Are you in the RPG closet?

[francisca]

It simply is not for normal people. If you play D&D you are not normal, period.

It doesn't matter if you pretend to do normal things.

We must all be normal and conform to the one true way of being normal.

Whatever that means.

Really.

 

[Cyronax]

It simply is not for normal people. If you play D&D you are not normal, period.

It doesn't matter if you pretend to do normal things.

We must all be normal and conform to the one true way of being normal.

Whatever that means.

If D&D isn't normal, then why does its influence permeate much of American culture?

I mean just watch Freaks and Geeks.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJAGxAeV7YU]YouTube - Freaks and Geeks - Carlos the Dwarf[/ame]

You have a big time producer and network like Judd Apatow and NBC placing up and coming young stars playing D&D. The characters in that series are supposed to be, as the title implies, Freaks and Geeks who have mild difficulties with social lives. Ironically they tend to do pretty well here and there.

The game of D&D is as mainstream as Harry Potter.

Do you know how many well adjusted 'normal' girls I know who read Harry Potter? Or the New Moon/Twilight (crap ... cough ... crap)?

The former is pretty well accepted and lauded, while the latter is sometimes made fun of and ridiculed as teeny bopper.

Anyway, my point is D&D tends to fall into the New Moon/Twilight category. Its perceived by some as a guilty and pretty geeky pleasure. Yes and people make fun of the couch potato stereotype of all gamers -- but how many hobbies have that connotation nowadays? It used to also be seen as bordering on paganistic, but that's fallen by the way side by and large (not completely ... I know there are still a few bad mouths).

Hell and Robin Williams openly plays it:

And whatever is good for Robin Williams is good for me.

C.I.D.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Y'know, if you're going to post a picture in the middle of your Robin Williams commentary, it should be of Robin Williams.

Vin Diesel is the exact opposite of Robin Williams:

1. One is a hairy ape of a man, one is virtually hairless
2. One is a comedian, one is unintentionally funny
3. One makes a wide variety of movies, one is almost exclusively an action film star

Or are you implying Vin Diesel is actually Robin William's LARP identity?

 

[Cyronax]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36_-DauQi0s]YouTube - Vin Diesel on Dungeons and Dragons[/ame]

 

[francisca]

If you don't know what normal means, how can you be certain who is and who isn't? Who makes that determination? If you don't want to self-identify as "normal", which appears to be a loaded pejorative for you, that's fine. But don't assume that you're speaking universal truth, because a lot of us don't see it that way. Many gamers, in fact, have spent decades fighting that very notion very publicly.

I've come to the conclusion that Diamond Cross is either a very adept troll, or his diatribe about "normal" is a cry for help.

I really hope it is the former.

Whatever the case, I'm out of here on this discussion, as clearly, he has his opinion and is not willing to entertain another viewpoint.

You win, Diamond Cross. Roleplayers are not normal, just keep telling yourself that, while I go back and pretend to live a "normal" life.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yeessss...more Vin Diesel stuff.

Why the Vin Diesel images with the "Robin Williams" text?

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I don't hide anything to be hiding it, but I'm not the type to talk about any of my preferences or hobbies unasked--or for that matter, more serious topics.

Fear has nothing to do with it. To prove it, I will proclaim here that I really enjoy ... country music. I'm listing to the Dierks Bentley "Up on the Ridge" album as I type this. If I'll say that here, you can bet that I have no particular aversion to mentioning roleplaying games elsewhere.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I think there are some scifi/fantasy fans and gamers who like to hold onto the notion that only unusual people or outcasts like scifi/fantasy/gaming. It's a way to feel special, I guess, and I'm not saying that to be insulting. Who doesn't want to feel they're outside the norm in some way, forging one's way somewhere off the beaten path? Who doesn't want to think that perhaps one has secret knowledge or unique social networks? The reality is that we are all both unique and the same, manifesting conformity and diversity. It's what makes us human.

 

[Obryn]

Sheesh. I used to do fake swordfighting a few times a week, where I hit people with padded weapons really hard and shield bashed them over.

I wasn't in the closet with that. Compared to that, gaming is small potatoes.

I'm not hugely vocal about it at work, but I don't hide it either. I prep for my games in the cafeteria and talk about it if asked (usually along the lines of, 'is that like world of warcraft?') ...

My covert advertisement letting the initiated know that I'm a fellow gamer is a little statue of Cthulhu that peers out over my wall. I met three gamers a week after I put that guy up; one even added another Cthulhu right next to him.

-O

 

[Odhanan]

Well, it deflects attention from his wrongful assertion that D&D isn't for us "normal" people.

Absolutely.