Game WISH for the week is as follows:

How coherent do you expect a game world to be? Is a game world merely a stage for the characters, or does it have a life of its own? How deep does it need to be to satisfy you? How do you contribute as a player or GM to making the game world more coherent, if you do?

As my players know, the word "coherence" doesn't often enter my games; I tend to be pretty incoherant at most sessions. ("Shut up! What are you doing? No, YOU shut up! What's WRONG with you people??") But if we're talking about worlds as opposed to style of play, then I'd put myself pretty firmly in the coherence camp. This is part of why Runequest appeals to me so fundamentally, and one of the reasons why I've got zero interest in playing non-Glorantha RQ. The fact that there is a vast world, pre-made, in which events are constantly occurring independent of the player characters' actions is immensely appealing to me. So you didn't go to Whitewall? Fine, King Brian's resistance to the arrival of the Crimson Bat happens without you. You decide to side with the Orlanthi at the seige of Jonstown? OK, then you're culpable too when the Irippi Ontor librarians get slaughtered wholesale. The consistant framework of the world lets the players have ultimate freedom, in a sense, but it also means I'm reluctant to bend time and space to keep the main adventure in front of their noses at all times. My GM in college was far better at this than I, he had a whole coherant universe in which a constant parade of major and minor events were occurring, and we could get involved or not if we chose. No matter which way we faced, there was something to walk toward. I strive for that sort of perfection... And yet, when the Masks gang misses something really key, it's hard for me to just say "Oh well, that event happened without them!" But without that kind of world coherance, how can your players have a perception that everything they do (or more importantly, DON'T do) has an effect in the world around them? And what's the point of playing if you're not going to seek out and do cool stuff?

"That won't do. If you don't play, you can't win. And if you don't play, I'm going to kill you."
--Roy Batty, Blade Runner