Reality and RPGs

[Tomas HVM]

I expect the following notions is to kick in open doors on this forum, but bear with me.

Reality
There is a lot of talk about "escapism" and "not relating to reality" in context with roleplaying games. I resent this. I consider it totally off mark to make any connection between RPGs and escapism.

Roleplaying is an alluring media, but it is also a media giving great powers to it's participants. You are supposed to use your own abilities and insights to color the drama. And that is closer to reality than any other media I know. It makes the real experience of players a pivvotal point, letting them emulate it through the game.

Roleplaying is about active people making choices and playing out the consequences of their choices. This is done in a fiction, but it is done with far more consciousness, and with far more free will, than allowed the public in any other media (theater, film, litterature). Roleplaying games are an arena for humans who want to express themselves and use their insights, in contrast to artforms where the public is expected to accept the vision presented by the artist as the one and true discurs. A roleplaying game gives the actor ("actor" like in: being active, making the action) great possibilities to deepen his insights and develop as a human, both emotionally, socially, intellectually, and in regards to empathy.

When met by comments on escapism you may tell the poor lad or laddie that such a view arise from the misunderstanding that roleplaying games are about shooting movable ducks on the computer, or playing with tin-soldiers on a table, and state that this is far from RPGs.

Even in it's most ordinary form, played by the most ordinary people, the roleplaying game differs from any other game you may compare it to, and it differs greatly from what is ordinary thought of as a "game". On it's best roleplaying games are a total experience, a real oportunity to be someone else, in something else. "Escapism" is a pretty lame term for the range of possibilities in a RPG, the interaction at it's core, and the plenitude of insights (both conscious and unconscious) it present to the participant. Roleplaying games are socially activating, intellectually stimulating, and morally strenghtening. The only way it may be connected to anything like escapism, is by being hilarious fun at the same time.

I have written down these thoughts not to complain about the real world and it's misgivings about roleplaying games, but to bolster myself against the comments I sometimes meet in social and professional circumstances. I want to be ready to bring out the big guns when this happens.

It is my firm belief that reality has everything to win on people playing roleplaying games.

[jdagna]

I don't think any particular activity can ever be labelled escapism in and of itself.  It's all about how its used.  A glass of wine is a nice complement to a meal - using a whole bottle to drown your woes is escapism.  Watching football now and then is a fun past time, but watching it all weekend to avoid your wife is escapism.

The key with any acitivity is that it be used appropriately and in moderation.  You make a good case that RPGs are not necessarily escapism, but I think it's valid to note that the potential for abuse is there (as it is with anything).  I certainly know people who have used RPGs for escape to a point where other areas of their lives suffered.

[deadpanbob]

Thomas:

When you use the word escapism, what do you mean?  What definition of that word causes you to feel resentment when used in conjuntion with RPGs?

Cheers,


Jason

[Jack Spencer Jr]

Chalk another one up to confusion here. I don't quite get what you're getting at, Tomas. I side with Justin about escapism. I just mow my lawn. A former neighbor would mow all day to get away from his unbearable wife. We called him grass man.

I am stuck on what you mean by reality. This tends to mean a variety of things, especially in regards to RPGs.

[Alan]

I think the misunderstanding happens because Tomas is using a rare definition of "reality."

We commonly use the word "reality" to refer to concret experience - the facts, the objects, the phenomena one experiences.

But one can also think of "reality" as the truths of human existance.  I think this is what Tomas is getting at.  I'm afraid there is no simple, individual word that expresses that concept in English.  

- Alan

[Mike Holmes]

I usually ask the person if they watch TV, or watch movies, or read books (few people can answer no to all of these). Then I say that RPGs are in a lot of ways like these media, but you're more involved. That usually does the trick.

OTOH, this is disengenuous on my part. I personally do replace, to an extent, real world activities with RPG activities. But then I have the odd POV that the virtual world is just as valid a thing to explore as the real world. So, I'm not an escapist, but a "Virtualist". As opposed to a "Materialist". ;-)

Mike

[Gordon C. Landis]

Roleplaying games are socially activating, intellectually stimulating, and morally strenghtening

Well said (though I suppose "are" should really be replaced with "can be"), and I think that this is the key thing to focus on - not "reality" or "escapism."  By my way of thinking, reality and/or escapism can be used either to sharpen or dull that social activation, intellectual stimulation, and moral strenghtening, depending on the details of use.  As Mike says, if someone is willing to allow (and not everyone is) that books/movies/TV can (not always, but possibly) acheive those goals, they should be able to see that RPGs can as well.

Gordon

[Tomas HVM]

I played RPG with some youths at a local high school today. When I came to the shool the door had a poster, telling the pupils to:

Read Read Read Read Read Read Read Read Read

Read anything!

Read Read Read Read Read Read Read Read Read

(basically that was the text on the poster, but I've cut a great deal of the "reads")

It reminds me of most librarians, and I've encountered a few (even lectured them on how to get youths to read), never in doubt on the use of reading. Give the youths books, they seems to think, and they will be fine.

That may be the reason I talk so strong on this theme, because I know that the language of pure conviction make these people listen. Do not try to convince them with relativism. They don't talk it.

As to my use of "reality", it pertains to the conflicts and drama of the real world; your everyday life. In my view RPGs gives good lessons on society and conflicts, and does so in a positive and constructive environment.

I find some roleplayers may overdo their gaming, but more often than not this is a notion entertained by prejudiced surroundings. And I find a lot more people overdoing their TV-series and reading, without the many benefits found in RPGs to balance the picture.

What I find more scary is that people in general are becoming consumers of culture, but not developing any culture themselves.

[simon_hibbs]

There is a lot of talk about "escapism" and "not relating to reality" in context with roleplaying games. I resent this. I consider it totally off mark to make any connection between RPGs and escapism.

Do you believe that roleplayign games are incapable of being used as a form of escapism?

And in a later post:

As to my use of "reality", it pertains to the conflicts and drama of the real world; your everyday life. In my view RPGs gives good lessons on society and conflicts, and does so in a positive and constructive environment.

It can do, but also roleplaying game scan be badly missused. I have seen a roleplaying game being run in which the referee had the character of one of the female players raped. This was a girl who the referee knew had been raped in real life. As an activity it is merely a tool. Like any tool, it can be used for good or for ill. There is nothing inherently good about roleplaying itself.

Imagine Hanibal Lecter running a roleplaying game with the inmates of his prison. What do you think the outcome of that might be like?

What I find more scary is that people in general are becoming consumers of culture, but not developing any culture themselves.

I think that's exactly what we are doing in forums like The Forge, and in my gaming group. We are practicing gamer culture.

Simon Hibbs

[Tomas HVM]

Do you believe that roleplayign games are incapable of being used as a form of escapism?

I do believe it possible to use roleplaying games as a form of escapism, but I also consider rolepalying games as an activity to be less likely to be used so, compared to literature, film or theater, so I do resent the specifical connection between RPGs and escapism.

As an activity it is merely a tool. Like any tool, it can be used for good or for ill. There is nothing inherently good about roleplaying itself.

Roleplaying games are tools, yes, and you may consider them good or bad tools. I consider them good tools. They have a functionality lacking in other tools closely related to them (storytelling, film, literature). The most prominent function of RPGs is their interactivity, how they make people use their own imagination and communicative skills to both make the drama, and to distill the moral of the drama (if any).

So, in my eyes, the good qualities of RPGs are inherent, even if they still may be used badly.