The Forge

OK, so Ron Edwards is closing the RPG Theory forum and the GNS forum over at the Forge. This is a bit significant, since these fora were spots where some really fruitful discussion took place (albeit two or three years ago). A lot of criticism gets laid on the Forge (just look at the thread this spawned on RPG.net), but my personal opinion is that what has happened in the last two or three years represents a Renaissance in RPG design, and most of the credit for that can be laid quite firmly at the feet of the Forge in general and Ron Edwards in particular.

Exciting stuff has come from here, and gaming will never be the same because of it. A huge crop of new designers have been tutored by the Forge, and these ideas continue to seep outward. Who knows if the big mainstream games will ever fully be on board with new theoretical ideas, but the Forge has functioned like a salon or some new art movement in the overall moribund world of RPG design, and this will ultimately change things in very fundamental ways. It might be years, but treating game design as an art that deserves to be studied and discussed is a great accomplishment. My design has improved incredibly, and I am now able to get what I want out of a game when I finish it.

This has been a fairly rambling post, but I can't emphasize the importance of the Forge enough. All in all, these changes there are for the better, and I continue to be excited about what is going on in our little game design community.