I have received some messages in the past from people who were under the impression that I believed roleplaying could better teach people about the world than direct experience. I have received more messages of this sort recently and have decided to make something very clear.
Nothing surpasses direct experience. Yet there are many experiences which cannot be achieved in reality. There are challenges, questions, and decisions to be faced only in roleplaying. Therefore I believe that people learn not about the world, but a great deal about themselves via roleplaying. Most importantly, they learn that they are more complex, more unique creatures than they had ever (regardless of anything) believed. This improves the person and thus improves people.
I do believe this. Our minds have evolved to a point that we can understand even those things which are not possible, and there is extreme personal merit in those things.
Even as an atheist I take this sentiment to heart:
'We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed, only by myth-making, only by becoming a "sub-creator" and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic "progress" leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of evil.' -- J.R.R. Tolkien
Because it has everything to do with every one of my passions unless I am distracted by the word 'God'.
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