The Playing that Evens Things Out : comments [benlehman]

I just realized your differing opinion could be about my last line, and not the process itself...

Oops.

So -- is it that you don't think that this sympathy process occurs or that you don't think it is the purpose of RPGs?

yrs--
--Ben

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I think it occurs in some people. Not so much in me. I think I have a pretty good handle on why, to choose a neutral example, Ben Sherman acts the way he does, and it doesn't make me loathe him any less or feel any more sympathy toward him: at the end, I think, we all have choices about the way we act. Which could, yes, be why I don't play characters I don't like.

And I don't think it's so much the point of RPGs, though we all get different things out of them. Seeing things from different viewpoints is definitely a bonus, but I don't think those viewpoints have to be--or, in my case, should be--those you'd find contemptable. Hrm. Do you want this to become a discussion about human nature and sympathy or the points of RPGS? 'Cause I could do either, albeit post-Procon.

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Last thing I want to get into is an argument about human morality.

My point is mostly that the process of playing a character gives you compassion for that character -- which invokes both sympathy (for characters you didn't want to like) and disgust (for characters you did.)

Whether this is a good or a bad thing -- let's put that aside.

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It is also possible to say that playing a character the forces you to frame them in more palatable terms than the ones you would usually address them with, because otherwise you couldn't enjoy playing them. This isn't really the same as compassion.

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benlehman

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