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Message: <blockquote data-quote="chilibean" data-source="post: 204466" data-attributes="member: 2220">I'm suprised that no one has mentioned the horrible and detestible cartoon that played on Saturday mornings a long time ago.  It just makes me cringe to remember that.  If anything is going to give something bad PR, a TV show like that would do it.  The D&D movie wasn't quite as bad, but still needs to have all the reels of the film collected and melted into slag.People's views of gamers are going to be formed one of 3 ways: first hand knowledge/experience, non-first hand knowledge/experience, or some combination of the two.  My guess is that people who first learn about gaming via first hand knowledge (has a friend who games and told them about it, etc...) tend to view it more favorably than those who first learned of it from the news media.As much as people hate to admit it, people are sheep.  They follow the crowd and tend to believe what is told to them.  If they accept as valid what is told to them (all to often) then they accept it as truth and internalize it as a fact.  Later if challenged on this "fact", they have already made a commitment to one belief set, and would have to admit to themselves they were duped (unpleasant) if they changed their minds.  So they tend to defend their original position, even though it was made based on only 1 side of the story.  I'm not trying to say this happens exclusively and rigidly, but it's more of a trend.  Another subconscious motivating factor is that everyone wants to be accepted (humans are social creatures and naturally want to fit in).  If someone feels that "everyone" thinks gamers are "bad", they will feel pressured to come think the same way.  Not that others will be actively pressuring them very often, but rather as a subtle self-applied pressure to conform.Now to relate this back to the topic, if someone hears from their parents that gamers are devil worshipers, and they see stories on the evening news confirming it, and they feel the disapproving looks from other people when they hear the words mentioned, and hear a sermon at church espousing the evils of gaming, I think they will tend to follow the crowd and disapprove of gamers and gaming.  Likewise, if you have a bunch of friends who all play D&D, and your parents never said boo or raised an eyebrow when you told them your new friend Johnny invited you to a D&D party, then you probably aren't going to have a very negative opinion even if you never went to the D&D game.  Since more people have probably heard of gaming in a negative light than in a positive one, I think that is the reason that society views gaming negatively.But these are just my 2 cents worth.Anyone remember the line from Men in Black where Will Smith asks, "Why the big secret? People are smart, they can handle it."What was the answer?"A PERSON is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."One of the few times Hollywood hit the nail on the head .... Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.  And remember, by definition, 50% of the population has a below average intelligence.</blockquote>

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