Ashamed of being a Gamer?

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I think that being a gamer carries a certain stigma and people automatically stereotype you if you admit to being one. I don't go around announcing my hobby to others, but I also don't hide it from them either. I've been to local game days, helped with the local con, and am in a regular bi-weekly group. I wear nerdy shirts (more like Sheldon Cooper from TBBT) rather than D&D specific.

 

[gamerprinter]

Also since one of my primary RPG related activities is creating fictional maps (being a professional fantasy cartographer), playing D&D is actually more normal than the hobby of creating maps of non-existent places.

Try that hobby explanation by itself. First of all whose normal hobby is to make maps in the first place, especially of places that aren't real. I know other cartographers who are as much hiding in the closet about this kind of map design, as many in this thread are about their gaming hobby, and some of those cartographers don't even game.

I explain that I play and design for the RPG industry to help 'logically' explain why I create maps in the first place. So RPGs are my normal hobby to justify my artistic and exotic map making hobby...

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Things I am ashamed of...

Well, when i was time traveling I introduced the concept to tentacle hentia to Japan. And then I said "you've been cooped up in the house too much, go out and take in a show, maybe a play" to Abraham Lincoln.

I am not ashamed of gaming, but I rarely discuss it with people who are not games. By comparison, I am not ashamed of hunting, drinking bourbon, my sexuality or several issues. But I rarely discuss these issues with people I do not know very well.

 

[malcolypse]

I'm proud of my gaming. If it comes up in conversation, I'll tell anyone who's interested, but I don't proselytize to people who don't want to hear it.

 

[Oryan77]

Being a D&D player really helps pull in the ladies. It got me a raise and a promotion at work. The only reason my wife married me is because I'm a DM.

*wakes up*

No, I don't really advertise that I play D&D. If someone asks, I don't mind talking about it if I think they are genuinely interested. Most of the time though, I just downplay it because I don't want to explain it. Like when people find out I sell stuff online and ask me about it, I just explain that I sell gaming and collectible toys. If they ask what kind, I use Warhammer as an example since they most likely have seen a Warhammer game setup at the mall. Usually they don't press the issue any further than that. But if they did, I have no problem explaining what I sell and I will explain to them what D&D is.

 

[gamerprinter]

I'm proud of my gaming. If it comes up in conversation, I'll tell anyone who's interested, but I don't proselytize to people who don't want to hear it.

I guess I'm more like Charlemagne or Merovich to those probably don't want to hear it, I say, "Convert or die!" (I don't actually kill them, but proselytize them to death...)

 

[Incenjucar]

I've been a game tester for over two years now, and in general my prosperity has been due to gaming (D&D made me a spreadsheet star), so I'm quite comfortable being called a "gamer," though I'm quick to remind that it is only an aspect of my person and not the whole of my identity. I would not like to be mistaken for a lifestyler who lives only for a very narrow range of purely fictional experiences in life.

 

[kitsune9]

Odd, I'm with Military Intelligence, and it's positively crawling with D&D players (still a lot of non-gamers, but definitely a fair share of gamer geeks in the MI Corps). Around MI guys is the only time when I'm in uniform I will talk about gaming.

I had a lot of gaming fun in my time at Ft. Huachuca.

My dad was in the Navy and he knew a ton of gamers in the military and that's how he got into it (I got into it from school).

 

[qstor]

So, I'm curious about the rest of you. Do you advertise you're a gamer? Talk about it the way you would a football game to strangers?

Or, do you hide the fact that you game and hope that no one finds out that you do play?

I advertise it to friends and family. Sometimes to strangers if its brought up. Like I was looking at the D&D books a few years ago at Borders and a woman was buying a PHB for her younger son and wondered about it. I told her it was a fun way to be creative and not harmful and mentioned I had two other lawyer friends, a doctor friend and a computer scientist professor friend that played. I always tell my parents about my friend who was a US Marine at Khe San that plays since my dad is kinda around his age. I used to be more shy about it but now I'm proud to be a gamer.

But as the reverse, I have a friend in out Pathfinder group that flat out told me if I tag him in a gaming convention photo I told of all if us, that he'd defriend me on Facebook.

Mike

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My dad was in the Navy and he knew a ton of gamers in the military and that's how he got into it (I got into it from school).

My Dad was Army medical, and while neither he nor any of his buddies were gamers, many of their kids played wargames & RPGs. While they didn't introduce me to the game, they were my primary source of tablemates for my first 5 years in the hobby.

And I always noticed a lot of servicemen in game stores...and in the playtest credits for certain game expansions (especially in Star Fleet Battles).