Mike Mearls is firing you from D&D

[Spinachcat]

I expect Mearls will say something even stupider before Christmas.

Fortunately, 95% (maybe 99%) of the actual RPG players are oblivious to his Twitter idiocy.

You sir, are awarded the D.O.N.G. Blackbelt of excellence.

Woot!!! I finally have a DONG!

Happydance!

I'll try not to play with it too much in public.

[Opaopajr]

By acknowledging this and looking at their actions this should immediately let you know how disingenuous they are about 1) how they collect their data 2) how biased they are in how they perceive the data 3) how biased/ignorant they are in the execution of their actions based on 1 and 2. It's not that they have biases, it's the degree to which their biases rule their opinons and decisions making. You know, like dismissing their core demographic because appearances.

And this is why they're poisoning themselves with their own Kool Aide and self-flagellation up in Seattle because they are 1) insecure 2) self-loathing (apparently).

I couldn't imagine myself running a leading brand in an industry of which I'm a part of telling people like myself "we're the problem" because of my skin color (or the slant of our eyes! /eyeroll).

Well when you put it that way, it sounds monstrous and bad for business.

And normally I'd be inclined to agree. But after watching the video it was mostly about "Hurray, there's broader art trope aesthetics and text fluff that says 'do as thou wilt'." Which is pretty innocuous, in my view.

That diversity of art and "do as thou wilt," "these are examples, not diktat," campaign advice has mostly been there from the beginning. (IIRC, even the gender rules for stat adjustment was optional, or at least it was by 2e.) Yet they seem to have poor historic memory, which may be an agenda, but could as easily be obliviousness. Far too much of WotC D&D seems to be carried by people who perceive time as pre-MtG and post-MtG, with pre-MtG being a vague grey area, like a presumed Age of Ignorance or something.

Will it lead to the next product filled with open castigation of "The Man" demographic? I hope not. I also doubt so. But I guess we may be doomed to repeat history then.

They just need the right marketing campaign. Use this as an advertisement for your next game session!

[video=youtube;43bWpRgSdUA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43bWpRgSdUA[/youtube]

Where has this been all my life? It is so much awesome it's blurring light and dimensions around them!

[tenbones]

Well when you put it that way, it sounds monstrous and bad for business.

And normally I'd be inclined to agree. But after watching the video it was mostly about "Hurray, there's broader art trope aesthetics and text fluff that says 'do as thou wilt'." Which is pretty innocuous, in my view.

So let's examine this. In today's over-politicized climate where virtually everything is being subjected to political-correctness and virtue-signaling/pandering where one side is vilified for wrongthink. And the other side is *obsessed* with appearances rather than substance, to the point where this dynamic has gone *far* further afield than just gaming, that it impacts markets far larger. You don't think this has any impact on the relative cottage industry of TTRPGS? Or you think it's nominal?

I'm old enough to where my life is very secure, I don't practice identity politics, and this stuff doesn't affect me personally. I'm in the relatively rare position where I do consider where I put my financial support for reasons beyond my needs to game. Namely, I don't want to financially support things I think aren't "good". I don't think it's innocuous for the leader of the TTRPG's industry's premier game to politicize the game based on his personal hangups.
 

That diversity of art and "do as thou wilt," "these are examples, not diktat," campaign advice has mostly been there from the beginning. (IIRC, even the gender rules for stat adjustment was optional, or at least it was by 2e.) Yet they seem to have poor historic memory, which may be an agenda, but could as easily be obliviousness. Far too much of WotC D&D seems to be carried by people who perceive time as pre-MtG and post-MtG, with pre-MtG being a vague grey area, like a presumed Age of Ignorance or something.

Diversity of art is great. Diversity of ideas is better. This is not that. When these four white dudes with self-flagellating feelings about the color of their skin support the blanket idea that "white males" are the problem with the hobby, writ-large as if it's some kind of fact to hang ones business model on... which we have no reason to believe is untrue based on Mearls' own statements, it does not bode well. It's easy to repeat history when one is ignorant of it either in implicit fact or understanding. It's easier to be in that state when one cognitively is in that bubble which reinforces that mindset (this goes for everyone).

Here's a good example - the very idea you brought up: gender-stat differences. Right now it's considered practically blasphemous. *Why*? How is it different than stat-differences between races?  Is it not the simple acknowledgment that /shock there are actual differences in the presumed in-game biological make-up of those units? Is it necessary to be that granular? *Not at all*. But is it *wrong*? I say no to that too. But who gets to be the moral-outrage authority here? Is it even necessary? Of course not. Yet here we are.

