Life and the Game

[El Mahdi]

Well technically, right now I'm just retired. (At age 40 no less! Sweeet!) But you really can't live forever on a military retirement without working at something, so I guess the party will have to end eventually.




I've had a number of different professions, and marked them all.

• 21 years military (The Profession of Arms. Hoo-rah!)
• My military specialty was Aircraft Avionics - a technical career.
• From 1994 on I've been a Non Commissioned Officer - mid-level management.
• Since I was 12 I've been a drummer, and although I haven't made a lot of money at it, I have made some (but I mostly do it for fun) - musician.

But currently, I'm just enjoying being retired. However, I'll be starting school this fall (3 cheers for the G. I. Bill). My goal is to be a high school math/science teacher.



When I first started playing D&D (in 1994) the only people I knew who played were all Tech types (Avionics Technicians - or in Air Force parlance: Pointy Heads and Spark Chasers). While I was stationed in Korea, the people I met who played D&D were probably about 70% Tech people, 30% mechanical guys (knuckle dragging crew chiefs - APG). The last group and base I gamed at was probably about 50/50 technical and mechanical types, with a nurse (my wife), one administration/managmement type, and one psycho housewife. My current group has me (currently lazy...erm...Retired), a nurse (my wife), and a teacher for deaf children (my wifes cousin).


edit: Oooops, I forgot dishwasher (high school), and the other default career of everyone who's ever been in the military: Janitorial Specialist.

 

[pawsplay]

The voting in more than one category thing will make it hard it to interpret the final numbers.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

HardcoreDandDGirl wrote:
I too am unsure how to put myself in here. I am currently a part time waitress and a part time Security guard (yes they let a 120lbs girl call herself a guard) who about once every other month bartends one Saturday night.

Why isn’t loser an option???

This describes most of my hospitality career too (not the security guard work though.) One of the things about hospitality I hated was the uncertain nature of the work. If I may give some advice, don't call yourself a 'loser,' mate. It's just the industry in which you're currently employed is notorious for the sporadic nature of its work. That's not your fault. It's also notorious for lousy pay and conditions. Again: not your fault. And don't think you're a loser because you're having trouble identifying/getting into a field you prefer. Career change is freakin hard. Especially if it's 'upwards*.' Trust me, I know.

Cheers mate,
Glen.


*By which I mean from an industry that is preceived as having lower social standing/skill requirements to one with higher perceived social standing/skill requirements.

 

[Jack7]

Right now I am a chicken, duck, geese, turkey, and goat farmer.

I've been in the Navy as a Missile Technician on SSBN's
I've been a High School Science Teacher
I've owned and ran and did a (cut, cabbed, carved and cast) gemstones and jewelry business for about 8 years.
I've worked in construction, doing walls, roofs, plumbing, etc...

Yeah, I think that's a good point TB.

If someone had made a film about me as a gamer in my teenage years, versus one of me in college, or me in my twenties, versus me now (with kids and a wife and so forth), or had made a film correlating my other interests with my gaming interests (and for about 15 to 20 years I didn't play much at all - and now I play about once every two weeks to a month, when as a kid I played every week), then each one of those films would have been very different from each other.

Also you gotta consider that people game to different degrees and at different levels of intensity, in different ways, and using different methods, and with different interests. I'm sure that what you're doing other than gaming effects your RP gaming, and vice versa.

 

[Jack7]

The voting in more than one category thing will make it hard it to interpret the final numbers.

Yeah, but I'm looking at it more, especially since it is on the internet, not as hard-numbers data analysis but more as an anecdotal psychological assessment of how gamers self-analyze their hobby interests in relation to their professional and other interests.

I wouldn't wanna make any bets on real accuracy though.

Or, I'm not approaching this as a Geek project, but as a Nerd project.

 

[Gothmog]

I have a PhD in Neuroscience, and I'm currently a professor at a university. My job mostly involves academia and teaching, with some research I'm doing on pleuropotent (embryonic) stem cells, and on the neurotoxicolgy of poison dart frogs.

 

[caudor]

Right now, I'm a full-time care giver for my five-year-old grandson. I love this job.

In the past, I worked in technology (email administrator/programmer/network admin).

 

[Treebore]

Yeah, I think that's a good point TB.

If someone had made a film about me as a gamer in my teenage years, versus one of me in college, or me in my twenties, versus me now (with kids and a wife and so forth), or had made a film correlating my other interests with my gaming interests (and for about 15 to 20 years I didn't play much at all - and now I play about once every two weeks to a month, when as a kid I played every week), then each one of those films would have been very different from each other.

Also you gotta consider that people game to different degrees and at different levels of intensity, in different ways, and using different methods, and with different interests. I'm sure that what you're doing other than gaming effects your RP gaming, and vice versa.

Yeah, I started gaming when I was in the Navy. I did construction, and lumber jacking, before I went in the Navy and starting playing RPG's. I've gamed pretty much non stop since I started gaming though. Heck, I am playing more now than ever before. Games every day of the week except Wed.

 

[wedgeski]

I'm a software engineer (now manager, meh), and have been for pretty much all of my professional life. In my younger days I have served ice cream and assembled badges, mostly not at the same time. In terms of corellation between work and gaming, I've often considered whether I should have sought a job that allowed me a more creative outlet than the purely puzzle-solving nature of computer programming. All of my dream jobs are artistic in some form or other.

 

[Jack7]

Wedge, that's a correlation I really hadn't considered. It's a good observation. The possible correlation between desired or ideal occupation (in real life), and real world gaming interest(s). Do modern gamers tend to 1) gravitate towards one type of real world occupation over another (for instance I suspected by having observed the conversations of others that more people at this site would likely have science and technologlogy oriented jobs than any other, more Geek than Nerd jobs - because I suspect that at this site at least there are more Geeks than Nerds, and I also suspected few if any would have religious vocations as an occupation, though I personally know pastors and missionaries who rpg game), and 2) do gamers, in general, tend to want to have one kind of occupation over another, but for whatever reason, they have never pursued such an occupation.


And of course I've wondered about the correlation between real world occupations and what a player tends to choose to play in-game as far as a character class. Character classes aren't really classes at all, but really they are occupations or professions. So I've wondered if in-game people play either a.) what they naturally feel is most like themselves in real life as far as profession or class (my tendency), or b.) what they would like to be ideally in regards to a profession.

For that matter why do people game, or more specifically, what is it about gaming that people are out to pursue? The game, or any hobby or avocation can take up a lot of time and energy. Therefore what are they wanting or hoping to achieve in relation to the real world by pursuing any particular kind of avocational activity?

That kinda stuff interests me.
Because I think it says something not only about a person's psychological makeup and interest as they are, but as the person would like them to be.

Of course you might also say, "what type or types of people are most likely to become rpg gamers?" and what does that demonstrate (if anything directly) about their other interests and activities?