Are you out of the D&D closet?

[Eosin the Red]

Depends on what you mean -

All of my friends know I game.

As a nurse in a busy hospital, I never find myself willing to even remotly breech the subject of my hobby at work. I will not bring anything vaguely D&Dish into the ICU. I do wear Superman t-shirts to staff meetings and such. Everyone knows I am geekus-maximus and that I have a regularlly scheduled Saturday night event and I don't care who is dying! They can put it togeter if they think hard - but unless we are off hospital grounds I say something to the effect of "come over next week and look at my book shelves."

 

[King_Stannis]

in the closet (mostly) here. if i was single, i'd be totally in the closet - telling a girl you play d&d is probably not the easiest route to a girl's heart. but seeing as i'm married to a cool woman (she's played with us from time to time - until motherhood called), i'm a tad more secure. i don't hide it from my family or close friends, but some friends - the ones that i think wouldn't get past the stigma - i do not.

to everyone else i keep it a closely guarded secret. there's just too much baggage associated with it...every time i see an unwashed loon spouting monty python lines, a little part of me dies.

 

[William Ronald]

I am pretty much in the open although I feel no need to scream from the rooftops.

If a person asks about my hobbies, I mention them. I developed a thick skin against criticism long ago. If someone asks, I mention D&D and politely answer any questions. If someone is a jerk, I still act politely. Fortunately, I have not run into too many religious fanatics. (Is it me, or is this largely a problem with fundamentalist groups who are very literal? Not trying to start a flame war, but I am puzzled at someone thinking that D&D players can summon demons. Yeah, my magical powers have REALLY helped me out.)

I think that the main thing is to be polite and civil if someone asks. Also, we should ignore and even laugh at stereotypes. Heck, the only place I see stereotypical gamers are on bad TV and some conventions.

 

[applenerd]

HOWEVER, now that I am in college (UCLA), I have not told anyone there that I game.

Alright! A fellow Bruin! I would ditch the whole in the closet aspect of gaming though. It kind of sucks to live with secrets like that. I'm assuming the game store you are referring to is the one in Westwood. I'm glad to hear that it's still around. When I graduated there was some question as to whether or not it would survive for much longer...

 

[Ruvion]

Yeah...I game and don't hide my books. Anyone asks I tell them I play games; if they ask specifically what game I play I tell them it's RPGs. I'm also Christian and don't find my hobby to be anything that's construed to be remotely evil... Heck, I advertise the fact to my friends that I was going to go see the Lord of the Rings with my minister...but that's beating a different horse entirely.

 

[Creamsteak]

I'm 17, and a junior in High School. I was once (until freshmen year) an associate with the "cool kids" and I was very often talked about because I insisted I was an alien.

Then I grew out of that and came into DnD.

I do flaunt that I play... greviously. I don't talk about anything but food, sleep, and games (dnd and video games). I'm overly energized about it also. What I have found is that the more I flaunt it the more people end up opening up, and the better we all are.

Thats school however... and is completely different from the rest of the world.

When I talk about it outside of schools I make myself a target. Once, when I was trying to hand out fliers about a DnD group at a local mall, four women accosted me. They really didn't make much sense other than the fact they were fundamentalist's and were horified I gave one of their kids a flier. They called me an evil kid... and I was the bad guy when the security guy came over there and saw four middle aged women and a teenager argueing.

 

[Ulrick]

I used to hide the fact that I played D&D from people back when I was in high school. Because back then it seemed like Anti-D&D was everywhere in my hometown. For those that have read some of my posts from a long while ago, they'd remember me talking about how one of my friend's parents freaked out when they found out he played.

They took him out into the country and made him burned all his books and miniatures in a ditch.

Because of this experience, I usually kept my hobby a secret unless I got to know a person better. This has changed in recent years. I play D&D, that is one of my hobbies. So what?

I've found that the more people keep it a secret, the more people who don't really know what the game is about will think its something bad. People fear the unknown. If you keep the game a secret and therefore unknown, people will keep on fearing the game and the people that play it.

Although I do agree with what was mentioned earlier...it is a little tough to pick up women by telling them you play D&D. And it can be harsh when your girlfriend doesn't like you playing D&D.

I've been in both situations. With the latter, I simply explained to her that played D&D is something I love doing. To forbid me from doing something I love means you cannot accept who I am. Therefore, I threw the ball into her court because it came down to the fact that I wouldn't tolerate my significant other not accepting me for who I am.

She decided to accept me playing....and we broke up about a month later for another unrelated issued (I think).

 

[Creamsteak]

I forgot to mention that I have killed my interest in girls for the sake of video games, and plan on sacrificing the human race for demonic super powers and immortality so that I can further my own development.

And I plan on creating a planet full of apes which I will kill to make a giant rug in the shape of the continent of Asia.

Then I will travel back in time, kidnap Jesus at his cruxifiction and clone hundreds of copies of him to drop randomly into humanities history just to see if they notice.

 

[Grandpa]

I forgot to mention that I have killed my interest in girls for the sake of video games, and plan on sacrificing the human race for demonic super powers and immortality so that I can further my own development.

And I plan on creating a planet full of apes which I will kill to make a giant rug in the shape of the continent of Asia.

Then I will travel back in time, kidnap Jesus at his cruxifiction and clone hundreds of copies of him to drop randomly into humanities history just to see if they notice.

Mind if I tag along? If people get pissed, I'll hold some Mentos and grin.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

creamsteak, i would have loved to be in your position with the women in the mall. I'd play along with them completely, it would be quite hilarious. "Yes, nonbeliever, I AM evil. If your son is lucky, he will come to my flock and learn the dark arts. You and your fellow infidels will pay the price soon enough."

That'd be funny, though it certainly wouldn't help the gaming image much... I'd probably do just what you did and argue though. Ignorant people PISS me off to no end, and I have an extremely low tolerance level for them.