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Ahem....um, well....have you ever been to a gaming convention? I used to attend one outside of St. Louis every year, and I'd say that's a fairly accurate description of most of the typical attendees of gaming conventions. Now Gamesday was quite a bit different, mostly because the crowd was younger, and nearly exclusively male. I did like how the author pointed out the irony that football fans are just as devoted geeks as gamers...they're just more socially acceptable for some reason.

People have sex at GenCon? Wow. I guess no one will want to play the
elaborate DnD scenario I've got planned complete with Dark Elven dungeon
mistresses and exploratory rust monster appendages.

Gen Conners are full-grown adults who play for hours on end and take their activities as seriously as we take Sunday’s Colts game or the new episode of American Idol.

WHY????

Out of the 25+ thousand people, why did they have to pick a LARP'er to interview??? And a Vampire/Mage LARP'er at that. Of course these people are going to make us look bad. My only complaint with the article is that they didn't pick any 'normal' gamers to interview. They had to pick the fringe of the fringe. I don't know how many times I've been at a gaming table at GenCon and I hear "crap...here come those LARP'ers".

Okay...since it's a slow morning at work, I decided to write a response to the magazine. After being distracted by the picture of cheerleaders for a few minutes, I wrote the following response. Maybe if we all craft letters that are well writting and don't just come down to "You Suck Tony", they may publish a letter or response. If nothing else, I killed 15 minutes of a slow day

I don't want to say I was offended by the article 'Revenge of the Nerds' By Tony Rehagen, but I was disappointed in the message. Mr. Rehagen has succeeded in making all ?gamers? appear as unwashed, poor, socially inept, basement dwelling misfits. Yes, there are individuals who fit this description, but as a generalization, it is simply untrue. GenCon draws all sorts of attendees. Some are casual gamers who come to shop and play some games that they may not have time to play in their everyday lives. Some are lifelong gamers who enjoy the atmosphere and want to see the latest and greatest in the gaming world. There are parents who grew up as gamers that bring their kids. The parents enjoy role-playing games and the kids get to play Yu-gi-oh and other card games with other kids and the people who make the games. I?ve seen fathers gaming with their sons. I?ve seen a father buying miniatures that his daughter picked out so she could paint with him. Then there are the people that Mr. Rehagen interviewed in his article. They are the fringe of the fringe. The are the stereotypical gamer that most people assume stand for all of us. Do they chose to live a more extreme lifestyle? Yes, but why is it any worse than painting yourself up for you favorite sports team or being devoted to a musical artist who other people may find to be utter crap? Why is it more socially acceptable for people to walk around pretending to be thugs and drug dealers than a fantasy character? At least no elves have ever staged a drive-by.

I myself am a gamer, but it?s simply a hobby and not a lifestyle. I?m 33, have finished college and a master?s degree, I have a decent job and can support myself. I am comfortable in social situations that do not involve gamers. My friends are also professionals and I joke each year, since they went to law school, that I am the only gamer at GenCon that brings my own attorneys.

If you decide to write an article next year on GenCon, please contact me for an interview.

?You have to know that most of these people don?t leave their basements all year,? says one of the Guilders. ?Then once a year, they all congregate here to mate. It?s like that movie, March of the Penguins.?

Simply beautiful. Game dorks converging on the hapless town,an orgy of unwashed, acned, lisping mentally prepubescent males looking for some strange. I would be amazed at this actually. It would be worth going just to write a psych paper on the mating habits of game nerds.

I love this article. Its so true it hurts. Truth hurts.

Gamers give gamers a bad name. Thats all there is to it. If you dont like the image portrayed, take a bath. Vote with your showers.

Thanks for the laugh IronKodiak. I just wrote them extolling the virtues of this writer, in hopes of seeing similar fare next year.

Remember, vote with your showers.

I'm with Hellfury on this one.  This is an accurate image of gamers, and it was nice to see them spotlight a gay gamer; I have a friend who plays in our local DnD group who's gay, and he's in an awfully small minority.  He's a lot less socially inept than the guy in the article seemed, though.

