gaming, particularly when working through chat. Don’t we as gamers admire unexpected twists that make a lot more sense when we remember what foreshadowed them? Don’t we try to make sure that our props are visually pleasing, that our characters are memorable, that our descriptions are well-thought-out and (if we have enough time) have literary merit on their own? I’ve learned a lot about the use of feel and themes in games from analyzing literature, and even seen people who’ve used themes-as-big-underlying-philosophical-elements. Granted, we can’t treat them by quite the same standards as things that are by their nature open to revision, but completely scrapping the critique style because of a few minor differences doesn’t strike me as that different from refusing to base movie critique methods on literary critique because the books don’t have moving pictures.

Ravyn’s last blog post..How to Avoid the DMPC Label With Powerful Characters

I think they are firmly rooted in games because as players, we are constantly striving to reach our goals and there are obstacles put in our paths to overcome. Thus there is a need to “win” our goals.

I would still be open to consider roleplay as a medium, but we should not approach it the same method we would analyze a painting, literature, or film.

It seems to me, that we’re dealing with “victory condition” on two different levels, as Jonathan’s criteria does not necesarily involve defeating any bad guys. If you view roleplaying as a medium, rather than a game the need to “win” disappears. Then it becomes more in line with a other media such as litterature and movies, where the “victory condition” is replaced with having a satisfying experience. I’d say that in order to really define roleplaying, you’d have to get out in the corners and into the fringe. You might want to have a look at some of the Scandinavian Larps, Jeepform, Norwegian Style (http://norwegianstyle.wordpress.com/) or Danish Convention Roleplaying (here is one in English: http://thoughtfulgames.com/montsegur1244/index.html).

jonathan’s last blog post..The Zen of Gaming