Best Threads of the Year

[Ben Lehman]

Hey, guys.

Not a lot of time left in the Birthday forum.  I want some nominations for Best Thread of the Year.

Here are mine, and why:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12786&highlight=">Writing for People an amazing discussion of how to write your game text.  I need to read this again.  And again.  And again.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12627&highlight=">Are We as Cool as Shakespeare? a serious, and excellent discussion the place of the RPG as art.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=10762&highlight=">Son of Iron Game Chef Which gave us The Mountain Witch, Chanter, Dance the the Dawn, Polaris, and a thousand other gems.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=10862">Bad News in the Alyria forum, where Seth gets the carpet pulled out from under him.  Why do I like this thread?  Because, it starts with a bad situation.  Watch how everyone follows the request of the author and presents constructive ideas, rather than pity or anger.  That is because we are awesome.

Also, the two threads I started in the summer:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12002&highlight=">CA Classifications and Game Systems
and
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12001&highlight=">Wait, What Matters Again?

were really quite great for me, at least.

I'm sure I'm missing a ton.  What are they?

yrs--
--Ben

edit: dropped a quote in my HTML

[Kit]

Nothing constructive to add except that your link to the Bad News thread seems to be wrong. It actually links back to this thread.

Nice idea for a thread though. Checking out some of those other links now, looking forward to more.

[Ben Lehman]

Nothing constructive to add except that your link to the Bad News thread seems to be wrong. It actually links back to this thread.

Nice idea for a thread though. Checking out some of those other links now, looking forward to more.

fixx0red.

[Emily Care]

Ralph's Shooting the Sacred Cow thread was one the best for me. It's come back to me time & again this year, and from the responses to it, it seems like it put into words what a lot of people have struggled with in game design.

edit: of course, it came from calendar year 2004, rather than Forge year 2004-05. Well, it'd top my chart for any year!

[C. Edwards]

Chris Lehrich's recent Bricolage APPLIED (finally!) was a big one for me.

-Chris

[John Kim]

Here were a bunch that I saved for review.  I'm not sure they're the "best", but they at least were noted by me.  

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=11095">Mechanical Gender Differences (May 2004)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=11830">Water-Uphill World: Virtuality Examined (June 30, 2004)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12289">New 3D Model (Aug 9, 2004)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12330">It has to make sense" secret bane of the hobby? (Aug 14, 2004)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12460">More on 3D Model (Aug 26, 2004)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=13520">A wild and untamed thing - how literature refuses gaming (Nov 30, 2004)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=13560">On RPGs and Text [LONG] (Dec 3, 2004)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=14240">Theory Without Jargon - Help for the Desperate - Number 1 (Feb 7, 2005)                                                                      
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=14248">Theory Without Jargon - Help for the Desperate - Number 2 (Feb 8, 2005)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=14512">Theory Without Jargon - Help for the Desperate - Number 3 (Feb 27, 2005)

[timfire]

[game design and psychology] was one of those thread that changed the way I think about play and design.