Amusing article about why some companies don't want anything to do with tabletop rpg gamers.

http://www.mobunited.com/mobunitedmedia/2010/06/19/why-you-cant-have-nice-things/

Quote from: from above linked postWe looked at the market at the time and determined that the service was pretty much tailor-made for roleplayers and that they were the most natural early adopters.

Once we got actual tabletop gamers from the "leading edge" of the hobby, he discovered they were so insufferable he changed his business model to stop attracting them. They were bad for business.

Let me save someone some reading:

WAAAAAAAAAH THOSE MEAN OLD GAMERS WON'T SHUT UP AND BE A PERFECT MARKETING DEMO AND FIT INTO THE MOLD SOME MARKETROID INVENTED WAAAAAH.

Sounds like they designed 4E with the express purpose of pissing those people off and succeeded.

Quote from: The articleHow were they assholes? My client used a bunch of methods to tag RPG players and monitor them moving through the system. This is what he found out about them:

    * Instead of having social conversations, they focused on concrete goals.
    * They related to content in a cynical fashion.
    * They dissuaded other users from getting involved with the content.
    * They complained all the goddamn time.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;388953Let me save someone some reading:

WAAAAAAAAAH THOSE MEAN OLD GAMERS WON'T SHUT UP AND BE A PERFECT MARKETING DEMO AND FIT INTO THE MOLD SOME MARKETROID INVENTED WAAAAAH.

heehee

Quote from: ggroy;388940Amusing article about why some companies don't want anything to do with tabletop rpg gamers.

http://www.mobunited.com/mobunitedmedia/2010/06/19/why-you-cant-have-nice-things/

I don't think the article is so much amusing as it is spot-on. The greatest hindrance to the popularity of gaming is some of the gamers themselves.

I've been trying to put together a gaming group lately and I've been avoiding the local gaming stores for a lot of the same reasons cited in the link.

I want to play games with people who happen to play games. I don't want to play with 'gamers' (or, what I call 'mouth-breathers'). And I don't think I recognized that fact until just now. (I thought I was avoiding recruiting in those places because of cliques and my own slight timidity.)

If I can't meet you at the local Mexican restaurant and have a beer with you, then I sure as shit don't want you at my house, sitting across the dice-littered table from me.

It's been a hard road, putting together a group of non-gamer gamers, but shit...  the alternative is simply too much to bear, honestly.  

Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Maybe I just want to game with friends, and I'm too fucking picky.

Quote from: jeff37923;388964I don't think the article is so much amusing as it is spot-on. The greatest hindrance to the popularity of gaming is some of the gamers themselves.

What's that supposed to mean, you elitist prick? *wipes greasy fingers on his pit-stained size XXXXL "I like Boobs" shirt*

Quote from: Kaz;388968I've been trying to put together a gaming group lately and I've been avoiding the local gaming stores for a lot of the same reasons cited in the link.

I want to play games with people who happen to play games. I don't want to play with 'gamers' (or, what I call 'mouth-breathers'). And I don't think I recognized that fact until just now. (I thought I was avoiding recruiting in those places because of cliques and my own slight timidity.)

If I can't meet you at the local Mexican restaurant and have a beer with you, then I sure as shit don't want you at my house, sitting across the dice-littered table from me.

It's been a hard road, putting together a group of non-gamer gamers, but shit...  the alternative is simply too much to bear, honestly.  

Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Maybe I just want to game with friends, and I'm too fucking picky.

Well, I'm sure with your attitude a lot of gamers wouldn't want to game with you, either.

HAPPY 500TH POST TO ME!

Good for them.

Quote from: Cylonophile;388973Well, I'm sure with your attitude a lot of gamers wouldn't want to game with you, either.

I'd game with Kaz just because he is showing some discriminating good taste when it comes to who he will invite into his home.

Which, is the point of the article.

Quote from: Kaz;388968Maybe I just want to game with friends, and I'm too fucking picky.

No you are not and believe me, in the end it is very much worth it.

Quote from: jeff37923;388976I'd game with Kaz just because he is showing some discriminating good taste when it comes to who he will invite into his home.

Well, there's "discriminating taste," and then there's "being a prick."

Sometimes there's a bright line between them, and sometimes they just sort of shade into one another.

Just so I don't look like a total ass, maybe I should use another example.

I used to play baseball, and now that I'm older, I have been delegated to softball. I used to play quite a bit when I was in the service, but I don't play anymore. I don't because I don't want to surround myself with 'softball guys' and all the crap that comes with them.

So, I just play pick-up games of softball when I get the chance. I play with friends who happen to be softball players.

The same way I avoid obnoxious softball guys with $875 crushed-graphite-powder bats who think they're Hank Aaron, I avoid mouth-breathing, foul-smelling social retards.

And to hedge my bets, yes, I know not all softball players are frat boy assholes, just like I know everyone in my FLGS isn't Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.

Guess I got lucky with my Sunday group. We got together through Meetup.com, exchanged some emails, and met at Applebee's first to chat and get a feel for the group. No wierdos besides me, and we've even got three girls (hee! boobies!) in the group. So I guess it can be done, but you just have to roll well.

Quote from: Kaz;388968I've been trying to put together a gaming group lately and I've been avoiding the local gaming stores for a lot of the same reasons cited in the link.

I want to play games with people who happen to play games. I don't want to play with 'gamers' (or, what I call 'mouth-breathers'). And I don't think I recognized that fact until just now. (I thought I was avoiding recruiting in those places because of cliques and my own slight timidity.)

If I can't meet you at the local Mexican restaurant and have a beer with you, then I sure as shit don't want you at my house, sitting across the dice-littered table from me.

It's been a hard road, putting together a group of non-gamer gamers, but shit...  the alternative is simply too much to bear, honestly.  

Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Maybe I just want to game with friends, and I'm too fucking picky.

I recognize this impulse. I play at game stores in order to find people I want to play with at home, and really? It's about 50/50. Plenty of people out there I wouldn't invite over. Not even because they're bad people, although some of them are crap, but there are sometimes incompatibility issues. If I have nothing in common with you besides gaming, I may still be happy to play with you at a game store, but I might not really want to hang out with you otherwise and I might not want you in my home.