6 Comments
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Wreckage's avatar

An excellent defence of the rational basis of simulation games!

Jordan's avatar

Wonderful essay written by a person too cowardly to commit to proving the existence of Nous for the sake of elf games <3

Alexander Macris's avatar

I know that I'm a continuous disappointment to you, son

JD Sauvage's avatar

"Likewise, we can play a tabletop RPG because we want drama or challenge, but we can also play a tabletop RPG because we know it will stimulate our noetic faculty in pleasurable ways. Verisimilitude is a sensation that we experience, and creating that sensory experience can be a design goal in and of itself."

'Pleasurable stimulation of the noetic faculty' is a novel idea to this one whose approach to these questions has been entirely wargame centric, but I like it. It has the ring of truth. You might say, it triggers my noetic faculty.

Alexander Macris's avatar

Thanks! I believe I am the first to express the concept in words, though we have all experienced it.

Ostanes's avatar

"C'est un philosophe qui nous apprend la vertu." Montaigne