Talking about Microscope RPG

[@DPSAX95]

I just had a mind-blowing idea... imagine you have two groups of players, hosting different sessions. First group creates a story via Microscope and the second group/session plays out the story via Dread RPG!! Then the roles reverse on the next session!

[@john-lenin]

Amazingly, a millisecond before the nuclear bomb went off, Atlantis was transported 10,000 years into the future.

[@hyperxlllmonkey]

Stealing this!

[@asaskald]

"CATCH A RIDE!!"

[@nikolaybelousov1070]

That's pretty much why the author warned about time travel and made a separate game about time travel paradoxes.

[@roostercastille3376]

I think selling this as a worldbuilding tool to my meatspacers would work. And it would open their eyes to new ways to game.

[@EricVulgaris]

+Rooster Castille Do it! It's such a great way to get players interested in the world they'll play in.

[@captainnolan5062]

The prevention of talking/collaborating during the play of the game is not just "because it gets a lot of it out of the way at the start with the setup" (see your comment at 13:20) but, rather, it is a deliberate design choice to cause/allow players to come up with their ideas unadulterated by other players and their input. It makes the ideas more unique and interesting (rather than a setting designed by committee and/or perhaps dominated by the strong personalities at the table).

[@IntelligenceCorn]

God I wish I had friends.

[@Kevin-lr8qv]

Hi, I am from Argentina and I would like to make spanish subtitles for this video to share it with my friends. Could you enable Comunity Contributions so I can do it?

[@Holox1]

alto juegazo viteh pibe

[@MrSoulsterProductions]

@@Holox1 Se man, lastima que no tengo la cash loro

[@steveyoungwork]

I have just ordered this, I been a GM and RP'er fr a long time, great review. I created a GAME of inventors which reminds me of microscope cant wait to check it out!

[@alexanderamzing]

"Elizabeth Warren, this crazy liberal senator" aged like milk 😂😂😂

[@asaskald]

Agreed.

[@shanem8145]

@@asaskald double agreed.

[@ferociousbiscuit]

@25:10 Hello from 2019, where Elizabeth Warren may really be a President of the United States.

[@SkySpiral7_Lets_play]

The only thing I didn't understand is how a scene roleplaying ("all play") works. Is each player assigned a character? First 40 seconds should be trimmed out. Listening to nothing for a while is a good way to get people to not bother watching it.

[@anothercastle17]

I’m fairly certain it’s a stream, which you can’t edit.

[@SkySpiral7_Lets_play]

@@anothercastle17 it's not a YT live stream and I don't think YT had any older way of streaming. It could've been streamed somewhere else like Twitch and then copied to YT (in fact his channel description says "A youtube channel of the VODS of my twitch!") but in that case it's possible to edit it. I've posted worse vids though so I get it.

[@anothercastle17]

@@SkySpiral7_Lets_play Oh, okay, my bad.

[@jayteepodcast]

Sounds like Improv with the whole yes and yes but thing.

[@phraggers]

So will this game run on windows 10? ;P Thanks for this! Been hearing lots about it, want to try!

[@pyrenyang2929]

Great explenation of the game. I look forward to playing it. Just one question: is there an upper limit to Scenes in events?

[@alexandersmith1777]

Could I play this with you one day?? I got an email if you want to talk about this more!

[@user-mz2ow4ky7v]

Watch out for the fictitious president Warren.

[@irian42]

I hear there is a thing called "editing"... ;-)

[@jsrodman]

Apologies in advance. Gets, not get's. Oriented, not orientated. Your focus, not your foci.

[@njc2kewl]

I submit orientated is just fine because it's hilarious (British.) Foci is plural and could be interpreted from its usage here as correct.

[@jsrodman]

These are mistakes. Yes, some people use orientated, but this isn't british english and it's just awkward. "Your foci" can be a valid construction, but in this context it clearly refers to the one you select, a singular.

[@RoyBlumenthal]

The only question to ask when you come across "errors" is this: 'Was I able to understand what was being said?' If the answer is 'yes', shut up, and move on. If the answer is 'no', do your best to use the context delivered by the rest of the conversation, and use your deductive skills to work out the intended meaning. Then shut up and move on.

[@trevorarkana]

@@RoyBlumenthal Someone doesn’t seem to take constructive criticism well.

[@Peace84Maker]

I would like to try this with you. Upon first inpresion this is not an RPG. this is soceoloddgicel exsparement, in creative sharing.

[@mujiescomedy279]

Marcus Skerratt what's loddgicel game?

[@Peace84Maker]

Please prove me wrong.

