Taking away the shame...of Roleplaying!

[Angcuru]

Truth be told, the ratio of male to female gamers whom I've met is about 5 to 1. We should do everything in our power to even things out. Maybe put an ad in Vogue showing some random babe reading the Players Handbook and a WHOLE lotta good-looking guys drooling over her...just might work.

 

[Skade]

Get Vin Diesle to do the ad. He's alll into DnD- we just have to approach him and say its a Public Service Announcement, "date your local geek, good things will come of it."

 

[Angcuru]

Vin is a gamer? I never would have guessed.

 

[Harlock]

Truth be told, the ratio of male to female gamers whom I've met is about 5 to 1. We should do everything in our power to even things out. Maybe put an ad in Vogue showing some random babe reading the Players Handbook and a WHOLE lotta good-looking guys drooling over her...just might work.

Get the industry to drop the Chainmail bikini, geek-objectification of women and you're off to a good start. /OT

Seriously, to those that are ashamed of gaming etc. I simply have to ask why? Because a few people who are closed-minded popularity fascists might think you uncool? Because of the Satanism garbage the ignorant have been spewing for two decades now? You empower these people when you feel ashamed to play D&D, is that really what you want to do? Give some jerk like that power over you to control your actions and emotions? Game on ladies and gentlemen. Game on without shame.

 

[blackshirt5]

Vin is a gamer? I never would have guessed.

Yeah, I read somewhere that he caught because he slipped outta the theater during the premiere of a movie(either one of his or one he was invited to) because "the movie was boring him" and he couldn't get enough light to his gameboy advanced to play Eye of the Beholder in the theater.

Can we say "ADD"?

 

[blackshirt5]

Truth be told, the ratio of male to female gamers whom I've met is about 5 to 1. We should do everything in our power to even things out. Maybe put an ad in Vogue showing some random babe reading the Players Handbook and a WHOLE lotta good-looking guys drooling over her...just might work.

Get Celia in the ad with Vin Diesel.

I've yet to meet a prettier(or for that matter, nicer) female gamer.

And her boyfriend is the ugliest man I've ever met. Nice guy, but the ugliest man I've ever met. And mind you, I hang around with Angcuru.

 

[Praeco]

Just the other day my fiance mentioned to her boss (a principal at an elementary school) that I roleplayed, and she responded, "it's not like that movie, is it?"

"What movie?"

"Eyes Wide Shut... they don't do that naked cult stuff, do they?"


Hopefully the ensuing conversation dispelled any confusion she had over the hobby.

 

[MerakSpielman]

which is more nerdy to be a gamer or a physicist?

I'd say gamer, since in general physicists are too financially successful to call Nerdy. On the other hand, I know physicists who are also gamers, so I don't know how to figure their multiclassed Nerdy Levels.

 

[Voneth]

Well, it depends on where I am.

I usually have a P.R. job so at work, I'm in a very conservative enviroment. If one's hobby is not golf, fishing, a major sports franchine or making more money, then you get on a slippery slope of being judged for what you do outside of work, not at work (when everyone's skill at the job is almost the same and you really can't define your results except by how many times you got a client in the news, the politics come into play.)

What can I say? I deal with a work world that likes to see things in black and white, who makes the most money, who is a winner and who is losing and how can "we" ride on those coattails to make some cash ourself. If RPGs made billions of dollars a day, these people would be all over it ... until the next cash cow came. The funny thing is that most of them would be shocked at the turn out at such places as Gen Con and E3.

On a personal note, one of my coworkers who "outed" me had the hardest time understanding the concept that there is no strictly defined winner or loser. He couldn't get his head around it. The conversation was like "Okay if it is all about imagination and the 'GM' has total control, why doesn't just kill the players off and 'win?" And why don't the players just say 'I buy a black market nuke and use it on the monsters.' I tried to explain to him that it was sort of like a 'simulation," but he didn't get it. He wanted winners and losers. I am thinking a CCG would be more his style.

In another story, I had a middle-age mother co-worker who said that there was one guy at her son's "Pokemon" store who was about my age. He never looked her in the eye and he never talked to her. That sort of anti-social behavior, plus his "hanging out with children" gave her the creeps. She couldn't fathom that some people are just very shy and enjoy games despite the stigma of the game being based on "make believe." If it wasn't Bridge, Poker or boardgame, it confused her. She didn't like video game either.

So at work, I am pretty much in the closet. Out and about, I don't advertise, but I don't hide either. At the game shop, I go above and beyond the call of duty. I start converstations with the parents who bring their kids in and try to wear casual clothes instead of T-shirts and jeans. Except when I am in a game of course.

 

[kaiscomet]

I used to be more of a closet gamer, not really talking about the game to anyone but the people I gamed with. Until I met my wife, I never thought that would change.
She had never played any before, but loved science fiction and fantasy. When I was going to go play one time, she wanted to go with me to check it out. Well, she loved it and started telling all of her friends and family about it. Since then we have had several of them join in on games, and overall their impressions have been very favorable.

Point of the rambling is that when people who game don't share their hobby, others can get the impression that they are ashamed of it, or perhaps there really is something wrong with them playing. (You know, the sexual themes, excessive violence, or devil worshipping). Since my wife has been very vocal about how much she loves the game, I have been suprised at the universal positive responses that I have received from people. I've been playing now for over 20 years, and remember well the bad press and discrimination from the early 80s. I'm not realy seeing any of that now, and I think that as gamers, there is no need to "hide in the closet" anymore.