NeoGrognard

I love politics. Not as much the fact that it exists, I think that’s a shame, but I love to watch its play. Like it or not, our world is affected by the decisions of powerful people. Not all powerful people agree. Add the modern fact that the general population has some amount of say in who is elected to positions of power (though we often quibble about nature and extent of that say), it makes for some great T.V.

I love to watch the goings on of the world around me through the lens of the 24-hour news cycle. I have a problem, I admit it.

But like sex, politics is a tricky subject among RPGers. I have played games with the most liberal of people and the most conservative, sometimes at the same table. I watched a flamboyantly gay nerd play across a graybeard biker with a shirt that said “Christian American Heterosexual Pro-Gun Conservative. Any Questions?” and no one died.  I have Facebook friends who post shit that makes me wish I was afflicted with lycanthropy, the kind that can teleport you wherever you want (maybe within line of sight). I’m sure they are not happy with some of my posts. Don’t even get me started on religion. You will not like what I have to say about religion.

In fact in more polite circles of RPGers we avoid talk of sex, politics, or religion. We are just here to game damn it! I have a friend who refuses to talk about most of these subjects…with anyone that he works with. I don’t’ know what to make of it. Since I love to talk about all these things, it gets weird.

My personal point of WTF? I think the middle finger should replace all smiles in all photographs. I’m not the only one of my friends with this particular problem. We are going to start a guild. Wanna join?

Human Resources and I were never friends.

Despite gentlemanly pacts and such, RPGers tend to be pretty diverse. I don’t mean diverse in ethnicity, gender, or even sexual preference (though it’s getting better on those fronts). It’s something  potentially more divisive than that. Just about every gamer (myself included) thinks something strange about the world, and is stupidly stubborn in that belief. They are like points of WTF in our personality which by nature makes us all very different. Even fellow geeks think these things are odd.

And that is how flamewars start.

Eventually some of us learn to control our points of WTF. Some of us even  harvest its power (or that’s what I’m going with), and group with like-minded misfits.

And this is when you can stop posting on some AOL forums, and start posting on websites entirely dedicated to RPGs.

These like-minded misfits expand, splinter, and expand again. They have come to agree on general principles, but differ in the details. They have created new points of WTF. Start flamewars anew, create sub-forums, and splinter again.

This is the engine of the Editions War.

It’s politics, pure and simple. Our polis is both local and virtual. In our weird nerdy Mirror, Mirror universe of the Beltway, we have Pathfinder vs. 4e. Take your pick on which side’s which, that’s not really the point. The point is that they are diametrically opposed typically in the procedurals rather than the results. And yes, there are other factions. There is the 3.5 people, the retroclone people, and then all of the other pockets of RPG play. But they are typically busy following the golden rule: just play what you want to play.

Whenever I go into a game store, I always get into a conversation with some in front of the RPG shelf. I do avoid young kids—that would seem creepy—but confused mothers, hardened RPG vets, and couples looking for matching dicebags (I’m not kidding) they all get the impromptu questionnaire.

It starts with, “so what do you play?” And ends with, “have you heard of _____?” Filling the blank with whichever game they didn’t play. Even confused mothers can be helpful with this. Often they were given explicit instructions to get one game and not the other. It’s like Transformers and Gobots all over again.

I can tell you that most RPGers have opinions on the matter, but they don’t understand why. “I heard it was dumbed-down.” “My friend Joe says it’s complicated.” “I don’t like that company’s business model.” “It looks stupid.” These are all greatest decision factors for the average RPG consumer. While my methods are far from scientific, It seem pretty obvious to me that even gamers are social. There’s no fucking taste test. No hours of searching for reviews on the web. YouTube is far more entertaining.

This is how people operate. Let other folks deal with the bullshit, I’ll ask Joe.

And Joe probably didn’t have time for all that either but he has an opinion. And that does make Joe awfully important.