NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 6206073" data-attributes="member: 3887">Yeah, I kinda though the notion that nerd socializing is defined by tribes engaged agonistic one-upsmanship over who knows more Who, Trek, and Forgotten Realms minutiae was, well, an unflattering caricature. The worst of us. A joke. It certainly hasn't been my personal experience of nerdery, ie various genre fandoms. My social circles evaluated 'potential members' using criteria like, "Hey, do you like Star Trek/Babylon 5/LotR? Cool!", "Do you play D&D/RPGs? Cool!", and most importantly, "Are you a jerk? No. Cool!". (actually, we other criteria involving liking the films of Wes Anderson, clever-talk, and drinking, but, as with all things, that's negotiable)I usually dislike using the term 'privilege' in it's current mostly-divorced-from-economics form, but a guy saying "Don't focus on the sexism" is a textbook example of it. Makes me reconsider my gut-level aversion to the term. I'll try to summarize my feeling on sexism in tabletop gaming:I feel lucky, privileged even, that I don't encounter much of it. Because I don't game at cons or other public places. Because my gaming groups are wonderful people. Because the (limited number of) mainstream RPG products are relatively free of overt sexism. And, perhaps, most tellingly, because I'm a guy. I think RPGs have come a long way re: sexism encoded into the mechanics and the language choice in the rules text. I think RPGs are doing better re: sexism in the art. A caveat: I have no problem with some Frazetta-style depictions of women, ie fantasy pin-up art. I don't want or need every woman to be in 'realistic armor'. I have a problem when the default depictions of female figures are as slave girls, eye-candy, rescue-bait, etc. It's also a problem that --particularly with women, but not exclusively so-- there's such usually a limited number of body types/ethnicities/orientations on display in fantasy art. Diversity is nice -- especially when you arrive at it through a diversity of creators.It's not really a problem that offensive niche/outlier products exist. Nobody actually plays F.A.T.A.L. It exists only as a gamer in-joke. I'm sure the number of Cthulhutech --a game I've only read about in online discussions-- campaigns is also fairly small. It sounds like Legend of the Overfiend: The Game -- how many people really want to play that? I'm guessing a number small enough to ignore completely. I think the stories I've read about con behavior are horrifying. I can't add much more than that. There are some badly-socialized people in our hobby. These people need to be educated and/or ostracized. I think the stories I've read about bad behavior in private games are even more horrifying. I can't image sessions where one player makes rape threats against other player's PCs. How these don't end --abruptly-- with the jackhole getting thrown out mystify me. Again, educate -- no, let's go straight to 'ostracize' here...  Lastly, to be a bit curmudgeonly, I think there are some bad social justice-oriented criticisms/accusations of sexism out there. For example, the minor kerfuffle I read about online re: the Nibovian Wife monster in Monte Cook's Numenera. I accept that some people found it offensive. But I found the criticisms pretty shallow and unpersuasive; just bad readings fueling (too easy) indignation.But that's fine. Sexism throughout our society still exists, even if we disagree at times over what qualifies as it.</blockquote>

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