Quote Originally Posted by kyoryu View Post
In theory an emergent GM could predict what the players would do and prep accordingly while letting them make decisions.

In practice, I have doubts. Once you start designing something, it's kind of second nature to prep the path to it as well. It's also incredibly easy to start making other things subtly harder or putting up resistance, so when players see that, and see the prepped path, they start just looking for the path.

I'm not saying it's impossible - but I don't think I've ever seen it executed on well. It's also the kind of thing that from the DM's side can be hard to detect, since how do you know if you predicted players, or steered them onto that path? A lot of times players expect a path, and look for the path (see examples in this thread and others). From the GM's PoV, that kind of implicit participationism looks a lot like correctly guessing what the players will do.
I don't disagree too much which is why i called this a mixture, not pure emergent gameplay.

But if we are talking about unconscious steering, does such behavior not start even earlier ? Do emergent DMs really prepare stuff they don't expect the players to go for wih the same attention to detail as stuff they think will very likely be relevant ? Where will corners be cut, when the GM does not have time time ? And well, even GMs who don't try to guess what the players will do will aquire related knowledge during play. I mean, i know several GMs who make a point of not wanting to know the PCs stats and abilities lest that produces biased expectations. But stuff like that will get revealed during sessions and there are player character traits and interests as well which are hard to actively ignore.