De-geeking role-playing games

[benlehman]

This comes up, maybe, every month or so in the online conversations I follow. "role-playing games need to be less geeky!"

I just wanted to record here that I think that the entire idea is ridiculous for the following reasons:

1) Perceptions of role-playing games by our culture at large are generally positive: that they are fun, but very time-consuming and potentially obsession forming. Which is about accurate.

2) Since, oh, 1996, geeky things have been hella cool. Hello gamers? I know that you live under a rock, unexposed to the culture at large. But srsly.

I'm posting here because I don't want to have to write this same post, like, 80 times only to have it fall (again) on totally deaf ears.

Comments

[funwithrage.livejournal.com]

You do have a point there. I mean, *I* consider GURPS geeky and arcane; wild horses couldn't drag me into a game of it, and if someone said it was their preferred game system, I might not want to game with them, because, well, I don't *like* gaming with obsessive detail freaks who like to prove their cock size through their math skills.

But, while I will talk about fantasy movies and so forth at work or with family, and I'll mention things like martial arts in general terms, I try not to bring up gaming at all. Any sort. I think it's because the average person isn't likely to be that familiar with gaming, except in terms of "D&D, yeah," and I don't care enough, or think they care enough, to try and explain it. It's not something where you can go "Yeah, I do martial arts," and leave it there.

And it's waaaay the hell easier to whip out the theatre/camping/board game dodge, if someone asks why I need this costume or am in New Hampshire than it is to go through the whole "it's like an interactive story blah blah" song and dance for the sake of someone, at the end, going "Huh."