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Tuesday 17 December 2013

Irony

Irony

There’ve been a lot of threads on tangency.net lately about the subject of the Forge, or Storygames; not sure what’s going with that. It seems odd that so long after the Forge ceased to exist as a website, and even longer since it had an actual influence on the hobby, it should suddenly become the topic of conversation.  Is it just a chain reaction? Story Swine? SA goons hoping to create inter-board conflict (my name has been brought up in a few of these threads of course)?

In any case, there were quite a few ridiculous mis-statements and examples of plain pig ignorance shown to all and sundry on these threads, but there was one in particular that took the cake. One idiot in particular had this to say about the Forge:
I think that Forge-think collaborated with other “movements” like the OSR in our hobby to tell people that it was ok if we weren’t all playing the same game, and that we should pursue mechanics and systems that best fit the style of play we want, no matter who publishes them – be it a fan, a group, or a big company.

Seriously, how do you get it so wrong?! How the fuck do you take a movement who’s entire basis was in saying that if you played regular RPGs YOU HAD BRAIN DAMAGE, and that the only acceptable games to play were author-published microgames about “addressing a theme”, and everything else was Incoherent or insane, and end up with trying to pretend that the Forge was a love-in about all of us coexisting in peace?!

The Forge was NEVER about it being “ok” that we weren’t all playing the same game; it was about trying to hijack the hobby so that it would revolve around a tiny group of self-determined self-styled intelligentsia who would decide what games were acceptable and what games were “incoherent”; not just games, but which way to play (and they got it so wrong, that their definition of the “right” way to play eliminated absolutely everything that actually defines regular roleplaying).

But there you have it, revisionist history in the most ridiculous style, courtesy of Forge Swine on tangency.net.

Its a lucky thing they lost the war.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Stanwell Compact + Image Latakia

(originally posted October 6, 2012, on the old blog)

8 comments:

  1. Isn't this basically just fascist style revisionism? You tell the story the way you want it to be remembered, so people will associate the OSR (probably one of the most consistent "user generated" rpg movements) with the forge.

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  2. Yes that's precisely what they're doing.

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  3. It works with you doing history revision yet in your hypocritical mind, it's bad when others do it. Very telling

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  4. No, I do HISTORY. That's a big different.

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  5. @RPGPundit: Right, when you claimed that you were the reason The Forge closed, instead of them closing themselves down (for reasons I admit were weird) and even people who were your friends were telling you that no, you had nothing to do with them closing.

    Revisionist history indeed

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  6. LOL oh my, i missed you Truthsayer. I was surprised it took you this long to appear again. I've had the new address for months, after all.

    But no, I never claimed that I solely and by my lonesome was responsible for the Forge shutting down. The Forge shut down because it FAILED in its purpose. It lost the war. I was a part of that, but that certainly wasn't a one-man job.

    Thank you, though, for reminding everyone what a FAILURE the Forge was.

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  7. They closed down because they met the goals they were going for. Tell me one thing you did that actually effected The Forge

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  8. The argument has been long-since made. Their goal was to remold RPGs in accordance with GNS theory, and they failed. Their goal was to insinuate their way into positions of influence in the hobby, and they failed at that too. And the reason why they failed is because people like me refused to fall for their manipulations of language and attempts to control public discourse, and made a point of continually poking the pins in their arguments, lies, and manipulations.
    In the end, GNS became a laughing stock, and Ron Edwards a figure that wasn't trusted or much liked even in his own circles.

    Again, I had a lot of help, I was far from the only one. Quite a few other people sick of their pretentious elitism, their manipulations, and their lies, also spoke out against them. And of course, they were their own worst enemies.
    I have to admit, there's no question that Ron Edward's "Brain Damage" statement was worth 1000 of my blog entries. Of course, if it hadn't been for people like me not letting it go, they would have buried the statement or explained it away.

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