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Message: <blockquote data-quote="munkeywrench" data-source="post: 4547255" data-attributes="member: 56150">This. Exactly this. PnP games, star trek/wars, comic books, anime, etc, just happen to have qualities that appeal to social outcasts. I will elaborate on this point more using a generic "hobby" as a metaphor.Stage 1) In the beginning, there is a decent number of well adjusted people in the hobby as well as a decent number of social rejects. The percentages my tilt  more in one direction than the other, but no side is in clear domination of the other. Things are stable and the hobby is socially acceptable.Stage 2) Due to the hobby having a decent population of social outcasts, other social outcasts are attracted to the hobby at an accelerated rate under the added incentive of the hobby already being accepting of people like themselves. The hobby is still socially acceptable, but stability is being strained.Stage 3) If the number of new well-adjusted fans fails to keep up with the number of social outcast fans, the social outcast fans start to gain a fairly large majority. At this point, well-adjusted fans may leave the hobby out of a feeling of not fitting in. It is also harder to get well adjusted fans to join the hobby. The hobby is starting to be considered a little strange. Stability is breaking down.Stage 4) The hobby is now dominated by social rejects. well-adjusted people steer clear from the hobby to avoid being thrown into the same category as the social outcasts. The only new fans the hobby can recruit are social outcasts. Stability has crumbled to dust. The hobby is now no longer socially acceptable.Stage 5) Sometimes a miracle happens and a few popular people will join and remain part of the hobby. These popular people attract well-adjusted people as well as other popular people. Slowly (or quickly in some rare instances), the population of well-adjusted fans approaches the populationof social rejects. This pushes the hobby back into Stage 1.corollaries (not exhaustive):1 - Not all hobbies begin in stage 1. Some may begin in stage 2, 3 or 4.2 - certain events, such as a media witch hunt, can immediately blast a hobby from stage 1 or 2 to stage 3 or 4.examples:70's video game industry: stage 1anime in the 80's: stage 2D&D during the media witch hunt: stage 3current day D&D: stage 4current day videogame industry: stage 5If we want PnP RPG's to get out of stage 4, we need to act in such a way that other people won't be ashamed to hang out with us. We need to re-establish the balance and stop letting our hobby be dominated by social outcasts. Stability can be re-established by turning social outcasts into well-adjusted people which will allow for the recruitment of more well-adjusted people. Stage 5 will then be on its way.</blockquote>

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