On August 29th, an article released by Gizmodo, a technology blog and opinion site, was written about
using OKCupid, a very popular dating website that links people together based on common interests, and how the articles author's experience using the site went. Now, this all sounds fine and dandy so far, why should I care about how somebody's dating experience goes? Frankly, I don't. Usually. However, this article struck a cord. The author of the article, states that, 'I'm single, I'm busy, and everybody's doing it.' Sure, why not log into a dating website? It might
just work out. She then goes on to explain how she was receiving scary
posts from people saying lewd things. Again, expected from some of the
more shady
denizens of the Internet. However, she explains that she got an instant
message from a
nice sounding guy, and decided to meet up with him. She explains how
they had a fairly
non-romantic evening, but towards the end of the night, the bomb
dropped. She found out that he
was the world-champion at Magic: The Gathering. For those of you that
don't know, Magic: The Gathering is the worlds first, and most popular,
trading card game. Large amounts of people, myself included, purchase
cards to play against others in tournaments. She explains how at
dinner on the next date, she asked him three questions. These three
questions which would determine whether she saw him again she would see
him again. There conversation went as follows:
"Did you still play? "Yes." Strike one. How often? "I'm preparing for a tournament this weekend." Strike two. Who did he hang out with? "I've met all my best friends through Magic." Strike three."Yes. She broke up with him because of these three three response. She refused to understand that he was a nice guy, with a great personality, talent at something, and large amount of money, but she broke up on him because he played a card game. Magic: The Gathering has a large amount of anger towards it because people believe that it is a waste of time, and a waste of money. Some people that I've played with personally have spent up to $20,000 on their decks, which when you think about it, isn't much more than the average person spends on his car hobby, his season tickets to sports games, or other such hobbies.This shameful attack on the poor man even caused famous podcaster and blogger, Veronica Belmont, to tweet:
"I guess attempting to publicly shame a pretty awesome-sounding guy now constitutes tech journalism."This shows how shallow and mean the writer was. She simply used the article for sensationalist journalism, which is something that Gizmodo are well known for. They have used hard-hitting articles that cause uproars to simply gain hits on their sites. Once again, shameless.
What strikes a cord is that as a geek myself, I've experienced this discrimination personally. I've noticed people judge me because I play World of Warcraft, another massive online game or Dungeons and Dragons, a group role-playing game. And it hurts. Jon Finkel, the world-champion Magic player who was attacked in this article, and everyone of us that is proud of our geek heritage shouldn't have to put up with this.
Great entry James. It reminds me of a comic that I’ve seen before floating on the web, albeit that the visual was more focused on gamers who play videogames as opposed to tabletop. Honestly I can’t see much difference in between the two that would be such a difference: If sitting alone in a room completing repetitive task after task on WoW is acceptable, how would they rate the interpersonal interaction that’s very much a point of the tabletop environment?
ReplyDeleteWhat I find the most odious of all this is the fact that there’s an instant stigma against it. Saying that you play Dungeons and Dragons seems to carry the same amount of nerdiness to it as if you carry your calculator with you at all times. (More might I add, as it seems to be a hallmark of a subculture that has been earmarked for contempt.)
In reality, what should have happened was an understanding of some sort; I don’t know what the equivalent of DND would be in such a shallow individual’s world, (an affinity for Gucci bags, perhaps?) but the idea that she would immediately cast off someone for being involved in a passion shows that she’s obviously insecure about herself. I don’t know what’s up with her, but the fact that she’s unwilling to even attempt to see what this guy was about (after having a decent evening out together) shows that she’s looking for attention in ways that are selfish and immature.
However, I feel that the heart of the matter rests in the ability for someone to empathize or at least attempt an understanding of someone’s interests.
With that said, what do you think would have been the result if he’d said that he was a Major League Gamer? Does that carry a different amount of stigma than being a reigning champion of Magic?