WOTC ad - insulting to gamers?

[Henrix]

I really liked that ad as well!

In fact, when I first saw it I thought "wow, I'd like that as a poster!".

 

[Klaus]

As long as he didn't have his two characters get it on with each other, it's all good.

OMG! Hong lives!!!!!

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I thought it was quite funny, and the friends I showed it to who are CRPG players also thought it was funny.

Those who find it offensive might be exactly the type of CRPG player who the ad really needs to make an impression on.

 

[Mystery Man]

It's only funny 'cause it's true.

 

[Grazzt]

I seen this add and thought it was funny, you should be able to laugh at yourself and not take things too seriously.

Agreed. But hey...each to their own I guess.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Yep, funny.

If you were offended by it, I suggest you get out of the basement for a while and learn to take yourself a little less seriously.

 

[fusangite]

I'm afraid that their ad just smacks their audience in the face with one of the most obnoxious stereotypes of gamers around - that of the loser/slacker who lives in their parent's basement and spends all hours of the day and night pretending to be Mr. fantasy alterego in their game addiction of choice. The only thing they didn't do was show a fat guy with coke bottle glasses. Hardly the way to attract new recruits.

And IMHO its indirectly insulting to us tabletop gamers too. Are losers who live in their parent's basements the types we play with, or want to show up at our games?

Hey! Until I was 19, I was a loser who lived in my mom's basement. I reprised that role in 2001 and 2004. Some of my best players have been losers living in their parents' basements.

At GenCon last month, wherever Teflon Billy and I would go, we would laugh, not at the tens of thousands of men with eating disorders and facial hair crowding the halls but at the people who claim that the stereotype of gamers is non-representative or insulting. It's neither: it's just how things are.

The fact is that our hobby is dominated by people who sit in dark rooms consuming Coke and pizza typing away on our computers.

If you are ashamed to be associated with such people, that's a real shame because many of them are smart and fun to be around. If you are ashamed to be associated with such people to the point where you find a lighthearted, amusing Dungeon Magazine ad offensive, may I suggest that the problem lies not with the ad but with your own social insecurity.

 

[S'mon]

The ad has a point. As cool as we think sitting around table pretending to be an elf is doing the same thing over a computer locked away in your basement is pretty damn pathetic.

Sounds very funny. And I agree w warlord, tabletop players are kewl.

 

[SkidAce]

...Online gamers don't buy or read Dungeon....

Sitting in his 4 bedroom house complete with computer room with 20 years of military exeperience looking at the Dungeon magazine sitting right next to the World of Warcraft and Everquest 2 manuals...head explodes from trying to reconcile steretypes and paradims with reality...

 

[Rydac]

Another quarter heard from.....I saw it in Dragon and thought it was very funny! To the extent
that having the ad appear in Dungeon or Dragon is a bit like preaching to the choir....well I think it serves as a good reminder to those many online gamers, who also play pen and paper, that it really is more fun face to face with friends.