Quote:
Originally Posted by Purple Snit
... The original issue here is this; new players are scared off because they perceive that GURPS is more complicated than it is. The players on the forums feed that by arguing matters of bean-counting and hair-splitting, and so intimidate newcomers even more. The issue isn't "shouldn't SJG make a new game out of this to encourage new players", but rather "why can't current players be more welcoming to newbies and more encouraging of play without all the frills"!
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The "complicated" complaint is a bad rap. It's "complicated" because it offers
massive flexibility. It's got a whole book on 20-21st century technology, another one on old time tech, another for ultra tech, another for bio tech, FOUR magic systems, ... etc. But it can be accessed for simple play using an 'ultra-lite rule summary of just a handful of pages.
I also think it's a bad rap to blame deep-knowledge fans for exploring detailed interpretation among themselves. Why shouldn't we? It's hardly unique among hobbyists.
As for welcoming new players, at least on this forum we are very welcoming. Newbies get prompt and friendly advice on whatever they ask. If they ask what books they really need for a given purpose they get straight answers most of the time (with the exception of the occasional direction to dig up obscure Pyramid articles).
But frankly, I don't think it should be on fans to make the system accessible. We've invested our time and thought into using it as it is. Having done so, it's not our responsibility to adjust it, speculatively, for an audience we (evidently) were not part of when we took on the system for ourselves.
The
publisher has the power to adjust and the function of finding out what needs to adjust to. Existing fans have neither the wherewithal, the knowledge, nor the obligation to do what the publisher should do.