 So we're talking about this but the word role-playing game covers so many different things that we really need to define the term Because if we don't define the term, it's really easy for us to get way off track in our discussion But even further we keep using that word game. I Figured Princess Bride would go well over here We don't even have a good definition of the word game. I mean patty cake's a game Yeah, what kind of game is patty cake though? I mean is there winner? Is there a loser? Can you mess up? When one plays patty cake everyone loses Or is it Roger Rabbit patty cake? I mean poker is covered in that meat game We were talking at a convention called magfest in the US and a woman in the audience took umbrage with the fact that we wanted to Define the term game for the purpose of discussion because I quote I watch movies with my friends and we consider that a game If you look at the dictionary that could definitely be a game It's like an amusement or whatever right candy land I mean you think candy lands obviously a game, but in candy land no one makes any decisions All you do is reveal cards and move the thing determining, you know by some what the cards say no one decides anything There's no decision or it's just play it obviously who wins you can just flip over the whole deck of cards and be like Rimwoods now too many people when they want to if soon as someone starts trying to define well I'm going to make a definition of game they start using that to exclude other kinds of games or somehow Denigrate those other kinds of games like you're not gamer usually they're trying to make a no true scotsman argument Like you know people will be like oh, that's not a sport that is a sport and what they're trying to say is I respect that activity I do not respect that activity right? Oh, I respect that as a game. Yeah, that's I like that one I don't like that I don't want to call that a game because then it's you know, we're not trying to do that right You know all of these various activities are even we know watching movies. We don't consider to be a game That doesn't mean we don't think watching movies is a good way to spend your time Right, we're just trying to have a discussion about a particular subset of things that many people call games So we need some sort of word to narrow it in so there's no confusion that we're actually talking about something else No, the trouble really is the word game. It's an ancient word. It's been used for a long time We have a lot of different things. I mean if I hunt pheasants pheasants that is also game So Richard Garfield, you may have heard of him He'd you know magic the gathering Android Netrunner kind of a famous dude in game design He coined the term and that term is ortho game the book in which he coined this term is a Characteristics of games that book is like our Bible if any of you are aspiring game designers go by Richard Garfield's book Characteristics of games and read it cover to cover. It looks like a boring textbook, but it's actually the best book now He covers ortho games exclusively the definition of games we use we really use three definitions an interactive amusement a series of interesting decisions or a Competitive test of skill and he decided to make a new word for that an ortho game is a competition between Tormor players using a set of rules and a method of rank poker chess Football so that we have a word and now we know that Pluto is not a game in this context Right Candyland is not a game patty cake is not a game if we're going by ortho game And we just don't want to say what the game every time because it's annoying So he coined this term and it's a very useful term But his book very pointedly only covers these kinds of games doesn't cover role-playing games So we needed a word for these other kinds of games So we want to commit a little bit fibrous and we've tried to coin a term ideal game So if an ortho game is defined by this he chose ortho because ortho is the prefix for sort of straight he uses to mean a straight or pure or true game and Ideal means unique or personal so a series of interesting decisions that produce a personal outcome Dungeons and Dragons does that Mass Effect does that to a degree in fact notice some of these games recently people play them for the story And then they even let you turn off the game part because the choose your own adventure story is all anyone actually cares about Yeah, but final fantasy wouldn't really work up to this right sure You might make some interesting decisions, but it's not a personal outcome right final fantasy seven ends the same way for everyone in This room. There's no personal about it whatsoever, right? You might have a personal reaction to it But that can be said for anything Yeah, so it doesn't really count so the kinds of games we're talking about for the rest of this lecture are ideal games But even that is just a high-level category So I'm gonna answer the next question for you and then we're gonna proceed conflict Conflict is the answer to the next two questions What makes a good story? Star Wars seems to be the theme in every packs keynote ever so I figured we go along with that I assumed and it would be so the whole point of a story like Star Wars is that there is conflict between these Characters that is why we watch it. We're not interested as much in the conflict between us and George Lucas some of you might Know the conflicts are internal or external. It's like basic literature one-on-one action here What drives a good game But it is conflict between the player and the game or the player and another player Nobody goes home or goes to their friends and tells about the story of how Billy and Jimmy say that stupid girlfriend from those whatever No one tells that story. The story is yo Scott. I beat double dragon Holy shit. What happens at the end? You get credits and that's it I beat double dragon Luke beat the emperor spoilers. I beat double dragon All right You see how the conflict right and it's sort of an ortho game like double dragon Which isn't even really ortho game because it's not between two players, right? But it's still you know more of a game not too much role-playing is all about you in the real world Right you beating this thing. I got the high score at space invaders, right? I beat rim at a game of Puerto Rico. I beat rim at Magic the Gathering, right? When you play D&D It's my character went and rescued the whatever right something you're inside the story is the things that matter right that personal outcome Yeah, you know the wind Dungeons and Dragons at least in the sense of an ortho game You want to find the conflict in the fantasy not the conflict of you trying to conquer You know and improve your skills So if we boil all this down and take all these concepts together This is our proposed definition of a role-playing game We will use for the rest of this panel because really why do we play role-playing games because we're trying to tell cool stories But simultaneously we're not good storytellers and with all of that combined. We're also gamers and we want to play a game So role-playing game is nothing more than a mechanism of conflict resolution in order to facilitate Collaborative storytelling right I mean anyone can just sit down and tell a story. It's pretty easy Even if you're bad at it right and good writers can tell stories because that's what they're good at right but me and rim We're computer people we can I can't tell stories really well at all right But maybe if we get together we can have a lot of fun and coming up with a story together Maybe someone's a good writer. Maybe no one is but it's it's a good time, right? It's like okay, you know I want the guy to go and kill the dragon that would be so awesome So keep this definition in your head for the whole rest of this This is how we're defining the term role-playing game because that is what we're talking about We're not talking about Final Fantasy and I just want to point out yes I did photoshop my friends from the D&D group onto that Star Wars picture