Psst. I dont need to read it...I lived it!I nearly did. The only thing that saved me from most of the BS was that my Mom was ultra-cool and there were literally NO other gamers where I grew up, so it was only reading material for me... Which is ironic, because you'd think the loner with D&D books would've scared people more.
And, yes, we do seem to be our own worst enemy at times, but even popular shows like Big Bang Theory (a show I LOVE by the way), do perpetuate the stereotype that we're an anti-social, chortling bunch of guys that don't know how to deal with women.It sucks when you're on the receiving end of it...but, well, would the stereotype exist if there wasn't a kernel of truth to it?
That didn't happen after thirty years of sitting in our parents' basement and rolling dice. It came from breaking the "gamer" mold, and going public. Selling out, in a way. I've got buddies that refuse to play WOW because of that. It's some weird geek backlash stigma thing. WOW's too popular, so they're like the kids that hate a band when it hits big; it's not "indie" enough for them, so they stubbornly refuse to give it a shot.BUT WoW is a Computer game, an on-line game. so because you have to use your caomputer to play it it is different from the original Pencil and paper played in our moms basement RPG. I don't dislike Warcraft. I don't play it because I'd probably play it so much I'd loose my job, house & family. It's why I don't DO online gaming. When I first got Final Fantasy 10 for X-mas. I played for 2 1/2 days straight! Sat on the couch and only got up to relieve myself and eat! I'm that kind of gamer.
People don't give gamers a bad rap. Gamers give gamers a bad rap.
I admit that the gamer stigma isn't entirely linked to the Satanism/Mazes & Monsters stuff, but it did send us a quite a few steps back and put us on the defensive for many, many years. And, yes, we do seem to be our own worst enemy at times, but even popular shows like Big Bang Theory (a show I LOVE by the way), do perpetuate the stereotype that we're an anti-social, chortling bunch of guys that don't know how to deal with women.Married 24 years to a non gamer wife. We can and do get the girl. :-*
Oh, yes. I agree. The first step in approving how everyone views a group is changing how that group appears. Hence why daily showers should be mandatory at GenCon and other conventions. ;)
Oh, yes. I agree. The first step in approving how everyone views a group is changing how that group appears. Hence why daily showers should be mandatory at GenCon and other conventions. ;)
Married 24 years to a non gamer wife. We can and do get the girl. :-*
<snip>(I actually had a gifted school teacher run a campaign during school hours in the earliest days of RPGs, something that could never happened nowadays)<snip>Actually, I know of some teachers and heard of a few more that do this nowadays. There's even after-school clubs at some schools.
Well from my experience. Let her watch! Invite her to participate. If she see's it's not something you 'have" to hide, she should be more accepting of it. Not to mention Skype RPGing has the added bonus that you ARE home WITH HER, not out drinking Dew and scarfing pizza while she sits home alone. Be happy to throw down the 'I love you' infront of your friends and I'll wager she'll not only eat it up but want to " :-* bug you :-*" while your gaming. ;DMarried 24 years to a non gamer wife. We can and do get the girl. :-*
That brings up another question...
I am about to move in with my non gamer GF. She is cool and 'loves' my nerdy ways.. But I am afraid the Skype SR game I am about to start may cross over into another dimension.
I'm scared.
That brings up another question...
I am about to move in with my non gamer GF. She is cool and 'loves' my nerdy ways.. But I am afraid the Skype SR game I am about to start may cross over into another dimension.
I'm scared.
No you don't Joker. A non gamer significant other is a bouncing betty minefield waiting to explode in your face. I've had every possible experience including the, wanting to be cuddly just as you're getting ready to go out the door trap! If you go she's mad if you stay your friends are going to bum over you not being there. You just can'twin this one. :P
Trying to find that happy medium is a pain, but IF you can reach it...No you don't Joker. A non gamer significant other is a bouncing betty minefield waiting to explode in your face. I've had every possible experience including the, wanting to be cuddly just as you're getting ready to go out the door trap! If you go she's mad if you stay your friends are going to bum over you not being there. You just can'twin this one. :P
Trust me... compared to soul-crushing loneliness, that sounds wonderful.
