The importance of creation in Sim

[Callan S.]

*snip*
Tim, if I'm not mistaken, it's not the details that matter in your examples, but rather the whys. The key factor in Simulationist play is that any why-question is valid, relative to the current emphasis on the relationship among the five components.
*snip*

This sounds like the rules of the game universe are more important to sim than results. By rules I mean from gravity in effect to the behavoral parameters of Smasher the Ork, to the population levels of a town and its subsequent layout.

I haven't done the sim essay yet (I just can't absorb anything that big until I've gone and printed it out). But if its like this, I didn't realise sim wasn't about exploring the state things are in but encountering how they came to be in that state and exploring how those rules interact. Scuse the blunt question and all.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Callan,

It seems to me as if you're thinking mainly in terms of Purist for System Sim. If we focus on that application, then yes, the process of in-game cause does count more than the various results/outcomes in terms of content. That's what "prioritizing Exploration of System" means.

Other applications of Sim put more emphasis on (e.g.) Situation, in which getting into the right Situation, with full commitment to resolving it appropriately, is more important than how it's done, as long as some effort is made to justify in-game cause in a linear way.

Best,
Ron

P.S. And just in case anyone's going to bring it up again, various different ways to prioritize the five components of Exploration have equally profound impacts on the potential diversity of Gamist and Narrativist play too.