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Pen & Paper Roleplaying Central => Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Discussion => Topic started by: Pseudoephedrine on September 05, 2007, 02:50:30 AM

Title: Slate.com covered GenCon.
Post by: Pseudoephedrine on September 05, 2007, 02:50:30 AM
It's a video, not an article. Part of their "Conventional Wisdom" series which goes around to the conventions of marginal industries and subcultures and interviews the members of those groups. Koltar's Klingon jail is onscreen for a second.

http://www.slatev.com/player.html?id=1155098975
Title: Slate.com covered GenCon.
Post by: Zachary The First on September 05, 2007, 08:35:39 AM
Interesting!  Some of those overhead shots give a good idea of the size (in part) of the exhibit hall.

Saw Ken Hite right before they showed Koltar's jail!
Title: Slate.com covered GenCon.
Post by: architect.zero on September 05, 2007, 09:25:20 AM
I too found it interesting, but because once again table-top gaming is portrayed as LARP and cosplay.  I understand that it makes for good television - it's more visually stimulating and and it's quite outside the norm so it's shocking - but it ignores the reality of the hobby.  I mean they can't have walked around the con for a couple of hours and not noticed (what I presume to be) the huge number of tables and demos filled with folks sitting around, laughing at stupid jokes, and rolling dice in normal street clothes.  So once again we're subject to an editorial spin rather than an accurate portrayal.

I was mildly disappointed, but I figured that's what I was going to get before even clicking on the link.

EDIT: Pseudo, thanks for digging it up anyhow.
Title: Slate.com covered GenCon.
Post by: Zachary The First on September 05, 2007, 09:48:14 AM
Well, I guess they think a bunch of folks sitting in normal clothes rolling dice was not the stuff exicting stories are made of...
Title: Slate.com covered GenCon.
Post by: Koltar on September 05, 2007, 09:51:51 AM
Quote from: PseudoephedrineIt's a video, not an article. Part of their "Conventional Wisdom" series which goes around to the conventions of marginal industries and subcultures and interviews the members of those groups. Koltar's Klingon jail is onscreen for a second.

http://www.slatev.com/player.html?id=1155098975


Yeah - you can see me just inside the door of the jail making sure a prisoner stays put. Later in the same vid - you see "Feedback" (Mathew Atherton) in the jail from when I arrested him later in the same day.

- Ed C.
Title: Slate.com covered GenCon.
Post by: James J Skach on September 05, 2007, 11:12:18 AM
I think what struck me, given the conversation in other threads about certain AP reports, was this quote:
QuoteNo matter what kind of left handed libertarian necrophile you are, there's a lot of others like you. I mean, we were...we felt marginalized. It was just, you know, standard victim thinking. But when you see there's a whole raft of us, it's a powerful psychological emotion.
I don't know who that guy was, but could we please please please dispense with the pop psychology bullshit?

Points for irony if he was a forgery and was not talking about gaming in general, but Story Gaming.  Now that would be hilarious...
Title: Slate.com covered GenCon.
Post by: Garnfellow on September 05, 2007, 01:28:33 PM
Quote from: James J SkachI think what struck me, given the conversation in other threads about certain AP reports, was this quote:

I don't know who that guy was, but could we please please please dispense with the pop psychology bullshit?

Points for irony if he was a forgery and was not talking about gaming in general, but Story Gaming.  Now that would be hilarious...

Wasn't that Ken Hite? I've never met him in person, but that sure looked like the pictures I've seen.
Title: Slate.com covered GenCon.
Post by: walkerp on September 05, 2007, 01:43:41 PM
I've never seen Ken Hite in person, but I've heard his voice on podcasts and that certainly sounded like him.  I thought it was kind of a cool quote, though I preferred the guy at the end who said "a tight and creative group of people who use their imagination to the fullest extent."  I can work with that definition of gamers.

Considering journalists in general, that was not bad coverage.
Title: Slate.com covered GenCon.
Post by: James J Skach on September 05, 2007, 02:52:54 PM
See, walker?  I'm just as scornful of pop-psychology bullshit whether it's from Mr. Baker or Mr. Hite.  I hold no favorites when it comes to people saying shit like that. Emotional from being with a bunch of other gamers? Those aren't tears of joy...

Similar to what I've said in the thread about pirates...If you're going to GenCon because it gives you a powerful emotional sense of belonging, you've got bigger issues. Different strokes, but man...
Title: Slate.com covered GenCon.
Post by: Zachary The First on September 05, 2007, 11:10:36 PM
Quote from: GarnfellowWasn't that Ken Hite? I've never met him in person, but that sure looked like the pictures I've seen.
It was him.  I spoke with and observed the fellow at Gen Con this year.
Title: Slate.com covered GenCon.
Post by: Akrasia on September 06, 2007, 01:20:04 AM
Quote from: James J Skach...If you're going to GenCon because it gives you a powerful emotional sense of belonging, you've got bigger issues....

QFT