I really don't think the "gamer stigma" is as linked to the whole devil worship/Chick Tracts nonsense as we like to sometimes believe. We latch onto that stereotype as a way of -- after a fashion -- stereotyping Christians, and by extension stereotyping everyone that doesn't like us. It's flattering to us to imagine that everyone that doesn't like gaming, doesn't like it because of how small-minded and bigoted they are, or how they believed a speaker at a seminar, or whatever. It's crappy anti-gamer rhetoric and propaganda that we've "owned" by claiming it's reversal for ourselves; we comfort and flatter ourselves by throwing the "shrieking right-winger" label on folks who don't like our hobby.
Well, those who do shriek instead of simply shaking heads, so to say, usually are, uh, a bit unbalanced and ideologically biased, that cant be denied. Of course, the real problem for P&P isnt them, but instead indeed the quiet bad reputation. However, while there is less ideology involved in that, it still is mostly based on prejudices. The nornal social kind of prejudices: Its a minority activity, and hence most people are ignorant about it, and only pick up the negative memes that are already floating around about it. Kinda something self-inforcing, like most those reputation things.
Yes, what we do is awesome and fun. Yes, what we do requires creative thinking, team-building abilities, communication skills, imagination, quick wits, and all that good stuff. Yes, as a community we're terribly, monstrously, imaginative and bright. But -- and this sucks to say, trust me, but it's true -- ultimately, we're squandering it. What we do isn't terribly productive, when you get right down to it, any moreso than Lady Gaga's latest song, or Brad Pitt's six-pack abs.
Yeah, but we dont need to! Its after all a
free time activity. Amateur football, hunting, fishing, collecting stuff - that all inst productive, either, and it doesnt need to be, since it is free time stuff.
To non-gamers, pen-and-paper RPG games just don't matter, and by extension neither do the people who play them.
If it were only that, it wouldnt be a problem. Benignly not caring is the base of every sort of tolerance, after all, and not the base of social stigma.
People don't give gamers a bad rap. Gamers give gamers a bad rap.
A bold claim, and somehow I dont see how it follows from your post.
