Proposed: Adopt a "normal" person

[nedjer]

Turns out the dates weren't so out of the ordinary after all

Myveryworstdate.com

 

[Olli]

well, i adopt my Girlfriends regulary. It´s not that they have much choice, you come in my cave, and the first thing you see are a picture of my son and the gorgeous Greyhawkmap from Dungeon.

Then you go further into my sleepingroom and you come across a large bookshelve with "strange tomes" (tm). (Thats how they almost all reffered to the various rulebooks and supplements)

so i think hiding that you are a nerd will hurt you in the long run!!!

I´m a nerd, and I´m proud of it. Oh, and I have enough other hobbies and activities to be able to hurt anybody who tries to bully me

 

[Achan hiArusa]

There is no honor amongst nerds.

 

[Alzrius]

Here's another response to that whole debacle:

Speak Out With Your Geek Out

 

[Pentius]

It seems to me that "make them watch" and "better social skills than them" are mutually exclusive.

I hope folks can see the difference there - "make them watch" and "invite them to see" are quite thoroughly different things, at least to my mind.

What if you were, like, a really charming kidnapper? They come because you grabbed them off the street and tied them up, but they stay because of your witty banter and winning smile(and also the ropes)?

Just look at the derision anybody who admits to being a furry gets.

Hey, I can't help it if my hobby of pretending to be a blue, magic elf is just way better than pretending to be a blue, magic giraffe-person. Just like I can't help it when my preference for throwing a large orange ball through a hoop is morally superior to hitting a small white ball with a bat.

 

[talien]

The National RPG Examiner has examined this story in detail, across several articles.

What I found most interesting (and for the life of me, I can't recall where I read it, since it doesn't seem to be in the Examiner's articles) is the allegation that she knew exactly how she was coming across when she wrote this, and posted it on a place where it was likely to cause maximum offense, because she gets paid by the number of hits the article gets.

To quote whatever blog I remembered reading that in, "she's crying all the way to the bank," as the original article on Gizmodo got over 500,000 hits.

Thanks for the shout-out Alzrius.

It was Forbes: The Science of Gawker's Nerd Baiting - Forbes

By my estimates, she's made several thousand dollars off of that post, if it's comparable to what Examiner pays (and Examiner is hardly the highest paying site).

 

[Walking Paradox]

There's nothing in the Forbes article that says how much they pay per hit.

 

[the Jester]

I am not suggesting proselytizing. I am suggesting you just make them watch us do what we do so that they can see that we are normal people who, in all likelihood, have better social skills than them.

"Making people" do anything is a great way to alienate them.

Instead, how about acknowledging that some people are jerks and choosing wisely who you hang around with?

 

[Jack7]

Do the majority of gamers tell everyone about their hobby or does it "stay in the closet"?

I could care less either way. I never hide what I do, nor do I suppress it. Nor do I give a flying rainbow carp what anyone alive thinks of my activities, interests, and opinions as long as I am not actively harming someone.

Nor do I care what others do or think as long as they aren't actively harming others, or encouraging harm on others.

I am often told I have a "you don't give a crap attitude." (And that I'm mostly emotionless, which isn't true, I just don't believe in emotions guiding your actions. Emotions can be good motivators, they are very poor administrators. Good servants, lousy Leaders.)

I don't give a crap and truth be told I find it kinda incredible that anyone else would care what anyone thought about them or what they did as long as they weren't harming others. With all of the possible interesting things to do in life, I can't see being either ashamed of, or overly proud of what I'm doing, as I'm not concerned about the opinions of others, nor am I under any illusions that many of the things I do can't be done better by someone else.

On the other hand I don't mind people joking about what I do, or what others do. I think most people are usually far too sensitive nowadays.

So if someone else makes a joke at my expense, or at the expense of what I do, so what? It's justa joke to me. And if I joke about others, then I'm not belittling them, just making a joke.

But I don't care about other people's opinions, joking or not. They have them and I respect that. But they don't influence me. Unless they can prove that their opinion is actually right. Then they do influence me.

And I don't much care about my own opinions either. I know I have them but I'm more concerned with whether my opinions are right or wrong, than if they're my opinions. Cause I know so many of my opinions have changed over time, so I'm not attached to them, and I realize that others will have one opinion one day, and another at another point in their lives. So, that's life.

Also I wasn't raised in a generation (or an area of the world) that was taught to be overly sensitive about either your own or other people's opinions. They were just opinions. They come and they go and they're not attached at the hip to your soul, they're just opinions. And a lot of people nowadays think that if they get their feelings hurt they've suffered some kinda real harm or something. To me that's silly. Shot, stabbed, beaten, murdered, that's harm. Malicious slander, libels, wrongly accused of something. Stuff like that is real harm. Feelings and opinions, that's just part of the business of being human. It ain't terminal. (Though I don't think you should go out of your way to purposely offend others either, if you can help it. It's ungentlemanly.)

So I don't get too worked up about either opinions or feelings. Mine or anyone else's.

I guess that's why I don't care who knows what about me either way. Short of harming others maliciously, and I try to always avoid that.

I have kept things secret, out of necessity, like in dangerous situations. But otherwise, I don't care.

That's my opinion on these things. I hope I didn't offend anyone by saying that but if I did then I didn't mean to and we'll both live through it okay. Besides I'm not changing just because someone is offended by me. Tough luck. Then again I'm not bothered or offended that anyone else is the way they are either, short of the "inflicting harm" caveat. If I don't cotton to their particular lifestyle, and sometimes I don't, well, that's my tough luck. And often my disagreements with them don't mean I can't be friends with them either. It just means we don't always agree.

But to me I wouldn't sweat the fact that some chick on the internet didn't dig some fella cause he's a Geek, or plays games (or whatever). Or even tries to hound him over it. There's a billion fish in the sea at any given time. And a lot of room to swim around. Somebody somewhere, sooner or later, will like you as you're built. As you truly are. That's life too.

Besides one day this girl (assuming she even told the truth in her post) may find some Geek or Nerd and fall head over heels. So it might not matter to her then. Much stranger things have happened. I've seen a few in my day.

So there are no closets for me. Short of the ones that house the necessary and real secrets.

Well, I'm gonna go watch Thundercats with my kids. Yeah, I like it. So sue me, I don't care.

 

[haakon1]

Well, I'm gonna go watch Thundercats with my kids.

Snarf snarf snarf.