Author: Craig (---.ac.uk)
Date: 09-27-2002 06:47
Gaming has a lot in common with homosexuality. Think about it.
I'm thinking about it and I don't really see much evidence to support such a bald statement.
Both have a stealth factor to them, a "skin privilege" where it is hard to discern a gamer from a non-gamer, or a homosexual from a non-homosexual.
Yes, and equally there are certain subcultures where it may be more openly visible. Also many other things would also have this "skin privilege" You can't tell a philatelist, armed robber, democrat or magician from appearance either.
The "them" looks outwardly like "us," and we make the most of it.
See above. Though I think immediately slapping "them" and "us" labels is immediately divisive, even when done with a leverl of irony as you have here.
People from all ranks of life fill in our numbers. Certainly there are stereotypical backgrounds but both groups understand that anyone might be a member. To the other angle, both groups have developed flags and signs to communicate preferences without words, be it an inflected tone or a sarcastic t-shirt. Both groups have their well-developed lingo, varying from code words to jargon. Both groups are mercilessly persecuted in High School and beyond. For both groups, the most strident persecution comes from people attempting to deny their actual inclinations or experiences.
I'm not going to dispute this paragraph, as it's mostly accurate. I would say that gamer persecution (especially post-High School) isn't on a scale with homosexual persecution.
Right wing Protestant Christianity likes neither group. Both have had vast, yet quiet, affects on popular culture. Both groups have their ins and their outs, their closeted members and their flamers. Both groups have members they can't quite place, by which I mean places where even their own self-definitions get soggy. I've heard both bisexuals and LARP-only types be told to their respective faces that they were not real gamers or homosexuals.
Yes, and I've witnessed the bi thing far too often to object.
Both groups protect their own, but are most critical of their own.
I'd still say that Jack Chick, Jerry Falwell and their ilk are more critical of the groups as a whole than any within-culture elitism.
The gamer Stonewall isn't likely to happen anytime soon (who knows, maybe the Gen Con move will provide something).
Gamers not being subjected to police raids motivated by prejudice, I'd have to agree that it's unlikely to happen, let alone soon.
I have never heard anyone argue that gamers are genetically defined, although I have heard the theory that we are half-step genetically defined, that it takes the kid with the physical and or social deficit to want to get into gaming in the first place,
I wouldn't equate "gamer" with "physical or social deficit."
which brings us to our topic.
The second most commonly stated reason for getting involved in gaming is the escapism. The first is "my X got me doing it," X being larger sibling, cousin, friend, teacher et cetera.
So the most common reason to take up gaming is socialising, which wouldn't equate with the social deficit mentioned above.
Escapism is powerful. It is the forge of gaming, the pure bit of acting like someone who you are not by placing yourself somewhere you are not. Whether you are a dice-and-dirty munchkin or a Gitane-smoking high art gamer, the game is about the escapism.
But aren't most hobbies about escapism deep down, I'm sure many sports players entertain themselves with idle thoughts of playing on a bigger stage, whether it be the NBA, World Cup or even a small local league.
Even the purist of "realism" is escapism. How to define realism in terms of a role playing game is debatable, but the simplest one is the un-fantastical. A realist game is a game that eschews dragons and high adventure for tax returns and personal interaction. (1)
As mentioned in the footnote, a far from perfect definition, but a workable one in the context of the article.
Assailing the minuet of someone else's life with fanatic vigor is escapist.
Undoubtedly.
It is removing you from where you are now, putting yourself into a whole other life conception. That person is worse off than you are? Wouldn't it be nice to know that you were worse off, as opposed to having the vague paranoia of the middle-class?
Escapism, definitional and conceptually, is a pejorative.
Another bald statement, and I would argue that escapism indicates people with tendencies towards imagination and creativity, which certainly isn't pejorative.
There is not a "meliorative" concept of the word. (2) It does not matter what you are escaping to, as long as you are, and it is of course that "escape" that gives the concept a bad name.
It does not matter what you are escaping to, as long as you are escaping, and it is of course that "escape" that gives the concept a bad name. Gaming is one of many escapist endeavors, yet its brand of escapism seems to stink stronger than some of the others, perhaps only shying down next to video games.
