Gentlemen, start your "offended" engines

[tahnan]

The never-ending story, on the Boston Globe. A few highlights:

The subhead: "Some men have been secretly playing Dungeons & Dragons for decades".

"Individual games can last several hours.... But for some gamers the adventures never end, because players can choose to recast themselves from a previous role." (Followup quote from a player: "The longest adventure I was in lasted about half a year or so.")

"Two Thursdays a month, he and four other men gather in his Holliston basement - a sign calls it the 'Game Room'... They alter their voices to make their characters sound real."

Also, Johnny Diaz should be fired just for writing "surrounded by tomes of books". Tomes of books?

Comments

[jadelennox]

Mostly I'm offended by the grammar: "The dungeon master and the other players take on the role of a character - such as a wizard, cleric, barbarian, knight, or archer - and follow them on journeys for hidden treasures."

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure whether that sentence states that the DM takes on the role of the character because it was badly constructed, or because the writer didn't understand what was going on.

[prog.livejournal.com]

He forgot about the sign that says NO GIRL[backwards S] ALOUD. Though these guys are probably playing 3E still, so they wouldn't have that yet, would they.

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

Mayhap they meant "tonnes"

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Yesterday's Only a Game had a segment about D&D. (It's the last segment of the show; you can listen to it online.) I haven't actually listened to it yet, but I think they play parts of an interview with someone who actually plays, so I expect it's not as offensive as the Globe thing is on several levels.

[viking-cat.livejournal.com]

Sorry, from my perspective you're over-reacting. That was a positive piece that portrayed gamers as normal, adjusted people, and the video on boston.com was good as well.

I have trouble being offended at an article that isn't snickering up its sleeve at us.

[thedan.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I just read the whole thing and found nothing offensive.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

See, I got a strong sense of sleeve-snickering. There's the subhead saying "Some men...", as if women don't play. There's the later reference to "he and four other men" who gather, again as if it matters that they're men, as opposed to, say, "he and four friends". There's the references to "confines of basements" as if D&D (or its players) is kept confined; "wannabe dungeon masters, druids, and sorcerers" as if the players themselves aspire to be actual druids and sorcerers. There's a general sense that Diaz doesn't understand the game he's writing about.

And there's the overall theme that people play D&D secretly, without any real evidence or illustration. A little--e.g., "He said his wife doesn't mention his hobby to her friends"--but I think everyone has hobbies they don't talk about to just anyone. I do puzzles; I don't hide the fact that I do puzzles; I also don't talk about it with my coworkers, because, well, coworkers. But I don't get any sense from the article that it's fair to equate D&D-playing with furtive homosexuality, as the opening sentence ("keeps [it] on the down low") does.

[colorwheel.livejournal.com]

not to mention the insistence (on the part of a player, but placed right up top) that D&D players are OMG NOT NOT NOT "fat, sweaty, hairy dorky men who are socially inept." because if they WERE, well, that would be TERRIBLE.

[viking-cat.livejournal.com]

Eh. It's the common stereotype.

I agree with Lance that it's weird that they didn't mention women. I know many dozen women who game -- and to be honest, I think it's a more interesting story.

[jadelennox]

I'm pretty sure there's more than a dozen women who game just on tahnan's friends list. I counted nine, and I know only about 15% of the people on his friends list.

I was speculating that his story was all men because people who game in co-ed groups aren't ashamed of gaming.

[viking-cat.livejournal.com]

Sure, I game with five different women on a regular basis, and I could name another fifty or so (most of whom I've met through the RPGA or EN World, a D&D message board) if I put my mind to it.

You've got me curious. I'm considering emailing the author and asking. Anyone want to know the result if I do?

[ellinor.livejournal.com]

yeah, I would be interested.