Even the Gilmore Girls don't like D&D....
- Thread starter Wolfspider
- Start date
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Quoted:
--My little sister was watching Honey I shrunk the Kids the TV show, they had a group of D&D players hitting on some girl and kept saying "Charisma eighTEEN." --
This? Kinda funny...just 'cause I know people like that. This seems fairly inoffensive, just kiddin' around sorta thing. It's not overtly insulting or narrow-minded. In fact, you'd have to know a bit about D&D anyway to get the joke. This is okay, even if it might make me roll my eyes.
Quoted:
--From a friend of mine at school when I mentioned D&D
"I would NEVER play D&D! You know, those columbine kids played D&D!" --
This? Just wrong. This is the kinda thing that raises the ire. It's like saying: "You play D&D? You must be defective! You must have deep psychosis! You must be on the verge of murder!"...ergo, you are lesser, less human, than everyone else, and therefore are worthy of contempt and permitted to be assumed psychotic until proven otherwise.
Not only that, but it covers up the real reason things like this happen based on a scapegoat. If people can blame something else, they don't need to look for a cause that may make them squirrelley, so to speak. They don't need to look at the true motivation when they have a person to blame it on. This is why Hollywood and Video Games get blamed. Fotrunately, they have a much larger audience that enjoys them, so they can remain (mostly) immune. The millions of people who watched Die Hard know it doesn't make you kill. They didn't.
Unfortuneately, D&D-dork remains a minority, and therefore, is not faught against. John Q Public doesn't know D&D doesn't make you kill because all he knows of D&D is that it's some game that makes you satanic. Because D&D doesn't have a majority audience or a plurality of people who *obviously* know it doesn't do this (and because accusations are printed in big, bold letters, while retractions are hidden amongst the editorials), there isn't an initial public reaction of doubt against the accusation. If somebody said watching american football made you violent because it encourages tackling, winning, and beating up the other team, much like a war, no one in the US would buy that.
The high schools of the US are not a safe place for anyone who does not fit in. They are accosted, often violently, and little, if any, punishment is given to those who do this. The ones in charge imply that it's okay by lack of action (of course, many of these people are powerless and/or unwilling to help anyway, but that's another rant), and the poor guy is left without a defense when those with the concept that being a dork makes you a lesser human being, okay to beat up and make fun of and deride. *THIS* is about as close as possible to finding out *Why* high school suicide, psychosis, and depression rates are so high. This is the dangerous mental cocktail that causes human beings (of no better or worse standing than yourself or any other human being) to do things like Columbine. Low self-esteem, needless ridicule, are the ingredients. NOT D&D. It just so happens that the D&D-dork stereotype is typically somebody who already doens't have the best self-esteem.
I got lucky. The guy who got me into D&D was the lead linebacker for the high school football team, and was dating the cheerleader. Here in college, not only are social pressures less and hormonal cocktails safer, but people are seemingly more open to new experiences and willing to try out things. Heck, my D&D group has more women then men. I have been very supported in my "closet habit."
Unfortuneately, the problem lies not with just D&D. It lies with the human nature (people different from you are bad! Whose fault is it?), the US school system (...no snappy comments. This thing is fudged up beyond realistic expectations), and the "clique" of D&D-dorks themselves.
Again, maybe I'm reading a bit too deep. But this is unreal. It's the mindless, uneductated hatred against D&D that I see, on a much greater scale, against things like Al Queda and Muslim extremist groups. As exemplified in speeches by G.W.Bush...the passion and hatred for people called "evil" and "cowardly"....I gotta say something, and that's that you can't distance yourself from any human being on the planet. They all think a lot more alike than you could think, and they have reasons (probably dang good ones) for doing what they do.
Not that this justifies this...it's just that before you can stop something, you need to understand where they're coming from first, and stop it at it's source...not just push back harder.
My overanalyzation has reached it's end. I've lost the point. Anyhoo, we can at least seek solidarity in each other...y'know, stick together as the oppressed and such. Rednecks hate us, too, y'know. 
--My little sister was watching Honey I shrunk the Kids the TV show, they had a group of D&D players hitting on some girl and kept saying "Charisma eighTEEN." --
This? Kinda funny...just 'cause I know people like that. This seems fairly inoffensive, just kiddin' around sorta thing. It's not overtly insulting or narrow-minded. In fact, you'd have to know a bit about D&D anyway to get the joke. This is okay, even if it might make me roll my eyes.
Quoted:
--From a friend of mine at school when I mentioned D&D
"I would NEVER play D&D! You know, those columbine kids played D&D!" --
This? Just wrong. This is the kinda thing that raises the ire. It's like saying: "You play D&D? You must be defective! You must have deep psychosis! You must be on the verge of murder!"...ergo, you are lesser, less human, than everyone else, and therefore are worthy of contempt and permitted to be assumed psychotic until proven otherwise.
