The Culture: Literature Is Not A Medium Of Ludology Either

Cirsova Publishing appeared on Rollin' Bones to talk LitRPG. This is the flipside of "Gaming is not a Narrative medium."

First, this is a good podcast episode. Starting with BROZER as a way to ground a podcast built around Tabletop Adventure Games before transitioning out of gaming to talk about genre fiction (and thus getting over to LitRPG) was a smart move.

A lot of the discussion about LitRPG and how it affects Tabletop Adventure Games (and, at some remove, videogames) would get lost without that grounding in the present moment, then backing up to Appendix N, before moving forward again to first Pink Slime Fantasy and then to LitRPG.

And yes, I definitely see that the core issue is incursive spiraling of self-referentiality. I take my own experiences as a Boy Scout, and my observations of the experiences of others--military, paramilitary, etc.--whom I've been able to read or listen to. It's telling that someone's writing stories about this stuff when they lack either first-hand experience or have done extensive research or reviewed the foundational texts on the matter; it's just most obvious with Pink Slime Fantasy because too many people think All Fantasy Is The Same and thus treat it like they're filling outa Mad Lib template.

One thing that I would like to add: having real-life experiences that are analogous to what goes on in Tabletop Adventure Games makes both the design and the play of same a lot better for all concerned, just as having real life experiences makes writing fiction better. It's just more difficult these days because almost all of the experiences are locked down with non-disclosure agreements, Court-ordered sealing of files, or National Security sealing of the same.

Which leads me to my core point: just as Gaming is not literature (Ludology is not Narrative), the reverse is also true. "Storygaming" reveals the former error, and LitRPG the latter. It works only in a few corner cases, exceptions that most do not comprehend and thus prove the rule's validity by their incompetence because Cargo Cult Gotta Cult.

Gaming is not Narrative. The two media have very different and antithetical incentives because they work towards entirely antithetical purposes. Stop trying to ram square pegs into round holes.