As I disagree with the premise underlying this paragraph, I really don't think you've done a very good job of supporting your argument, instead you seem to be applying your position to situations without justifying the position first.
Come on, how many other brands of fantasy have been used to explain suicide and murder?
Well here in the UK there was an infamous child murder case that was blamed on the "video nasties" of horror movies, horror being a subset of fantasy. Also, I believe that the Columbine shooting was in part blamed on the music of artists such as Marilyn Manson, so in answer to your question:
TV
Film
Music
Possibly, we can even chalk up another sort of similarity between gaming and homosexuality, for some do view homosexuality as an avoidance of proper responsibility, the tantamount of sexual escapism, and count it wrong for that reason.
Yes, and it's my opinion that these people are regrettably misinformed.
It's the cheater's way of taking out the risk of children, so dulling the blade of responsibility that comes with the pleasure.
The way this is phrased makes this sound like it's an attributed fac, but there are many examples of gay parents and fights for adoption rights worldwide which give the lie to the notion that homosexuality is a way of avoiding children.
Now, I am not here to win you over to the idea...either homosexuality or gaming.
Clearly not.
If you are reading this you have already come to grips with your own escapism, (and I let your sexual orientation play itself out on its own terms). Maybe you are even one of the class of people who cite the escapist power of role playing games as something that improved or even saved your life.
I don't think I'd go that far, but it's improved my fiction writing style and math skills :)
No, amongst the choir there is no need for preaching, and I would do a poor job of it.
You do seem to have been preaching by implication is some of the above however.
Escapism has never had that strong a role within my life, other than my love of its pursuit. I would never cite anything in specific that it saved me from. But in concerning myself with the above analogy, I gained a newfound respect for why people dislike escapism, especially in the form of gaming.
We must admit that the dark side of escapism is easy enough to see. It is a form of denial. The basic paradigm of escapism is probably alcohol, in its guise as our most popular "running away" drug. (3)
Sounds suspiciously like preaching to me...
The point of it is there is some better place than where you are now (someplace where there's two of everything) and it is only a matter of drinking to get there. As important is the better place to be found is, so is the escape. There is something that is being escaped from. Your life turns into a blues song, so grab a stiff drink and forget, or at least not mind remembering.
Again I'm not going to debate this as it's clealry couched as author's opinion. That said, I really like that last sentence.
But just what is being escaped from? Many alcoholics end up, paradoxically, only practicing escapism in alcohol to avoid facing the fact that they are alcoholic. What were they escaping in the first place, if nothing at all?
Reality. Addictions aren't easy to face up to, so perhaps they're escaping from having the courage to admit that there is a problem.
There is an important distinction in any escapist endeavor. There is escapism that is pure to the term, true to form. I hate the way that I look, so I want to play someone who is beautiful. I will not change or will not accept fact X about my own life, so I will surround myself in fantasy in order to effect my denial. As long as I'm thinking about Traveller, I don't have to worry about not having a job or money to make rent. The thing about this sort of escapism is that it has no uniqueness to gaming. Money, power, sex, art, and work all leap to mind as possible refuges. Now, there is a "denial is the first stage" aspect to these sorts of things, in that some escapism is considered normal. Bomb shelters do have a way of becoming tombs, after all.
Agreed.
There is, however, another sort of escapism, one that is far more vague and disturbing. This escapism is the escapism of discontent. This is the escapism of the alcoholic for the sheer sake of the liquor. There is nothing in specific being ran from, no ugly truth being hidden from, excepting reality in its totality.
While that may be accurate what does this have to do with the article topic of gaming and gayness? I don't game out of discontent after all.
Life has a bad habit of being dull, or rather being unpredictably exciting, which equates to dullness. I've written on this topic before. This other brand of escapism exists to push a little verve into the trite existences that we lead. By pretending to be involved somewhere where something is happening, it livens up our day. It is a foray into another universe where things do run around us and our entertainment.
I would call this brand of escapism harmless as would many other readers of this site. I'd say shorn from it's context of gaming most fundamentalist Christians and other such groups would also agree with it.
