Gaming Pride / Gaming Shame

[Arkhandus]

While I don't go around with a big sign or t-shirt saying "I love D&D!" or something, I don't hide my gaming hobby either. (I couldn't afford a cool D&D shirt anyway) -_- I haven't been asked before about hobbies, but I would mention D&D as one of them if somebody did ask.

At least a few in my family are vaguely aware that I play D&D, but the fact that I'm not very talkative in the first place (and my family's too boring to be worth talking to very much) is the only reason it's not totally obvious. But my D&D books are right next to my TV and video games, underneath the shelves of my minis, near the short stacks of D&D/BattleTech/miscellaneous novels I've read but haven't gotten around to finding a place for yet, just across the room from my boxes of Magic: The Gathering cards and my Gundam models....so it's easy to see my nerdity just by looking at my room, and I don't try to keep folks outta there, they walk in all the time to ask me something or mention when dinner's ready or whatever.

I'm occasionally checking rules in a D&D book in the living room when other folks are home, since I like to pace around while I'm thinking. I've mentioned the game once in a while, but not often, because nobody in my house would be the least bit interested in talking about it. Just as I don't have any interest in the boring stuff my family talks about. -_-

I've brought D&D books on occasion when going to visit relatives, to read some stuff and work on campaign material or whatnot when I'm bored, and I just sit right in the living room or wherever while I read and write. If not for the fact that I know none of my relatives, not even my cousins, would have any interest in a game like D&D, I would've tried to wrangle them into playing D&D with me sometime. ^_^

 

[Carnivorous_Bean]

I don't go out of my way to advertise it, but I don't care about revealing it if it comes up in conversation. Then again, I don't share my life story with many people anyway, so it's fairly rare for it come up anyway.

That said, I've gotten more harassment and sneers from people for being a Christian than for being a gamer. This was especially true in college, where refusing drugs on grounds of personal morality was viewed with particular indignation by those who were seeking my participation in their hijinks.

 

[TGryph]

I tend to hide it socially. I'm really not comfortable talking about it to non-gamers, even if I never was teased because of this hobby. I still consider D&D as incredibly nerdy, and maybe I'm being elitist in a weird way, but "normal people don't want nothing to do with D&D".

My stuff is not hidden at home (my minis and books are on shelves in my study), but even if people ask me about it, I'm a very reluctant talker. "It's a game, you wouldn't be interested".

Eh. I don't know where all of this comes from.

AR

Same here, but I think my reluctance comes from the James Dallas Egbert Fiasco that happened right after I started playing. Plus, being from Michigan, we were in the backyard of that nutjob who started the old BADD thing.

TGryph

 

[T-Bone JiuJitsu]

I hide it from people who are not gamers, even strangers.

I often take a D&D books or module with me to lunch at various fast food type places, but always have a big tablet or "Normal" magazine to hide it from prying eyes. If I'm reading a page that has a big picture of a monster or something "nerdy" I put a napkin or piece of paper over it so someone walking by doesn't know what I'm reading.

I have worked with some of my gamer friends at various places, places where D&D should not be talked about (IMO), and have cringed when they have openly asked me loudly in front of others "are we still playing D&D this tuesday?"

Why? Because people can be VERY judgemental. And D&D has a bad rap. Most non-gamers think people that play D&D are "Wierd" "Nerds" "Socially inept" "immature" etc. and honestly, in many cases, they are right. It only takes a couple visits to the local game store or convention to figure that out. Sorry if that offends anyone, but lets face it, D&D attracts some strange people sometimes. I've met alot of great people as well thru gaming, but the perception of "wierdness" by the general public is still strong.

 

[Pepster]

I guess the older I get, the less I care what people think of me.

I wear t-shirts for conventions and games to work, and the only comments I've gotten so far is about the flying panther artwork found on ConCarolinas shirts. One day a coworker dropped some gamer lingo on me, revealing his participation in the gamer world.

I will say however that I haven't gotten the nerve to wear my shirt with the big d20 and "That's how I roll" on it to work.

Pepster

 

[jasin]

I recently had to list my hobbies for a company newsletter presentation of new employees.

I mentioned "roleplaying games" and I have a sneaking suspicion that the hot HR chick does the article actually knew I meant P&P roleplaying, since she edited it to "roleplaying", but D&D is much more obscure over here. I think if you said "I play roleplaying games" to a random sample of people here, you'd get

70% "What?"
10% "What, video games?"
10% "What, video games, like Oblivion or World of Warcraft?"
10% Some knowledge of pen & paper roleplaying

So I mostly don't mention it, primarily because people don't know anything about it, and I find it very difficult to explain without sounding silly.

 

[WayneLigon]

Considering how many people here are in the closet, does that make us the new gay? Maybe we need a pride parade...

Done

 

[Gothmog]

I used to be more quiet about my gaming habits, having grown up in the buckle of the Bible belt and dealt with some intolerance. Mostly from the whacked-out Bible thumpers who had no idea what they were talking about, but sometimes from "normals" as well. However, that pretty much vanished around here in the early 90s. When I got into college, I was open about my gaming habits, and I met a lot of people who had never gamed before but who were interested or intrigued by gaming and gave it a shot with me. Probably 75% of them stuck with it for quite a while, and several people I still game with are ones I "converted".

My free time for gaming dwindled a lot when I was in grad and medical school, but I was still open about it. I'd come into lab with a game book to read during down times in my experiments, and my advisor was curious about it, so I ran a short solo adventure for him one afternoon. His response: "If this had been around when I was a kid, I would have been obsessed with it!"

Since graduating with my PhD/MD in Neuroscience, I've never hidden it. I work as a professor at a university now, and I pretty routinely surf ENWorld in my office, have gaming books out, and sometimes I'm even paining minis on slow Thursday afternoons (and yes, I still get all my work done). Nobody cares, and a LOT of students seem intrigued by it. I don't mind being labeled a nerd- its who I am. In fact, I'm a full-on, self-professed NERD. Heck, I wear Mythbusters t-shirts to teach classes, and when students have downtime, they sometimes visit my office to watch DVDs I have of Futurama, Mythbusters, Venture Bros., etc. Some students are surprised I am a nerd (I guess I don't look like it), but once they know, they tease me about it in a nice way, and think its cool. And even though its not surprising to many folks, science profs are pretty much ALL nerds, each in their own way. I don't get any flack over it at all.

 

[EricNoah]

Today as I was setting up a Facebook profile, I struggled with this very issue. When I figured out that no one but my invited friends and family will see that stuff I decided I didn't have much to worry about.

As a public school employee, I do have a low-grade worry in the back of my head during the school year that some parent is going to flip out over the fact that their kid's librarian likes D&D.

 

[Adlon]

Ever have this conversation?


.. 'I play D&D'....

........'Whats that?...

..'Role Playing Game' ...

........'That on the computer?' ...

..'Umm..........Yeah' ...

........'Oh'......


Conversation over .....