Not long ago I was at a dinner party with some academic colleagues. Because many academics fancy themselves gourmets we strayed to the topic of sharpening fine cutlery. The hostess mentioned that down the street there was a guy whose hobby is sharpening knives. In fact, every weekend you can see him in his garage sharpening things.
She said "Yeah, he's really weird. He probably plays Dungeons & Dragons."
This was such a perfectly timed comment because no less then four of us in that room full of wine-sipping university professors play D&D together regularly. I guess we just don't really advertise the fact at work that we like to pretend we're goblin-fighting wizards while we sip our wine. I just stayed quiet, concerned that my secret life as a "dungeon master" might be revealed before I go up for tenure.
After a moment the geologist in the room spoke up and said "Hey! We play Dungeons & Dragons!"
The hostess smiled and said something like "Ohh.. Hah hah. Hummm..."
Who "we" referred to remained vague. I stayed quiet, just sipping my wine, while the conversation moved on. I guess it's still a mystery around here, then, who's rolling d20s in the closet... and who their master is...
Aw, you should have said something like,
ReplyDelete"Yes, we do play. And I am their DUNGEON MASTER, but I only let them sharpen things on Tuesday nights. If they do a satisfactory job, they can have the weekends for themselves."
Just when you think geeks are finally getting some respect. Aw, let the world just burn. . . .
Great story. I've started to be a bit more "out" about my D&D hobby at work. It helps when we have a semi-regular gaming group of university professors and staff.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm weird because I play D&D? Ha, I've been called worse, I don't give a damn anymore.
ReplyDeletePeople think I'm weird anyway, even if they don't know I'm a gamer, so now I think "What the hell?" And put D&D and Call of Cthulhu on the Interests sections of my CV and application forms. It makes for interesting conversations at interviews.
Aw, you should have said something like, "Yes, we do play."
ReplyDeleteDude, I know... I don't know why I still feel a little self conscious about my hobby. I believe it doesn't speak well of me. I need to stand up and be proud.
One of my grad students found out I play D&D and he was absolutely disgusted and embarrassed. He plays White Wolf and indie RPGs, and sees D&D players as the dregs of the world. I tried to convince him old school D&D is cool, but he just shut down and wouldn't listen... sigh... We're cool though - we still connect over boardgames.
Lulz, Closet players.
ReplyDeleteI'm not self conscious about it, but in my particular field (pre-modern history) it's really looked down on. I very much identify with your comment about being quite before you have tenure.
ReplyDeleteHahaha heck naw, it's those railroad model hobbyists who are the weird ones ;P
ReplyDeleteI totally empathize with needing to wait for tenure. I think a lot of people out there must still bear the secret religious antipathy for D&D. But you know, without D&D, I'd have never added "empathize" or "antipathy" to my vocabulary. We totally need D&D in after-school programs.
1d30 said: But you know, without D&D, I'd have never added "empathize" or "antipathy" to my vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteI gained 'antithesis,' 'libram,' 'estuary' and 'doppelganger.' Unfortunately, I don't get to trot them out much.
My s.o. is an academic, so I wish you luck in the tenure process. I hope you will celebrate tenure when you get it (I know you will, D&D tends to attract intelligent people) with a game of D&D.
"One of my grad students found out I play D&D and he was absolutely disgusted and embarrassed. He plays White Wolf and indie RPGs, and sees D&D players as the dregs of the world. I tried to convince him old school D&D is cool, but he just shut down and wouldn't listen... sigh... We're cool though - we still connect over boardgames."
ReplyDeleteROFL! I can relate... to the student, I mean. I'm a WoD-er, and I look at my position on the fringes of the OSR community as something of a social experiment. I'm also hoping I might be able to drag one or two of you out of the 70's, but I'm not holding my breath.
Seriously, though, I've long since come out of the closet. If asked, I'll answer, and if the questions are intelligent, I'll even provide intelligent answers. Some people paint their faces and chant while a group of men battle for possession of a leather orb, don't tell me I'm weird. And I've also found that comparing rpg's with playing in a band to be quite effective.
"We totally need D&D in after-school programs"
ReplyDeleteMe, I can thank roloeplaying for my English.
If you are a professional, and not in some kind of literary field or self-employed, telling people you play D&D is a career-killer. People who say differently are fooling themselves.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was a year out of college and a new resume was being passed around in our business software development offices for consideration. The college grad listed D&D as one of his interests and it biased me quite favorable towards his eventual hiring. I've been gaming with him solidly for more than 15 years since.
ReplyDeleteSkipping over my time in the computer game industry (where D&D playing was almost expected), I'm not shy about my hobby with my current crop of co-workers in the defense contracting business. Hobbies are hobbies. Why should mine be weirder than yours?