This writer was doing honest reporting.  Even the Games Days I've been to were a bit unnerving, but the cons are kinda scary at times, and I'm a gamer!  There's truth to the stinky fat guys with poor social skills stereotype; if people want to change it, they should stop being fat, stinky and difficult to talk to.

I got a chuckle when the writer slipped the term "droids" in there; this is definitely a geek term, albeit a widely known one, that arose from the word "android".  He is betraying his dork roots by casually using it.

"One boy, a large, round youth wearing a shirt emblazoned with an orange-and-red dragon stands and raises his flabby arms. “Bring forth the virgins!” he yells. “We must appease the gods beyond these doors. We need lots of virgins.”

Perhaps he’s forgotten where he is."

That almost made me cry, I was laughing so hard.

"“It moves better when it’s not against my BREAST,” she says.

With the utterance of that last word, all action in the hall freezes. The head of every male gamer within earshot of the voice instantly pivots to its source."

That was a gutbuster as well.

A great article.  There is no reason to be offended by it at all.  Stereotypes exist for a reason.  That reason is people like these.

There's really not much you can do about religious freaks who write articles like that one, or the idiots who believe it. The "satanic panic" of the 1980s is long over, anyone who still falls for crazy stories about gamers being a bunch of drug-addled, occultist, sex-freaks is either too stupid or crazy to be reasoned with. The best you can do is just make encourage media outlets not run by fundies to attend cons/gaming sessions/etc. and hope some positive coverage results -- here in DC there are at least a couple positive stories about the local game stores and the big anime cons in the Washington Post, it's probably some of the best coverage that gaming/cons get.

Religious freak? Any religious freak that will have a cover like this



is ok in my book.

Seriously, where did you pick up the religious freak angle?

I second Malfreds question regarding the religious angle.

I am thinking the writer of this article wants to write for rolling stone. They used to do no holds barred editorial articles like this once upon a time.

I think he just neglected to read the article, and jumped straight to the outrage part. The story didn't mention religion (real religion) once. It even made the point quite clear that the event had very little to do with sex... well, except for the several disturbing images put forth by the main character of the story, and his lover...

Why not read the article before making conclusions people.

"Gen Conners are full-grown adults who play for hours on end and take their activities as seriously as we take Sunday’s Colts game or the new episode of American Idol."

Indy residents are the only ones who take the Colts seriously, as they're the biggest chokers in the NFL.  Right after "never get involved in a land war in Asia" is "never bet money on Manning and the Colts in a big game." 

Seriously though, I think the article is pretty accurate, if exaggerated.  Not every convention-goer reeks of B.O., but there's certainly plenty of those types present.  I think the reporter comes off a little holier-than-thou at times, which is ironic considering he's the loser who got sent to cover Gencon.  But it's tame enough.  If anyone's really that outraged about this, it's probably hitting them to close to home.

 

Posted By supabeast on 08/24/2006 10:09 AM
There's really not much you can do about religious freaks who write articles like that one, or the idiots who believe it. The "satanic panic" of the 1980s is long over, anyone who still falls for crazy stories about gamers being a bunch of drug-addled, occultist, sex-freaks is either too stupid or crazy to be reasoned with. The best you can do is just make encourage media outlets not run by fundies to attend cons/gaming sessions/etc. and hope some positive coverage results -- here in DC there are at least a couple positive stories about the local game stores and the big anime cons in the Washington Post, it's probably some of the best coverage that gaming/cons get.

What in the hell are you screeching about? Try reading the article you're supposed to be critiqueing first next time, and you might not make yourself look like a total arse.

Back to the topic at hand, I found the article hilarious. He delicously dissects sooo many sterotypical aspects of con-cow's, it's lovely. And, no, Games Days aren't any better. At least, not in the US, where the younger age only makes things worse. How it is possible for so many damn people to go into public without having bathed in god knows how many days is beyond me, but the stench of Games Day is one of the things that keeps me away from it.

