[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Jeffr0

Okay, that stings. (Really it does.)

But seriously, the generation of OD&D and Holmes Basic set and Fantasy Trip gamers... they are just so different from my generation that came of age when AD&D was long in the tooth and a dozen companies were scrambling for slices of the non-TSR market. The goth/magic/werewolf/vampire spasm of the 90's was totally different again.

70's gamers were mostly war gamers and cargo-cultists. 80's gamers saw an explosion of different and innovative game companies-- Steve Jackson Games being my favorite, of course. The 90's saw the market contract and shift as new attempts to monetize gaming fell together. The 00's have been the long defeat with the homogenization and monetization intensifying. The 10's have so far been about the rise of the "long tail" and the revival of old school gaming-- as witnessed in the "death" of 4e and the reprinting of AD&F 1e.

Most people changed with the times or faded away. My tastes were pretty much set in the eighties, though.

Jeff, I, too, have noted a difference between the OE guys and the 1E guys, but I've noticed a major shift later, too...

• OE Group A: GM is God; Wargame with narration; often minis-based combats
  MAR Barker's convention games; Some of Dave Arneson's games.
• OE Group B: GM is God; Story with narrative combat; often trap heavy puzzle game
  Apparently, Gygaian play (but not written advice). Also, T&T fits here.
• Classic Traveller & 1E era: Rules-as-contract, GM as referee and administrator of the sandbox, houserules often documented. Combats could be any of Minis-on-map, narrative with map, or abstracted mapless narrative.
• 90's Player Empowerment - fate points/hero points, refillable expendable pools, Ads and Disads, Story-over-rules. Some shared GMing, a few games with group as equal to GM for rules interpretation.
• late 90's Return to the Minis: - Rules as contract, combats minis-based, crunchy and tactical, GM as judge and opponent, emphasis on fair and balanced
• Late 90's Rise of the Storygame: multi-GM or even GM-less games, rules as contracted, players highly empowered, Story-first