A Dichotomy

camazotz · January 05, 2012, 03:22:44 PM

Quote from: The_Shadow;500200RPGs: whimsy, mystery, fantasy, folklore, imagination, make-believe, fun, socialising.

RP gamers (and yes I am one of them): anal-retentive, computer programmers, engineers, bean-counters, pedants, loners, aspies.

This paradox has always fascinated me.

I would change the second entry from RP Gamers to RP Forum Goers and wannabe playtesters. Then it fits my own experience, where even the engineer and IT guys in my group actually have more enthusiasm, imagination and creative energy than their professions might allow for. Then again, few people I know who enjoy this hobby are also emotionally/mentally so invested in their work life that they drag it and all its personality and behavioral disorders into their private fun time with other like minded people seeking an escape.

Now, as indicated, if you add in RPGers who spend all their time on forums arguing about spherical cow situations and nitpicking rules systems to death, then yeah, totally on board here.

camazotz · January 05, 2012, 03:25:19 PM

Quote from: The_Shadow;500520Well, of course all of us on this board, and our groups, are the exceptions. :-)

Seriously, while my division was presented without nuance, I do feel there is a tension between the worlds of imagination, and the charop/rules lawyer mentality which is very prevalent.

To draw a metaphor, though:

If the hobby is the heart of a body, and its players are the face, then the internet community and all its charop/optmization/spherical cow arguments in design are the pimples on that face.

flyingmice · January 05, 2012, 04:24:26 PM

Quote from: The_Shadow;500200RPGs: whimsy, mystery, fantasy, folklore, imagination, make-believe, fun, socialising.

RP gamers (and yes I am one of them): anal-retentive, computer programmers, engineers, bean-counters, pedants, loners, aspies.

This paradox has always fascinated me.

This assumption has always puzzled me. The roleplayers I know are none of those things, except a couple of them are engineers. The one I play with - and former members of my groups - are all well adjusted socially.

-clash

Bedrockbrendan · January 05, 2012, 05:22:27 PM

We have a good mix but a also our share of stereotypical traits (myself included).

RPGPundit · January 06, 2012, 10:49:39 AM

In my group? We have zero engineeers. We do have several people who basically work with computers.
A couple of biologists (one regular, one marine), a marine observer, a policeman, a psychology student, a venture capitalist, a high school student, english teacher, a couple of people work for corporations.

Unlike my canadian group, other than the students no one is unemployed.

So I don't know about loners or the dysfunctional (we have a couple of people who might be classified under that system), though I'd say we don't have a plethora of direct "I'm an artisté" type creative-people.

RPGPundit

A Dichotomy

camazotz

camazotz

flyingmice

Bedrockbrendan

RPGPundit