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

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

Yes. Pretty much my argument has never been to de-geekify things, only lower the barrier of entry. Like, comic books are low barrier entry geekdom, while reading plays in Klingon is high barrier. One is fun hobby, other is borderline scary.

[relevance.livejournal.com]

I think many roleplaying games are too geeky. By which I mean not that the barrier of entry is high, but that play mostly consists of haggling over minutiae and thumbing through innumerable tomes trying to find the right lookup table. You have to be incredibly geeky to enjoy that: it's not something that 99% of people would ever enjoy because their non-geeky priorities don't include determining the exact buoyancy of a mature blue dragon.

I guess there are people who enjoy these games and that's okay, as long as they realize that their hobby is about as attractive as linear algebra to the populace at large. I'm just glad that this type of game is becoming less representative of the hobby as a whole, because the older I get, the less I care about the buoyancy of a mature blue dragon. At this point I would go so far as to say that I care more about the exact dimensions of Hitler's moustache, and would be - by comparison - HIGHLY interested in a game that attempts to explore this through live-action re-enactment.

[intimations.livejournal.com]

I find that the habit of trying to make things non-geeky and "cool" invariably makes them lame. What sorts of non-geeky ideas would make RPGs better? Games about badass dudes with dirt bikes who do sweet tricks? Games about XXXXtreme street luge, where all characters vaguely resemble Vin Diesel?

Not to mention the fact that the basic building blocks of a roleplaying game-- books, reading, playing make-believe with your own story-- are kind of seen as inherently geeky. There's absolutely no reason to fight it.

[apollinax.livejournal.com]

Geek → geeky

not

gaming → geeky

I mean, let's talk about Vin Diesel.

[mattsnyder.livejournal.com]

I think I actually agree with you much, much more than might be apparent given recent events!

For one, I agree that there is a definite geek = hip thing going on, and that thing could (should?) be mined better. It's plainly not the direction I want to dive into. That's all. It'd probably be easier and better, despite my foolishness.

And, second, I mostly agree that there is some perception "out there" that the hobby is fun, not never-get-laid-lame or whatever other negative thing. But, that time and investment is a problem. To that end, my design efforts lately are all about in-and-out fun. I see others doing the same. Neat!

Here's to hoping against deaf ears.

[kynn.livejournal.com]

I think it's that gamers need to be less geeky, rather than games need to be.