The Internet Already Exists

I’m not a fan of people expecting other people to prime themselves for internet conversations.
Come as you are.

But! If you’re interested in reading some of the things that have inspired my thinking lately and in the past…

Play Passionately: Introduction
“To me, a game is most fun when there’s an element of social risk. When playing passionately there are two layers to that risk. The first is the same as any collaborative creative endeavor: Failure. Simply, the game or some part of the game and the created fiction might suck or be no fun. It might take some practice or critical thought to understand exactly what went wrong and how to avoid disappointment in the future.

The second layer of social risk is, perhaps, a bit more controversial. Plainly, you might get hurt or offended. Playing passionately involves an element of emotional vulnerability, putting a little of yourself out onto the table for others to poke and prod. It’s about finding the uncomfortable spaces inside us and deliberately bringing them out into the light. That kind of honesty brings us closer together through vulnerability, trust and shared pain.” – Jesse Burneko

The College of Mythic Cartography: What Does Fluency Mean?
“Notice the distinction there; in our modern culture we value the amount of facts you carry. In an animist culture we value the amount of questions.

In a modern sense, to “know” something means to have an intellectual understanding of it, though the execution of it may elude you. In an animist sense, to “know” something means you feel comfortable in your skin about it, that you can implement this knowledge easily and gracefully. Essentially, this underscores the difference between learning a language, and gaining fluency in a language.” -Willem Larsen

M: The Way It Is (this post is, in my opinion, absolutely beautiful. I don’t read this blog, though.)
“You are not sharing an experience. You are alone. You are not a fucking “protagonist” awaiting contrivances. You can’t have what you want in character. You can’t have what you want out of character. Nobody says yes. You do not get to roll the fucking dice. It isn’t safe, and when I say that I don’t mean the vapid, pathetic usage of “unsafe” that is in fact very fucking safe. You do not know if you are angry, or if the character is angry.

You don’t get to choose.

That’s when you’ll abandon the geek-guilt and stop trying to ape the idiotic 19th Century, High School English conception of story. That’s when you will embrace the form for what it can do. That’s when you will remember. Not invent. Remember.” -Malcolm Sheppard

Roleplaying Theory, Hardcore: A Small Thing About Suspense (scroll down to find it)
“Suspense doesn’t come from uncertain outcomes. I have no doubt, not one shread of measly doubt, that Babe the pig is going to wow the sheepdog trial audience. Neither do you. But we’re on the edge of our seats! What’s up with that?
Suspense comes from putting off the inevitable. What’s up with that is, we know that Babe is going to win, but we don’t know what it will cost.” -Vincent Baker

The Centre for Nonviolent Communication: List of Needs (also, the List of Feelings)
[This list] is meant as a starting place to support anyone who wishes to engage in a process of deepening self-discovery and to facilitate greater understanding and connection between people.

Maybe in spots these are disparate. One is a bitter rant where a designer calls out people from a different school of design. One is story theory. One is a philosophy of learning, another a philosophy of shared narrative. The last is a laundry list of legitimate needs (linked to a list of feelings). But, anyways, I wanted to link-drop them all, so as to give avid readers a common ground to build with me upon.