Despite my previous post, I will respond to these because I believe they have become somewhat personal attacks (at least one in particular).
Ok, so if it's in my own best interests to watch a wide variety of movies, what are the minimum number of movies I should watch per year for good mental health, and how many different genres should I watch? If I only watch four movies a year, will that be unhealthy? Should I be watching a minimum of eight movies a year, across a minimum of four genres? How do you arrive at the numbers you've chosen, and what dire perils will I face if I choose to watch (shock horror!) zero movies?
I probably didn't do a good job of explaining that my higher goal here is about diversity. If we restrict ourselves to a single point of view, there is a danger to that. People have latched on to my use of "unhealthy" as somehow me declaring mental unhealth.
It is unhealthy from the point of view that it means a person can become stuck in only one point of view. You say later about strawman attacks, well, the mental health claim is one, and so is some kind of claim of quantification. Ideally, it'd be great if everyone had a PhD, or heck if everyone could go to college or a trade school. So should we suggest that "well, i can't afford college or trade school", so I may as well not bother reading anything at all. My point isn't that we should all get PhD's (from your example, watch X number of movies), but that we should expand our horizons. We should try to get out of our comfort zones once in awhile
Yet again, this is you arrogantly deciding you speak for everyone and telling us all what roleplaying can and does mean to us. You simply don't have that right, and I find it deeply disturbing that you genuinely feel that you think you can tell me that I would be better off if I treated roleplaying as "a way of life". I love sport, but I am deeply disturbed about people who live vicariously through the teams they follow, to the point that they allow success in a game they are merely watching to dramatically impact their everyday lives. That's what's unhealthy, not the ability to understand it's just a game.
Notice my original quote:
"Entertainment can be a rather large source of learning and even a sense of identity. I would argue that roleplaying isn't just entertainment, it's a hobby, perhaps even a kind of way of life
for some with our own subculture and in-jokes"
Did you read the
"for some" part? No, I am guessing you didn't even though you quoted me. So do you still want to claim I am arrogant for assuming that this is the experience of all people in the hobby?
I am pointing out that some do feel this way. If you are not this way, more power to you. While I credit roleplaying with shaping a lot of who I am today, it is not a huge part of my life anymore. I probably spend 90% of my hobbytime with software engineering now. I'm actually with you about identifying too strongly with a hobby (or team). And indeed, that's one of my arguments about trying new game systems and genres, so as to minimize over identification.
This is a what's known as a strawman. At no point have I suggested that anyone should preventing other people from playing the games they wanted to.
My apologies, this comment was meant to be for everyone in general, not to you specifically. Sometimes when I directly quote from another, I forget about that, and make more generalized comments for other readers of the thread.
However, based on your comments to this point, I find it not at all surprising that you would consider it unfair if a gaming group didn't bow to your demands to play a game that only you were interested in. "If I want to play Chasms and Chimeras, but my friends don't want to, it's totally unfair and they're bad, unhealthy people who should cater to my needs and preferences before any of their own. I shouldn't have to confirm to them, the should conform to me. But it's not out of selfishness that I want this. It's for their own good!"
Interesting. I didn't say groups must acquiesce to other players who want to try another game. I do think a considerate group would be willing to accomodate others. I should consider myself very fortunate that the gaming groups I played with were all very much into trying new systems and settings. If this is the kind of reaction that gamers in monogaming groups have to deal with, then I do feel sorry for them.
I do find it quite fascinating how much of a nerve I touched though.
I saw this after my last post.
