Talk to someone who participates in role-playing, and focus on the precise and actual acts of role-playing themselves. Ask them, "Why do you role-play?" The most common answer is, "To have fun."

Again, stick to the role-playing itself. (The wholly social issues are real, such as "Wanting to hang out with my friends," but they are not the topic at hand.) Now ask, "What makes fun?" This may not be a verbal question, and it is best answered mainly through role-playing with people rather than listening to them. Time and inference are usually required.

In my experience, the answer turns out to be a version of one of the following terms. These terms, or modes, describe three distinct types of people's decisions and goals during play.

Gamism is expressed by competition among participants (the real people); it includes victory and loss conditions for characters, both short-term and long-term, that reflect on the people's actual play strategies. The listed elements provide an arena for the competition.
Simulationism is expressed by enhancing one or more of the listed elements in Set 1 above; in other words, Simulationism heightens and focuses Exploration as the priority of play. The players may be greatly concerned with the internal logic and experiential consistency of that Exploration.
Narrativism is expressed by the creation, via role-playing, of a story with a recognizable theme. The characters are formal protagonists in the classic Lit 101 sense, and the players are often considered co-authors. The listed elements provide the material for narrative conflict (again, in the specialized sense of literary analysis).

Hello everybody,

Scott's post was split from the older thread GNS - what is it?. I'm glad that its points are resurrected, because they seem to be missed in several discussions going on at the moment.

One thing that might bear mentioning is that the term "GNS" is often applied to the whole of my theory regarding role-playing, as opposed to the single component called creative agenda, which is a part (a significant part) within it. I think this is causing a lot of problems lately.

Scott, welcome to the Forge! It can be a little confusing finding your way around at first. If you're interested in the theory, then check out the Articles link at the top of the page. My main article is called "GNS and related matters," and there are a couple of supporting articles about Simulationist and Narrativist play. A glossary is being built slowly; see the ends of those articles.

"GDS" isn't a valid term. The proper term is the Threefold Model, which you can read all about by following the link in the Origin of the Threefold thread. As you'll see, I'm going to respond to that thread with some more history from my end.

Best,
Ron

Thanks Ron.

A lot of history and unique terminology to get accustomed to at once, but I like the site as I've seen it so far. The "GDS = Threefold model" bit helps as well. Once I get a bit more comfortable with the lingo and history I'm sure I'll post with more regularity. ;)