I think it is hard to say that you still play D&D, particularly to your parents who were sure it was an old passion of yours, dating back when you were a teenager :)
ReplyDeleteI work in IT as a network security manager so it's not really unusual. Most of the folks are gamers of some stripe so playing D&D isn't necessarily looked down upon (though it may be seen as a bit quaint in this day and age of World of Warcraft). Several folks that I've worked with are in the SCA or Ren Fair crowd. Most folks I tell think it's kinda cool.
ReplyDelete@risus:
ReplyDeleteyou could be the janitor from "Scrubs", and have a hobby like stuffing animals with other animals...
But to the main point: I don't have much of a choice in some respects...my wife outs me to basically everyone we know whenever she gets the chance. She's a geek, too, but in different ways, and enjoys the unique torment that accompanies one's geekiness being outed, as long as it's not hers.
Some people paint their faces and chant while a group of men battle for possession of a leather orb, don't tell me I'm weird.
ReplyDeleteWell said!
Vault keeper said... "I think it is hard to say that you still play D&D, particularly to your parents who were sure it was an old passion of yours, dating back when you were a teenager"
ReplyDeleteActually, my dad is a player in my current campaign!
I don't have tenure, but I'm not worried about someone finding out I play D&D. Maybe it depends on your discipline? (I'm in the Media Studies Dept)
ReplyDeleteI don't have tenure, but I'm not worried about someone finding out I play D&D. Maybe it depends on your discipline?
ReplyDeleteI'm not really worried about tenure either. I work in a biology department and bring in tons of grant money and publish a lot. In my department tenure is all about the bottom line: papers and grants. I've never seen personality quirks brought up in personnel reviews.
In general, to avoid people from forming preconceptions about me I try not to advertise too many of my peculiarities, but I don't dodge or deny them either. For me one of the attractions of higher-level academia is its tolerance for, or even appreciation of, eccentricity.
Interesting story!
ReplyDeleteI don't think that anyone in my department knows that I play RPGs, but I certainly would not deny it if asked. I can't imagine that it would have any impact on tenure decisions.
I wouldn't be surprised if a surprisingly high percentage of academics were into RPGs (at least at some point during their lives).
I'm pretty closet about my gamer hobbies too outside of my gamer friends and my close buddies. If you meet me at a party, RPGs and miniwargames aren't subjects that I would bring up.
ReplyDelete"One of my grad students found out I play D&D and he was absolutely disgusted and embarrassed."
ReplyDeleteThe only thing your grad student should be embarrassed or disgusted about is if he isn't publishing his research.
I'm married to a gamer and I don't care who knows it. He even got me my very own a set of pretty pink dice, which are essential for killing zombies.
ReplyDeleteYup, I'm out. People at my school here in Japan know. I'm no College teacher, but high school English counts :P They find it to be very interesting and unique. They know so little about it here that you could bring it up in conversation and nobody would even really know what you're talking about....
ReplyDeleteNo one in my office plays, but they know I do. I have several gaming books on the bookcases in my office and usually one or two on my desk, and two of the maps I've designed are printed at 40" wide and mounted prominently on the walls of my office.
ReplyDeleteI'm a graphic designer for a printing company. The owners of the company actually encouraged me to put my maps on the walls of my office when we were moving into our new offices.
Let the geologist take the heat. He can always get a job with the oil companies.
ReplyDeleteGreat story! I miss the guy with whom I used to play before he went off to another school. There should be a secret sign we flash in hiring committees to facilitate adding more gamers to our departments. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've dealt with the question of the closet myself. I actually have put up two blog posts on the topic.
ReplyDeleteThe first was where I realized I was in the RPG closet with my co-workers and asked if that made me a bad person.
The second talks about my tentative steps out of that closet. There are at least half a dozen people I work with who now know that I play D&D (one of whom knew all about GenCon and is helping me set up work in Indianapolis so that I can make a business trip out of my GenCon trip this year).
Good idea keeping it under wraps. Part of the fun is hiding it from non-believers (or chicks I want half a shot at).
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, I've found "I used to design computer games" to be quite a conversation starter among academics, but I've instinctively shied away from talking about RPGs. I guess it's the money. And the "used to."
ReplyDelete...but among computer game designers I found few active roleplayers. Which is even stranger.
ReplyDeleteExplaining D&D to Japanese students, you could say "it's like the language that Pokemon is written in. You could play Pokemon with it but you could also do anything else you can imagine."
My husband was explaining D&D to a banker (of all people), focusing mainly on the social aspect: A bunch of guys that get together on the weekend, kick back with some beers and play a casual game for a few hours. The banker's face lit up: "Oh, just like golf!"
ReplyDeleteThis post made me feel ashamed for being in the closet (at least at work) and reminded me of the UK Conservative MP the Right Honourable Michael Gove when he outed himself.
ReplyDeleteYou can read his outing in the Times Newspaper at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article3522620.ece
And see his mug shot:
http://www.michaelgove.com/
I wish him the very best.
It's probably her way of asking to join the game.
ReplyDelete