D&D 5E Dungeons and Dragons and the RPG Stigma

[ggroy]

Many professionals are trained, by necessity, to often make quick, informed decisions and be confident in those choices. It's not surprising this bleeds into the rest of their lives.

In a more general sense, I've come across this too with individuals who have independently acquired "expertise", but whom dropped out of college (or high school).

For example, some niches where I have came across a lot of know-it-all types without much (if any) formal education, are:

- self-taught musicians
- drug dealers
- self-taught computer hackers (who never went to college)
- fitness trainers
- etc ...

 

[Umbran]

Many professionals are trained, by necessity, to often make quick, informed decisions and be confident in those choices. It's not surprising this bleeds into the rest of their lives.

And, within their area of knowledge, this makes sense, as it is an *informed* decision. Outside their area of expertise, however, it becomes problematic.

However, I have seen the same behavior in lots of folks who are not professionals who need to be confident deciders. I expect it has to do more with the person's desire to appear like an authority. Some folks, like doctors, have a professional need to appear like an authority, so that's understandable. But there's lots of people who don't have that need.

My wife is a medical professional (a veterinarian). The amount of debunking she has to do to fight the misinformation spread by know-it-all geeks in our social circles (who claim to be in tune with science, and so should know better) is simply astounding.

 

[wedgeski]

And, within their area of knowledge, this makes sense, as it is an *informed* decision. Outside their area of expertise, however, it becomes problematic.

I completely agree. The "know-it-all" tendency is strong with people who excel in specialised fields. I know because I work for one.

 

[Stefano_Rinaldelli]

It's quite strange. Here in Italy only nerds knows what nerd means. And DnD is normally considered odd only by people with bad education/poor imagination or coming from low educated social enviroments. I've founded a club for roleplaying and boardgaming and the place to reunite with associates was given us by our local catholic priest as a donation. I have roleplaying in my curriculum and I do a very specialized job in aeronautical industry. My colleagues are graduates in math or physics or are aerospatial engineers and many of them are former players.
Maybe that is because in Italy RPG are simply ignored, I don't know...
But every year we have Lucca Games, that bring in the city literally tenth of thousands of RPG enthusiasts and all the streets are full of cosplayers, superheroes, zombi from umbrella corporation and nobody has nothing to say bad about it: not the priests, not the bigoths, not the fascists nor the socialists...
When I read your stories from the Bible Belt I feel myself so sad for you and the only thing I feel to say is that you have to visit our more civilized Europe

 

[tgmoore]

This doctor older then you, and in a respected position of authority over you and choose to mock you in front of co-workers. What does that tell you about his character (or lack thereof)?

 

[tgmoore]

I stopped hiding my love of RPGs once I hit my 40's and now speak of it openly with my coworkers (I'm a police officer). There have been those who would look at me in an odd sort of way but for the most part, they have accepted it. Mainly because I don't really don't place too much weight on what others think anymore (when I was 25 years old it was a different story). In fact, since I have been open about it, (or as my wife refers to it, "coming out of the basement"), I found there were more gamers in my profession than I was led to believe in the first place.

Some of those kids who grew up playing at being imaginary Paladins and fighters went on to do just that. I am an infantry combat veteran (Iraq) and a former police officer. You are in good company.

 

[Morrus]

This doctor older then you, and in a respected position of authority over you and choose to mock you in front of co-workers. What does that tell you about his character (or lack thereof)?

I think we've established he doesn't have a character!

 

[AverageCitizen]

This sort of thing has happened to me. It is just a type of bigotry that people are not tracking, so they don't filter for it.

When people learn to "be nice to others" or "be polite", it for some reason comes with a list of exceptions. I am guilty of it. I think a lot of people think nerds are exempt from basic civility. It is a way of forcing their values on you. They think you should not do something, and they are trying to make you stop. They think you should be ashamed of yourself, and they can tell that you aren't, and they immediately try to fix that. Try to imagine how you would react if you suddenly discovered one of your co-workers unabashedly eats chocolate cake three meals a day. It's like that.

It is funny, because much of the time we don't even realize we are doing it.

 

[Bayonet]

Some of those kids who grew up playing at being imaginary Paladins and fighters went on to do just that. I am an infantry combat veteran (Iraq) and a former police officer. You are in good company.

Same story here. Infantry, Afghan vet.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Last jibe I heard was from an older chap I was working for, about 13 years ago, I was looking up something on the WotC/D&D site, and he leered behind me and said "…get a life."

As for doctors, yeah, I have worked with/around quite a few, let's say, they can be socially…challenging and/or lacking…