The Thayan Menace
First Post
<Hands You a Bombay Gin Martini>
So? He's an idiot. Move on.
So? He's an idiot. Move on.
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D&D Media Spotting and Mild Rant
- Thread starter Kelleris
- Start date
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Sarcasm is one thing, but ignorance paired with sarcasm is IMMENSELY annoying, regardless of where it's directed. It's simply a matter of journalistic dignity, and even comic pieces are supposed to have their own form of quality control...
It's not the making-fun-of-this-guy-for-being-a-nerd that gets my goat. It's the villifying of all who enjoy the same activities. I can make fun of one Texan for being an ignorant hick, but I'd be pretty base if I called the entire state ignorant hicks in an attempt at humor. It's not only not funny, it's just...simplistic. And bad humor irks me much more than being called a lifeless nerd because of my hobby.
I wouldn't get too up in arms about it (because if he has learned anything from the interweb it's that reactionary extremists make the best commedy), but maybe pointedly go through his article and replace every D&D/Videogames = NERDZ occurance with a Texas = HICK occurance and see how much he appreciates it. Or if you want to be especially pointed, turn it into a racial joke/sexual joke thing because nothing brings out the reactionaries like being called a racist or a sexist.
It's not the making-fun-of-this-guy-for-being-a-nerd that gets my goat. It's the villifying of all who enjoy the same activities. I can make fun of one Texan for being an ignorant hick, but I'd be pretty base if I called the entire state ignorant hicks in an attempt at humor. It's not only not funny, it's just...simplistic. And bad humor irks me much more than being called a lifeless nerd because of my hobby.
I wouldn't get too up in arms about it (because if he has learned anything from the interweb it's that reactionary extremists make the best commedy), but maybe pointedly go through his article and replace every D&D/Videogames = NERDZ occurance with a Texas = HICK occurance and see how much he appreciates it.
Or if you want to be especially pointed, turn it into a racial joke/sexual joke thing because nothing brings out the reactionaries like being called a racist or a sexist. 
Darth K'Trava
First Post
If you're going to send a rebuttal, perhaps mention that alot of the "D&D geeks/losers" have those high paying IT jobs that you (the author of the column) are green with envy over.
William Ronald
Explorer
Darth K'Trava said:
Perhaps go to The Escapist for a few articles to counter "Dr. Bombay." You might also go to the BBC , which I recall ran a few articles on the 30th anniversary of the D&D game last year. (Perhaps you should explain to Dr. Bombay that no cards are used in the game.) Finally, maybe you should see if WotC's PR department might want to chat with Dr. Bombay. (Perhaps someone should point out that WotC makes more money than Dr. Bombay is likely to see in his lifetime.
So, Kelleris, if Dr. Bombay wishes to act like the posterior quarter of the species Equus Asinus -- which he may resemble in more ways than one , replying politely to him will show that you are a better individual than him. (This may well be an easy task.)
wingsandsword
Legend
The media rarely depicts D&D in a favorable light, unless it's D&D players who are writing the media (like D&D references on shows like Simpsons, Futurama and X-Files).
When the Columbine Shootings happened, our local paper printed an editorial that day blaming it on D&D, saying it was clearly the latest "occult murders" due to a game "that hadn't been banned yet" where "kids sit around gambling on rolling dice, around a table strewn with satanic idols while casting black magic at each other". It couldn't be more anti-D&D if Jack Chick himself wrote it.
The president of our gaming club (and GM of a very popular game) called them, and got a reporter who seemed interested in doing a counterpoint article about how D&D wasn't harmful and was a benign hobby, especially after it very quickly became obvious that Columbine had absolutely nothing to do with D&D. We invited the reporter to a session of a popular, longrunning campaign for him to witness a typical D&D game in action. He saw a group playing and having fun, no black magic rituals, no satanic idols (we didn't even use minis in that campaign, from what I can tell, minis somehow get mistaken for idols sometimes), no gambling, and it went fairly well, or so we thought. The counterpoint article never ran in the paper. Calling back some time later, we found out that the editor had killed the article.
The campus paper at our University did an article on our gaming club and D&D back in '98. The reporter was a freshman journalism student who was utterly clueless about all forms of gaming other than board games she played as a kid. We politely and calmly explained our hobby, talked with her about the club, our games, what they are and how they are played. She barely asked any questions (her interviewing skills were negligible, she still had a long way to go learning to be a journalist), and she was utterly amazed at the idea that dice came in more than 6 sides. Then came the article: a disaster. Quotes from each of us were attributed to each other, names were misspelled terribly (including replacing most last names with words via a spellchecker), and it was so disjointed and poorly written that if you didn't know anything about the club or gaming beforehand, you wouldn't when it was done. Of course, this is a student paper at a University, and that article definitely looked like a student effort.
