Creativity of gamers vs. non-gamers

[Wombat]

I remember when Avalon Hill used to advertise "If you think you have a friend who has enough gray matter, send us his address and we'll send him a catalog". Implication, of course, was that only intelligent people played AH boardgames.

HA!

I found flaming morons who also played them, if not well.

There are people who are terribly creative with rpgs. There are other people who are just regugitators ("I'm gonna play Legolas, but he has brown hair and a moustache!") or recombinant ("Well, the city looks like that model of Camelot except the streets look more like Dark City"). For every GM who carefully creates a full city with logical forms of government and interesting NPCs involved in many overlapping plots, some of which they are only peripherally aware of, if at all, there is at least one GM who can only run something if he is handed a module and gets upset of the players derivate at all from what is written down.

Yeah, creative gaming. Sounds great. Sometimes people really pull it off well.

Don't expect it all the time.

Oh, and let me chime in on the chorus and say I, too, sucked at maths

 

[The Blue Elf]

I don't know about Conan Clones, but I did do a Wulfgar clone that manage to be liked by mostly some people in the gaming Groups.

 

[Tsyr]

Chalk me up as another "sucks at math" person. I have no problem saying as much. So what? Does that make me a bad player? Sure, once and a while I pause for a second before calling out a dice roll as a I run through different mods in my head. I'm sorry I take a few seconds away. What does that really have to do with me being a good player or not?

 

[Crothian]

I don't follow what math has to do with creativity. In college I majored in Math and trust me I meet some damn brilliant people who were very uncreative outside of number theory. Personally, I perfer to game with the people who have a greater understanding on history then Math.

 

[CarlZog]

I remember when Avalon Hill used to advertise "If you think you have a friend who has enough gray matter, send us his address and we'll send him a catalog". Implication, of course, was that only intelligent people played AH boardgames.

HA!

I found flaming morons who also played them, if not well.

Yeah, those were pretty pompous ads, but I have to confess they helped draw me into the hobby: "If you want to be perceived as intelligent, play AH games." Who could resist?

CZ

 

[Magic Slim]

IMO, RPG's attract people that can (and like to) use their imagination. If you want to be creative, you need imagination. That's why there's a good chance of finding creative people when you scout gamers.

Of course, I'm biased, since I haven't played D&D with other people than close friends, and they are my friends because they are intelligent and imaginative.

Also, Creativity (IIRC) is a form of intelligence, Math is another form of intelligence. That's the only way they are related.

This is from a Math major who's working on his masters in creative writing

Slim

 

[WayneLigon]

I'd say that yes, in general, gaming attracts the more creative people. Those who are not consistantly creative on some level usually wander away to find another hobby sooner or later.

However, you could say that theater, music, writing and other similar pursuits attract creative people as well. In general that would be true but not all of them are on the same level, obviously.

There are bad actors, terrible playwrights, and awful musicians. Usually that lack of talent will drive them from the profession and they will find employment elsewhere. But some will manage to find That Niche. The dinner theater, the hotel lounge singer, a writer for someone's web site or newsletter... they are working in a creative field, they're just bad at it, but somewhere they've managed to find that one particular thing where either it doesn't matter if they're bad, or it's a position no-one else wants.

Same with some gamers. Usually the uncreative ones (which more often than not really equates to 'the lazy ones') will drift off but some find That Niche, the place that allows them to remain within the hobby.

Also, I think that the label of gaming as a 'creative person's' hobby is justified but it's also a hobby that is not for the lazy. And that's where and why we lose a lot of people. Most people may or may not be just as creative as Joe Average Gamer but try to show them a game that has more than one page of rules and their eyes glaze over and they go back to watching TV at night. They don't want to/are incapable of putting forth the sheer effort required to be good at this hobby.

I will say that over the years I've seen a drop in the level of sheer energy and creativity from players as an average, but that's because gaming as a hobby now attracts a broader range (thus, more towards average) than it did when I started. When I started playing, almost all gamers were (1) college students or (2) converted wargamers. Right there you had a group that was motivated to do well, was used to reading pages and pages of material, digesting it, remembering it, and being tested (in some way) on it constantly. The majors represented were (1) computer science, (2) pre-law, (3) engineering, (4) and math, with the odd science major here and there. That was it.

 

[hunter1828]

I don't follow what math has to do with creativity. In college I majored in Math and trust me I meet some damn brilliant people who were very uncreative outside of number theory. Personally, I perfer to game with the people who have a greater understanding on history then Math.

Math has nothing to do with creativity. Where this discussion started (in the What's it like for a gamer girl thread) the discussion centered around both creativity and intelligence. Math does have something to do with that.

Oh, and I suck at math, too. But at least I can total my attack role without a calculator, and I've seen many that can't.

hunter1828

 

[ergeheilalt]

I wouldn't say that non-gamers are a bunch of people who view the world in black and white. Same goes for gamers, who can be the most boring people out there.

I've seen both sides of things. I, as a gamer, can fall into a rut. I like playing wizards, but I try and do something creative whenever possible (spell selection/use, spell descriptions, signature spells, etc.) I've also played with a fellow who has gone to level 15 with two near identical dwarven fighters (they even had the same weapon enchantments on his dwarven waraxe).

As for those regular people, who dont game - some of them have way out there ideas and dreams. Artists, Web Designers, accounting majors - they number some of the most unique and creative people I know. They dont game because they dont like the concepts and time that it takes.

Saying nongamers are all boring hacks is pretty narrow sighted, same goes for saying gamers are the only people who have any creative talent.

Erge

 

[Aulayan]

I think everyone I game with has some creativity in some areas.

However, I've noticed a tendency with some of my fellow players (And I hope to god none of them read this or I'm dead), where the may be creative with the World of Darkness, or Champions or Call of Cthulhu, they aren't with D&D.

This doesn't apply to 'em all, but a couple of them yeah. I dunno what it is, but it is occasionally jarring.

Not to say i'm the epitome of creativity. Usually when it comes to RPing I am a little shy unfortunately, which is what I'm trying to work on.