Yes, formalise!
I have a love-hate relationship with formalisations. On the one hand, I can very much enjoy the abstract beauty of mathematics and logic, and I feel real sympathy for the clarity that may be won by describing initially vague discourse in a formal way. On the other hand, I abhor intricate formalisations that do not increase our understanding of their subject matter, and I especially abhor formalisations that destroy the subtle and important shades of meanings that lie in ambiguity. The question should always be: does formalisation of this subject matter actually increase our understanding? And is the increase in understanding worth the effort? These questions naturally arise upon reading John Kirk's Design Patterns of Successful Role-Playing Games . (See the accompanying Forge thread here .) He introduces intricate schemata to speak about RPG systems, including such wonderous entities as 'conflicted gauges' and 'feedback loops'. Does this increase our understandi...