D&D Social Stigma

[Rel]

RPGs are a hobby (a great one) but not a lifestyle. If you treat them as a lifestyle, you're going to perpetuate the stigma, since you're elevating an activity on par with fantasy football or fly fishing above other (more important) parts of life. People who take *anything* too seriously have stereotypical stigmas attached to them - even fishermen and fantasy football players. The extremes of any group will be met with derision because they *are* strange and different.

I give this an unqualified "bingo!"

 

[Desdichado]

Like quite a few other posters on this thread, I am somewhat bemused by the idea of a social stigma attached to gaming. In over 23 years of gaming across the globe, I have never encountered such a thing, nor have I ever encountered the "overweight, goatee-wearing, 30-year-old virgin who works at a comic book store, wears a t-shirt that says "Han shot first!", reads erotic Sailor Moon fan fiction, and still lives in his parent's basement". Or any cat-piss men, either (well, not any who were gamers, heh heh). A few peculiar characters, for sure, but no more than in any other walk of life.

I can only assume that 1) you've never been to a gaming convention and 2) you spend very little time at your typical mom-n-pop (not that mom-n-pop would ever run such a store) gaming store. Certainly lots of "just folks" are gamers, and most of the gamers I know are just that--"just folks." Even more certainly, my group is "just folks" and I wouldn't allow anything otherwise.

But the stereotypical gamer isn't just a myth, or a creature of cryptozoology. I've met my share of them.

 

[Desdichado]

It's an ad for a Whirlpool washing machine ("the perfect marriage of beauty and brains")...and in the ad, it's the supermodel giving her nerd boyfriend / fiance a PHB as a gift.

Maybe if I publicized the fact that I game with four supermodels... in the buff?

That might create a different kind of stigma; but there's no doubt that gaming would be quite a bit cooler.

 

[Waldorf]

I used to think that the Geek Squad at my highschool were indicative of the standard RPG Group. then I moved to the "Big City" and joined a group that was just packed with cool people. We actually had to turn away people who I legitimately wanted to hang out with for lack of room.

I thought to myself "Damn, that highschool group in Chilliwack was an anomaly! D&D is for cool people!"

Then I went to Gen Con in Milwaukee.

that made it pretty clear that my "Big City" group was the anomaly.

But on the topic of this thread: generalized opinions about Social Groups for around a kernel of truth. they aren't accurate 100% of the time, but they are more often accurate than they aren't or--simply by observation of enough contrary examples--the Steretype will change.

What I'm saying is that, in my experience, for the most part groups earn their stigmas.

What Billy said.

 

[DaveMage]

I have found that there's very little stigma (if any) when I bring up D&D with people under age 40.

Those over age 40 (present EN World company excepted, of course) however, are the ones that seem to give more concerned looks and show evidence of distaste.

 

[buzz]

First off, what Teflon Billy said.

Seriously, I think the stigma is going away.

I agree. The general attitude about RPGs is waaay better than it was when I started playing as a kid in the '80s. If anything, D&D is so far below most people's radar nowadays that it often garners no reaction at all. In the popular media, it's simply become household shorthand for "nerd" (particularly in the hands of TV and film writers).

Granted, it's disappointing that D&D didn't mature into acceptability like the other geek hobbies of my youth. Computers are ubiquitous and computer nerds are earning big bucks. SF, fantasy, and supers pretty much rule the box office and have been the genre of chocie for some of the most transformative TV in recent decades. And videogames... sheesh, videogames are actually cool now. And what are the biggest-selling videogames? The RPGs.

Of course, being high-profile has made them the targets of most of the morons who blasted D&D back in the day. "GTA is turning our children into killers!" "Harry Potter is teaching our children Satanism!" "Intetnet addiciton! Is your family at risk!?!?"

Which has the nice side effect of making people totally forget about bad ol' D&D, and it's easier for us to game in peace.

 

[kenobi65]

Maybe if I publicized the fact that I game with four supermodels... in the buff?

That might create a different kind of stigma; but there's no doubt that gaming would be quite a bit cooler.

"If you find yourself in a room with four naked supermodels, and you want to play D&D with them...you might be a nerd!"

 

[Mark Hope]

I can only assume that 1) you've never been to a gaming convention and 2) you spend very little time at your typical mom-n-pop (not that mom-n-pop would ever run such a store) gaming store. Certainly lots of "just folks" are gamers, and most of the gamers I know are just that--"just folks." Even more certainly, my group is "just folks" and I wouldn't allow anything otherwise.

But the stereotypical gamer isn't just a myth, or a creature of cryptozoology. I've met my share of them.

You can assume lots of things, if you like The fact is that I have attended, worked at and run plenty of gaming conventions, and the same goes for mom-n-pop gaming stores (one was even owned by a mom-n-pop couple, as it happens). Still no catpiss men or scary goateed basement-dwellers, though. Take it as you please.

 

[Mark Chance]

Does anyone think that its realisticly possible that D&D and its players will ever manage to efface the awful and unfair socail stigma that dogs us all?

"...dogs us all?" No such stigma is dogging me.

 

[Aeson]

Will gamers ever break the stereotype of the overweight, goatee-wearing, 30-year-old virgin who works at a comic book store, wears a t-shirt that says "Han shot first!", reads erotic Sailor Moon fan fiction, and still lives in his parent's basement?

We don't have a basement. I don't have a "Han Shot First" t-shirt or work in a comic shop. I'm clean shaven. Am I still the stereotype?