benlehman: (Default)
benlehman ([personal profile] benlehman) wrote2008-03-12 04:12 pm

De-geeking role-playing games

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.
(deleted comment)

[identity profile] misuba.livejournal.com 2008-03-13 10:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Right: it's not about content, it's about what you do about content.

When people say "geek" in the positive sense, they're usually talking about content: Spiderman or whatever. When they say it in a negative sense, it's usually the activity that's a problem: arguing about how big Spiderman's balls are, etc.