Have gamers ever been tolerant?

[Tiefling]

Ever since I've first visited these boards, and therefore been exposed to gamers in any real number, I've noticed that there seems to be rampant eliticism among many people who consider themselves "role-players," directed against those they consider to be "power-gamers," or to use that wretched, discriminatory term, "munchkins". Such elitists believe that their way of playing is more mature than, more intelligent than, and generally superior to the immature, unintelligent, and generally inferior power-gamers. I don't believe that these people represent the majority of role-players, but they certainly seem like a vocal group, even though the ENBoards probably harbor fewer of them than other communities throughout the internet/world.

Personally I find myself drawn more to role-playing than to power-gaming, but I have always prided myself on my belief that all styles of gaming are equally mature and intelligent, even if I don't personally enjoy all of them.

I am young and relatively new to gaming, so my question is this: how long did it take after gamers first differentiated between role-playing and power-gaming for these elitists to crop up? Were they there from the beginning? Or was there ever a time when all gamers lived in a sort of "utopia," where everyone was tolerant of everyone else's tastes? And if so, what caused the change?

 

[Nightfall]

Tief, I just want players to play in the Scarred Lands. Power gamers, role player. They all end up one of two ways. Still breathing, or not!

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Anytime you get more than twelve people in a room, folks start pointing out differences. It doesn't mean anything other than people like to squabble.

This doesn't mean we're a pack of jerks. It just means we have opinions. Maybe you like gnomes. I don't! Maybe someone else likes rolling dice more than pretending to be an imaginary person. Hey, let's discuss it! That's what these forums are for. Maybe we'll reach a conclusion, maybe we'll agree to disagree. But the most important thing is that we exchange views.

Ultimately, I don't care what your play style is. If you're a gamer, you're good by me.

 

[spunky_mutters]

I like to role-play munchkins.

 

[Crothian]

I perfer role playing and I've expressed a few opions on power gaming and other realted topics, but I still help them out in the rules forum or the House rules forum when asked. In the group I'm in we have both types, and that's nothing new.

 

[rounser]

It's not gamers, it's people. Look at the worlds of literature and music, and you'll see the same elitism, accusations of unsophistication and lack of merit, childishness and snobbiness.

It's nothing unique to gamers - it's people being people.

 

[Wormwood]

To be fair, this place is a hippie love-fest compared to other RPG-related forums, not to mention Usenet.

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

I started roleplaying in 1982/3. The term "power-gamer" existed then. It was used with snobbery against me a lot.

"Munchkin" I first heard about in an editorial by Gary Gygax in Dragon magazine about two years ago. It's not a term that was common in the Australian gaming community prior to that.

(NB. since I started playing at the age of twelve and was despised by all the "serious, adult gamers", I consider myself a first generation munchkin - and damn proud!)

Power-gamers can be snobs too. You see it whenever someone says "Monks (bards etc) are dumb because they (can't fight; can't fly; can't cook cordon bleu etc)..."

IME power-gamers tend to insult roleplayers inadvertantly while roleplayers resort to ivory tower snobbery to justify their non-"power-gamer" choices.

I must admit it's not too bad here at ENWorld. I jumped off the DND-List because I got sick of being told I was stupid. And all of this is nowhere near as bad as the "Dice are dead!" White Wolf zealots in the early 'nineties.

 

[Churchill]

Cliques

It seems to me - being a comic reader/collector and a fantasy/SF fan as well as a gamer - that opinions become more extreme the less "socially accepted" the hobby is.

There's rampant elitism in all three of the things I mentioned, and I attribute that to a need to justify what we enjoy. We like to think that EVERYone would like what we like (books, comics, games) if they were exposed to the right stuff.

Because of that, when we see people playing our favorite game "wrong" (or reading the "wrong" books, etc.), then we have a tendency to blame them for the failure of what we love to garner a larger audience (or gain popular acceptence).

Then again, I could be wrong.

 

[Wormwood]

And all of this is nowhere near as bad as the "Dice are dead!" White Wolf zealots in the early 'nineties.

I used to love being called a 'dungeon-crawling ROLL player' by folks with the words 'celerity' and '8th generation' written on their sheets.