Is popcorn necessary?

[TonyLB]

Setting aside (for just a moment ... it'll be back in the next paragraph) the question of rules mechanics:  Some social contracts include the absolute right to make your popcorn throwing count.  In some social groups, if you complain then the action you are complaining about cannot go through until your complaints are addressed.  Other people cannot just say "Okay, I get that you object, and I'm doing it anyway."

If that is your social contract, and the game mechanics don't have support for externalizing that discussion, then it has to happen at a messy, social level where it's not two people playing a game, it's one person saying "Hey, I know the rules allow you to do this ... but if you do then you're an asshat."  That's a bad scene.  I get that.

But some social contracts don't include any expectation that a person has a right to expect their popcorn throwing to have impact.  I still throw popcorn (apparently) but I'm going to stick to my guns and say that I simply do not believe that I have any fundamental right to have people do things my way.  My popcorn throwing is a signal, not an ultimatum.

If your social contract doesn't include Important Popcorn as one of the fundamental Rights of Gamers then not having a law to enforce that ... no big deal, right?

Did that make sense?  It made sense in my head.

[Vaxalon]

I've seen the popcorn face, Tony, and there's this little moment... maybe it's like a face-cramp resolution mechanic.

If you make your popcorn-throwing face long enough for me to know you Really Really Mean It, then I back down. If you aren't willing to suffer the face cramps for it, then you back down.

Or something like that.