Will it lead to the next product filled with open castigation of "The Man" demographic? I hope not. I also doubt so. But I guess we may be doomed to repeat history then.

If not this, then you'll start seeing people question stat-differences with races. Why not? Isn't that the goal - to pretend differences don't exist due to the infection of pathological post-modernist views that can't seem to discern one thing from another, because they've conditioned themselves to believe it's heresy?

[Opaopajr]

You heard a far more full throated lament, with full gnashing of teeth, than I did in that video you supplied. Unless there's worse things in the previous hour and fourty minutes, from what I've heard I just do not hear these arguments you are using in that conversation, in inflection or degree. And at this point it seems like you want to talk more about current politics affecting the times. My view? It's a zeitgeist alright, but it'll self correct as it is mostly a cadre of trust fund kids playing aggrieved hardass revolutionaries.

As for the playable race stat differences? They've already been brought up, pretty much immediately after 5e launched. And we've already seen this argument in various forms due to race level limits. I see nothing new here in argument, just new faces whinging. Same as it ever was, except with an internet buffer so people can hurt people through anonimity.

The larger danger has been echo chambers with critical thinking and empathetic feeling buffers removed. It'll lead to mobs running on rumor and falsehoods, which it already has. But fighting fire with fire just burns everything down -- which is its own fun, too, and very in keeping with murderhobo PCs.

Again, your cited source doesn't come off to me with the argument your espousing. Which likely means we're in danger of moving into the "compared transcripts" phase. And I just don't have the energy to bother with that on this topic here on this website.

Argue to the death chapter and verse about mechanics and the greater subtleties of context tactics over widgets? Gladly. Suppositions that it's an us vs. them zero sum, sussing out traitors from the culture war, and we're being beseiged and strangled out by their death stack horde? Sure, Ok, you're right, you won. Man the ramparts, I'm off to take a comforting dump, I'll join the battle later... For Imagination Land! Lalalalalalala! :mad:

[flyingmice]

I don't blame him. I'd fire me too!

[tenbones]

You heard a far more full throated lament, with full gnashing of teeth, than I did in that video you supplied. Unless there's worse things in the previous hour and fourty minutes, from what I've heard I just do not hear these arguments you are using in that conversation, in inflection or degree. And at this point it seems like you want to talk more about current politics affecting the times. My view? It's a zeitgeist alright, but it'll self correct as it is mostly a cadre of trust fund kids playing aggrieved hardass revolutionaries.

No. I didn't hear a more full throated lament. I heard the same thing I hear echoing in their echo-chambers about movies, in the NFL, in the most of the location where social-justice issues takes precedence over the product or ideas presented to the public. I dunno, I think you might be projecting the "gnashing" thing a bit far. I think their position is *stupid*. Does it directly impact my life? Not at all. Do I care - yes, this is my hobby. And yes I *agree* with you that it will self-correct. I find going through this process is unnecessary. But yet here we are. By not talking about current politics this thread wouldn't exist. We are collectively being "fired" because of current politics. Denying that is to be obtuse.

As for the playable race stat differences? They've already been brought up, pretty much immediately after 5e launched. And we've already seen this argument in various forms due to race level limits. I see nothing new here in argument, just new faces whinging. Same as it ever was, except with an internet buffer so people can hurt people through anonimity.

Heh, yet here it is. Again. It still comes back to people telling you from some assumed position of authority to tell others how best to play your game. White males need not apply at this current moment. For reasons.

The larger danger has been echo chambers with critical thinking and empathetic feeling buffers removed. It'll lead to mobs running on rumor and falsehoods, which it already has. But fighting fire with fire just burns everything down -- which is its own fun, too, and very in keeping with murderhobo PCs.

Again, your cited source doesn't come off to me with the argument your espousing. Which likely means we're in danger of moving into the "compared transcripts" phase. And I just don't have the energy to bother with that on this topic here on this website.

My source comes from the source itself. When they say there needs to be explicit text and imagery to define who and what you can be in the game, and dance around how bad it is that white-males make up the majority of the playerbase (and do so unironically lamenting how they themselves are the very constituency that they claim is the problem - apparently these guys know zero about Bayesian statistics) it puts them into a gigantic hypocritical position that they're *defining* the game around.

They are showing not only are they in the echo-chamber - they're trying to stuff everyone else in there too. Hence the firing of those that made Mearls feel left out of his Geeky-childhood that apparently he feels does that to everyone else that happens to not be white or male. I don't have any desire to compare transcripts either, it's pretty apparent while Matt Mercer and Mearls pat themselves on the back for "blowing open" what has been patently apparent for decades - that anyone can play D&D however way they want, that it makes them feel good to let us marginalized folks know "it's okay". I'm not misinterpreting that.

