Following up on the previous column “You’re Playing it Wrong!,” what should the “spirit of a game” be?
For video or board games, of course, if you don't play the way the game is intended you often can't play at all. Single player video games are frequently puzzles with one or more correct solutions. If you don’t follow a correct solution to the puzzle then you don’t succeed. If you aren’t worried about succeeding, then you’re still not playing it wrong; but if you want to succeed you’ve got to play it the “correct” way.
If it’s a boardgame you can play it by not following the rules; but if you follow the rules then you may be playing it “wrong” in a sense because you don’t win the game. It’s certainly likely that, if you don’t play according to the rules, the game will not work as well as it could.
It's different for role-playing games. When someone declares there’s “One True Way” to play RPGs, or even to play a particular RPG, then what they really mean is there is one way for them to play, regardless of how they may think of it. Role-playing games, by their nature, are more free-form. And as a result, every game is unique even if the players follow all the same rules. The players involved greatly influence the game's outcomes. It's a collaborative work.
Here's an example of how this works in other mediums: Bob Dylan is one of our great songwriters, and his most covered (played by other groups) song is “All Along the Watchtower”. When Jimi Hendrix played it, it was quite different from Dylan’s own rendition. When Dylan heard it, he changed how he performed the song. In other words, if Dylan was the game designer of his song, he watched how someone else played his game, and then changed how he played it because he thought the changes were an improvement. Having heard both, I think Dylan made the right choice.
RPGs, which are intended to be modified by the players and GM, can be played different ways to accommodate different styles, I don’t treat rules as law. Rather, if I read a rule and question either its clarity or its intent, I ask myself, “as a game designer, what way do I think is best?” Speaking as one of the prominent people who advocated for D&D as a wargame way back when (see Jon Peterson's book "Elusive Shift"), here is my view: there is no wrong way to play D&D, but some ways remove it from the realm of "game" to something else.
In a boardgame, as a player I am much more likely to follow the rules as written, compared with an RPG. Boardgame rules ought to be much tighter, much more well-integrated, than an RPG, because the boardgame covers a very limited situation, and because most boardgames are overtly competitive rather than (like RPGs) normally co-operative.
Your Turn: Is there a right way to play?
The Wrong Way to Play?
Can there be a “wrong way to play” in games? This is a difficult question even if we don’t get tangled up in notions of “sportsmanship”.For video or board games, of course, if you don't play the way the game is intended you often can't play at all. Single player video games are frequently puzzles with one or more correct solutions. If you don’t follow a correct solution to the puzzle then you don’t succeed. If you aren’t worried about succeeding, then you’re still not playing it wrong; but if you want to succeed you’ve got to play it the “correct” way.
If it’s a boardgame you can play it by not following the rules; but if you follow the rules then you may be playing it “wrong” in a sense because you don’t win the game. It’s certainly likely that, if you don’t play according to the rules, the game will not work as well as it could.
It's different for role-playing games. When someone declares there’s “One True Way” to play RPGs, or even to play a particular RPG, then what they really mean is there is one way for them to play, regardless of how they may think of it. Role-playing games, by their nature, are more free-form. And as a result, every game is unique even if the players follow all the same rules. The players involved greatly influence the game's outcomes. It's a collaborative work.
Here's an example of how this works in other mediums: Bob Dylan is one of our great songwriters, and his most covered (played by other groups) song is “All Along the Watchtower”. When Jimi Hendrix played it, it was quite different from Dylan’s own rendition. When Dylan heard it, he changed how he performed the song. In other words, if Dylan was the game designer of his song, he watched how someone else played his game, and then changed how he played it because he thought the changes were an improvement. Having heard both, I think Dylan made the right choice.
So What’s the Right Way?
Some games are more “robust” than others. The more robust the game is, the better the game will work even if the players get a rule or three wrong, or deliberately change the rules. Keep in mind, players are likely to get things wrong. This is why I include a one-page summary of play (“cheat sheet”) in my board games that some players will read.RPGs, which are intended to be modified by the players and GM, can be played different ways to accommodate different styles, I don’t treat rules as law. Rather, if I read a rule and question either its clarity or its intent, I ask myself, “as a game designer, what way do I think is best?” Speaking as one of the prominent people who advocated for D&D as a wargame way back when (see Jon Peterson's book "Elusive Shift"), here is my view: there is no wrong way to play D&D, but some ways remove it from the realm of "game" to something else.
In a boardgame, as a player I am much more likely to follow the rules as written, compared with an RPG. Boardgame rules ought to be much tighter, much more well-integrated, than an RPG, because the boardgame covers a very limited situation, and because most boardgames are overtly competitive rather than (like RPGs) normally co-operative.
The Only Wrong Way
I had a student who liked to use software exploits in online video games to screw up other players, an unfortunately common occurrence in such games. He thought it was funny. I reminded him that his victims were unlikely to think that, but it didn’t change his mind. He was an unusually nice person normally, yet this was “wrong” fun. When it comes to griefing, screwing people outside the rules, bullying, mocking, trolling -- I consider all these approaches to gaming the wrong way to play.Your Turn: Is there a right way to play?