Not only that, but it covers up the real reason things like this happen based on a scapegoat. If people can blame something else, they don't need to look for a cause that may make them squirrelley, so to speak. They don't need to look at the true motivation when they have a person to blame it on. This is why Hollywood and Video Games get blamed. Fotrunately, they have a much larger audience that enjoys them, so they can remain (mostly) immune. The millions of people who watched Die Hard know it doesn't make you kill. They didn't.
Unfortuneately, D&D-dork remains a minority, and therefore, is not faught against. John Q Public doesn't know D&D doesn't make you kill because all he knows of D&D is that it's some game that makes you satanic. Because D&D doesn't have a majority audience or a plurality of people who *obviously* know it doesn't do this (and because accusations are printed in big, bold letters, while retractions are hidden amongst the editorials), there isn't an initial public reaction of doubt against the accusation. If somebody said watching american football made you violent because it encourages tackling, winning, and beating up the other team, much like a war, no one in the US would buy that.
The high schools of the US are not a safe place for anyone who does not fit in. They are accosted, often violently, and little, if any, punishment is given to those who do this. The ones in charge imply that it's okay by lack of action (of course, many of these people are powerless and/or unwilling to help anyway, but that's another rant), and the poor guy is left without a defense when those with the concept that being a dork makes you a lesser human being, okay to beat up and make fun of and deride. *THIS* is about as close as possible to finding out *Why* high school suicide, psychosis, and depression rates are so high. This is the dangerous mental cocktail that causes human beings (of no better or worse standing than yourself or any other human being) to do things like Columbine. Low self-esteem, needless ridicule, are the ingredients. NOT D&D. It just so happens that the D&D-dork stereotype is typically somebody who already doens't have the best self-esteem.
I got lucky. The guy who got me into D&D was the lead linebacker for the high school football team, and was dating the cheerleader. Here in college, not only are social pressures less and hormonal cocktails safer, but people are seemingly more open to new experiences and willing to try out things. Heck, my D&D group has more women then men. I have been very supported in my "closet habit."
Unfortuneately, the problem lies not with just D&D. It lies with the human nature (people different from you are bad! Whose fault is it?), the US school system (...no snappy comments. This thing is fudged up beyond realistic expectations), and the "clique" of D&D-dorks themselves.
Again, maybe I'm reading a bit too deep. But this is unreal. It's the mindless, uneductated hatred against D&D that I see, on a much greater scale, against things like Al Queda and Muslim extremist groups. As exemplified in speeches by G.W.Bush...the passion and hatred for people called "evil" and "cowardly"....I gotta say something, and that's that you can't distance yourself from any human being on the planet. They all think a lot more alike than you could think, and they have reasons (probably dang good ones) for doing what they do.
Not that this justifies this...it's just that before you can stop something, you need to understand where they're coming from first, and stop it at it's source...not just push back harder.
My overanalyzation has reached it's end.
I've lost the point. Anyhoo, we can at least seek solidarity in each other...y'know, stick together as the oppressed and such. Rednecks hate us, too, y'know. Feanor Starym
First Post
well put!
dagger
Adventurer
In the Garage is one of my favorite Weezer songs though.
"I've got the Dungeon Master's Guide
I've got a 12-sided die
I've got Kitty Pryde
and Nightcrawler too
Waiting there for me
Yes I do, I do
I've got posters on the wall
My favorite rock group Kiss
I've got Ace Frehley
I've got Peter Criss
Waiting there for me
Yes I do,I do
In the garage I feel safe
No one cares about my ways
In the garage
Where I belong
No one hears me sing this song
I've got an electric guitar
I play my stupid songs I
write these stupid words
and I love every one
Waiting there for me
Yes I do, I do"
"I've got the Dungeon Master's Guide
I've got a 12-sided die
I've got Kitty Pryde
and Nightcrawler too
Waiting there for me
Yes I do, I do
I've got posters on the wall
My favorite rock group Kiss
I've got Ace Frehley
I've got Peter Criss
Waiting there for me
Yes I do,I do
In the garage I feel safe
No one cares about my ways
In the garage
Where I belong
No one hears me sing this song
I've got an electric guitar
I play my stupid songs I
write these stupid words
and I love every one
Waiting there for me
Yes I do, I do"
Pillars of Hercules
First Post
You think you guys had it rough!
My brother and I played D&D with some kids down the street and loved it. I promptly bought 1E D&D (blue cover with wizard, fighter and dragon). My parents are MAJOR fundamentalists, and they "heard some things" about the game. Next night, they call us into the living room, inform us that they have reviewed the books (I'll give them this, they at least read the books before passing judgment), that D&D was clearly Satanic, and that the books were going in the garbage like right now.
Two months later, I checked out "The Hobbit" from our church library (Methodist Church). My mom saw the picture of Smaug (this was the illustrated version) and took the book back on the spot. I checked the book out again and hid it in a trunk full of my grandmother's old clothes, reading it one or two pages at a time when mom and dad weren't around. By the time I finished, the book was REALLY overdue, but no one from the church ever called.
