Re: CF: RE: Successful experiments - commit to CVS?

[Hwei Sheng TEOH <hsteoh@cs.toronto.edu>]

On Fri, 10 Sep 1999, David Andrew Michael Noelle wrote:

> dragonm wrote:
> > 
> > 1) attacktype: psionic
> > ----------------
> > I have a strong distaste for the word "psionic" in association with the
> > Fantasy genre.  Psionic was a term that was adopted by role players because
> > the Science Fiction people wanted magic but didn't want to call it magic.  I
> > consider psionics in fantasy to be inappropriate backward leakage.  We have
> > magic, for crying out loud.  Psionics are redundant and anachronistic.
I
> > don't know that I object to the actual effects of the attacktype, but if you
> > must have it, name it something that's not quite so jarring.
> > ----------------
> 
>     I wasn't aware of that being the origin of the word.  I thought it was
> just a catch-all for various psychic powers.  In fact, I first encountered
> the word "psionics" and the concept in game terms in 1st Edition AD&D,
> buried in an appendix somewhere.  I never saw any anachronism or conflict
> between magic and psionics.  They accomplish similar results in vastly
> different ways, the same as the difference between spells and prayers. 
> Magic uses rituals, formulas, incantations, and ingredients to channel other
> energies (mana) into the desired effect.  Psionics is the ability to focus
> and control your own mental energy to achieve similar effects.  Psionics
> tend to be more subtle, and it is much more difficult to affect matter with
> psionics than energy fields or another mind, while different schools of
> magic deal with each of those equally.

Hmmm... IMHO magic and psionics are almost equivalent. After all, it's just
channeling some form of non-physical energy to produce some effects; call that
energy mana or mental energy or what-have-you, it's about the same thing to
me. The only place I'd draw a difference is between prayer spells and magic
because prayer spells is using energy not from yourself but from something
else.


T

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