Is this gaming product too offensive or merely funny?

[Mark]

...all good satires pi** somebody off.

piss


Right? Did I guess it?

 

[Mark]

Double-post

 

[jdrakeh]

Yea, gamers are doofs

...uh...wait...THAT'S ME!

Now I'm confused - were you trying to teach me a lesson about generalizations? For some reason when I first read this I figured you were talking about OTHER gamers. Hmmmm. I need to think about this.

Oh, I meant gamers in general (myself included). But seriously, I found it ironic (and perhaps a bit telling) that a thread decrying a satirical work should occur on the same forums where TBoEF (a dirty book not intended as satire) was drooled over for a fairly lengthy period of time. it made me stop to think "Hey! Maybe we are clueless doofs!" .

 

[Particle_Man]

There is. It's been alluded to on the WotC threads, but I'll post it barefaced here.

The PrCs in the web enhancement make fun of gamer stereotypes. They do not make fun of general populace stereotypes. Thus, there is a difference between your putative "Jewish Avenger" PrC and the pdf's "Overweight LARP Chick" PrC.

I think that the third class in the Web Enhancement (making fun of the "butch lesbian") is pretty much a "general populace" stereotype.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Mod's can delete people? Like, *poof* they never existed? Wow. I wanna be a moderator...

They crack down on alot more stuff than the mods do here. Give it time and it'll be locked down for sure, probably by Wizo Sith. He's a hardass but he's pretty cool.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

I thought it was funny, in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. If there was anything offensive there, it was SO minor that I didn't bat an eye, and neither did my wife. It's not worth purchasing, but that's just because it's useless in a real game.

I don't see how it is actually relevant to the game. More as a "dig" at us women gamers.

 

[GRIMJIM]

Crossposted from RPGnet, since you've seen fit to post this EVERYWHERE

If I, as the writer, might make an observation?

How many of you have actually purchased, or read, the entire book? Either in PDF or hardcopy form, either will do?

Or are you basing this entire razzamatazz on that PDF extension/addition of cut material?

The Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers has been beset by overly touchy idiocy since it was first announced and if anyone is passing judgement based purely on that pdf then they need a metaphorical slap round the chops.

You don't judge all of Airplane! by the jiggling during the panic scene or Lord of the Rings by Tom-bloody-Bombadil.

There was mention of it being no more offensive than a book taking the piss out of Catpiss man or other male stereotypes and, in fact, that would be redundant since this IS that book.

While writing it I deemed it to be a lot safer, and marketable for that matter, to use the material to whale on the already established and accepted 'Gamers stink and don't understand girls' stereotype and, if you examine the book as a _whole_ that's what it does.

Even these fragments, removed from their context, should contain enough clues for someone to work out. What IS the misogynists view of women? Princesses, lesbians or sluts and those are also the unimaginative archetypes of many an NPC. The idolised princess, the tavern wench or the warrioress whose only real interest is the sword.

The entire humour of the book exists on a 'meta' level that these could be attitudes and beliefs held by socially retarded Catpiss men numbskulls.

If you HAVE actually read the book, the full thing, and remain offended. Cool, fine, dandy, humour is individual and some people will never get it, others will. I signed an awful lot of copies for (mostly) women a couple of UK GenCon's ago and they all got it. Its gratifying to see people appreciate what you do.

Oh, and the earlier silliness? US distributors were concerned that it was, literally, going to be a guide for killing women. *eyeroll*

Oh, and that's why, incidentally, this 'stronger stuff' ended up as a web enhancement rather than in the main book. At least partially.

If you want to read the WHOLE THING and make an INFORMED DECISION you can get the book on PDF here...

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info....oducts_id=2117&

And no, I don't get any more money for it now, its just when people have a go at my work I like them to have all the facts.

 

[GRIMJIM]

I thought it was funny, in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. If there was anything offensive there, it was SO minor that I didn't bat an eye, and neither did my wife. It's not worth purchasing, but that's just because it's useless in a real game.

This is the part that never ceases to amaze me, people buying humour products (outside of Paranoia maybe) and expecting them to have some kind of real use in their games.

That's been the reason given for a few poor reviews over on RPGnow.

That's like watching The Simpsons and then complaining "Well, that was NO substitute for Family Counselling AT ALL!"

 

[wingsandsword]

It's a satire, and while not outrageously funny, it is amusing. The gamers I know all make fun of the stereotypes, including the ones they fit into, we've got to be able to laugh at ourselves. I can think of people who could fit into those stereotypes easily, and I laugh at those descriptions when thinking of them.

Chill out, this is nothing to get that worked up over, especially since that book has been out for years, is almost certainly out-of-print, and was meant to be a satirical work to begin with. The best satire always gets people upset (usually the people being satirized).

 

[GRIMJIM]

A thread at WOTC messageboards describes a Web Enhancement for Mongoose's "Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers" that I personally think crosses the line. To the point that I have written Mongoose and told them so, and that I won't buy stuff from them.

I have been called overly politically correct on that thread. I was wondering what you guys thought. In their defence, it was intended to be humourous.

Here is the link to the thread discussing this:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=6083464#post6083464

Here is the relevant pdf web enhancement

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/female_gamers_web_enhancement.pdf

And here is someone you can write to about it:

sales@mongoosepublishing.com

Is this posted on any OTHER forums I need to go to, to defend my work?
Too late for the Wizard's one since the thread was locked, but it'd be nice to know...