Gaming Pride / Gaming Shame

[jmucchiello]

Why is this? Because I don't want to be defined by D&D. It's something I do, not something I am, if that makes sense.

Wait, with 15,000+ posts on this message board alone you can still feel that gaming only something you do, not what you are? Okay, I'll accept it if that's what you say you feel. (I can't argue with what you feel, obviously.) But I am surprised nonetheless.

I will mention that I play D&D without hesitation but given the number of hobbies I have, it's not always part of a first-meet situation.

 

[Shroomy]

Nah, I don't bother to hide it anymore, in fact, I'm quite open about it, though I did hide it from fiancee until the first time she came over to my apartment.

 

[RFisher]

Ever have this conversation?

I play role-playing games...you know...like D&D.

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

Dungeons & Dragons

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

Nope. Face-to-face. Pencils, paper, & dice.

At that point there’s a 50/50 chance of conversation over or...they’re actually intrigued and ask more about it.

By the way, I’m constantly amazed at the number of people who don’t recognize the name Dungeons & Dragons. Forget it having a bad rep; it’s like somewhere in the ’90s something wiped it from the memories of half the population.

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

Wait, with 15,000+ posts on this message board alone you can still feel that gaming only something you do, not what you are? Okay, I'll accept it if that's what you say you feel. (I can't argue with what you feel, obviously.) But I am surprised nonetheless.

I spend 40 hours a week basically being a bitch for six people. I don't feel I am a bitch, it's just something I do.

Just because someone spends a fair amount of time (or time and effort) at something doesn't mean that they also derive self-identity from it.

I've spent 20 years playing and running rpgs, and I don't consider myself a "gamer". There's a number of reasons for that, and one of them is that rpgs (D&D and others) is just one thing among many others that I happen to do.

 

[Tetsubo]

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.

Eric - Librarians are already suspect. They can *read*.

 

[Jack99]

I used to think that I was too cool for DND, so I never really talked about it with outsiders while at the University. At some point I realized that I really didn't care anymore, so I no longer hide what I do.

"So, what do you do?" (Co-worker)

I play DND (me)

What is that? (Another Co-worker)

Well, me and a bunch of friends get together every wednesday and sacrifize live goats and such (me)

After that, they never asked again.

 

[Nifft]

Wait, with 15,000+ posts on this message board alone you can still feel that gaming only something you do, not what you are?

Being a chatty S.O.B., however, is something I am.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Nifft]

EDIT: Double-posting is merely something I do.

 

[jmucchiello]

No, you are a double-poster. (Explains the post count...)

I guess my sense of self doesn't recoil when I say I am a gamer, a writer, a computer programmer, a musician, a father, a husband, or any of the other activities I do where there is a being noun.

How about this question? What would have to change about you for you go from "gaming being something you do" to "gamer being something you are"? I'm truly failing to see the distinction from any of us who hang out on boards like this. What is missing that keeps you from becoming a gamer?

 

[Nifft]

I guess my sense of self doesn't recoil when I say I am a gamer, a writer, a computer programmer, a musician, a father, a husband, or any of the other activities I do where there is a being noun.

How about this question? What would have to change about you for you go from "gaming being something you do" to "gamer being something you are"? I'm truly failing to see the distinction from any of us who hang out on boards like this. What is missing that keeps you from becoming a gamer?

Irrelevant. It's not my sense of self that I'm trying to preserve: it's other people's perceptions of me. I don't advertise gaming because it's not how I want to be identified in other people's minds.

Hope that explains it.

Cheers, -- N