Lord of the Hackers: lame NYT article

[RogueJK]

I'm not trying to be mean or harsh, but most people, especially intellectuals such as writers and newspaper editors, tend to take letters more seriously when proper spelling and grammar are used.

I understand that many people aren't that great at these things, so you might consider (for next time) letting someone proofread your emails before submitting them. I find that if you type your message into a word processor which has the ability to check spelling, such as Microsoft Word, you can catch most of the major errors beforehand. Then, it's just a matter of copying and pasting your text into an email.

It's easy for people to dismiss somebody else's comments when improper grammar is used and words are misspelled. Also, it's proper form to sign your "serious" emails, such as letters to the editor of a newspaper, with your real name, as opposed to your online nickname.

That said, I'm glad that you feel strongly enough about this to write the editor, and I applaud your willingness to speak out. The world needs more people who aren't afraid to speak their mind. I've found that the gaming community is more willing to voice their opinions than most other groups out there, which is a credit to us. Keep up the good work, guys!

 

[FungiMuncher]

Tolkien's Middle Earth and the world of the computer screen leave little room for ambiguity, ambivalence or contradiction. But the real world demands that we be comfortable with them.

My thoughts: She has never really known any gamers or techies. These folks (and I include myself) are the most frequently ambiguous, ambivilent and contradictory people I know. I mean that as a positive! Their ability of percieving the real world goes much deeper than the stereotype. That perception is just not always effectively experessed.

Sure, when we seek entertainment, it's simplified, but then, most entertainment is.

FM

 

[DMaple]

red mage said
But the assertion that the games are for computer geeks
by computer geeks is dead wrong....

And your assertion that she made such an assertion is wrong. She never mentions computer geeks once.

....I personally don't believe that she read any of these authors either but took her 10 year old girl to go see the movie and decided that the movie was bad an thought to write a slanderous article about it....

Yet she refers to a film that you say she thinks is bad as... "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a brainy and beautiful film".

and for someone that "slanders" role-playing (that's Roleplaying not "Roll playing") she refers to it as "...into hugely popular (and eduring) role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons".

Did you even read the article?

 

[Rashak Mani]

Just as a footnote... you guys do know that reporters have to publish stuff not check it out ? They do it here in Brazil, in the US and everywhere else. They have commitements with timetables not necessarily the truth. That may be a generalization but thats exactly what the article was about... generalizing.

If people want to hear about RPGs being made for geeks they will do so...

Makes complaining about it that much more important... scares the bottom line mentality they have. Pity that they should splat on newpapers opinions like that... even thou many or most players are geeks and computer users.

 

[Darklone]

Hmm

Sadly I cannot comment on the NYT article since I am not able to read it due to some strange graphic problems these days... gonna try if I get the newspaper oldfashioned at the station later (here in Germany)

About the rebuttal... I agree that grammatical problems and spelling errors will spoil a lot. And not even spellchecks will help if you mix up "than " and "then" or "there" and "their".

You wrote quite aggressive. That's another thing what will keep anyone from thinking about what you wrote. You write very well, better than I could probably write as non native English speaker, but those guys will probably ignore such letters as ranting no matter if you're wrong or right.

What about using irony and cynism or sarcasm a bit more instead insulting the author in a similar way she used? It's more funny and eloquent. And it forces them to think about the letter and shows that you are not doing the same mistakes and don't take her seriously.

Roleplayers are often accused of strange things. Laugh about it. It's still the best way to show your teeth to your enemies.

 

[Bonedagger]

By Sherry Turkle:
Our fascination with Tolkien's work says more about us than it does about Tolkien.

Great 'Einstein'. You just discovered that everything is relative.

I get the feeling that she just want attention.

 

[Wicht]

I failed to find the article that offensive, but I also failed to see much point to it. She is of course wrong about the reason computer programmers enjoy Tolkien and about computer games spawning DnD. It was the other way around. But after reading the whole article, taking into account the factual errors she had I was left with a big, "So what?" It was one of those stories that seemed a mere filler of space than one that had anything it was really trying to say.

 

[Darklone]

Re Wicht

Right Wicht, but I still love to pull jokes about nonsense people write

 

[V-2]

A couple of things:

I posted this article on that Other Site because a cursory read seemed to show there was something valuable in there. On second thought, there isn't, at least not much--but I seem to have different qualms with it than most people. Here's what I disagree with:

Re. women DO play RPGs: Please. Generally speaking, they don't. Dancey cited the latest statistics in one of his recent posts on this site, and IIRC the figure was somewhere below 20%. Yes, you are an exception. Which proves the rule.

Re. men can't write about women coz they're men: And re. Tolkien et al. wrote about the "human conscience": a) What's that? b) Whatever it is, it's male, right?

Now, what I agree with:

I'm not an IT professional, but I've seen a friend of mine designing PC games, and I agree with redmage that the last thing this "computational aesthetic" is is binary. That's just silly. It's complex, multi-layered, and involves constant decision-making on several levels simultaneously. If anything, I find both the designing and the actual playing of computer games way more fascinating than a Tolkien novel.

The second weakness of her argument is the "risk-taking" metaphor. If Turtle (sp?) were right, then how come this board isn't dominated by hackers? Or why doesn't D&D appeal to all those others who take risks on a daily basis: how come so few Wall Street traders are posting here?

So, what I'm saying here is that unlike Turtle (sp?) and her critics I don't see a parallel between programming, computer game desiging/playing and RPGing on one hand, and fantasy novels on the other--I see a discrepancy. Fantasy novels may well be as dull as she says. But the other stuff isn't. What literary critics (and she's being one in that respect) don't get--because they're so fixated on books, and hence will go for the novels first--is that those are possibly the most traditional and conservative part of geek culture. But that's a huge subject...

 

[Thorntangle]

A public service annoucement:

For the love of all that is merciful, do not submit an op-ed piece on gaming that is not peer-reviewed.

Type it up in a word processor with spell and grammar check. Show it to several colleagues, show it to your teacher or show it to EN World. I'm sure that someone will be more than happy to fact-check, edit and polish your comments.

We're trying to get out of a hole rather than dig ourselves deeper.