Barastrondo said:
Well, dude, you were the one quoting my "In 2004, Almost Isn't Going To Cut It" comment from RPG.net. In that thread, I not only explained that I didn't write those words, but also that... how did I put it... they did not represent the agonized cry from the soul of an artist trying to Make People See. And I think I finished with "IYKWIMAITYD," because some people had already gotten why it was that people who didn't believe those words with all their hearts and souls might have typed them anyway.
I'm sorry, maybe its because i'm one of those "ignorant" D&D players who have trouble with pretentious terms, but I'm afraid I don't follow you here. It might help if i knew what the hell IYKWIMAITYD means?
Are you implying that the writers were forced to add those paragraphs in by management?
That they added it in without caring?
What?
Please explain why they might print something that offensive if they don't even believe in it?
I don't know. I'm trying really hard to take your level of outrage seriously, but I can't —

it's like railing that D&D is insulting its readers' intelligence by stating in the PHB disclaimer box that "the world is imaginary, and you are not your character." It's a paragraph or two that was crafted to sell the sizzle as well as the steak (or stake, if you will). It's a roll-your-eyes emoticon.
There's a difference between that and this. The PHB thing is stupid, sure, but the WoD thing doesn't tell its reader "this is just make believe"; on the contrary its telling them "you are engaging in a work of art, that other, LESSER roll-players can't understand, and it is your divine mission to educate them..what you're doing must be more pretentious than fun, and you should look with pity on those who actually play RPGs for fun".
Besides warping the raison d'etre of roleplaying for anyone who actually believes it, it incites WW players old and young to be as famously pretentious as they have always been.
It is strange, though, and I woudl still love to know the answer to this, why WW has chosen to go back to being so utterly brazen about it now, after years of trying to hide their pretentiousness and claim it was a thing of the past?
I live in the South, man; in a state that had Jesse Helms as a Senator for way too long. I've seen hate speech. This ain't it.
Yes, that's hate speech on a whole other level. Great red herring there.
It doesn't mean that what WW published there wasn't stupid, and divisive, and hateful too.
Nisarg