And not to be riding the coat-tails of TAPPED this morning, but Adam is dead on when he says of Goldfarb that, "for all his criticisms of the "Dailykos" crowd, if "Dungeons and
Dragons" becomes a part of our political lexicon, we'll know who to
thank." Part of this is this idea to just make Obama whatever seems foreign. But the continued slams on D&D are too specific and takes us back to Ta-Nehisi's rule of Ghetto-Snobbery--we often are what we hate. Goldfarb remark smacks of a geek trying to get down by slamming other geeks.
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This reminds me of a point I read somewhere a long time ago. So many of McCain's circle are nerds who feel cool by hanging out with the macho jock.
What JK said.
Also, not to be outnerded by anyone, my friends and I played an almost equal amount of Traveler, a science fiction/space travel role-playing game. The only thing nerdier than D&D is an obscure RPG.....
Yeah...what the hell is that and where does that come from??? It would be sweet if this led to insane discussions about D&D in the media.
Sounds like someone is acting out repressed D&D revenge fantasies (did the nasty DM kill your super-righteous, uber-masculine, lawful good Paladin?).
And since when is the D&D crowd pro anything political (no offense TNC)? Back in the day, Gygax for president sure, but who has time to worry about politics when you are fighting a rhemoraz and a lich king?
I think someone needs to drop a meteor swarm spell on Goldfarb's ass.
Well, he is slamming Kossacks for not being adequately deferential to McCain's service memories despite the fact he mocked Kerry's recollections while blogging at the Weekly Standard.
Dude, Rifts is way better than D&D.
Okay, Kevin outnerds me. I hang my head in shame.
I was a StarFleet Battles guy myself, as long as we're reveling in our nerddom. Oh, and I was a Jehovah's Witness as well. Top that. ;)
Okay, I learned PL/1, IBM's high level programming language, as a kid in the 1970s (literal kid, btw, i was 10 or 11 or something). Beat that for pure nerdom.
Yet each man slams the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a snarky post
Writ by a closeted nerd;
The coward writes a D&D diss
And dreams of his Ranger's sword.
Have you seen the picture of the guy?
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1358/1039352884_738757eae0.jpg?v=0
He looks like your standard Belltown/Quincy Marketplace/Gaslamp District/*insert neighborhood where douchebags go out to try and get laid here* douchebag.
Love the product and the gold buttons.
Here's where I go astray: They want to convey the idea of some slacker who is old enough to vote but spends his time in his parents' basement. He goes online, because he's part (they imply all) of Obama's internet advantage. This sad loser spends his days on blog comments and immersed in role-playing games.
But if our mythical typical Obama supporter does online role-playing, shouldn't it be The Sims and World of Warcraft, or whatever has replaced them while I wasn't watching? Dungeons and Dragons, while still around, is such an old-school, 80s choice. Among other things, you don't need a computer to play it. It's just a very odd choice for geek-slamming.
My nerdhood is of the likes-math-and-science-and sci-fi variety, not any gaming.
Kevin:
Rifts is damn near unplayable. Arguments about the system aside, you know something isn't thought out when a starting class comes with its own railgun-toting nigh-invincible power-armor.
Love the fluff though.
Re: geek cred.
I had to sneak D&D games (and Dragonlance / Pier Anthony / Tolkien books) because my Fundy parents were convinced they were the work of the devil.
Jay C: I had a friend who got thrown out of his parents' Pentecostal church for playing D&D. To his parents' credit (or at least to that of his Mum), they didn't try to get him to stop in any serious sort of a way, I suspect because he was playing with smart kids who got good grades.
Piers Anthony? Tolkien? Really? Tolkien was a very devout Catholic, and Anthony was morally unobjectionable (and generally a terrible writer) as I recall. Actually I might ban Piers Anthony books from the house on aesthetic grounds when my kids get old enough to read them....
Okay, Kevin outnerds me. I hang my head in shame.
Graccus, Kevin would outnerd you because he actually wrote the game Rifts.
Honestly, the really cool kids play Two Fisted Tales.
Matt:
I beg to differ.
The really cool kids that I know play Unknown Armies and Ars Magica.
Too specific? I went to Goldfarb's post looking for some specific reference to a multi-sided die, or a spell, or something. Nothing. Mom's basement is too specific?
Call of Cthulhu? Villains and Vigilantes? Car Wars? Do I have to go on here?
This was the way my geek crew and I whiled away our chickless teens and early 20's. I can't say I regret any of it.
I can't believe no one's mentioned OGRE on this thread. It doesn't get geekier than a hexmap covered with chits.
Also, I believe that I still have, stored away somewhere, an original version of Snits' Revenge -- the one that came for free in an early edition of The Dragon (#11, IIRC).
Didn't anyone here read the "Lone Wolf" adventure books? I was so nerdy, I bought the supplement (The Magnamund Companion).
Oh, yes. The only way I was able to read The Chronicles of Narnia in the open was that I checked them out of the church library.
Oddly enough, science fiction was never questioned. Goodness knows LeGuin, Bradbury, Clarke, etc. had a much more subversive effect on my formative years than any Dragonlance novel.
I can't believe no one's mentioned OGRE on this thread.
Too funny. I did mention it, right after EJ's mention of Car Wars, but apparently my comment is still caught in moderation limbo.
Didn't anyone here read the "Lone Wolf" adventure books?
Yes, loved 'em. I'm pretty sure I bought them all, but I hadn't heard of the supplement.
I don't think Goldfarb's closeted; I think he's out, but self-hating. ;-)
Seriously, if you're going to talk about Goldfarb and D&D, you have to post his apology, which was totally awesome:
http://ace.new.mu.nu/apology_from_mccains_campaign_blogger
The fatassed blogger Michael Goldfarb sat around his dorm room throughout his four years at Princeton, smoked pounds of weed, and played computer games.
No joke.
I played D&D and loved it. It taught me critical thinking at an early age. Screw this guy slagging D&D. There were many nights spent drinking and smoking herb with my buddies while trying to play a D&D module. I had some of the best times ever with those guys.
I am calling the D&D nerd vote as the "soccer mom"/"NASCAR Dad" of the 2012 election. Also, for some reason I feel like there is probably a large overlap between Ron Paul supporters and D&D players...
He's bitter because none of the gamers at school would play with him.
I can't believe no one's mentioned OGRE on this thread. It doesn't get geekier than a hexmap covered with chits.
I'll see your OGRE, and raise you a Melee -- my dad gave them to me for my birthday when I was 9 (and Wizard when it came out the next year).
Far dorkier than that, though -- my mom (who's a devout christian) took me to see "In Search of...Noah's Ark", and stormed out in a huff halfway through when she finally realized it was Christian propaganda, and Leonard Nimoy was never going to show up.
D&D? Check. Traveler? check. Other Suns, Champions, James Bond RPG, OGRE, Car Wars, Illuminati, Talisman, Zork, etc, etc.
Even geekier, I wrote my own Mechwarrior-style RPG back in the early 80s, wrote my own Zork-style adventure game on my TI-99/4A, and, last but not least, wrote and ran a MUD (precursor to MMOs) in college.
All of this, and I was still not the geekiest person I knew - some were into all of this, several more, and also ran BBSes back in the day.
Ah youth. I don't regret it, though :)
I figured he was specifically talking about you.