Re: freeflow games & paying 2 play

From: phoenyx@southwind.net (Karen J. Cravens)

Date: Tue, 09 Jul 1996 00:00:00 +0000

Back when I used to have a random quote in my sigfile, one of
them was "There is no way of proving your point to someone whose
income or position depends upon believing the contrary.  --
Sydney J. Harris."  That said:

In article <eSR+TDApzj4xEwuo@phildee.demon.co.uk>,
Phil Shulkind <phil@phildee.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>I've never been able to understand the objection to paying to play a
>PB(E)M game. I could if these people never paid for anything else that
>they could do for free, but there are 1001 things that we all pay for rather
>than doing for free. Is there anyone reading this who's never paid for a
>meal? Paid to go to a concert? Paid to go to a sports event? Paid for a pint
>of beer? The list goes on and on, but we don't hear whines about that yet
>they're all pastimes that could be enjoyed at no expense. And why whine
>anyway? Nobody's forcing you to pay and play, get on with enjoying
>your free games, and let people who prefer to pay for a professional
>service do what they want as well!

Apples and oranges, sir, you are presenting a strawman.  When I
pay to go to a sports event, I'm paying to watch, not
participate... when's the last softball game you played in that
you hired out a pitcher for?  My point is just that paying for
things doesn't automatically make them better.  Around here, I
can pay to play paintball at a nice field with well-maintained
barricades, or I can pay to play at a sandbar on the river with
locust trees and poison ivy, or I can play for free in the
floodway with nice trees, or I can play for free by the railroad
tracks and get run over by dirtbikes.

Nor am I whining, merely defending myself when someone criticized
my suggestion that there are plenty of free roleplaying games out
there.  If you'll check the back posts, you'll note that my
original attacker asserted that free roleplaying games were
inferior before ever I mentioned paid ones.

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References

re:freeflow games & paying 2 play
Williams <mlwilliams@taz.dra.hmg.gb>
Tue, 09 Jul 1996 00:00:00 +0000