D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

[Faolyn]

My kids (a son and a daughter) did both, but that doesn't mean the current terms don't have a potentially inflammatory meaning. Why do that when you don't have to?

And I never said "cops and robbers" shouldn't be replaced, just that princess play probably isn't the least inflammatory substitute.

Especially when "play pretend" does the job just as well and is completely open to all modes of play and all genders.

 

[Faolyn]

There’s a bit more to what you are saying I think. Nothing happens is boring AND nothing happens or nothing can happen is a possibility when you don’t use fail forward or similar, so use fail forward or similar instead.

Sure. Why not. If people use the term correctly, which a lot of people here are not. That's why we had probably hundreds of pages of screaming cooks.

 

[FrogReaver]

Maybe I'm misreading the quote. But to me, it isn’t calling you childish for caring what people say about your hobbies, but instead advocating that it's childish to be ashamed of what you genuinely love, just because it might seem “childish” to others.

It seems more like saying, "don’t let other people’s rudeness, mockery, or judgment threaten your joy." Which seems applicable to the thread.

I think it’s doing that as well. The issue is it’s doing that by associating not having that not caring attitude with childishness. Which is probably fine if you are giving a close friend that advice. But maybe not so much for randoms on the internet.

 

[FrogReaver]

An adult worries about what someone says about their hobbies IF those hobbies are being used as an attack on your comportment or competence.

Only a child worries that someone is using mean words to attack a hobby simply because they identify with it.

I really wish everyone would stop calling/implicating others as childish in this thread.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

You may have something there (none of us are perfect), but the books used to refer to "cops & robbers" for stuff like that. Referring to it as "princess play" or "dollhouse" seems an unnecessary and, yes, clearly gender-tagged change. Why make a point out of using it? I'm sure there are other make-believe activities that could be used as a reference.

Isn't 'cops and robbers' equally gender charged? Just because you are used to certain phraseology and terms doesn't make them neutral.

 

[FrogReaver]

“Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”
― C.S. Lewis

On a more positive note. I do think this is a cool quote, even if I think it’s misapplied in this scenario.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Isn't 'cops and robbers' equally gender charged? Just because you are used to certain phraseology and terms doesn't make them neutral.

Agreed, which is why I also posted that that's not the best term presently either (although cops and robbers both can be any gender).

 

[AlViking]

Isn't 'cops and robbers' equally gender charged? Just because you are used to certain phraseology and terms doesn't make them neutral.

There are no female police officers? No female criminals?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Agreed, which is why I also posted that that's not the best term presently either (although cops and robbers both can be any gender).

Well, so can princesses! I think we agree in this area. I certainly wouldn't consider either term derogatory, at least not inherently. @JConstantine's CS Lewis quote is pretty spot on. If I was concerned with seeming childish I would certainly not play RPGs!

 

[AlViking]

What's odd to me is that some people associate RPGs with kids games and spend hours screaming at the TV passively watching people playing other types of games.