Powergame, roleplaying, wargame & storytelling

Those are the categories that Glenn Blacow used to describe the various types of game activity. No big news there, except for the fact that these different modes of play were identified by Mr. Blacow in an article called "Aspects of Adventure Gaming", published in Different Worlds #10, October 1980! I got the link to this article from a thread on RPGnet. The poster was attempting to refute the idea that early rpg play was more primitive compared to modern play. (Someone was playing the old "that was crappy dungeoneering but the hobby has grown up" canard.) Mr. Blacow's article goes far to reveal how the much of the activity over at the Forge is really a reclaimation of a lost gaming past, before largescale convention play shaped D&D into the form it took in the 80s. Or if you're not a big Forge fan maybe this is evidence that they've been spinning their wheels this whole time! Either way I think this article is further evidence that the hobby has always had a wide variety of play. The gaming industry didn't always support all those styles, but folks carried on doing their thing with or without the industry's help.