I did see one guy at GenCon this year wearing a bright green t-shirt that said "TAKE A SHOWER".

I was also highly amused that exhibitors and the guys running the auction kept calling XL t-shirts "gamer small" and XXL t-shirts "gamer large".

No, Games day isnt any better. I went to chicago 2002 GD and vowed it would be my last. I never made the sex connection with cons until I read this artcile. There was a couple standing in the bits line with my ex and myself. The lady kept talking about how she liked dark eldar and why. Then proceeded to talk about how she likes to paint them nude and if we wanted to come to their house to "Play games".

Not only was it blunt, but it lacked any social tact. It was pathetic. I dont think either of us gave any indication for the conversation to go as far as it did at that point, but needless to say, we left the line and decided the purchase wasnt worth standing next to two fat sweaty people who wanted to be sexual predators in a family gaming setting.

Most of the guys just kept staring at her until Jen Haley and her entourage of young women entered into the hall.

Yeah. Gamers definatly give gamers a bad name.

i cant read it

*tear* im a sad panda

While it was fairly well written, I still found the article to try too hard too present only steriotypical situations and characters. Basicly the article to me at least was saying see all gamers are ill adjusted nerds, just like all indiana farm boys are white. Probably true to a certain degree but still a crude statement to make. Its like the writer was wearing blinders all weekend so he could only see one end of the spectrum, all gamers mentioned sounded like they were in cheap costum, almost constantly in character and of course socially inept and unwashed.

 And to be frank the whole Mating of the Nerds idea sounds and seems ludicruous to me, I've been a gamer for almost 20 years now and never once have I encountered anything to suggest this is anything more than imagination run wild on the writers part, unless hes implying that a large portion of the gaming community is gay,, how would this scenario even work with his assumption that the overwhelming majority of gamers are males? Or does this mean to imply that the few female gamers are all wanton, servicing the male majority?     I especially liked the comment

 "This is Gen Con, Gen Con is always one step away from one huge orgy." I almost laughed hard enough to piss myself when I read this. Imagine the last con you attended looking around you and thinking this.

Anyway, while I am not outraged by this article, neither do I find it to be particularly true, which should be the root of good journalism.

Yeah, the whole "Gen-Con is one step away from becoming one huge orgy" line is a clear indication that the 'Game Masters' imagination is clearly working overtime. Looking for sex? A game convention is not the place to find it. Wanna see chubby girls in chain mail bikinis? Then you're in the right spot.

The portrayal of everyone being in costume throughout also struck me as false. I know that's not the case locally...but having never been to Gen-Con I was giving the author a half-hearted benefit of doubt.

The author clearly wrote what he was expected to, and even cleverly managed to take a couple of jabs at the more extreme sports fans. The guy who wears face/body paint to a Colts game is the same kind of guy that makes his own Legolas costume for Gen-Con - it's just that one of them read a lot more books in high school.

ps - I was also expecting it to take on the evil satanic ritual angle, and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't.

"Vote with your showers." ~ Hellfury

the link won't work. somebody know what I'm doing wrong?

I for one really didn't need to hear about the make out session between Wells and the other guy... spilling over into the hotel room. I mean come on, what the hell does that have to do with a Gen-con story? I am an Indiana boy, born and raised. Moved out here is the sprawling desert of AZ in 1997. Oh wait nevermind, I'm white. I guess that's no surprise to anyone right?

HAR HAR, this article is an obvious hack job, not even worth my time to rebutt.

The link works for me, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

I didn't get the feeling that the article was bashing gamers as being total social retards or anything. In fact, the moral of the story seemed to be that we are all nerds if we're really into something. The thing ended like one of those saturday afternoon specials where we all learn a lesson and decide that maybe doing PCP isn't such a good idea. Maybe It's because I didn't read it until I read the responses in this thread but I was expecting a more anti-gamer article. This guy sounds like he is just about one of them. It doesn't take alot of effort to be a gamer and socially acceptable. Here's a few hints for those of you who constantly find yourselves the recipient of wedgies, swirlies, or double-jock-locks.

