I agree and disagree with all of these statements. ;D I unintentionally talk myself out of writing a lot of posts because my brain does this same thing. And in writing The Long Orbit, which pulls heavily from tropes, I’ve had these sorts of arguments with myself quite a few times. I’ve come to something of an uneasy conclusion that it still comes down to what the game does that makes it a worthwhile endeavor or not. The very fact that it’s an interactive, emergent experience is what sets an RPG apart from books and movies they might draw heavily from. If it’s a well-designed game, you could be playing Trope World and still have a really fun or meaningful experience because you’re interacting with the trope on a more personal level – changing it, being changed by it, or bringing it into your story in a very real way.