"It's just a game."

Umbran · Oct 1, 2005

For me, it is a dedicated hobby, and it is also just a game. The two are hardly mutually exclusive.

genshou · Oct 1, 2005

Peter said:
Yikes, your Majesty!

You ought to hear this:
http://wowseriousbusiness.ytmnd.com/ "you stole my Cloudsong" - not exactly a roleplaying game thing but very close. (I guess I should warn that this is a very harsh soundclip of a DAOC player going psycho over something that happened in-game).

Actually I never quite reached this point (I'm a 3, always have been), but I had a girlfriend who did, and it was quite awful. Right when Amber came out I had gotten us invited to an Amber Diceless game that was going on with some people I only knew slightly. So we showed up, and the game commenced. But at one point there was some kind of in-character confrontation, and apparently girlfriend (who had kind of a borderline personality to begin with) started getting really angry and nasty.. and it ended with her yelling and screaming at the hosts, and me trying to apologize my way out of the situaion. And us leaving.

That was the absolute worst situaion I have ever been in involving gaming. My reputation around the gaming store where I met these people was kinda ruined, and the story of the really out of control person who was a guest and acted like a total psycho became a kind of legend.

Sadly, these kinds of gamers exist. I pity them.

I've played with people who get this worked up about D&D games. They usually only lasted half a game session without exploding, after which we said goodbye to them, took a break, and all had a good laugh for a while before getting back to the game. The death threats are the best... especially when you know the person isn't tough enough to even begin to live up to them.

Remember, it's just a [self-censored to save EN World the trouble]ing cloudsong!

Angel Tarragon · Oct 1, 2005

Back in the days of 2nd Edition, I used to live and breathe DnD. It consumed my every thought. Now I just look at it like a dedicated hobby.

Jdvn1 · Oct 1, 2005

It's a hobby, but not an integral part of my life. It's just a game. I can do without hobbies, if need be.

TheGM · Oct 1, 2005

davidschwartznz said:
I would have said 2 or 3, but since I've started freelancing it's moved up to a 4. Fortunately, I have other hobbies to keep it from being a 5.

What he said. Th eopportunities started piling in, and my wife and all three children play, and it is a major part of my life at this point. Not a day goes by that I'm not working on a game, a supplement, playing a game, or talking about it with my family.

Probably won't last forever, but it's fun right now!

Bront · Oct 1, 2005

Jdvn1 said:
It's a hobby, but not an integral part of my life. It's just a game. I can do without hobbies, if need be.

Generaly, while I can do without hobbies for a little while, ignoring them for too long to be detrimental. I do this to relax and relieve stress, so it's not something I can not do for an extended period of time.

The PbP forums help a lot with that though.

tetsujin28 · Oct 1, 2005

You don't have, "Dedicated hobby, like X-box or Monopoly". I'm no more (or less) dedicated to it than I am to miniatures wargaming or sports.

Xath · Oct 1, 2005

For me, it depends on the individual game.

There have been some games which have been only a 1; games that were set up just to pass the time, and involved no real effort.

Then there have been games which have been 4's; games where I spent at least 4 hours a day working on them (not as the GM). You tend to get a bit more attached to games like that.

I'm A Banana · Oct 2, 2005

I do think the numbers are going to be significantly skewed in the result, because this IS a message board dedicated to discussing d20 and other RPG's. If it wasn't a significant portion of any of our lives, we wouldn't be here posting about it, that's for sure.

It is my favorite game of all time. And though I voted 1, because I work at designing games, it really occupies a lot more of my time and life than that answer would indicate. I spend hours every day on it, in general.

However, I'm under no delusions that this is somehow a work of artistic integrity or a lasting cultural imprint (not as it currently exists, anyway). It is a creative outlet, but one that only really has a significance to my players and I, not in the greater cultural melieu. So it is a game -- it is something my friends and I enjoy doing that doesn't really affect anyone outside of my friends, and has no lasting impact on the world at large. It is fun, it is fluff, it is disposable, changable, and temporary.

Now, for me, fun is serious business. I want people to get as much enjoyment out of their four hours a week as possible. I design games with that in mind. So I work hard at D&D. But that's work. D&D itself is just the game.