No you don't Joker. A non gamer significant other is a bouncing betty minefield waiting to explode in your face. I've had every possible experience including the, wanting to be cuddly just as you're getting ready to go out the door trap! If you go she's mad if you stay your friends are going to bum over you not being there. You just can'twin this one. :P
Other than my mom thinking D&D was Satan's game for awhile I've never had that problem.You are the luckiest person I ever (virtually) met.
Usually it more went like this
Hot Girl: So what are you doing this weekend?
Me: Playing Shadowrun
Hot Girl: Whats that?
Me: Its a story game, kinda like the A-team set in the furture, with robots and stuff
Hot Girl: Whats a story game?
Me: Its like drama class, you sit at a table and act out a role, occasionally your roll some dice to see what happens like a board game but mostly its improv acting
Hot Girl: That sounds fun! Can I play
Me: Let me make a few phone calls, I'll see if we can squeeze another player.
Other than my mom thinking D&D was Satan's game for awhile I've never had that problem.That's kind of how it went when I met my girlfriend.
Usually it more went like this
Hot Girl: So what are you doing this weekend?
Me: Playing Shadowrun
Hot Girl: Whats that?
Me: Its a story game, kinda like the A-team set in the furture, with robots and stuff
Hot Girl: Whats a story game?
Me: Its like drama class, you sit at a table and act out a role, occasionally your roll some dice to see what happens like a board game but mostly its improv acting
Hot Girl: That sounds fun! Can I play
Me: Let me make a few phone calls, I'll see if we can squeeze another player.
Ugh. God why? Ten different colors? Well, at least she probably had fun doing it. Despite what she claimed later.Because she was KENDER. *shrug*
What the hell is a kender?They're like halflings with no sense of tact. Oh, and their compulsive shoplifters/thieves, but they are simply borrowing it, or 'found' the item (usually in your pocket).
Is it bad that this just makes me want to play a Kender? ???What the hell is a kender?They're like halflings with no sense of tact. Oh, and their compulsive shoplifters/thieves, but they are simply borrowing it, or 'found' the item (usually in your pocket).
Ah, it's just easier if you watch this (http://www.youtube.com/user/CreativeJuices7#p/a/u/1/KjBn7M5sDdw)
That makes you a horrible, horrible person.From what she's said of you Doom, I'd pay you money to play one just to watch the others' brains explode. ;D
Not to mention I just could NOT SEE YOU PLAYING A KENDER. They're so... not you. XD
Good tipping must be a gamer trait. I feel guilty if I leave less than 20%.Same here.
I was always the dashing solomnic knight, back in the day, when I played Dragonlance.I've never played an official setting before.
"Est Sularus Oth Mithas" lol
Nobody I knew played it after 3rd edition came out. Same with Greyhawk. I played Forgotten Realms a ton since then, which I like alot too. Haven't gotten a chance to try all the settings, but I'd like to. Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Dark Sun... Theres so many cool ones out there.
Dark Sun did sound interesting from what I've read of it. I may have to look it over a bit more when the local shop gets a copy.
Oh well. I'll just keep on with my weird, broken ass world.
You should check out Eberron. Keith Baker is awesome (creator), and the world is full of intrigue, a magical wasteland that mutates stuff, backstabbing, capitalism (in the form of Dragonmarked Houses), and all sorts of other goodies. Unlike FR, there isn't a bunch of 30th level mages in every town to teleport you to the abyss. If you want a good read, check out the trilogies from Don Basingthewaite (sp?) and the Heirs of Ash trilogy. I'm thinking Don's books are the Legacy of Dhakaan and...don't remember what the other one is. Eberron has Artificers that make a bunch of stuff; there's Warforged (which is kinda like steampunk), A city of towers built miles high that bridges on manifest zones that helps keep it from toppling among a lot of other coolness. Based on what you say you like, I'd give it a look.I like some parts of Eberron and dislike others. I've actually lifted a few of ideas from it (as I have from a lot of other sources) and I really like the artificer class. I think I'm just too committed to by baby now to switch to a pre-made.
