| In Defense of RPG Gaming (emphasis placed on Dungeons and Dragons) Imagine a world with different laws of physics, different biology, different races, and vastly different career choices. Maybe..evendifferent, rules; of punctuation?! Can you do that? If you can, you can be a gamer too! The worlds created by RPGs are worlds of the mind. Can you imagine a world where dragons still fly and unicorns aren't just posters and stuffed animals? Where you could grow up to be a wizard or a druid? A world where magic works RPG's. The phrase brings to mind the geeky kid from highschool who everyone thought was just a little weird. This stereotype is not true! In the words of Shadow (aka Aaron), "we are not losers....ok, maybe we are, but we're happy with that". Part of the gaming experience is being comfortable with that part of you that wishes you weren't just "John Smith", but out having adventures and doing interesting (read:dangerous) things. RPG's are for everyone. Not just lonely teenage males. Girls can play too. I ended up joining the game because I was dating the DM (dungeon master, he who runs the game and who's word is law). So I became the token girl at the games held in my hometown. My reasons for playing at first were because it was something he liked to do, and I wanted to understand that...then I figured out I could cast "Flame Strike" at things that irritated me. It may have all been in my head, but it was fun nonetheless. I recently attended a gaming convention where game demos were being run. I saw a different side of gaming. I saw a man and his son running a demo for some random game. The kid was around 9, his Mom was there somewhere. It was a family thing. If I were a parent (and I'm not) I would rather have my kids sitting around in someone's basement with their "dorky" friends trying to figure out how to max their stats (Oh, the math practice...) in a game than trying to figure out how to light a water bong with their "cool" friends. |
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| Clipart from the following sites http://ardosweyr.co.uk/clipart/index.html www.sommerland.org www.wizardofdraws.com |