Do RPG's help us find common ground?

[seskis281]

No, this thread isn't intended to deal with our differences within gaming...

It's just that I had a thought.... one of the things I realized is that Gamers come together from a wide range of political and religious leanings (and please keep the board free of discussion of these) and often RPGing means we become friends and comrades with NO reference to our ideologies outside the gaming world (although we certainly do argue about GAMING ideologies).

I had a group for several years before, over drinks afterwards, we discovered that there were several people of resoundingly different points of view in real life... but it didn't matter, and we quickly put those away and were back to talking about our game in Greyhawk (the politics of the Scarlet Brotherhood being more important at that time).

So don't others of you think this is a great way for people who hold different views to come together?

John Maddog Wright

"Sometimes the difference between success and failure is the roll of a 20-sided die."

 

[Mycanid]

Err ... yes, it's true. Rpg's can do this, just as other activities can. I wouldn't go TOO far about this, but I would agree that it ceratinly can be a good "common ground" of meeting and ... cooperating or whatever.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

My group is almost all the same people (as far as beliefs go), and for the most part we get along great. But if you mention Politics or Religion you had better be prepared to know more than us or your going to get fried.
I have one friend who has for the most part learned to avoid these topics and another who still likes to open his big mouth and say something we consider just plain idiotic.

 

[Treebore]

Other than the Navy gaming has been the biggest reason why I have been exposed to a wide range of moral/ethical beliefs as well as political and sexual orientations.

No matter how we are different we all just want to have friends, be happy, and not be harrassed/assaulted/killed. I think that is usually common ground enough. The only time it hasn't been is when individuals have had serious "other" issues. Mental types of issues.

IT has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for me.

 

[Campbell]

No more than bowling, basketball, rugby or videogames. Roleplaying games are things you play to have fun, and while you might be exposed to people of varying outlooks during the course of having fun there's nothing special about those fun activities that are responsible for that exposure. It just happens when people with similar interests come together.

 

[riprock]

I had a group for several years before, over drinks afterwards, we discovered that there were several people of resoundingly different points of view in real life... but it didn't matter, and we quickly put those away and were back to talking about our game in Greyhawk (the politics of the Scarlet Brotherhood being more important at that time).

So don't others of you think this is a great way for people who hold different views to come together?

John Maddog Wright

"Sometimes the difference between success and failure is the roll of a 20-sided die."

For the most part, my experience has been the opposite: even though several groups started out as friendly, they had a tendency to drift apart and break up. Conventional politics was less important than cultural difference in this regard.

Another problem is that it's easy to find a few dozen folks of one's exact political/cultural stripe online, and it's easy to do multi-player gaming online, so rather than go in person to the house of a not-very-close friend, many gamers choose to go online. This promotes gaming but often reduces a sense of community.