John Lawson wrote on Fri, Apr 26, 2002 12:10 AM UTC:
Peter Aronson wrote:
'(Zillions is hardly the only tool suitable for this sort of thing, of
course, but it is the one that usually comes to hand for me. Occasionally I
worry about the effect this has on my game designing, since if the only
tool you have is a hammer, everthing starts to look like a nail. However,
the essay Zillions of Games: threat or menace, will have to wait for
another day.)'
I had never thought of this effect, perhaps because I neither design games
nor write ZRFs (I entirely lack creativity). I take this to mean that
ZoG-wise game designers will avoid designing games using concepts that
cannot be effectively implemented in Zillions-of-Games, thereby limiting
their own creativity.
At the same time, ZoG has been considered a tremendous boon to board game
variantists of all stripes, allowing them to play and test their
more-or-less obscure discoveries and creations without the need to actually
find and interact with other people.
So, the starter questions are, 'Does ZoG limit creativity?', 'If it does,
does it matter?' What do you think?