As
part of this study I performed four separate interviews. All of the people interviewed were in their
mid-twenties (except John, who is in his early twenties) and live and work in
the same area. The first two people
interviewed were non-gamers; Stacy, a working student and David, an industrial
worker. The second two people
interviewed were experienced gamers; Paul, a student professional and John, a
professional. All four of these people
interacted together through the course of the study and were interviewed
separately. Each pair was asked a
different set of questions and additional questions were used as required.
Neither
Stacy nor David had ever had any direct dealing with role-playing games when I
first approached them about playing Dungeons and Dragons and eventually being
part of this study. The closest that
either of them came to role-playing was that David had played numerous computer
role-playing games at home. I asked as
to whether or not he had ever played them with others over the Internet, but he
had not. Stacy did not even know what a
role-playing game was until I mentioned Dungeons and Dragons, and even then she
just recognized the name, but did not know what it was exactly.
When
asked about what they knew about role-playing games or Dungeons and Dragons
specifically they both responded similarly.
David said that he had heard that the game was potentially bad for those
who played it. His mother, who worked
for a psychiatrist, had told him that the kids who played Dungeons and Dragons
had lost their sense of who they were and needed a lot of help (he also implied
that they had done some bad things, but wouldn’t elaborate). Consequently he stayed away from
non-computer role-playing games.
Stacy’s image of role-playing gamers was grounded in less certainly, but
was definitely more certain in its imagery.
Her pre-conceived notion was that it was dark, depressing, devious and
evil game played by “sweaty, scary men
in their basements alone.” When I asked
her where she had gotten such notions she wasn’t entirely sure, but remembered
as a child her parents making her watch an episode of 60 Minutes that discussed
the possible dangers of Dungeons and Dragons.
Both Sandy and David admitted that they had never met a role-playing
gamer prior to me, as far as they knew.
Once
they had both decided to try playing, they were asked what had made them decide
to give it a try and whether any of the things they had heard had influenced
their decision. Stacy had come to
observe the game being played as part of a school project and the people who
were playing convinced her to give it a try.
Any hesitation she felt was a little relieved in that there was another
woman playing in the group. If she had
been the only woman she probably would not have played. David said that he decide to try playing
when two of his friends told him how fun it was and told him about some of the
things that the characters did and went through. He said that he had definitely been influenced by what he had
heard prior to trying the game, it had taken him two and half years to finally
decide to give it a try.
From this point David and Stacy had started playing
with our group and even spent time with us when we were not gaming, but in the
game store, talking about gaming. The
two of them participated with differing levels of understanding and eagerness
and experienced different things while within the sub-culture.
Stacy
was surprised by a couple of things when she first started playing with the
group. Her first thoughts on the game
itself had to do with the seeming complexity of it all. What did things mean? What dice did you roll when? How did the referee know what to answer when
the players asked questions? There was
so much coming at her at the same time that she was a little overwhelmed.
Instead of playing the next
week she and I discussed the game and went over some of the rules and
concepts. We were joined sporadically
by other local gamers who did not play in our group. All of them were more than willing to answer her questions, often
giving her a considerably more detailed response than she really wanted. We talked the next day about the experience
and she was amazed at the differences that existed between individual gamers
and how they played.
The two people that spoke with
us the longest were almost complete opposites excepting for the fact that they
were both gamers. The first was
practically a walking encyclopedia of gaming information and knew exactly how
to use the rules to create a character that was near invincible, personal power
being of the utmost import to him. The
second player was less concerned with power (often scoffing at the other gamer)
and was more concerned with the imaginative and story oriented side of the game,
politics and intrigue were what he liked in a game. Stacy noted the differences and mentioned how she thought the
first guy was a little over the top and was glad that he wasn’t playing with
us. Interestingly I’ve heard the
“power” gamer claim that he only gets along with other gamers and have to
wonder if the choice is truly his or if it has more to do with the way others
perceive him as a gamer.
Having played with the group
a number of times I asked Stacy how her perception of gamers had changed since
she had started playing. Her concept of
what a gamer was had made a complete reversal.
The people playing were laughing and having fun in a well-lit area, not
sequestered off by themselves. The
people playing were intelligent, friendly and encouraging, allowing her to look
at their books and answering her questions.
These were friends playing a game, not a bunch of evil deviants
preparing twisted plots. When asked
what she thought the benefits of role-playing games might be she said that
there was the mental challenge, being part of a group and developing social
connections with good people. For
possible negative aspects she listed the dangers it could posses for someone
with an addictive personality and the fact that in time it could get expensive to
play when you started buying all of the rulebooks, figures and dice needed to
play, and especially so if you started playing multiple role-playing games.
David’s entry into the group
was a little less confused than Stacy’s.
