The Elfish Gene - Another attack on gamers

[airwalkrr]

And yet, no one seems to have a problem with:

-I want to cast magic missile!
-Why are you casting magic missile? There's nothing to attack here.
-I'm attacking the darkness!

Everyone I know thinks that short is hilarious, and it is far from flattering. Why is this any different?

 

[Raloc]

Humorous books about gamers are great... when they're actually funny. Of course you can't judge a book by its cover (esp when no cover image is available), and humor is often in the ear of the beholder, but the blurb for the book makes it sound horribly unfunny. Chalk me up as "not interested". I'll watch Mazes & Monsters again, thank you very much.

For real gamer humor, I much prefer Knights of the Dinner Table and Order of the Stick.

Later!
Ozmar the Humor Afficionado

I remember the first time I saw Mazes & Monsters (this was after I'd started playing D&D and DMing, and even then I wasn't to be swayed by anyone's BS). Anyway, I recall that I saw it listed in the guide but didn't have any information about it. So I go in thinking it's going to be a normal style movie, possibly with some RPGness about it. The first bits confirm this, then came the ENDING and I'm sitting there WTH? I think after that I went reading about the movie and associated propaganda by nutter religious zealots. Meh.

Also: KoDT is great.

I have never understood why some gamers care if the game is popular or dies. I have the core rules, I have the ability to bring non-gamers into my gaming group. If WOTC ceases tomorrow we will keep playing. If the hobby dies with us, that's ok. I don't see a lot of people throwing Tali dice around these days either.*

*Unless they're playing FVLMINATA of course!

Even without any books you could recreate a semblance of rules that would work fine for D&D style roleplaying. As far as the hobby dying out, I figure any of the 20-40+ aged RPers that haven't yet had kids should do, and basically force them to play "If you want food, you'll roleplay, by gum!"

 

[S'mon]

4. I lied about there being three thoughts; Coventry is a grim place. Playing D&D to escape from it when you're stuck in your teens sounds like great advice.

I'll second that. Coventry really sucks*; a bit of escapism is entirely understandable!

*At least I thought so, moving there from the bright lights & glamour of fabulous Sheffield...

 

[Mark Chance]

Let him make fun of the community. We do take ourselves too seriously at times...

Case in point:

...There may be young gamers but not enough to replace the old timers like me.

The only glimmer of hope is from gamers of my generation introducing their kids, nephews and nieces to the hobby. That could be D&D's salvation. WotC should do more to target parents as DMs and kids as players instead of assuming that both DM and players will be of the same age/level of exposure to D&D.

Books such as The Elfish Gene won't help to bring teens into the fold but it won't impact kids who are too young to understand what 'uncoolness' or 'geekyness' are.

:\

 

[Darklone]

Hello
Mark Barrowcliffe here, I wrote The Elfish Gene.
...
Much of the book stands up for RPGs. Of course, I do give the myths that D&D leads to the occult or that it involves casting spells a good kick in the head.

Welcome to the boards and enjoy your stay... but be careful, you might get addicted. Again.

Anyway, if anyone has any idea where I could post a few sample chapters I'd be grateful. I think then you'll see that this is no different in intent to a lot of comic biographies on golf, chess, football, whatever. And mods, I don't think this breaks any rules on advertising as I'm replying to an established thread. If it does, er, sorry.

Just post them in the storyhour section with a good header that it's about your book. People will love to read it.

PS: I am no mod, so if it's not allowed here what would surprise me... send me a cookie.

 

[Zander]

Hello
Mark Barrowcliffe here, I wrote The Elfish Gene.
The blurb on Amazon was not written by me, in fact it was written by someone who has since left my publishers. I'm getting it changed.
My intention in writing this book wasn't to attack gamers at all.

As the OPer, I'm glad to hear that you're changing the blurb and that your book isn't an attck on gamers.

I was a gamer and still hold a great deal of affection for that period of my life, something that comes over in the book.

Once a gamer, always a gamer. You may have forgotten how much fun it can be. You should take it up again. If you're in London, check out the London D&D Meetup. We game every Saturday afternoon at a pub near Elephant & Castle. We would be delighted to have you along.

BTW you should get your publishers to get a stand at UK GenCon in Reading in late August/early September. I'm sure you'd shift shed-loads of your book! Maybe you can get yourself invited as a guest. If not, there's always Dragonmeet in London in early December. I know the guy who runs that convention and might be able to work something out for you. Let me know.

And I'm planning on buying a copy of your book as soon as it comes out in April.

 

[Darklone]

Now you're going to ruin his detox, Zander

 

[Nightfall]

Mark,

Good find!

*isn't worried about finding new, younger gamers* It's the older ones I'm having trouble finding!

 

[houndstooth]

Elfish Gene

If anyone's interested I've just posted a bmp of the book cover. along with a blurb on the media forum,

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

We have a review of The Elfish Gene and an interview with the author Mark Barrowcliffe in Yog Radio #33

Paul