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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 202905" data-attributes="member: 99">Very interesting topic, Sodalis.  What follows is likely going to be fairly "stream of consciousness" without much actual point, but you are welcome to it.I imagine that if there is some kind of multi-axis bell curve along which gamers fall, I'm right in the middle somewhere.I consider myself geeky in that I am a sci-fi/fantasy fan.  I like Star Wars, Star Trek, computer games and, of course, RPG's.  But I don't consider myself to be an extreme geek.  I have a lot going on in my life besides those things as well.  I find that I have a mild disdain for those who fall to the extremes of this spectrum.  When I see the pasty-white, overweight guy at the gaming store who never seems to have anything to talk about besides gaming, I feel sort of sad for him (I don't think this is one of my better attributes but I'm just being honest.).By the same token however, I also feel a mild disdain and pity for the opposite extreme:  The person who has no fantasy in their life at all.  I have talked to many folks who say that gaming (RPG's, computer games and even board games) are "kid stuff" and not worth bothering with.  Many of them don't even read except for the newspaper.  They are far too wrapped up with what is going on in the "real world" to give any credence to the idea of "playing make believe."  I think this is at least as sad as the opposite extreme.On the axis that represents appearance, I am right in the middle again.  I have never been a heavy metal fan and don't own any Metalica t-shirts but if I did, they would hardly constitute the entirety of my wardrobe (I am well aware that this is an overused stereotype.).  But I don't wear a lot of suits and ties either.  My job requires that I wear dressy/casual clothes and when I'm not there, I am pretty much a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy.I am not fastidious about my appearance and you can find me on the computer in my underwear fairly late on a Saturday afternoon if my wife and daughter are out of town.  But if I'm going to someone else's house for any purpose other than doing heavy yard work, I'll be showered and deoderized (but probably not shaved on the weekend).As far as any feelings of superiority go in this category, I would not want to game with anybody who stank or went naked.  Other than that, I don't see that someone's outward appearance has a lot to do with my desire to game with them.Socially, I have never been the type to go clubbing every weekend and I was never the most popular guy in school.  But I always had plenty of social contact.  I had a semi-steady string of dates/girlfriends until I met my wife and I don't feel like my gaming habits either enhanced or limited the pool of girls who would date me.Most of the gang that I do game with are VERY long time friends (some I've known for over 20 years).  They are all pretty close to my location on the bell curve too.  They are moderately geeky, moderately decent looking and moderately social.  Most have wives or girlfriends too.Interestingly, most of the wives and girlfriends of the guys I play with have at least tried out gaming once or twice and some (including my wife) have played regularly in the past.  The all regard the hobby as more or less geeky but don't seem to have a terribly bad opinion of it.  Some do occasionally complain that it takes up too much of our time (we play once a week on Tuesdays but we tend to talk about our current campaign when we see each other socially).As far as how "out" I am about gaming, again, I'm a moderate.  I don't tend to spout off to the folks I work with about my Wizard's spell selection.  But when they ask if I caught "The Mole II" on TV last night, I reply that I missed it because I was "gaming".  If they want to ask more questions about it, I'll be happy to elaborate but I try and stay away from too much detail because I think it bores non-gamers.I'm even a moderate when it comes to what games I play.  I think that almost all game systems have their merits, even though some have more merit than others.  I think that the biggest factor in gaming is what the players and GM bring to the game.  I don't think that all White Wolf games are too "Roleplaying heavy" as I've seen some contend and I've run some damn fine Mage campaings if I do say so myself.  I also used to heavily frequent a message board for Rolemaster (I co-authored one of the books for that system) and I didn't like seeing them bash D&D for being overly simplistic and rigid.So, I guess I never realized how boringly moderate I am in my views on so many aspects of gaming.  At the heart of the matter I think that the hobby would be better received if more people were located toward the center of the spectrum.  But I also don't think that anybody out there should feel obligated to dress better or take more frequent showers because "they owe it to our hobby".  I am very libertarian minded and I don't think that my way should be the only way.  I say do whatever works for you.On the other hand, don't expect for society to bend over backwards to include you either.  If you spend 14 hours a day gaming in your basement (God, I wish I could do that sometimes) don't complain that you aren't getting any dates because society is excluding you.  If you want to date supermodels, I'd say you ought to go get a tan, hit the gym, take a shower and dress up nice.  But maybe you'd be better off just to take the shower, throw on the Metalica t-shirt and go snag yourself a gamer girl at the local con.  You'll probably be happier in the long run if you'll just be yourself, even if you are somewhat of a geek.  Like me.I hope that some of that was helpful and that I didn't offend everybody.  If I offended a few of you, that's a fairly moderate sort of thing, wouldn't you say? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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