On a somewhat less extreme note, the other issue is that negotiating relationships is tricky. I see this at work, the, “how shall we work together?” seems to be a much tougher conversation than, “is this the right way to fix this bug?”

I feel like this is at work in those incendiary responses you get to changing up the traditional GM-PC paradigm—people go absolutely mental when the basic way we’re going to relate changes. (This is why we have traditional pastimes that are emotionally low-risk, like banter about the weather. It’s so we don’t accidentally ask acquaintances about how the divorce is going, or Hey, who makes the most money here?)

Support tools are an encroachment on the relationship level. So for folks who don’t like negotiating relationships explicitly (because that’s so fraught), it opens up a can of worms.

Imagine in the middle of poker night you let fly with, “So, Steve, are you comfortable with the amount of teasing Carl is doing?” pin drop