The fact that they get together to play dress-up — to engage in a large and sometimes murderous game of cowboys and Indians — may give us our answer. They want to be someone other than who they are. That's the great irony of identity politics: They seek identity in the tribe because they are failed individuals. They are a chain composed exclusively of weak links.What they are engaged in isn't politics, but theater: play-acting in the hopes of achieving catharsis. Their online personas — knights, Vikings, reincarnations of Charles Martel — will be familiar enough to anybody with a Dungeons and Dragons nerd in his life. But sometimes, role-playing around a card table isn't enough: Sometimes, you need a stage and an audience. In the theater, actors and audience both can forget ourselves for an hour or two. Under the soft glow of the tiki torches, these angry white boys can be something else — for a night."In the morning, they wake up with the same faces. And there is something in the faces," Williamson writes. "James Alex Fields Jr. has more than a little whiff of Dylann Roof about him, and we know what Dylann Roof wanted: to murder black people. Sometimes, it is worth taking angry white boys at their word."
benjoshua wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:I am not comfortable with the D&D reference Kevin Williamson makes in the National Review as he talks about the aims of Charlottesville's "angry white boys":The fact that they get together to play dress-up — to engage in a large and sometimes murderous game of cowboys and Indians — may give us our answer. They want to be someone other than who they are. That's the great irony of identity politics: They seek identity in the tribe because they are failed individuals. They are a chain composed exclusively of weak links.What they are engaged in isn't politics, but theater: play-acting in the hopes of achieving catharsis. Their online personas — knights, Vikings, reincarnations of Charles Martel — will be familiar enough to anybody with a Dungeons and Dragons nerd in his life. But sometimes, role-playing around a card table isn't enough: Sometimes, you need a stage and an audience. In the theater, actors and audience both can forget ourselves for an hour or two. Under the soft glow of the tiki torches, these angry white boys can be something else — for a night."In the morning, they wake up with the same faces. And there is something in the faces," Williamson writes. "James Alex Fields Jr. has more than a little whiff of Dylann Roof about him, and we know what Dylann Roof wanted: to murder black people. Sometimes, it is worth taking angry white boys at their word."I guess what bothers me is that he appears to be assuming that role-playing is all consuming for every gamer. It is true that there are some people who find/lose their identity in the life/role of someone else, but that can happen to a football fan just as much as a gamer in my opinion.
benjoshua wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:I guess what bothers me is that he appears to be assuming that role-playing is all consuming for every gamer. It is true that there are some people who find/lose their identity in the life/role of someone else, but that can happen to a football fan just as much as a gamer in my opinion.
Melnibonean wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:I found this article with some information about D&D and E.T. quite interesting. Apparently TSR missed out on some additional prime exposure:...'E.T.' at 35: Older bro Robert MacNaughton tells what 'D and D' at Harrison Ford's, 'Weird Al,' Elvis Costello had to do with it
SimperingToad wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:benjoshua wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:I guess what bothers me is that he appears to be assuming that role-playing is all consuming for every gamer. It is true that there are some people who find/lose their identity in the life/role of someone else, but that can happen to a football fan just as much as a gamer in my opinion.You get it. He doesn't. Or he doesn't care. He's just another propagandist inflaming hatred. It's people like him that are responsible for these type of events.Just another troll.
Mister Yuk wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:benjoshua wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:I am not comfortable with the D&D reference Kevin Williamson makes in the National Review as he talks about the aims of Charlottesville's "angry white boys":I guess what bothers me is that he appears to be assuming that role-playing is all consuming for every gamer. It is true that there are some people who find/lose their identity in the life/role of someone else, but that can happen to a football fan just as much as a gamer in my opinion.I read the whole article and a bunch of the comments. I wouldn't get too bent out of shape on this. The Author is trying to use a well known (albeit unfair) stereotype to make a generalization about the Charlottesville's Protesters - not that I'm defending the Protesters or that despicable murderer. He's calling out the Protesters for something the Author read on one of their websites that by their actions that day they could look forward to sex from random women when they got home. It's ultimately lazy for an author to use generalizations about groups of people but it is a simple way to try to get a point across. Obviously the article as a whole was not about Gamers.Actually, as we all know, it's an outdated stereotype - people of all types play RPGs including a lot of women. But to the general public, the idea of some loser male sitting in Mom's basement creating a fantasy world where they're actually cool and desirable - it is a stereotype of our group. No different than every good high school football player is some dumb jock or take your pick of any other ones.I read a lot of the comments and none of his readers that were commenting were targeting that part of the article as important, and that's how I feel about it too.
benjoshua wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:I am not comfortable with the D&D reference Kevin Williamson makes in the National Review as he talks about the aims of Charlottesville's "angry white boys":I guess what bothers me is that he appears to be assuming that role-playing is all consuming for every gamer. It is true that there are some people who find/lose their identity in the life/role of someone else, but that can happen to a football fan just as much as a gamer in my opinion.
Mister Yuk wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:something the Author read on one of their websites that by their actions that day they could look forward to sex from random women when they got home.
sauromatian wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Mister Yuk wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:something the Author read on one of their websites that by their actions that day they could look forward to sex from random women when they got home. That's sounds like a novel technique for getting people to play in one's D&D game, but maybe a little implausible. What happens when the players get home & there are no random women waiting for them? If I'm the DM who made such promises, do I have to supply the random women? How random?
Agent Cooper wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Heck, I'm still waiting to get "the REAL power."
Skullhammer wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:My half-orc barbarian has a charisma of 6, so I would like to think of myself as an exception to this stereotype. I'm super lame and undesirable in my fantasy world so that by contrast, all of a sudden I come off as the Fonz in the real world .
benjoshua wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Happy eclipse day! I wonder how many people are going to damage their eyes permanently today?