My ex-fiancee was actually banned from playing D&D with my group after her mother saw a rerun of Mazes and Monsters on Lifetime (she still lived at home with her mother, and was very much controlled by her
). It took months to convince her that the movie wasn't "based on a true story" and that if you play D&D you'll end up just like that movie, and she only begrudgingly acknowledged that it might not be "entirely truthful", but she still didn't trust gaming, or me because I was a gamer.
When the Columbine Shootings happened, our local paper printed an editorial that day blaming it on D&D, saying it was clearly the latest "occult murders" due to a game "that hadn't been banned yet" where "kids sit around gambling on rolling dice, around a table strewn with satanic idols while casting black magic at each other". It couldn't be more anti-D&D if Jack Chick himself wrote it.
The president of our gaming club (and GM of a very popular game) called them, and got a reporter who seemed interested in doing a counterpoint article about how D&D wasn't harmful and was a benign hobby, especially after it very quickly became obvious that Columbine had absolutely nothing to do with D&D. We invited the reporter to a session of a popular, longrunning campaign for him to witness a typical D&D game in action. He saw a group playing and having fun, no black magic rituals, no satanic idols (we didn't even use minis in that campaign, from what I can tell, minis somehow get mistaken for idols sometimes), no gambling, and it went fairly well, or so we thought. The counterpoint article never ran in the paper. Calling back some time later, we found out that the editor had killed the article.
The campus paper at our University did an article on our gaming club and D&D back in '98. The reporter was a freshman journalism student who was utterly clueless about all forms of gaming other than board games she played as a kid. We politely and calmly explained our hobby, talked with her about the club, our games, what they are and how they are played. She barely asked any questions (her interviewing skills were negligible, she still had a long way to go learning to be a journalist), and she was utterly amazed at the idea that dice came in more than 6 sides. Then came the article: a disaster. Quotes from each of us were attributed to each other, names were misspelled terribly (including replacing most last names with words via a spellchecker), and it was so disjointed and poorly written that if you didn't know anything about the club or gaming beforehand, you wouldn't when it was done. Of course, this is a student paper at a University, and that article definitely looked like a student effort.
My ex-fiancee was actually banned from playing D&D with my group after her mother saw a rerun of Mazes and Monsters on Lifetime (she still lived at home with her mother, and was very much controlled by her
). It took months to convince her that the movie wasn't "based on a true story" and that if you play D&D you'll end up just like that movie, and she only begrudgingly acknowledged that it might not be "entirely truthful", but she still didn't trust gaming, or me because I was a gamer.
Kelleris
Explorer
wingsandsword said:
Wow, mine just made me mildly irate. That kind of nonsense would have really upset me. Regarding the domineering mother and Mazes and Monsters, have you read Michael Stackpole's Pulling Report? It's about that whole cluster of incidents, and I found it to be interesting reading. You can find it here.
wingsandsword
Legend
Yeah, I've read it. She wasn't interested in any "facts". TV told her what to believe. She got her Right and Wrong, her opinions of Good and Evil from Oprah and Dr. Phil, Movies of the Week on Lifetime, and scarelore chain-emails (the kind that snopes.com debunks).Kelleris said:
What finally convinced her that it wasn't a one way ticket to nowhere and suicide was that our college gaming club at the time included (or had included within the last few years) a PhD candidate in Physics, a Medical student, a Lawyer, a Naval Officer (Reserve), a Soldier (National Guard), and two schoolteachers. The sheer number of people leading happy, healthy & productive lives and who had been playing for years, sometimes more than a decade, with no problems got her to at least a little.
Kelleris said:
What, you get to rant, and I don't? That's hardly fair. Eye for an eye, rant for for a rant, I say!
How many people he targets at a time is relevant? Is it less of an insult if its only one person?
I just had a gut negative reaction, and I happen to know he's wrong in a number of ways. That's why this is a rant, y'know.
Yep. Same here. I'm channeling for Obviousman - humor that derides others is okay, until it's you who are the target. Everybody (you, me, everybody) ought to remember that more often when we get laughs at someone else's expense.
Vraille Darkfang
First Post
The biggest problem here is.....
He's just trying to make a buck. He's going with that confrontational type of nasty sarcastic journalism that was all the rage many years ago. I think it began with Geraldo (who would later admit being embarressed a what his style of journalism grew into).
