Feb 17, 2023·edited Feb 17, 2023Liked by Lucrécia Ludovico Alves
I don't usually comment because I haven't had the money for the last little while to pay to do so but since I do now, I wanted to say thank you for your critical work in the space. I always enjoy reading split party a lot and find it one of the few publications that actually manages to engage with TTRPG's in a way that speaks to me rather than just bland product reviews.
However I do feel this is your weakest article in a while. The argument feels way too expansive, I understand that is sort of the point. That Franchise logic has infected everything and everything has been made into productive databases but I do not feel you engage very honestly with how most people engage with SRD's or game jams. The inner workings there feel very distinct and the reason people engage with them feel different from what Disney or Freeleague does. While it is true that PbtA doesn't have an official SRD it feels as "marketable" (using that word in specific here) of a term as FitD and hacks for both add to the Franchise power of both, yet you do draw a distinction that seems to mostly be about vibes. Another thing by this very expansive definition isn't fanfiction also inherently run on Franchise logic or for that matter this article series itself. What differentiates them in your eyes from that logic?
You also refer to Good art through out this and in other articles yet I've never actually gotten a good handle on what you mean by that. I understand the factors at work that create bad art in your eyes but I do not understand if there is anything you actually enjoy. Even in games you seem to love deeply there is an unclarity as to what about them you actually appreciate. (the only article where I feel I get a real understanding for the love you feel for a game is Ten Quiet Years which is why it is one of my favorites).
Anyway apologies for the long comment and thank you for all your work. I don't except any of this to be answered these just caught in my craw.
These off-week articles are me processing complex ideas as I sit with our thoughts; they lack the framework or the depth of the game analysis or thematic delves, respectively. They are a more experimental and unguarded approach, and while disappointed that I failed to convey such ideas on them, it is not unexpected; it is good to know what works and what not.
This in particular is, as I introduced about my realization about a hyperobject that deeply challenges understanding and quickly fades from mind as we interact only with many of its vertices, which then are treated as individualized objects rather than part of these social technologies, ways to form knowledge and machine.
I did not intend to make any remarks about why people make SRDs or game jams. The logic and will of engagement was never the point; I know for a fact that an overwhelming majority of people are eager and generous in such interacts and barely anyone is cynic and extractive. My point is that they are databases, and thus, one of the many ways Franchise Logic has encroached the artform and cultural space. These machines do what they are made to do, however, no matter what the intention and desires of those captured by them; as I repeatedly stated over the body of the article, the Franchise Logic is all-encompasing and none of us is not attacked by it over and over every minute. Such social machines do things to us, and we end up reproducing in so many ways, such as the way we think and implement our collective projects.
Such as the question of authority, anathema to the function of cooperative storytelling, became a tension and central issue that must be addressed in every incarnation of the artform, so does the Franchise Logic has become something we think about and engage with it, aware or not.
You correctly assess that the main difference between PbtA and FitD is vibes; I myself state that in terms of art object, there is no real significant difference between either approaches, and in no way it is meant to imply that one approach is "correct", or even protects one from Franchise Logic - again, PbtA capture shows that is definitely not self-evident. However, in something as transformative as art, especially one such collaborative, I would not dismiss the importance of vibes; there are some texts I would have cited to make the point more clear, but alas, the less structured more procedural-thinking nature of these articles made me dismiss that. I thought the long discussion about Franchise Logic, which is again, mostly a change in what people would consider vibes, to do enough of a job. I am sorry the article could not convey that idea.
Fanfiction, produced in the current environment, is too bombarded and captured by Franchise Logic. My remark is how fanfiction embraces and thrives as a different form of art than published works and how poorly it tends to perform post capture, in terms of preserving the media and qualities. It is not as presenting fanfiction immune to Franchise Logic (far from it), but to point out how one may deal with Franchise Logic in that artform may be more useful for our own artform than doing as we always seem to do - to look how publishers do it.
As for what I think of "good art", I approach analysis from the perspective that "good" or "bad" are the most useless qualifiers that can be applied; I approach that every piece of art I critic as being the Best implementation, the best possible way it could be materially made and proceed to analyise it on its own merits. Personally, any "good" art as people colloquially use, is art that is capable of enacting a transformation when actively engaged with. However, Good Art is often colloquially used; this article and usual I refer to whatever parameters one may use to determine that. In this article that means the lose caused from the shift from noise to data being bad to any values I am familiar as people have used to define Good Art.
Finally, I don't know what to say about identifying what I love about this art-form. I'm sorry for the detached that my personal feelings may come on the critical framework analysis, as I try to stick to the eight points for objectivity rather than rely on personal feelings. Same with the deep dives. It is on these off-week articles that I feel confident in speaking about my feelings freely - such as the afforementioned Ten Quiet Years article. My love for games and understanding it is a complex issue, that I have already discussed at lenght in two different articles. I honestly know as much about it as what I wrote in those articles.
