Re: virus: RPGs

David Kennerly (davekennerly@tcsn.net)
Wed, 26 Mar 1997 16:12:52 -0800


> >Aftermath, Rolemaster, Privateers and Gentlemen?). In the last decade it
>
> 2 out of three -- I don't remember Privateers and Gentleman. Rolemaster
is
> still in print, actually. Do I win anything? ;)
>
> In a vain attempt to keep this discussion memetically oriented, I'll note
> that it was games like Aftermath and Rolemaster that engendered my
dislike
> for mechanics-heavy RPGs. Are preferences memes? Are they an emergent
> quality of a memesphere? Why do some memes ("Charts are cool and useful")
> catch on with some people, and not with others?
> -Loki

"Charts are cool and useful"
Yes they are if you are an economist, accountant, bank officer, corporate
executive, military officer, military command support personnel, or
similarly symbol-manipulations and administrative lifestyle. That
lifestyle is a set of memes, therefore one who is prone to the "Charts are
cool and useful" meme is prone to the other associated lifestyle meme sets
I mentioned. "Charts are cool and useful" has a symbiotic relationship
with other memes, such as: "quantitative comparisons are important
information sources," "experiences should not have too much emotional
content", "formal and inflexible organization", "bureacracy" memes. If you
have been exposed to these memes and they sink themselves into your
thought-behaviors, then the symbiotic memes will be likely to sink
themselves into your thought-behaviors too, because the memes help each
other survive and reproduce.

"Charts are not cool"
The meme-territory has anti-"charts are cool" memes. For example:
"Numbers are confusing", "Art is supreme over science", "Emotions are more
important than rationalizations", "Creativity is more important than
analysis", "Analysis is not fun".

To give a quick stereotype: the chart-o-phile is more likely to like
organized thought-behaviors. The chart-o-phobe is more likely to like
disorganized (or self-organizing) thought-behaviors. Self-organizing
thought-behaviors, by the way, I think are beautiful lifestyles.
Biological life is self-organizing. Friendships are usually
self-organizing, as are many "inspired" memes. They have no organization
forced upon them by "commanding" memes, but they use the natural rules and
circumstances to create a "natural" order (again I use the biological
analogy of all life).