What's up with the extremism in indie games?

Okay, so the "indie scene" in any industry tends to be out on the edge of what's "acceptable" in the mainstream. But I'm finding something weird about the indie gaming scene… they're not just exploring alternative game mechanics, they're exploring the depravity of humankind.

Sure, this was obvious with one of the earliest indie games, My Life With Master. I knew a lot of the indie games explored themes that just weren't the kind of thing I was interested in. But listening to a few people talking about their games, I'm literally shocked to hear the kinds of things that are going on in games which, on paper, don't even hint at adult themes.

Brutal torture, rape and murder. Sure, we've all killed our share of orcs… it's an integral part of the swords-and-sorcery genre. But we didn't anal-rape the orcs with a baseball bat first. Some of these groups torture, brutal murder and violent sex, are an integral part of every game session.

I really do not get where these people are coming from. Even if these were themes I wanted to explore, I can't imagine exploring them through roleplaying.

It's funny. I've spent a large part of my life explaining to people how roleplaying games are just entertainment. And here are these "new-style" roleplayers getting their entertainment by describing their characters doing horrible, inhuman things to each other.

Why do these "rawk your game screaming over the cliff!" gamers find such enjoyment in the extremes of human cruelty? Why does it have to be ultra-extreme to be enjoyable?

(No, not all, or even a majority, of them, games or players, are like that. But some of the games are written specifically toward it, and players who enjoy these specific games seem to take that same behavior into other games.)

The Art of Roleplaying… dot-com!

I told you I was easy. Thanks for the encouragement. (Heck, thanks for bothering to listen!)

http://www.theartofroleplaying.com/

Nothing there you haven't seen here already, but it's got that fancy enclosure-enabled RSS feed and all that. (Yay, ::Feedburner.)

You can subscribe here if you like…

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheArtOfRoleplayingPodcast

Now, time to go find victims with which to converse.

The Art of Roleplaying Episode 0

(UPDATE: Changed the URL of the MP3 file to point to new domain.)

Okay, for lack of a better place to put it, I'm posting Episode 0 of "The Art of Roleplaying" podcast here in my blog. If I actually get any feedback, I'll find it a place of its own and get a proper feed for it.

Summary: My wife, Karen, and I discuss the fickle nature of dice as pertains to story, and fudge/plot/hero/karma/drama/whatever points as part of the solution.

Download the MP3: [[http://files.theartofroleplaying.com/taorp_000.mp3|TAO-RP Episode 0]] (45:50, 22 Meg)

The music is "Affectionately Stumbled" by Ernesto Sett, via the Podsafe Music Network.

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