is Dungeons and Dragons still Lame

[Rechan]

He also wrote a book on the subject... he's had more to say since, but it's within other articles and I'm not going to link them all.

Yeah, but he's all but irrelevant. The guy can rail away on his website all he likes.

 

[adembroski]

Jack Chick. And he really hasn't had anything to say about gaming since Dark Dungeons came out a long time ago. He's not really at the vanguard of the anti-D&D movement. In fact, I don't think that there is an anti-D&D movement anymore.

Not in the '80s sense, but it's still out there. I've had to defend the game to Christians on a number of occasions (ironically, usually in a bar).

 

[Wolfspider]

Let's all listen to the 'Cat, folks. He is wise.

 

[WayneLigon]

Yeah. With The Internet, Harry Potter, the Golden Compass, Goth Music, learning certain things in schools, Cable TV, etc etc, D&D is really on the bottom of "Things you don't want your kids doing".

The 80s was a different time.

Then, as now, it was a paper tiger. After several years, I think we've waaay overblown the influence the 80's anti-D&D stuff had on the hobby and on the public in general.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Your brother is not cool.

 

[Shimrath]

His response

Dungeons and Dragons is lame and it always will be. No matter what they do to it normal people aren't going to play the game because it has changed a few things.

Hey! I'm normal.

Sort of.

 

[Incenjucar]

The advantage most other activities have over D&D is that they are much better for networking and showing off known-to-be-valuable prowess.

RPGs are very unlikely to make you any money or increase your status, because you are usually isolating yourself with people you already know, over and over again, and so they have very little visible value outside of themselves.

Other activities, even, now, video games, thanks to online play, are more likely to provide for valuable networking.

RPGs are also much more difficult to pick up for the average person, which vastly limits their appeal over something that basically holds your hand early on, like WoW.

D&D's value isn't understood by most, and only so many people who play it are actually going to USE what they gain from it, and many of the people who could derive value from it probably have way too much of that kind of stimulus as is. It has a fairly limited spectrum, so it's patently difficult to attach any prestige to it.

On the plus side, it's not stigmatized so much anymore that an individual who is otherwise respectable has to hide it.

--

Also: If you look at demographic data, you will quickly notice that "normal" is not a compliment.

 

[Warbringer]

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?

You work for T-Mobile?

Re "lame"... the problem is that any variation of DnD will remain old school in that it is still a pnp game in a world of interactive imagination based games (which, it helped spawn). But, in the same way that manga and comic novel format has replaced the novella as a tool for delivering imaginative stories in a short format, DnD is being supplanted by MMO.

Now, I don't mean to start a flame war, I simply mean that as an avenue for attracting a new generation of " beating up a monster at the end of a hard week's study/work", jumping online is easier. DDO is meant to help steer towards this, but we will see.

so lame? yeah, in that's it's the game that my Dad and Grandad play

 

[Zoatebix]

Hey, RPGs get a short chapter in the fabulous Dangerous Book for Boys. Moreover, the chapter really only talks about D&D...

 

[Spinachcat]

Once you stop giving a damn what other people think and start doing what you love without worry, you will find life is much more fun.

I can't imagine anything more lame than watching sports or reality TV or playing MMOs with nothing but grind. However, if that's what someone enjoys, that's cool with me. As for me, I will keep playing RPGs and having an awesome time.

BTW, the fun secret is that once you stop giving a damn what other people may think and start doing what you love without worry, you will also make more money...which also makes life more fun.

Life is short. Game hard.