I’m happy with the example of rules-heavy/crunchy RPGs as evidence that some people like rules, but I agree it is not a good evidence for whether people like constraints. I don’t know what @quetzal_rainbow might have meant by “nobody likes rules”, other than the surface meaning. Maybe they will clarify. I wouldn’t have replied to a statement like “nobody likes to be constrained by complex rules that are costly to follow and have no benefits”, for example, but that’s not what they said.
I completely agree that rules can be mechanisms that enable people to do things. For example, many social partner dances have rules about how the dancers move and dance together. At first glance these look like pure constraints. However, they are also enabling mechanisms for joint movements that otherwise would not work (at all, as well, as easily, etc.) in partnered freestyle. This is one of the things I like about rules.
I’m happy with the example of rules-heavy/crunchy RPGs as evidence that some people like rules, but I agree it is not a good evidence for whether people like constraints. I don’t know what @quetzal_rainbow might have meant by “nobody likes rules”, other than the surface meaning. Maybe they will clarify. I wouldn’t have replied to a statement like “nobody likes to be constrained by complex rules that are costly to follow and have no benefits”, for example, but that’s not what they said.
I completely agree that rules can be mechanisms that enable people to do things. For example, many social partner dances have rules about how the dancers move and dance together. At first glance these look like pure constraints. However, they are also enabling mechanisms for joint movements that otherwise would not work (at all, as well, as easily, etc.) in partnered freestyle. This is one of the things I like about rules.