1. Wear a letterman's jacket around or even while you game. These things aren't handed out by the team you know. You can buy or order these things almost anywhere. Wearing one of these will raise your jock factor by +5 immediately and a higher jock score is an easy way to enhance acceptance in the real world even if you are a 30-something overweight beer swilling slob who coaches little-league in between sitting on the couch marathons watching NASCAR. Trust me. The Letterman's jacket is the way to go.

2. Don't take yourself too seriously. People who take themselves too seriously can't be taken very seriously by most others. They becomme a charicature of themselves. Just look at Ghandi. Man, this one time I was all like "Yo, dude! There's only like one cupcake left! I'm going to totally start a war so that you won't eat it while I'm at work." I thought it was funny but he was all like, "Not cool man, not cool." Pssh! Whatever. Anyways, don't take yourself too seriously.

3. Don't try to impress or "wierd out" the straights. The reason people call these people geeks is because these people are geeks. If you put a dragon in your cleavage then i'm going to stare at your cleavage. If you wear a cape around town and shout out "huzzah" for no apparent reason I will stare at you. If you are having an above conversation level volume conversation about the effectiveness of paladin's lances vs heavy ork boar cavalry I will stare and listen to you...then I'll call you a fool because a paladin's lance is no match for a heavy ork boar charge! Now, don't get me wrong. Any of these situations is completely acceptable, unless you take offense to the people staring or commenting about you. If you don't want to stand out then you should just do what everyone else is doing.

4. Vote with your showers (thank you Hellfury). I included this on the list because it seems like a good idea. After trying it however it doesn't appear to work. My shower has no way to upload it's information into a ballot system and it only has two options anyways; Hot and Cold. I'm just not sure which I want to vote for.

I loved that article. Anyone who didn't is a self-hating gamer and needs to learn to love themselves.
It's funny 'cause it's true.

When I was a lad and used to go to conventions there weren't any women (that you'd recognise as such, anyway.) But that was a long time ago.

I'm pleased to hear the gender ratio has improved from 95% male and that some wargamers are getting some. It shows that love will find a way.

If that article really is spot on for you and the gamers you know, then honestly you have my condolences. While I could identify most of the archtypes or generalities, I dont honestly dont know many gamers who would fit the molds this article put forward. and like I said the most unbelievable part to me was the whole orgy comment. It just echos too strongly of American Pie's " this one time in Band Camp." theme,,, This one Time at Gen Con,,,"

Oddly enough the gamers I know have known how to use a shower and deoderent for many years.

Those are the gamers I know.
It's why I don't roleplay anymore and don't go to conventions.
I love games and playing games but I litteraly threw away years of my life associating with them.
But I'm not bitter or anything.

That's why Ogre joined the nerds.

Posted By gorgon on 08/24/2006 10:26 AM

"Gen Conners are full-grown adults who play for hours on end and take their activities as seriously as we take Sunday’s Colts game or the new episode of American Idol."

Indy residents are the only ones who take the Colts seriously, as they're the biggest chokers in the NFL.  Right after "never get involved in a land war in Asia" is "never bet money on Manning and the Colts in a big game."   

Thank you for saying it, Gorgon.  Manning is treated like a frigging saint here in Tennessee, and my response to said congratulators is always the same: If he's so great, why couldn't he win the National Championship?

And the less said about stupidity that is American Idol, the better.

 

As far as the original topic goes, yeah, I'm a nerd.   And so are all of you.

I love it when nerds try to legitimize/rationalize stereotypes and archetypes. (Oh noes, they can't mean everyone! GASP!) Then again, individuality is an esteemed prize to Westerners so I wouldn't know much about it. Bah, this is like listening to 15 year old paintballers who talk about how awesome their sport is and calls anyone who says paintballers are "murderous idiots who only listen to rock" ignorant. Social retards.

And yes, Gencon, furry, and otaku conventions are known for easy nerd hookup places. At least gencon doesn't involve yaoi or yiffing (don't ask).