Lewis Pulsipher’s Lament
January 19th, 2005I was going to write a vehement rebuttal of Lewis Pulsipher’s lament about modern boardgaming, but Chris Farrell spared me the effort.
A minimalist blog, with a pretentious title, about strategy board games.
I was going to write a vehement rebuttal of Lewis Pulsipher’s lament about modern boardgaming, but Chris Farrell spared me the effort.
January 20th, 2005 at 18:05
To me, the real story here is just how widely Mr Pulsipher’s article got circulated. The article itself obviously isn’t very good, but it was put on the front page at GameFest and virtually every blogger has commented on it. My article never would have gotten written if the original hadn’t ended up so widely commented on as if it had some serious points. At some level maybe it’s a bit unfair for him to take the brunt of my criticism.
As I mentioned in a recent comment on my blog, I just got my most recent issue of Scientific American, which ironically has a survey of what kids were doing in 1981 vs. 2002. Not unexpectedly, the numbers directly contradict Mr Pulsipher’s anecodotal evidence. Despite the huge problems in the American educational system, I have little doubt that today’s kids are smarter and better-educated than they were 10, 20, or 30 years ago.
January 20th, 2005 at 18:05
And by the way, I would have liked to have seen your rebuttal also
January 20th, 2005 at 22:46
There does seem to be a critical mass of games bloggers now. People seem to be a lot more careful about what they say on their own blog. It is not the chaotic melee of rec.games.board or even Spielfrieks.
I am not sure people are smarter and better-educated. I just think types of knowledge and ways of learning have changed. I agree with Mr Pulsipher in that regard. I am just much more optimistic about it.
January 20th, 2005 at 22:54
There was no point in me laying out my arguments, after you wrote the words better than I could.
January 21st, 2005 at 02:03
I should say that I also agree that people are educated and think differently now. I was talking with my wife, whose mother was a high school teacher, and she mentioned that there is much greater emphasis these days on learning how to learn than there is on rote memorization and specific skills, since you can’t learn the skill set for any reasonable job in high school any more. I think there is a reasonable discussion to be had about this, and how games have changed or need to change or what different people will like or how games can be better marketed. But Mr Pulsipher is barking up the wrong tree.
January 21st, 2005 at 09:36
Thank goodness. The amount of the Aeneid I had to learn by heart just to pass my Latin O’level still makes me angry.