He's just a Howard Stern type wanna-be who writes nasty, evil columns to get a rise out of people. He measures his popularity by the number of nasty 'I hate you' e-mails he recieves. You see a lot of his kind on talk radio. I mean, come on, is this the best he can do? I mean, when the papers tell you "I'm sorry, but you're just not as good a journalist as Mancow, but we do need a tech advice column." You should realize journalism ain't for you.
The real shame in all of this is that he had a chance to really do some good. And he blew it. Big time. He could have told about the dangers of addicitive personalities, but he'd rather just trash people he has no clue about than do anything remotely beneficial to society.
Look at gambling, drinking, Everquest, video games, pornography, heck, even Fanatasy Football & Baseball. Most people do these things occasionally, or as a hobby, but their life doesn't revolve around it. For other people, not so much. More than one couple has wound up in front of divorce court over the hubby's fantasy baseball team. The issue that needed to be addressed was wether the kid was developing an obsession over Everquest, not how 'That D&D card game is only played by losers who have no life'. He had a chance to give helpful advice and blew it. (Willingly I'd say, he'd rather just trash everything he can think of than do anything helpful, his columns are about style, not substance).
Does his column even appear in the Advice section, or is it in the Opinion section? If it's in the Advice section, I'd definatly complain to your local paper. Show them all the errors in his 'advice'. From D&D's not a card game, to WoTC research on who games & how much they make, to Sony's knowledge of who all plays Everquest. If he's mouthing off his opinions, that's fine; but if the paper is putting him in the Advice section & he's incapable of doing research or getting his facts straight he needs to be yanked.
If he's an opinionist, submit a rebuttal letter. Tell him where he's wrong & point out how he completly missed the chance to help this kid & his family.
If he's an Advice columist, write a letter to the paper asking how they can allow a person incapable of getting his facts straight write an advice column. It'd be like letting Dear Abby get away with "All men who watch sports are lousy idiots who don't have jobs, bathe, and crap themselves."
People who write advice columns are supposed to HELP people. People who write opinion columns are supposed to TICK people off. If he's an advice columnist, he's a lousy one. If he's an opinion columnist he's a lousy one, as D&D players are such a small group to tick off. The real monies are in insulting gays, women, liberals, conservatives, environmentalists, senior citizens, industrialists, etc. I mean this guy is small time.
He's just trying to make a buck. He's going with that confrontational type of nasty sarcastic journalism that was all the rage many years ago. I think it began with Geraldo (who would later admit being embarressed a what his style of journalism grew into).
He's just a Howard Stern type wanna-be who writes nasty, evil columns to get a rise out of people. He measures his popularity by the number of nasty 'I hate you' e-mails he recieves. You see a lot of his kind on talk radio. I mean, come on, is this the best he can do? I mean, when the papers tell you "I'm sorry, but you're just not as good a journalist as Mancow, but we do need a tech advice column." You should realize journalism ain't for you.
The real shame in all of this is that he had a chance to really do some good. And he blew it. Big time. He could have told about the dangers of addicitive personalities, but he'd rather just trash people he has no clue about than do anything remotely beneficial to society.
Look at gambling, drinking, Everquest, video games, pornography, heck, even Fanatasy Football & Baseball. Most people do these things occasionally, or as a hobby, but their life doesn't revolve around it. For other people, not so much. More than one couple has wound up in front of divorce court over the hubby's fantasy baseball team. The issue that needed to be addressed was wether the kid was developing an obsession over Everquest, not how 'That D&D card game is only played by losers who have no life'. He had a chance to give helpful advice and blew it. (Willingly I'd say, he'd rather just trash everything he can think of than do anything helpful, his columns are about style, not substance).
Does his column even appear in the Advice section, or is it in the Opinion section? If it's in the Advice section, I'd definatly complain to your local paper. Show them all the errors in his 'advice'. From D&D's not a card game, to WoTC research on who games & how much they make, to Sony's knowledge of who all plays Everquest. If he's mouthing off his opinions, that's fine; but if the paper is putting him in the Advice section & he's incapable of doing research or getting his facts straight he needs to be yanked.
If he's an opinionist, submit a rebuttal letter. Tell him where he's wrong & point out how he completly missed the chance to help this kid & his family.
If he's an Advice columist, write a letter to the paper asking how they can allow a person incapable of getting his facts straight write an advice column. It'd be like letting Dear Abby get away with "All men who watch sports are lousy idiots who don't have jobs, bathe, and crap themselves."
People who write advice columns are supposed to HELP people. People who write opinion columns are supposed to TICK people off. If he's an advice columnist, he's a lousy one. If he's an opinion columnist he's a lousy one, as D&D players are such a small group to tick off. The real monies are in insulting gays, women, liberals, conservatives, environmentalists, senior citizens, industrialists, etc. I mean this guy is small time.
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