Part of the reason is because you're making some assumptions I think about _why_ people play rpgs. Change and character growth is an aspect of some kinds of games, but not all of them. For example, if you're going to be playing in a Stargate inspired game, change does happen but... it's more of an action series than a drama. Action gets enough just enough change in order to keep the action pieces interesting. A drama gets change because you're explicitly looking at characters and watching how they deal with and react to circumstances.
I think there's also an aspect of how adversarial the GM is with their players. For example, having a powerful character doesn't mean (to me) that the character needs to be humbled. It means that they need to face some sort of challenge that's appropriate to their ability. Neither the character nor the situation has to change (immediately) for the game to be satisfying. The satisfaction can come from the struggle to create (or prevent) some sort of change.
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Part of the reason is because you're making some assumptions I think about _why_ people play rpgs. Change and character growth is an aspect of some kinds of games, but not all of them. For example, if you're going to be playing in a Stargate inspired game, change does happen but... it's more of an action series than a drama. Action gets enough just enough change in order to keep the action pieces interesting. A drama gets change because you're explicitly looking at characters and watching how they deal with and react to circumstances.
I think there's also an aspect of how adversarial the GM is with their players. For example, having a powerful character doesn't mean (to me) that the character needs to be humbled. It means that they need to face some sort of challenge that's appropriate to their ability. Neither the character nor the situation has to change (immediately) for the game to be satisfying. The satisfaction can come from the struggle to create (or prevent) some sort of change.