Encountering anti-D&D sentiment

[Desdichado]

You missed my point.

Actually, no, I didn't.

There are people who will only believe what they've been told by others (who believe it's satanic) regarding D&D. I am not intimating that mine or any other lifestyle is "superior", merely that this is the way it is.

There a lot of folks that believe all kinds of crap just because people told it to them. In my experience, many of those people are gamers, who are just as dogmatic, unreasonable and irrational as anyone else.

There's a pervasive mythology that gamers are somehow more intelligent, more enlightened, more open-minded, or in some other sense superior to other people. I don't believe it for a minute.

And gamers are equally reactionary and irrational especially in regards to the "conservative Christian majority" if there really is such a thing, that "attacks them" because of misguided beliefs in Satanism.

Chill, JD.

Yeah, I probably need to. I get a bit miffed when one reactionary knee-jerk is answered by another, though, so I'm probably overly sensitive to it.

 

[Arnwyn]

and b) there are some things that just make other folks skin crawl.

That certainly doesn't stop people from being brainwashed mouth-breathers who can't even think. Why would you think it would?

I mean, I certainly don't run around thinking that folks who like [insert latest PG-13 direct-to-video movie here] are Satanists or anything like that, but it makes my skin crawl. That's just the way it is.

Fixed your (poor) analogy for you.

There's a pervasive mythology that gamers are somehow more intelligent, more enlightened, more open-minded, or in some other sense superior to other people. I don't believe it for a minute.

Never saw that suggested anywhere in DaveMage's post. Not even sure if I saw that anywhere else in this thread.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

I get a bit miffed when one reactionary knee-jerk is answered by what I mistakenly leap to conclude is another, and then head straightaway into making a third one all my own by jumping in with both guns blaring.

Fixed it for you.

It's okay, we all leap to conclusions. Not all of us are able to recognize that and apologize for it.

 

[Desdichado]

That certainly doesn't stop people from being brainwashed mouth-breathers who can't even think. Why would you think it would?

Did I say it would?

Fixed your (poor) analogy for you.

. No, you really didn't.

Never saw that suggested anywhere in DaveMage's post. Not even sure if I saw that anywhere else in this thread.

Two things: 1) The irony of the first statement I quoted of yours compared with this one is, well, pretty ironic. 2) If you hadn't ignored the last line in that post I made in your zeal to post your "Gotcha, all cleverness, no content" retort, it would be really obvious that your whole point here is, well, pointless.

 

[Desdichado]

Fixed it for you.

What is this, rpg.net? Everyone thinks it's clever to edit my posts in the quote section today.

It's okay, we all leap to conclusions. Not all of us are able to recognize that and apologize for it.

Nice. DaveMage quite clearly was saying, essentially, that this lady was a right-wing religious nut "unless you are speaking from their pulpet, you won't be able to convince them otherwise." despite nothing to suggest that she was religious at all, and then implied that by being religious means that "Logic and reasoning is irrelevant to these people. (I know because I've met some of them.)"

That's not jumping to unsupported conclusions, that's taking exactly what's written at face value. Granted, I did get a bit sidetracked into assuming that he suffers from a pretty pervasive delusion that gamers are better than other people, which I don't know at all from his posts, actually, but I already stated that.

Sorry, pal. Try again. Next time, read the first relevant post, though, so you know what you're talking about.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Here's one for ya... in the town I grew up in, there was only one place to buy comic books and sci-fi books for ages; a second hand bookstore tucked in behind a grocery store. The woman who owned it would special order things, so I asked her to order Dragon magazine for me (this was before I subscribed, obviously). After a few months, I came in to get mine, and she told me she would no longer be carrying "that magazine or anything like it". She proceeded to then tell me in the most high handed manner imaginable that she'd seen a documentary on Dungeons and Dragons and how it brainwashed people. The name of this documentary? Mazes and Monsters. Yes...she thought it was based on real events.

I later found out from her son (a friend of mine) that she had taken all the gaming related books she had left and burned them in a barrel behind the store.

 

[Wycen]

Living in the Bay Area, it has never been a real big deal, except when I was younger, and that was for my mother's sister who made sure to tell my parents, "Make sure you only buy the good guy DnD figures for him". My mother and father have equated DnD with any other game and will sometimes ask, "So who won the games?" I find it easier to simply say, "Oh, Jim did" rather than explain we got lost and the fighter died but found a wand of fireballs.

A few years ago a roommate had a difficult time wrapping her head around DnD. She believed that if a guy played a female character he had to be gay, and vice versa. And if you were talking to another player, who was of the opposite sex, you were flirting "in real life". Her mother however seemed to grasp the concept, by equating it with something she understood, (Bridge). Neither associated it with evil, at least once they witnessed our group playing.

But most recently I had to attend two family weddings. The first was for a younger cousin so many family members were present. When the opportunity presented itself, I mentioned my soon to be published status.

Now there is no way to get around the fact that parts of my extended family are old fashioned and sometimes bigoted. So I had already considered my words. When my grandfather asked what I was up to I said, "I'm been writing for a book, creating high tech weapons and ammunition". This is true, but also false by omission, as I've also created monsters, cybernetics and other gear specifically for RPGing. My grandfather looked at my like I was queer (and I mean the weird definition), and the subject dropped.

Next day I told another cousin, but he seemed to recall that I played DnD and at least feigned interest.

Next day an aunt gave me a stony faced look when I told her and then the subject dropped.

At the second wedding a week later I only knew a few people. A cousin-in-law this time asked what I was up to and I told him "I've been writing for a book, creating science fiction weapons and ammunition". He's computer literate and likes gadgets, so he was far more talkative and at least gave me good wishes.

I could have tried to educate any number of people about the hobby, but you have to choose your battles.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

What is this, rpg.net? Everyone thinks it's clever to edit my posts in the quote section today.

It's a bad habit that many of us pick up over at NTL. Whattaya gonna do? *shrug* It amused me, so it served its purpose.

Nice. DaveMage quite clearly was saying, essentially, that this lady was a right-wing religious nut "unless you are speaking from their pulpet, you won't be able to convince them otherwise." despite nothing to suggest that she was religious at all, and then implied that by being religious means that "Logic and reasoning is irrelevant to these people. (I know because I've met some of them.)"

That's not jumping to unsupported conclusions, that's taking exactly what's written at face value. Granted, I did get a bit sidetracked into assuming that he suffers from a pretty pervasive delusion that gamers are better than other people, which I don't know at all from his posts, actually, but I already stated that.

Sorry, pal. Try again. Next time, read the first relevant post, though, so you know what you're talking about.

Thanks for the lecture but it was pretty apparent that for not the first time you'd jumped headlong into a rant without taking proper stock of the situation. Your assumptions and the ensuing hyperbole were clearly not what was stated. Could well have been what he thought, but it wasn't what he stated.

Anyhow, arguing over this is pointless, as you've already apologized, and getting threads closed down doesn't serve anyone's interests or help people deal with those who'd dismiss them for simply playing a game.

We can all agree that nobody, gamer or otherwise, should be pigeonholed and subjected to blanket assumptions. It's not fair when done to us, and it's not fair when done to somebody else. Your assumption may have been faulty, but your message was basically correct.

 

[Aaron L]

Intolerance is disgusting.

 

[CarlZog]

Wait! Are you saying you've met people who have heard of LARPing but not heard of D&D? <boogle> Or perhaps you mean that after you describe D&D, they come away with an impression that we (not they) would call LARPing. That I can buy.

Yes, the latter. I say, "I play D&D." And they say, "You mean you dress up in a cape and run around in the woods?" And I say, "No...", and we take it from there.