David had purchased one of the rulebooks so he could understand what was
going on from the beginning and so he did not suffer the same sort of
disorientation that Stacy had. David
proceeded to buy more books as the weeks passed by, wanting to learn more,
looking for how the rules could be used to benefit him the most. When we
discussed his impression of the game and the people playing it he said that he
enjoyed playing the game, and that it was fun.
The people who played in our group seemed to be nice and pretty normal,
but a number of other gamers that were in and out of the store were a little
“weird.” When asked what the difference
between the two groups was he responded that the weird ones were the ones who
just didn’t care what other people thought and that they pushed the boundaries
of what people would consider normal, and that the people in our group seemed
to know that it was just a game and that were more important things beyond
it.
When asked about the
possible beneficial and negative aspects of role-playing games he said that he
thought the games were mostly beneficial since they encourage teamwork and
working with others. Additionally they
make you plan ahead and think about the future. The only negative side that he could see was the potential for
people to take it too far and to lose themselves in the game.
It is interesting to me that
when discussing the positive and negative aspects of the game that they both
gave similar responses to both questions.
The positive being seen as group interaction and the negative being
losing oneself in the game. Perhaps this
points to the reason why some individuals do become obsessed and take the game
too far or too seriously. Perhaps these
individuals are just that, individuals, people who don’t work well with others
taken to the extreme
When
I first started talking to Paul and John about their experiences as gamers I
focused on their initial entry into the gaming subculture. Both of them had started playing as
teenagers and both had faced resistance from their parents for religious
reason. Paul started gaming openly once
he had turned eighteen. He felt that he
no longer had to respond to his parent’s displeasure at the idea since was an
adult, but he did have to deal with some pressure from friends to not play. He gave me an example of a friend who played
having to stop because his girlfriend didn’t want him to play. He said that that sort of pressure could be
very hard. John only played when his
parents were out of town, keeping his hobby hidden from view until he moved out
of the house. The only encouragement
they received in regards to role-playing games came from a close friend for
Paul and John’s older brother.
When
I asked what had interested them in role-playing games in the first place, Paul
responded that it seemed like a good for of “intellectual enjoyment.” He had always thrived on games that required
a lot of thinking, and role-playing, with its imagination intensive rules was
something he could really get into.
John’s reason for getting into role-playing games was that there was no winner
and they never really had to stop. He
had always played computer role-playing games and had been disappointed
whenever he finished one. He wanted the
adventure to continue and the open ended format of traditional role-playing
games allowed for that. But what has kept them playing for the past six
years? The answer they both had was
their interaction with other gamers.
They made many friends through their gaming and enjoyed playing with
different people. Paul added that he
also enjoyed the dramatic sense of the game, as if the game were just part of a
large, never ending novel.
When talking about the
beneficial and negative aspects of gaming they both responded similarly; it was
that you meet new and interesting people, developing close friendships, working
with other. Paul also mentioned that he
saw it as a way for people to expand their knowledge base by working in
different settings and learning aspects of the different worlds. Both responded that the stereotype attached
to gamers and role-playing games was a major negative factor. I sensed that they didn’t so much view the
unfavorable attention as a negative aspect, but more that people made these
judgments without ever trying the game or talking to more than just a few bad
examples.
When asked what they saw as
the common stereotype of the gamer their answers varied a little. Paul believes that most people see gamers as
being geeks and nerds. Many of the
people who play might be classified as such without playing role-playing games,
but the mere mention of Dungeons and Dragons sets off the loser alarms
of most people. John thought that most
people viewed gamers as depressed cult members bent on evil. The majority of people don’t understand what
role-playing games are or how they’re played, and what people don’t understand
they fear.
Through
the course of this study I spent a considerable amount of time observing and
talking with other gamers on various subjects, including those that I referred to
during the interviews. Many of the
people who I spoke with expressed opinions closely matching those mentioned by
the four people I interviewed. There
were varying degrees of passion about given subjects, but the general answers
remained the same.
As
a sort of control for the study I spoke with gamers on the Internet
(traditional role-playing gamers who were on the Internet, not computer
role-playing gamers) and found that their responses were also the same in
general. Frustration at stigmatization
seems to hide beneath the surface of every gamer. It seems to be something left unsaid until the topic is brought
up, and then every gamer seems to feel the need to rise up and defend his/her
hobby. They point to a number of
positive aspects that gaming has or encourages. An article by Jason Ward titled “10 Things D&D Teaches
Your Kids” (2000) summarizes these positive aspects as follows: creativity,
curiosity, care, diplomacy, teamwork, virtue, tolerance, ingenuity, ethics and
cause & effect (Ward). When pressed
on the possible downsides of role-playing games there was almost a universal
acknowledgement that the game could be taken too far and that it was possible
for an individual to get lost in gaming.
Many people said that they knew someone who’s gaming had caused real
problems in their real life (examples were mostly relationship or fiscal in
nature), but that they were the exception rather than the rule.