Why can't you powergame and roleplay?

[Valairn]

To use a D&D example, I'll bet that the clerics of Pelor (experts on religion) and clerics of Nerull (experts on religion) have VERY different definitions of words. They are both "experts", but since their bias is one way or the other, their definitions are of course going to reflect that bias.

I concur. That's while you see while we are here on the Giant in the Playground Forums I was using the Giant in the Playground Forum's definition of "Powergaming".

Here,

From dictionary.com:
op·ti·mize
1. to make as effective, perfect, or useful as possible.

Now possible is the deal breaker here. Some people define possible as whatever is possible within the rules, which if you take that extreme pun pun can be your next new character. Some people define possible as whatever falls within their character concept. Both are fine definitions for possible.

And I'm not talking about powergaming, I'm talking about optimizing, there's a big difference.