I don't usually comment because I haven't had the money for the last little while to pay to do so but since I do now, I wanted to say thank you for your critical work in the space. I always enjoy reading split party a lot and find it one of the few publications that actually manages to engage with TTRPG's in a way that speaks to me rather than just bland product reviews.
However I do feel this is your weakest article in a while. The argument feels way too expansive, I understand that is sort of the point. That Franchise logic has infected everything and everything has been made into productive databases but I do not feel you engage very honestly with how most people engage with SRD's or game jams. The inner workings there feel very distinct and the reason people engage with them feel different from what Disney or Freeleague does. While it is true that PbtA doesn't have an official SRD it feels as "marketable" (using that word in specific here) of a term as FitD and hacks for both add to the Franchise power of both, yet you do draw a distinction that seems to mostly be about vibes. Another thing by this very expansive definition isn't fanfiction also inherently run on Franchise logic or for that matter this article series itself. What differentiates them in your eyes from that logic?
You also refer to Good art through out this and in other articles yet I've never actually gotten a good handle on what you mean by that. I understand the factors at work that create bad art in your eyes but I do not understand if there is anything you actually enjoy. Even in games you seem to love deeply there is an unclarity as to what about them you actually appreciate. (the only article where I feel I get a real understanding for the love you feel for a game is Ten Quiet Years which is why it is one of my favorites).
Anyway apologies for the long comment and thank you for all your work. I don't except any of this to be answered these just caught in my craw.
Thank you for the comment!
These off-week articles are me processing complex ideas as I sit with our thoughts; they lack the framework or the depth of the game analysis or thematic delves, respectively. They are a more experimental and unguarded approach, and while disappointed that I failed to convey such ideas on them, it is not unexpected; it is good to know what works and what not.
This in particular is, as I introduced about my realization about a hyperobject that deeply challenges understanding and quickly fades from mind as we interact only with many of its vertices, which then are treated as individualized objects rather than part of these social technologies, ways to form knowledge and machine.
I did not intend to make any remarks about why people make SRDs or game jams. The logic and will of engagement was never the point; I know for a fact that an overwhelming majority of people are eager and generous in such interacts and barely anyone is cynic and extractive. My point is that they are databases, and thus, one of the many ways Franchise Logic has encroached the artform and cultural space. These machines do what they are made to do, however, no matter what the intention and desires of those captured by them; as I repeatedly stated over the body of the article, the Franchise Logic is all-encompasing and none of us is not attacked by it over and over every minute. Such social machines do things to us, and we end up reproducing in so many ways, such as the way we think and implement our collective projects.
Such as the question of authority, anathema to the function of cooperative storytelling, became a tension and central issue that must be addressed in every incarnation of the artform, so does the Franchise Logic has become something we think about and engage with it, aware or not.
You correctly assess that the main difference between PbtA and FitD is vibes; I myself state that in terms of art object, there is no real significant difference between either approaches, and in no way it is meant to imply that one approach is "correct", or even protects one from Franchise Logic - again, PbtA capture shows that is definitely not self-evident. However, in something as transformative as art, especially one such collaborative, I would not dismiss the importance of vibes; there are some texts I would have cited to make the point more clear, but alas, the less structured more procedural-thinking nature of these articles made me dismiss that. I thought the long discussion about Franchise Logic, which is again, mostly a change in what people would consider vibes, to do enough of a job. I am sorry the article could not convey that idea.
Fanfiction, produced in the current environment, is too bombarded and captured by Franchise Logic. My remark is how fanfiction embraces and thrives as a different form of art than published works and how poorly it tends to perform post capture, in terms of preserving the media and qualities. It is not as presenting fanfiction immune to Franchise Logic (far from it), but to point out how one may deal with Franchise Logic in that artform may be more useful for our own artform than doing as we always seem to do - to look how publishers do it.
As for what I think of "good art", I approach analysis from the perspective that "good" or "bad" are the most useless qualifiers that can be applied; I approach that every piece of art I critic as being the Best implementation, the best possible way it could be materially made and proceed to analyise it on its own merits. Personally, any "good" art as people colloquially use, is art that is capable of enacting a transformation when actively engaged with. However, Good Art is often colloquially used; this article and usual I refer to whatever parameters one may use to determine that. In this article that means the lose caused from the shift from noise to data being bad to any values I am familiar as people have used to define Good Art.
Finally, I don't know what to say about identifying what I love about this art-form. I'm sorry for the detached that my personal feelings may come on the critical framework analysis, as I try to stick to the eight points for objectivity rather than rely on personal feelings. Same with the deep dives. It is on these off-week articles that I feel confident in speaking about my feelings freely - such as the afforementioned Ten Quiet Years article. My love for games and understanding it is a complex issue, that I have already discussed at lenght in two different articles. I honestly know as much about it as what I wrote in those articles.