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Toxicity in the Fandom
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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8703966" data-attributes="member: 6877472"><p>Ever since I came to ENWorld full time, I've been kind of isolated from a certain segment of the fandom. Sure, ENWorld has posters who will insist, til their dying breath, that their way is superior, and yours is inferior, but if you post long enough, you notice there's as much you agree on as disagree. And the few really bad apples get pruned fast by the staff, which is also nice.</p><p></p><p>For reasons I'm not even clear about these days, I check my Facebook every day. There's a few friends that I don't have better ways to contact, I guess, and every so often a funny meme might get posted worth a chuckle. </p><p></p><p>But today I noticed one of my friends had made a comment about the new D&D movie. And I quickly found a nest of vipers. </p><p></p><p>You might be like, "well, duh James, it's a D&D movie, we all know it's going to be bad". And that's true (though I vaguely recall thinking the second one wasn't too awful, even if I only really remember the lady fighter, the thief with his "guild secrets", and I think a female wizard who teleported her arm into a solid wall, and the surprise villain being...the henchman from the first movie).</p><p></p><p>But that wasn't what the vitriol was aimed at. Here we had posters decrying that the movie would bring in new people wanting to play "and ruin" the game. Heated debates about gatekeeping. People decrying how WotC has destroyed any semblance of good D&D. Hatred for 5e, 4e, and 3e. 5e "dumbed down the game for (derogative word referring to intelligence I won't repeat, obviously") and promotes "forcing your will on other sentient creatures and having intercourse with dragons".</p><p></p><p>As well as the usual Matt Mercer hate. 4e turned the game into a video game, 3e destroyed game balance with Pun Pun builds (which were "everywhere", apparently). The usual stuff.</p><p></p><p>But the more I read, the uglier it got. Growing up in the 80's and early 90's, I always felt that, even if we disagreed, people in the D&D fandom, being nerds and geeks, and poorly understood by the "norms", were kind of in this together.</p><p></p><p>Oh sure we argue with each other- it's the nature of fandom! Can Superman beat Thor? Can my 17th level Fighter with <em>haste </em>and a Vorpal Sword kill Strahd? Should <em>wish</em> always be twisted in an attempt to mock the caster?</p><p></p><p>You know what I mean. </p><p></p><p>But over time, I got the sense that the game was evolving, as people's attitudes did. We don't snicker and laugh at the poor guy who puts on a <em>girdle of femininity/masculinity</em>, or jams on a helmet that makes them into the complete moral opposite of who they once were. In fact, we're willing to accept that such things have moral implications, and maybe that gender isn't a binary.</p><p></p><p>We try to welcome people to the game that never would have wanted to play in the old days- or may have been turned off by us hissing at them when they approached. I myself still have a reflex to not want to discuss the hobby with people who aren't "in", because I still remember being bullied and ridiculed over it, decades later. If someone says "hey what's that game you're playing", I used to have to force myself to engage socially. Now I wear my D&D shirts openly, lol, because more often than not, people will be like "oh yeah, that's that game in Stranger Things, I love that show!".</p><p></p><p>But seeing this made me sad. We're not a unified fandom, not in the slightest. Hatred, toxic behavior, fear of the "other"- it's all still there. People wanting to gatekeep to preserve "their way of gaming". </p><p></p><p>Obviously, it's my fault for reading comments on Facebook, and maybe I shouldn't make that mistake again, but at the same time, it's because I'd isolated myself from people like that, that I had rose colored glasses with regards to the hobby. </p><p></p><p>I think I'd rather hang out with the Scarlet Brotherhood, some Red Wizards, or Vecna cultists. They seem like more reasonable folk.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8703966, member: 6877472"] Ever since I came to ENWorld full time, I've been kind of isolated from a certain segment of the fandom. Sure, ENWorld has posters who will insist, til their dying breath, that their way is superior, and yours is inferior, but if you post long enough, you notice there's as much you agree on as disagree. And the few really bad apples get pruned fast by the staff, which is also nice. For reasons I'm not even clear about these days, I check my Facebook every day. There's a few friends that I don't have better ways to contact, I guess, and every so often a funny meme might get posted worth a chuckle. But today I noticed one of my friends had made a comment about the new D&D movie. And I quickly found a nest of vipers. You might be like, "well, duh James, it's a D&D movie, we all know it's going to be bad". And that's true (though I vaguely recall thinking the second one wasn't too awful, even if I only really remember the lady fighter, the thief with his "guild secrets", and I think a female wizard who teleported her arm into a solid wall, and the surprise villain being...the henchman from the first movie). But that wasn't what the vitriol was aimed at. Here we had posters decrying that the movie would bring in new people wanting to play "and ruin" the game. Heated debates about gatekeeping. People decrying how WotC has destroyed any semblance of good D&D. Hatred for 5e, 4e, and 3e. 5e "dumbed down the game for (derogative word referring to intelligence I won't repeat, obviously") and promotes "forcing your will on other sentient creatures and having intercourse with dragons". As well as the usual Matt Mercer hate. 4e turned the game into a video game, 3e destroyed game balance with Pun Pun builds (which were "everywhere", apparently). The usual stuff. But the more I read, the uglier it got. Growing up in the 80's and early 90's, I always felt that, even if we disagreed, people in the D&D fandom, being nerds and geeks, and poorly understood by the "norms", were kind of in this together. Oh sure we argue with each other- it's the nature of fandom! Can Superman beat Thor? Can my 17th level Fighter with [I]haste [/I]and a Vorpal Sword kill Strahd? Should [I]wish[/I] always be twisted in an attempt to mock the caster? You know what I mean. But over time, I got the sense that the game was evolving, as people's attitudes did. We don't snicker and laugh at the poor guy who puts on a [I]girdle of femininity/masculinity[/I], or jams on a helmet that makes them into the complete moral opposite of who they once were. In fact, we're willing to accept that such things have moral implications, and maybe that gender isn't a binary. We try to welcome people to the game that never would have wanted to play in the old days- or may have been turned off by us hissing at them when they approached. I myself still have a reflex to not want to discuss the hobby with people who aren't "in", because I still remember being bullied and ridiculed over it, decades later. If someone says "hey what's that game you're playing", I used to have to force myself to engage socially. Now I wear my D&D shirts openly, lol, because more often than not, people will be like "oh yeah, that's that game in Stranger Things, I love that show!". But seeing this made me sad. We're not a unified fandom, not in the slightest. Hatred, toxic behavior, fear of the "other"- it's all still there. People wanting to gatekeep to preserve "their way of gaming". Obviously, it's my fault for reading comments on Facebook, and maybe I shouldn't make that mistake again, but at the same time, it's because I'd isolated myself from people like that, that I had rose colored glasses with regards to the hobby. I think I'd rather hang out with the Scarlet Brotherhood, some Red Wizards, or Vecna cultists. They seem like more reasonable folk. [/QUOTE]
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