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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DethStryke" data-source="post: 2750177" data-attributes="member: 1309">My two cents, as they were, is to reflect on why a possible majority (read: 51%) or at the very least the vocal minority of those who play Role-Playing Games are egotistical, verbally abusive and socially retarded:As mentioned before by others, and what I find to be true, is that people who play role-playing games tend to be unpopular people in social circles in the big picture. Being popular in the Physics club in school is exactly the opposite of that. I'm talking about not having a girlfriend, not being invited to parties (whether you like to go to them is another thing altogether), etc. Mind you, these are the crowds of people (children and teens) that do not participate in sports as a general rule. Their strengths are not in the physical arena. They are strong in the mental arena. These are artists, math majors, and other creative / technical backgrounds.Social stigmas of not being popular or athlectic are hard to overcome. Those who are made fun of because they can't do ten chin-ups in gym class usually act out the same abuse to those who cannot work with imaginary integers or whatever in reverse. They find their strong suit and build pride (baseless or not) in that strength. At some point in their life, they are shown the unforgiving lesson that if you are strong in something, you should attack those who are not like/as strong as you. This is wrong, but without context or explination, this is what is learned at an age where anything makes sense.Now, taking that person with pride (regardless of justification) and removing them from helpful situations where they can learn from their mistakes in regards to social interaction (if you're made fun off all the time when you do "Task A" you will probably not try to do "Task A" as much as possible) results in someone who is prideful and will act out aggressions on anyone who challenges their domination of strength (whether actual or percieved).This shows up in the nerd who acts like a bully at the D&D table just like the jock who acts like a bully to the nerds at school. In the former, no one notices because they are probably really quiet any other time. Their thoughts and how they express themselves are not noticed to anyone who doesn't really bother to get to know them (or game with them, as the case may be). In the latter, those with superior skill at what is considered socially important (i.e. football, baseball, simply "being popular") are sometimes allowed greater lieniency and do not get reprimanded as they should for these "harmless" teasings.Mind you, this is all in the broad stroke mindset. While there are certainly exceptions to these "rules" (and I use the term loosely) and there will always be, this seems to cover 90% of the similar experiences that I have had and many of my friends. That's alot of tables, mind you, as the sample crowd covers twenty-six-plus years of groups and conventions in a six state area.I tried not to write a book like Edena. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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