[@LewisPulsipher]

Neither role-playing nor a game in the traditional sense, but could be an interesting entertainment.

[@EricVulgaris]

+Lewis Pulsipher Hi! Since making this video I have had the opportunity to play and record two games of Microscope! I'd love to hear your thoughts after seeing the game being played and if Microscope still evades your definitions of traditional game!

[@LewisPulsipher]

+Eric Vulgaris Traditional games have competition and conflict built in. Even typical RPGs have that, though the conflict is with entities controlled by the referee ("DM"). While Microscope may engender strong feelings at times, there's neither competition nor conflict built in. Think about it, we tend to use the word "game" for all kinds of things that aren't - for example, puzzles such as most single-player video games, and multiplayer solitaire style "games". I used to play a "game" with a student (not one of my students, the girl-friend of one of mine), I'd make up a phrase of a few letters that was an acronym about her, and she'd try to guess what it was. It was a puzzle, for her, and I was the puzzle-maker. Not a game in any traditional sense, but it was convenient to call it that. So, no, it isn't a game in the traditional sense, and it isn't role-playing because you don't have a character, any more than my game Britannia is role-playing. (You control several nations over a thousand years, you don't represent any individual.)

[@EricVulgaris]

+Lewis Pulsipher Interesting and very insightful! My only experience with game terminology comes from Jesse Schell so it's great to hear differing viewpoints on the matter. So what do we call group activities that foster cooperation in lieu of competition? Thinking about it, I could see a point being made that Microscope being a sort of activity similar to jigsaw puzzles only the pieces are our fictional ideas and our end result is discovered through play. Hmm. Thank you for your post. Great brain food.

[@neverfox]

"Think about it, we tend to use the word "game" for all kinds of things that aren't" +Lewis Pulsipher You're providing this as evidence that people are using the word "game" incorrectly, but I would argue that it's evidence that your definition of games is too limited. While people certainly can and do misapply words, it's a lot harder to make that claim about *systematic* usage of a word. I think it's much more plausible that what people have systematically identified as games, while perhaps difficult to define analytically, is in fact a matter of them picking up on a certain family resemblance ("I knows one when I sees one."). As for getting to the heart of the matter, there has been a fairly decent amount of philosophical debate through the years about what makes a game a game, so I think you're overplaying the degree to which it's an open and shut case. If I had to take a stab at it, I'd say it's much closer to the truth to say that games are any structured forms of play (as opposed to work or art), which may involve competition but may not. There are probably rules of some sort (a form of structure), some element of fiction, maybe uncertainty, a goal or set of goals, and a lack of productive integration with the rest of day-to-day life, but I don't think competition is fundamental (even if it's common). As for Microscope in particular, I don't see how it couldn't count as game in just about all those senses. And I don't see how it *can't* be an RPG for the simple fact that it involves scenes. These may not involve elaborately generated characters, but they do involve characters, a degree of play acting, and immersion into the created world.

[@LewisPulsipher]

The book Rules of Play spent 80 pages trying to carefully define "game", then admitted that the definition omitted RPGs and did not consider puzzles. You might want to read digitalkicks.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/wittgenstein-games-and-language/ My view is that if you define game in a very broad sense, it doesn't really differ from "play" or "to play". I prefer a meaning that's more constrained, more restrictive, so that "game" means something useful. Words are collectively mis-used in a great many cases, as in the ignorant "and/or" (which means just what or means/meant, one of the other or both) or in the destruction of the word "literal". Words frequently change meaning over time, as in "silly", which once meant Touched by God. Going by how people collectively use a word is often misleading and even just plain ignorant.

[@OjoRojo40]

Are you a conservative?

[@rosalind1635]

Liberals can be crazy because they're crazy, not because they're liberals :D

[@john-lenin]

It’s not a game by any definition of the term (and the people involved are not “players). It’s just another excuse for introverts to stroke their own egos.

[@robertsnell734]

in what way is it not a game

[@rosalind1635]

Lol whut?

[@dedededededededede]

Lmao what

[@anothercastle17]

This is one of the least intelligent comments I’ve ever seen.

[@trevorarkana]

@@anothercastle17Like your mom?

[@andyagafonov3389]

Terrible description of an even more terrible RPG. Do real people really pay for this piece of sh**? Strange indeed.

[@rosalind1635]

Did you really watch a 40 minute video on a game you dislike? OR Did you insult a game overvirw video you didn't watch? Either way, you lose.

[@trevorarkana]

@@rosalind1635Nah you do 😂

[@rosalind1635]

@@trevorarkana Bro I literally got a certificate saying I won so I don't know what you on?