is Dungeons and Dragons still Lame

[Rechan]

And that stuck with me: we all have something that's different and odd about it, and I've found that the people who seem to have the least of it are actually dealing with the biggest issues.

Well, usually the biggest issue of those who have nothing odd about them boils down to "Slave to conformity".

 

[helium3]

Watch one episode of "Real Housewives of Orange County" if you can bear it. "Being cool" has resulted in lots of really goofy rich dudes wearing clothes that someone half their age *might* be able to pull off and has driven sales of Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and tons of other high end sports car brands for decades.

Err, I hate to break it to you, but the tv show you're referring to is (a) a tv show and thus by definition a slave to "cool" and (b) a tv show set in an area of the country that's notoriously obsessed with "cool."

I'm not saying that cool doesn't matter, I just think that once you're out of high school and maybe your early 20's at the latest, a lot more things factor into how people perceive you than whether or not you play D&D, unless you allow D&D to become the thing that defines you.

 

[Mallus]

Let's get something straight: D&D will always be lame, unlike smoking, for instance, which will always be cool. That's just the way it is. Which isn't to say you should put down your d20 and pick up a pack of Lucky Strikes...

(BTW, I'm entering my 2nd year as a smoke-free gamer. Wish me luck.)

 

[Steely Dan]

A lot of this has to do with American perception, over here in the UK, and Europe in general, D&D/RPGs/role-playing etc is looked at/considered just another one of many, many eccentric hobbies.

 

[Steely Dan]

(BTW, I'm entering my 2nd year as a smoke-free gamer. Wish me luck.)

Good luck!

I'm still smoking, but only socially, but of course even that is too much, so wish me luck next year to stop this nonsense all together.

 

[fuindordm]

I think it has an air of "lame", yes. Those of my co-workers who don't play it (the majority) snicker about those co-workers who do play it (five or six that I know of, including two managers). The thing is, I work at a call center where everybody is a bonifed geek of some kind, so it always gets me when the girl whose cube is slathered in collectible Star Trek pin-ups or the guys who has a Conan desktop wallpaper sneers at D&D players. I mean, really -- are they any less lame?

Exactly. And then in the larger society you have the fantasy football "jocks", the birdwatchers, the coin collectors... each equally obsessive, in their own way, about a niche interest. At least we can point out that unlike many other hobbies, D&D is inherently a social game.

Ben

BTW, the phrase is "bona fide"

 

[JDJblatherings]

laughs at the lines of costumed nerds camped outside of the theatres to see Star Wars. Trekkies get it too.

I certainly point and laugh whenever I pass such a group. Been to two Star Trek opening nights myself and for some strange reason I was able to get despite my wearing of normal street clothes. The whole costuming portion of nerd culture baffles me whenever it isn't actually a costume event.

One fellow turned up in costume to a regularly scheduled D&D game (which he himself had been attending for 6 motnhs or so) in costume, we all did the sensible thing - we laughed and ridiculed him. He would have gotten the same reaction if he showed up in a tux or painted in his favorite team colors some places are costume places and others are not.

 

[JDJblatherings]

For ease, I'll take an example from this very thread: up above, Rechan mentions a stereotype of SCA fighting, "the SCA 'I use foam weapons to beat my friends up, drink beer and yell about wenches' guy".

Let us note that SCA weapons are not foam, nor even padded. They are, for our intents, solid chunks of wood. In terms of how you think about the SCA overall, does the difference between whacking each other with foam or with the equivalent of baseball bats matter much?

foam weapons are hell of a lot more fun: less broken toes, fingers, rib,arms and jaws.

 

[Mallus]

Good luck!

Thanks!

I'm still smoking, but only socially, but of course even that is too much, so wish me luck next year to stop this nonsense all together.

As long as it's not a pack a day it's progress! And good luck quitting (more) in 2008.

 

[Umbran]

we all did the sensible thing - we laughed and ridiculed him.

Alas that our culture finds it appropriate to ridicule personal expression.