I will now leap forward two hours into the future through the awesome power of napping.
06.03.2026 18:05
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I will now leap forward two hours into the future through the awesome power of napping.
RIGHT?
Branding zine: Imagining a Target Audience, the dirty method.
I fondly remember the limited run of double-sized Planeswalkers-as-your-characters cards, somewhere around Weatherlight.
I thought they should have kept that rolling.
It doesn't HAVE to.
(But yes.)
On the one hand, yes, *puffs up chest.*
On the other hand, I hate to think how much talent and good thinking we lost in the fights of yore.
I'm just saying, this needs to be thingified. Blog post, zine, whatever, but made into a thing to be referenced.
Remember I said we should have a bunch of different lenses from which to view TTRPGs?
Yeah, this. For SURE this.
oh no
One day, I will develop the necessary arrogance to do an editing sweep putting all my game-making whatsits into a full series, and call them a curriculum.
Not because I am a great teacher - Just because, man, I can recognize what I'm making at this point.
"Put forward a consistent, polished, and memorable best face that reflects the features of your work to those most likely to be interested" is good, actually.
The problem is that the practice - branding - was cooked in the service of bottomless greed; it takes an effort to get the stink off it.
Calling the people in charge on their shit is their actual job, and for this brief moment, they're doing it, so hey.
It seems like he's developing the habit of letting the discourse flow by while constructing tiny immaculate explosives to drop on rare occasions.
Which, you know, no complaints.
Getting into the branding thing with some "Okay, what's the point of all this?".
I'd like to see *most* of the people involved in Firefly doing more stuff with those characters in that universe.
But... The ones not on that 'most' list sure do raise an eyebrow for me.
Heads up y’all. Please check your “following” and “followers” and proceed accordingly. Not tagging anyone, just take care of yourself, maybe pass along the message.
Better / Worse can be mildly interesting when the question at hand is "What game for this specific piece of media/pitch?", though the interesting bits are always the *reasons* one is supposedly better, not the pissing contest itself.
It gets boring real fast after that unless it's a total stinker.
Comparing games to each other is often a complete waste of time. Since TTRPGs rely *heavily* on cognitive fit, games can appeal to different minds in wildly varying ways.
Comparing what a game promises to what that game delivers is very underrated and extremely productive.
(And I say that as someone who 100% thinks that work to accommodate that is an absolute good. It's just that it's RIGHT to position it as going beyond, too!)
"Not playing it as intended" is the best I can think of, but it'll sometimes get you a Death Of The Author fight.
Quoting this a second time because I want to note that I really enjoy how this framing smoothly moves the bar on "People will realistically hack your game, what are you going to do about that?" up to "work to accommodate that is an extra effort, above and beyond", without adding backdoor judgments.
I always enjoy Levi's perspectives and resources on game design, and this is no exception.
This is the precise orientation this topic needs.
...Goddamit, it's true.
It's possible this means she won't get on the eventual "pardon everyone" list, which would be delightful.
Will this fix or mitigate anything?
Probably not, at least not in a major way.
Do you love to see it anyway?
Yes. Yes, indeed.
And it doesn't matter how many softeners come after; by then it's too late.
The reason this idea starts fights is because the *wording* of "playing it wrong" assigns a negative moral valence to the act.