Oh, 4E is good for certain styles of play and settings, to be sure. I just don't think it is suitable for Dark Sun, as DS is pretty unheroic, and 4E strives to be heroic and then some.Here Here. When the environment itself is out to kill you the setting is NOT for the weak at heart... OR shining armor! ;D
The hard, ugly, truth, though, is that Einstein, Gates, and Hawkings did stuff with their intellect. Yeah, they're all badass renegade supergenius types who think outside the box or whatever, but...well...they're using it. They're sharing their genius, making lots of money off of it, changing the world.
We're not.
We're rolling dice, playing with toy soldiers, and telling stories with our friends in a basement somewhere.
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.
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.
My girlfreind is ultra hot, and she does not question my gaming. lol.
Did you know in correspondence college courses, you can get credits for having been a DM/GM?Wait, what?
Are you joking?Not a joke. I found that when I was taking correspondence courses from prison.
So how would you go around getting credit for GMing? Is it just a prison thing or can anyone get that?No no no. It's not a prison thing. If you look up Coastline Community College, I think they have a "life experience credits" thing. or you can search life experience credits. I probably shouldn't have mentioned the prison thing...
Heck, you sound like decent folk to me!Thank you 'Jack!!!!
Congrats on the upcoming baby!
Why does PnP Gaming get such a bad wrap?
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I'd like to hear your opinion on this issue.
I also tend to think that with the rise of current video games and MMORPGs tend to overshadow the old fasioned PnP. Lets face it, PnP requires things like...effort, imagination, at least a small amount of social skills, and a bit of patience. And, I hate to say, most teens are so impatient and living in a society of instant gratification that they tend to see PnP as lame. Imagine a head shot? Why, like, when I can watch a head explode while playing the latest Final Grand Theft of the Bio-Assassin's Call XVII: Black Dead Reconing, Fantasy Ops.
8)
I said it before and I'll say it again. Bioware is the only company that has really gotten it right. They started off with the old Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games, graduated to the Knight of the Old Republic series and hit their maturity with Dragon Age and Mass Effect. All those games have great balance between role-playing and combat situations, without losing anything from either. And the stories are awesome as well.
As for RockStar games, the only one I was able to really get into was Arkham Asylum and that's because they did a terrific job of making you feel like you were Batman in that game.
Well, Im no teenager, but who knows, I might actually be below the age average here, so might as well defend them :p :
While what you say has some truth, I could as well generalise about the older generation ranting about how things were so much better back in their day, and that current youths are basically spoiled brats ;D
I think there is nothing wrong with both having high end graphic computer games and PnP. Their niches overlap, but by far not completly. I think the worst problems is not RPGs on the computer or the console, I think the worst problem is how few "pure" RPGs there are anymore there, and how much the genre gets mixed with action genres like FPS. Nothing against those, per se, but... well. Eventually the action elements drone out the actual roleplay and story elements. And that sets expections also for the PnP market, making PnP games, too, ever more action and less story orientated. So, yes, if there is a problem Id say its that.
I like the Mage quote - "What's old is new again."I'm... not sure if you're trying to be ironic there.
Well, i don't think 'kids' are even in the slightest worse when it comes to games these times. We were just like them, only the choice of games was a lot more limited.I'll introduce you to my last gaming group.
Heh. I love to play with 'kids', even if their enthusiasm is a bit too much sometimes. They want to play, love it, and will do a lot more to get a game together than old geezers like my current players. And don't even get me started on the ideas they get sometimes. Absolutely brilliant.
No? Look one post up from mine. That's what i'm answering too. Not trying to be snarky, or anything. I just like the quote, and i feel it describes the problem quite well.Ah.