Can they be taught?

[Tadanori Oyama]

Players, in my singular experience, have a tendancy to stay the way they are when they join a group. They may develope a new understanding of the rules or they might agree to attempt new games but do any of them really change who they are?

My rules lawyer demi-munchkin is the same as he ever was, my old school player hasn't updated more than to take alot of notes, and my slightly disinterested passive gamer is still passive and only slightly less slightly disinterested.

I like to think I've grown as a GM (my rules lawyer says I've changed in a bad way, I am disinclined to believe him) but I don't know if I really have. Perhaps my stories and plots are better, more fully understood, but have I really changed the way I run a game in the last ten years?

Do gamers change?

[dragonshaos]

Gamer's change when they are willing to change.  I believe that the more a person has gamed the harder it is for them to change their ways as they are set in them.  Unless one is honestly wanting to change a habit they have, there's nothing you can really do.

I'm lucky in that the group I have we are both new to using a rule set / having a campaign, and that they know they are new to all this and want to get the most out of it.  With the few sessions we have had I've not only seen improvement but more enthusiasm too.  If a player is content with their style f play then why would they want to change that?

I can only say so much due to my inexperience.

[clockworkjoe]

People don't change, but they do grow. Tom's certainly grown as a player over the years. I've grown as a GM. If you want your players to grow in a certain way, you should reward good behavior and ignore bad behavior. Punishments don't really work for games you play voluntarily.

[Corrosive Rabbit]

The one thing that I've seen that can make a player change is if they join a pre-existing group that already has a strong "group culture."  At that point, peer pressure can lead to a degree of self-restraint, which eventually solidifies into lasting change.  That said, this usually happens immediately, or not at all, and requires that the one player be heavily outnumbered.

Maze is also right though -- there's always potential for growth, if not rapid change, but this is usually a very slow process.

As much as we as gamers talk about the GM setting the tone for a session, campaign, group, etc -- I've always found that there's a very powerful "group culture" thing that goes on, regardless of who is actually GMing.  Has anyone else experienced this?

CR

[Setherick]

People don't change, but they do grow. Tom's certainly grown as a player over the years. I've grown as a GM. If you want your players to grow in a certain way, you should reward good behavior and ignore bad behavior. Punishments don't really work for games you play voluntarily.

I don't think I ever grew as a player. But goddamn it, I made others grow. I'm like fertilizer. Not like the fertilizer that you put on your plants. The kind you need if you want to blow shit up.

[Tadanori Oyama]

One of my groups changes the GM on occation and the dymanics of the group don't change. The same individuals argue, the same ones make similar choices, so while the game and the leader change the way the ever person acts does not radically alter.

[codered]

I feel I have changed as a player.

I was a power gammer with no roleplaying at all now I love to roleplay
I do still like to be a strong player but I like to do other things now and I have even learned to let others
have the spot light sometimes.