D&D 5E Mearls' "Firing" tweet

Parmandur · Jan 23, 2018

Some follow-up Tweets from [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION]:

So, if you are a rules or lore expert and do not want to be a gatekeeper, what do you do? My experience is that it helps to take a mentoring mindset, rather than coaching. Here’s a starting point: https://t.co/8uOHFnGmBZ

The key to mentoring is allowing the newcomer to remain the focus. Ask lots of questions. Focus on what the newbie wants. A coaching mindset is more goal or standards oriented. Mentoring is about the journey, while coaching is about achieving a specific outcome.

Mistwell · Jan 23, 2018

Parmandur said:
I don't have any numbers, but hey, Mearls does. It wouldn't surprise me, again note the "gatekeeping" aspect.

Sent from my [device_name] using EN World mobile app

Show me the survey questions WOTC has ever used which measured ones preferences for gatekeeping by use of rules, and one's attitudes towards women and gaming. As far as I know, there have never been such survey questions.

There is nothing inherently objectionable about people who like rules that serve as a gatekeeping device. Nor is there any connection between people who have that particular interest, and those who have issues with women in gaming. There are games built just to be incredibly complex as a means of gatekeeping the game (mostly board games). There are even groups, like MENSA, who tend to love those games. There are also novels and non-fiction works whose entire appeal is to serve as a gatekeeping method for a certain level of education or knowledge. It's definitely not for everyone, and it's not my personal preference, but some people really like those kinds of things.

And there is no link at all that I know of between having that personal preference for gatekeeping in rules, and ones attitudes towards gender and gatekeeping women from gaming.

Kobold Boots · Jan 23, 2018

1. Morrus has already closed one thread about Kate due to general jerkdom. Lets not create another by co-opting this thread with the same stupidity.
2. Mearls is annoyed at the reaction the hire has gotten. He should be. I would be. I don't think anyone rational wouldn't be.
3. Players are not the best judge of what a designer is or isn't. That's why designers hire designers and why players remain players.
4. When Mearls or a designer tells you exactly how to play because it's the "one true way", then get bent all you wish to. You'll be right.

Easy to judge Mearls on one bad tweet due to being angry in front of a keyboard, but all you have to do is look at a history of any of our posts here and we've all done the same exact thing at least once and regretted it later.

Advice I'd give him is to get outside and breathe before tweeting. Same for anyone here.

Be well
KB

EDIT - NVM he's still tweeting silly things, have at him.

Mistwell · Jan 23, 2018

ad_hoc said:
It's not about having complexity in the rules.

It is using rules as an excuse to berate women. It's not the rules or the complexity thereof that is the problem.

Also see: Mansplaining

You are conflating two issues. One can enjoy gatekeeping in rules and have no issues at all with women in gaming. One can in fact be a woman who loves rules which serve as a gatekeeping device. He did not say people use the rules as an excuse to berate women, and if that is what he meant then my point is pretty darn well supported when I say he said it poorly. Rules Gatekeeping is not, in any way, defined as berating people, or directed at a specific gender. There are a whole series of things in certain subcultures which are all about a form of gatekeeping which has no relationship whatsoever to gender issues.

Show me a relationship between "I like gatekeeping by rules of a game" and "I have issues with women in gaming". I think people are assuming it exists based on poor assumptions and zero evidence.

Parmandur · Jan 23, 2018

Mistwell said:
You are conflating two issues. One can enjoy gatekeeping in rules and have no issues at all with women in gaming. One can in fact be a woman who loves rules which serve as a gatekeeping device. He did not say people use the rules as an excuse to berate women, and if that is what he meant then my point is pretty darn well supported when I say he said it poorly. Rules Gatekeeping is not, in any way, defined as berating people, or directed at a specific gender. There are a whole series of things in certain subcultures which are all about a form of gatekeeping which has no relationship whatsoever to gender issues.

Show me a relationship between "I like gatekeeping by rules of a game" and "I have issues with women in gaming". I think people are assuming it exists based on poor assumptions and zero evidence.

He appears less to have been making a general statement, and more pointing out that many of the folks making a stink over Welch being hired are the exact same folks who have been hounding Mearls & Co. to make 5E more of a gate kept game than it is or will be. See no reason to doubt his experience since dealing with these same folks in social media is something he has been doing for years.

Sent from my [device_name] using EN World mobile app

77IM · Jan 23, 2018

[MENTION=2525]Mistwell[/MENTION]: I don't think the word "gatekeeping" means the same thing to you that it does to me.

FlyingChihuahua · Jan 23, 2018

Mistwell said:
You are conflating two issues. One can enjoy gatekeeping in rules and have no issues at all with women in gaming. One can in fact be a woman who loves rules which serve as a gatekeeping device. He did not say people use the rules as an excuse to berate women, and if that is what he meant then my point is pretty darn well supported when I say he said it poorly. Rules Gatekeeping is not, in any way, defined as berating people, or directed at a specific gender. There are a whole series of things in certain subcultures which are all about a form of gatekeeping which has no relationship whatsoever to gender issues.

Show me a relationship between "I like gatekeeping by rules of a game" and "I have issues with women in gaming". I think people are assuming it exists based on poor assumptions and zero evidence.

I feel like with the stuff you're posting, you have neither seen or experienced gatekeeping.

Parmandur · Jan 23, 2018

77IM said:
I don't think the word "gatekeeping" means the same thing to you that it does to me.

Mearls seems to be meaning using complex rules mastery and minute lore knowledge as weapons to keep the hobby small and insular. Which is precisely opposite of the design goals of 5E.

Sent from my [device_name] using EN World mobile app

Hussar · Jan 23, 2018

People honestly think there’s no such thing as gender equality issues when a simple hiring generates this kind of fitshorm?

Yeah right.

Sent from my iPhone using EN World

ad_hoc · Jan 23, 2018

Parmandur said:
Mearls seems to be meaning using complex rules mastery and minute lore knowledge as weapons to keep the hobby small and insular. Which is precisely opposite of the design goals of 5E.

Sent from my [device_name] using EN World mobile app

Yep.

It goes something like this:

"Oh you're a gamer eh? You like D&D? Well who was the king of the dwarves in the Forgotten Realms in DR 1050? Oh you don't know? Fake gamer girl."

This happens.

In the Kate Welch thread someone even said that she has probably never DM'd a game so shouldn't be hired as a designer. That assumption is unlikely to be made to a man who is known to play and like D&D and was just hired as a designer for D&D. This is being said of a prominent lover of D&D, just think about the barrage that women must face in a typical gaming environment.