Of course, none of that mattered because once my folks found out that our Methodist church had a copy of "The Hobbit" they CHANGED CHURCHES!!!!! I'm not saying "The Hobbit" was the only reason for the switch, they also disagreed with Methodist doctrine, but "The Hobbit" WAS the straw that broke the camel's back.
I'm NOT trying to start a holy war with these comments, but this is how things played out when I was a kid, and religion was the main part of it, so I have to mention it to tell the tale. I didn't play D&D again until college, 7 years later.
PS An episode of the West Wing had an alien nut come to talk to Sam Seaborn (sp?). Sam hears the nut's theory that the Roswell aliens are stored in Fort Knox and says "Jeez, it's like I'm back in Dungeons & Dragons camp." At least Sam admits he went to such a camp, but I must say the reference was negative.
My brother and I played D&D with some kids down the street and loved it. I promptly bought 1E D&D (blue cover with wizard, fighter and dragon). My parents are MAJOR fundamentalists, and they "heard some things" about the game. Next night, they call us into the living room, inform us that they have reviewed the books (I'll give them this, they at least read the books before passing judgment), that D&D was clearly Satanic, and that the books were going in the garbage like right now.
Two months later, I checked out "The Hobbit" from our church library (Methodist Church). My mom saw the picture of Smaug (this was the illustrated version) and took the book back on the spot. I checked the book out again and hid it in a trunk full of my grandmother's old clothes, reading it one or two pages at a time when mom and dad weren't around. By the time I finished, the book was REALLY overdue, but no one from the church ever called.
Of course, none of that mattered because once my folks found out that our Methodist church had a copy of "The Hobbit" they CHANGED CHURCHES!!!!! I'm not saying "The Hobbit" was the only reason for the switch, they also disagreed with Methodist doctrine, but "The Hobbit" WAS the straw that broke the camel's back.
I'm NOT trying to start a holy war with these comments, but this is how things played out when I was a kid, and religion was the main part of it, so I have to mention it to tell the tale. I didn't play D&D again until college, 7 years later.
PS An episode of the West Wing had an alien nut come to talk to Sam Seaborn (sp?). Sam hears the nut's theory that the Roswell aliens are stored in Fort Knox and says "Jeez, it's like I'm back in Dungeons & Dragons camp." At least Sam admits he went to such a camp, but I must say the reference was negative.
Trevalon Moonleirion
Explorer
Henry-
One of the reasons that I got my newest player (a girl in a few of my classes who just got introduced to D&D earlier this evening) was because of that bit on the Hank Azaria show--it really turned her interest in fantasy into interest in D&D. It's GREAT to see semi-positive portrayals of D&D on tv.
On a realated note and something which have already been said (haven't read the entire thread here)...
Does anyone remember the Ameritech/other phone company ad for a phone book? It has a bunch of nerds sitting around playing a generic RPG arguing over something, and then the screen goes blank and a phone book drops onto the blank screen while an announcer says "Dating Service?"
Not quite sure if i remember the ad correctly...
One of the reasons that I got my newest player (a girl in a few of my classes who just got introduced to D&D earlier this evening) was because of that bit on the Hank Azaria show--it really turned her interest in fantasy into interest in D&D. It's GREAT to see semi-positive portrayals of D&D on tv.
On a realated note and something which have already been said (haven't read the entire thread here)...
Does anyone remember the Ameritech/other phone company ad for a phone book? It has a bunch of nerds sitting around playing a generic RPG arguing over something, and then the screen goes blank and a phone book drops onto the blank screen while an announcer says "Dating Service?"
Not quite sure if i remember the ad correctly...
reapersaurus
Explorer
That is SO incredibly offensive, if that's true.Trevalon Moonleirion said:
They wouldn't even THINK of plopping the phone book down and saying "Dating Service" if it was a group of dudes around a friggin' TV, watching a dull ball game.
William Ronald
Explorer
Ameritech Commercial
Actually, I sent Ameritech an e-mail complaining about an inaccurate stereotype. (Most people in my group date when they have money. One or two have love lives that are VERY active.)
Naturally, they ignored me. I mentioned it on Eric's old boards but some people in the community here thought I was over reacting.
Besides, my group does not need a dating service. WE NEED CAFFEINE WHEN WE PLAY UNTIL 5 AM.!!!
Actually, I sent Ameritech an e-mail complaining about an inaccurate stereotype. (Most people in my group date when they have money. One or two have love lives that are VERY active.)
Naturally, they ignored me. I mentioned it on Eric's old boards but some people in the community here thought I was over reacting.
Besides, my group does not need a dating service. WE NEED CAFFEINE WHEN WE PLAY UNTIL 5 AM.!!!
Ristamar said:
Yes, I'm quoting myself....
Anyway, I just wanted to clarify something. I realized the wording/tone of this question might've come off as offensive (if so, I apologize), though it wasn't meant to be.
I've noticed in my expereince that younger girls (especially those still in high school) tend to hold the most derision toward tabletop RPG's, hence my inquiry about her age...
Similar Threads
