The phrase “sadder but wiser” alludes to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s narrator of “The Rime of the Anicient Mariner.” In the poem, the cursed, albatross-killing sailor tells his story to a wedding guest, and the final stanza of the poem describes the effect of the story on the listener: “He went like one that hath been stunned, / And is of sense forlorn: / A sadder and a wiser man, / He rose the morrow morn.”

Although Mateas and Stern set off score with scare quotes, the fact that they resort to this terminology in describing social interaction and characters’ emotional states is not mere metaphor. Jan Van Looy argues in his riposte to Erik Mona that quantification of the qualitative undergirds tabletop gaming, and such quantification is unavoidable in a computer-based game that relies on binary code.

The quantitative/qualitative division evokes Marx’s analysis of use vs. exchange value in the first volume of Capital. Although Van Looy doesn’t go quite this far, his analysis of D&D suggests that playing the game is good training for participation in a capitalist marketplace. The quantitative/qualitative division evokes Marx’s analysis of use vs. exchange value in the first volume of Capital. Although Van Looy doesn’t go quite this far, his analysis of D&D suggests that playing the game is good training for participation in a capitalist marketplace.

Larry McCaffery reflects on his late eighties essay “White Light” in ebr’s Music Sound Noise thread. Larry McCaffery reflects on his late eighties essay “White Light” in ebr’s Music Sound Noise thread.

In his essay on the free-form game Everyway, Jonathan Tweet discusses the importance of constraints for character creation. In his essay on the free-form game Everyway, Jonathan Tweet discusses the importance of constraints for character creation.