People hate this. Remember that one of the similarities between homosexuality and gaming is being picked on by those in denial. You will never hear harsher words spoken about gaming than by an ex-gamer trying to impress himself and others. The secret truth of this concept extends much further than to repressed members. On face value both homosexuality and gaming seem a choice of what to do on a Saturday night. (4)
I'm sorry, but despite this footnote, I can't just drop it. Sex isn't the be-all and end-all of homosexuality any more than it is of heterosexuality or other orientations. And I wouldn't say escapism is the primary motivating force behind my gaming at least, it's a matter of getting a few mates round for a bit of socialising and a laugh, although I won't deny escapism will be involved at some point.
They both seem rather plain choices.
But they are not the only choices.
Escapism and sex, even escapist sex or sexual escapism is all fairly straightforward ways to spend time. But not to everyone. What most disturbs the area man and woman about both groups is fluidity with a concept they are frightened of.
Agreed.
Homosexuality takes a degree of sexual awareness and comfortably that most people don't have. Gaming takes a degree of escapist imagination and comfortably that most people don't have.
I would argue "can't express" rather than "don't have"
The truth is that no one makes it through this world without a good dose of escapism but people do not want to admit it. (5)
A point I also made above.
Upon seeing someone who possesses that comfort, it is hard to imagine them not despising her. Gamers get it so easily. Other people have to scrimp and save to get to the Gulf for a week, where gamers take a vacation from themselves every weekend.
As does, say, someone who's just picked up a novel.
Of course, the argument is that the person taking the vacation isn't you, and an RPG doesn't match up to a real trip to somewhere warm and beautiful. First, there is the personal narrative factory concept (going on a trip doesn't mean it will be fun), but the more important criteria is that if people were more in touch with their escapism; they would not need the vacation.
Again, I'd agree here.
It would not be the only way they could understand to "get away." If people became comfortable with their Nora Roberts as gamers are with their dice, then the escapism would not be like a squirreled nut, ate as only a last resort, but something that was a real and important part of their lives, something normal and acceptable.
I say escapism is something normal and accepatble. It's caleld imagination, and hell, even personality. Oh, and BTW who's Nora Roberts?
The people left vacationing would be the people who honestly wanted that sort of escape, not people desperate for any sort of escape.
I'd say that in the great majority of the time this is the case anyway.
This profound change in human thought is not coming any time soon. It would take people, suddenly and en mass, becoming comfortable.
As you might have gathered, my viewpoint is that this isn't a "deep and profound change in human thought." It's the natural human condition, and the common wellspring from where the myths of ancient times to the movies of today come from.
Still, it is good service to remind yourself that the next time Bully sneers at your Magic cards, it's because he can't play with his fantasies.
I'd add "through that particular medium" as a qualifier here
Most people, untrained in the ways of escapism, are not versatile in it. They need it, but they can't admit to themselves their need. So they resent us for it.
I'll agree here.
Now, when Fellow Gamer sneers at your Magic cards, that's another story entirely. Likewise, I do not feel happy about painting such an "us and them" picture of the world. It is only us and them to the extent that there is a them out there, somewhere, who refuses to recognize the inherent us-ness of themselves.
A conclusion I think we've both reached, albeit from oposed (though not diametrically so) viewpoints.
They started it. Of course that leaves it up to us to finish it, and to stop caring that some people cannot come to grips with their innermost desires and designs.
This comes across as overly infantile in tone to me, for reasons I can't quite fathom, and it does slightly undermine the credibility of what was an interestingly thought-provoking article.
<snip footnotes>
Overall, I'd say that the article was interesting and definitely provokes debate, but when dealing with such a loaded issue as sexual orientation and touching on the nature/nurture debate (however obliquely) that maybe an extra re-write to normal might be advised.
Okay and now a little about me and my biases in regard to the article.
I'm a gamer, rather obviously. I'm also bisexual, and my parents have recently separated as my fathe realised he was gay. I'm slowly converting to Christianity from Atheism so my religious tendencies are Agnostic.
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