Like I said upthread - I gave Mearls's tweet the benefit of the doubt. That video pretty much reveals more context to those tweets. It's dumb.

Argue to the death chapter and verse about mechanics and the greater subtleties of context tactics over widgets? Gladly. Suppositions that it's an us vs. them zero sum, sussing out traitors from the culture war, and we're being beseiged and strangled out by their death stack horde? Sure, Ok, you're right, you won. Man the ramparts, I'm off to take a comforting dump, I'll join the battle later... For Imagination Land! Lalalalalalala! :mad:

Meh! My imagination-land is unassailable by these twats. They wouldn't last a session in Tenbonistan!!!! "Tenbonehu Tenbonehu Tenbonehu"!

Oh shit! Campaign idea:  Kara-Tur just invaded Al-Qadim! Where are my white-knights from Cormyr to save us?

[Gronan of Simmerya]

Dunno, but I've got 10,000 barbarians I can rent you.

[Omega]

Dunno, but I've got 10,000 barbarians I can rent you.

Nah, you just need 2. :cool:

[tenbones]

Awesome! hahaha I've actually met those guys ages ago!

[Omega]

T-shirt idea.
Mike Mearls Fired me from this T-shirt.
So now I am living in a Nudist Colony.:eek:

[Anon Adderlan]

Idenity politics has supplanted genuine class consciousness and  superseded concerns for the economically disadvantaged.

This is true.

For example, in her recent interview for the Guardian, prominent anti-racist activist Munroe Bergdorf made the astonishing claim that 'you can be homeless and still have white privilege'.

Yet this is also true, as #American society makes different assumptions about poor black men, and a poor white men.

I think if I had an applicant who chose to look and behave like Adam Koebel there, I would direct him to another GM. I get a really creepy vibe off him.

I seem to recall #Milo tried to make an example of #AdamKobel too. In fact #Adam's even featured in the #Thumbnail. Problem is #Milo was completely wrong about everything.

[video=youtube_share;EoPkFa8_2C4]https://youtu.be/EoPkFa8_2C4[/youtube]

Then there's the time I was reported as weird and creepy at a con based solely on how I looked. Not what I said, not what I did, not who I interacted with, but how I looked. Luckily I knew security so we had a good laugh about it.

And people wonder why I keep to myself these days.

The reason nerds get bullied for not having enough women around is because nerds are easy to bully. There's not any deeper reason than that.

Nonononono, it's because we're smart and bullies are frightened and jealous of us! It has to be. Nothing else makes sense.

Heh, that reminds me of the wisdom of my wife:). After I observed that when she offered to GM a game, she had no issues getting a bunch of other girls to play, while people at TBP were thinking long and hard how to get more female players into the hobby, she casually observed: "It's bullshit that women don't want to play RPGs, or have issues with the rules. We love well-made settings, too. If women don't want to play in your group, they don't want to play with you, simple as that".

Too true.

Needless to say, the observation wasn't well-received:p!

To be a fly on the wall for that discussion.

Shame how admitting one's personal behavior might be part of the problem means being voted off the island.

the other side is *obsessed* with appearances rather than substance,

Given what I've seen in this very thread, I'm pretty sure this isn't isolated to the 'other' side.

When they say there needs to be explicit text and imagery to define who and what you can be in the game,

They're angry at people telling them who they are and can be, yet seek out media which explicitly tells them who they are and can be. The level of #Doublethink is astounding, and deeply #Authoritarian.

[Steven Mitchell]

Then there's the time I was reported as weird and creepy at a con based solely on how I looked.

Got to admit.  If your avatar showed up at my table at a con, I'd at least think about seeing if I had the  number for security handy. :eek:

[Christopher Brady]

Given what I've seen in this very thread, I'm pretty sure this isn't isolated to the 'other' side.

What side?  People are worried that Mearl's 'Side' is hiring a woman is because that's what his 'Side' does.  They don't care about anything other than physical attributes.  The other side I've seen here are wondering if she can do the job.  Can she?  Time will tell.  I hope so, I want more D&D stuff.

[S'mon]

Then there's the time I was reported as weird and creepy at a con based solely on how I looked. Not what I said, not what I did, not who I interacted with, but how I looked.

Do you choose to look & behave like Koebel? AFAICS pretty much anyone in the USA can do the Matt Colville neckbeard thing (just take in plenty of high fructose corn syrup, drive everywhere like Uncle Sam intended, and don't shave) but Koebel's look is one that takes considerable effort.

[jeff37923]

Mike Mearls Fired Me From 5th Edition D&D
So Now I Can Do Role-Play Gaming For Fun Again