Youth in Gaming
Most gamers my age, and in fact most people my age, are, I cannot deny, massive Hipsters. We try so hard to be different and better and not mainstream. We want so badly to be something genuinely unique. One of the things that come out of this insane drive for novelty is our comparing of indie-cred. How many obscure bands you've seen in concert is a measure of how cool you are, as is how many bands you listen to that no one has ever heard of. Listening to old music is only acceptable if you do it on the original vinyl, while new music is acceptable either on vinyl or on the latest iPod, but not on a CD player or low-grade MP3 player; brand new or old enough to be retro, that's the rule. Comparing obscure tastes in music and how many bands you heard about "before they sold out and everyone heard about them" is the new dick-measuring.
I bring this up not simply because of personal annoyance (or guilt), but because this ridiculous mentality translates into almost every aspect of life in my. It isn't just music: What kind of bike you ride or car you drive, where you get your clothes, and yes, what kind of games you play are all measures of indie-cred. So let's take a look at how the hipster generation processes RPGs.
Most people who play RPGs do so because they enjoy the game. The very young do it with a necessarily childlike sense of wonderment and curiosity, exploring new worlds and new ways of interacting with stories and characters. People who have been playing for a long time do it with a somewhat less excitable attitude, but with perhaps more intellectual appreciation; they can respect how a rule enforces certain play styles, or how this or that mechanic makes play more enjoyable for everyone. It's only this age-group, this narrow band of twenty-something gamers, who turn it into a competition to see who can find and bring up the most obscure game or mechanic before anyone else.
I have to preface this rant by saying that not everyone is like this; just like there are people my age who listen to whatever music they enjoy in whatever manner they enjoy it, regardless of its "cool" factor, there are plenty of people who just play D&D and say to hell with it. But for the ones who are dedicated, those for who RPGs are a lifestyle, this kind of cold-war of indie RPG credibility is a necessary part of social interaction. Talking about what you play, what you're into and the kinds of games you've read is something we all do, but for these kids it becomes a sort of contest, an exercise in outdoing one another in displays of obscure-RPG knowledge and mastery. You've played Polaris? That's cool. I'm working my way through this thing that takes place in a ghost world that has a double-cross movie type scenario. It's by the guy who did Lady Blackbird, you've probably never heard of it.
As annoying as this sort of arbitrary novelty-knowledge measurement is, it isn't necessarily a completely negative thing. While I do face-palm every time I hear one of these conversations (or let myself get involved with one), I think this attitude is actually beneficial to the industry, and becomes more so as it becomes more pervasive. The hardcore hipster-gamers will always exist, throwing out names and references known only to them at every opportunity and demeaning those not worthy of their select knowledge. But interest and fixation with unique stories, settings and mechanics becoming more ubiquitous in the community can only be a good thing. Yes, there are snobs who are tedious to talk to, but isn't that true of every medium? Don't we all know that one guy who turns every movie outing into a discussion about the cinematography of some obscure French filmmaker, or that art student (or former art student) who insists that no, it isn't "abstract", it's post-post-modern exclusionary expressionism, you philistine! Those people may not be our best friends, but they don't stop the rest of us from enjoying movies, paintings or other works of art. And, as sad as it is to admit, a lot of the time they turn us on to some genuinely worthwhile material.
Every subculture has those kinds of people, and I'm sure this generation isn't the first to introduce them to Roleplaying. We have brought them to the foreground and made it a more popular and acceptable attitude, but that hasn't turned us all into snobs. Rather, it's increased the number of casual snobs; people with an interest in the greater detail and depth that the hipsters stake their social identities on, without the obsession or pretension. The hardcore RP snobs can be annoying, but their exposure has made the rest of us, the more rank-and-file gamers, more accepting and interested in unique mechanics, stories and innovations than we otherwise would be. By making novelty excessively popular, we've tricked ourselves into more quickly embracing genuine innovation. And I think that, on the whole, that can only benefit the games we love.
