Campbell
Relaxed Intensity
In this thread I had an immediate and visceral reaction when another poster conflated the games I like most - stuff like Apocalypse World, Burning Wheel, and Don't Rest Your Head with the play style of Vampire - The Masquerade. I had an almost violent need to say "We're not them and they are not us". A certain amount of clarification is helpful, but at times I definitely crossed some lines.
What it really brought to my mind is the way I feel the need not to just define myself as part of the role playing community, but a specific part of that community and go to bat for it as it were. To me this seems like the stuff of identity politics. Like it's not enough to say we play role playing games, but there seems to be a certain desire to cut ourselves off from other parts of the community. After all they don't like exactly the same sort of games I like and therefore their opinions about stuff doesn't really matter.
This is something I kind of struggle with. I mean I like different sorts of role playing games, but like being associated with a game I didn't like made me a little angry. I'm not really sure what to make of that. I just kind of wanted to get it off my chest.
What do you think? Do we as a community subdivide ourselves too much? Am I thinking too hard about stuff because I had half a day today and not much to do?
What it really brought to my mind is the way I feel the need not to just define myself as part of the role playing community, but a specific part of that community and go to bat for it as it were. To me this seems like the stuff of identity politics. Like it's not enough to say we play role playing games, but there seems to be a certain desire to cut ourselves off from other parts of the community. After all they don't like exactly the same sort of games I like and therefore their opinions about stuff doesn't really matter.
This is something I kind of struggle with. I mean I like different sorts of role playing games, but like being associated with a game I didn't like made me a little angry. I'm not really sure what to make of that. I just kind of wanted to get it off my chest.
What do you think? Do we as a community subdivide ourselves too much? Am I thinking too hard about stuff because I had half a day today and not much to do?