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Daryl McCullough wrote:
[...]

> >Plus, it lets the really original stuff shine through, rather than turning
> >originality into a cliche, if you get my meaning.
> That's a great concept: originality, how cliched.

Well, put another way (for those readers who are having major trouble with the
apparent contradiction), is that too many original works, and I start praying
for the next dungeon crawl.

Plus, when the goal is to be original, rather than to construct something good,
the results are rarely interesting, except perhaps from a technical standpoint.


> I agree with you and Magnus that originality is overemphasized
> in general. I think that the problem with cliches is not that
> they are unoriginal, but that with a cliched plot, it is so easy
> to "sleepwalk" through it. Rather than trying to imagine what
> it might really be like to be on a quest to get a magical sword,
> the author just throws in stuff that has to be there---the
> goblin-like creatures, the plucky side-kick, the mysterious,
> white-bearded wizard, etc.

True.  But people who are just going to stick to genre conventions are rather
likely to do something quite similar, regardless of how original the basic
concept is.  And those games aren't really in danger of becoming classics,
anyway...


> My complaints about works of fiction is never that it is unoriginal,
> but that the author just goes through the motions, without putting
> any effort into making the work come to life. Cliched plots make
> it easier to just go through the motions and let the conventions
> carry you.

Yes.  That's a key point, here, I think.  If the game is "just trying to get to
the end," then it's not worth bother with, except as a programming exercise.
Although I shouldn't even say that, because there are probably people who would
play generic fantasy dungeon crawls day and night--and who am I to judge their
merit...?


> --
> Daryl McCullough
> CoGenTex, Inc.
> Ithaca, NY
>
> Bored by originality

