Quote from: Baeraad;957214Mmmmm, it's better than some places to be sure, but the frequency of Let's-All-Get-Outraged style thread topics isn't reassuring. And I don't trust the guy in charge since he became a born-again feminist. Look, it's like I said on the last page. You've gotten it through your head that treating "Woman" as one of a large number of possible character classes that you can apply humerous stereotypes to is not a great thing to do? You want to be more equal and inclusive now? That's great! That's awesome! Sure, you took your sweet time getting there, but still, good on you! Now, if you could just stop lording it over those of us who had reached that point by the time we were twenty, that'd be great. Repentant sinners have no business setting themselves up as prophets preaching to the rest of us of how awful we are - yet invariably that seems to be what they do.

Generally speaking, an asshat is an asshat regardless of their philosophy or religion. In most cases any ethical concerns adopted by them are treated as just another weapon in their asshat arsenal.

Quote from: Baeraad;957214Mmmmm, it's better than some places to be sure, but the frequency of Let's-All-Get-Outraged style thread topics isn't reassuring. And I don't trust the guy in charge since he became a born-again feminist. Look, it's like I said on the last page. You've gotten it through your head that treating "Woman" as one of a large number of possible character classes that you can apply humerous stereotypes to is not a great thing to do? You want to be more equal and inclusive now? That's great! That's awesome! Sure, you took your sweet time getting there, but still, good on you! Now, if you could just stop lording it over those of us who had reached that point by the time we were twenty, that'd be great. Repentant sinners have no business setting themselves up as prophets preaching to the rest of us of how awful we are - yet invariably that seems to be what they do. :mad:

/rant

Here's the thing- I don't see the in-your-face. I've been on that site for years and was able to not even know that. It must be in the open topics or similar forum, right? I can go into the 3e or 5e (or others, although the volumes there are low) forum sections there and have a perfectly useful discussion about playing D&D, which is all I'm there for. I do not care that others have differing political opinions than I. In fact I hope that the people that I'm discussing D&D (and RPGs in general, but with GitP, it's pretty much just D&D) with have all the differing political opinions in the world, because that means that the game isn't just being played by half the potential people it could be for reasons that have nothing to do with the game. If I can go there, and post a question about how people handle encumbrance, or if others think slow, armored dwarves with axes are iconic or cliché, or whatever, then it has met my needs, regardless of the site owner's politics.

Quote from: Willie the Duck;957238Here's the thing- I don't see the in-your-face. I've been on that site for years and was able to not even know that. It must be in the open topics or similar forum, right? I can go into the 3e or 5e (or others, although the volumes there are low) forum sections there and have a perfectly useful discussion about playing D&D

I can pretty much do that in the RPGnet d20 forum. The occasional trap threads are pretty obvious. RPG General forum not so much - I got a ban for "insulting Vietnam War Veterans", I think it was.

Quote from: Voros;957231Some of the regulars here sure are a sensitive bunch of internet tough guys.

Says the guy who can't make an argument without letting everyone know how much actually posting to the topic, or even the forum itself is beneath him...as he keeps posting and posting for some reason. . Get banned somewhere, didya?

Quote from: Voros;957231if it wasn't so tiresome and predictable.

Like we've never seen "too good to post" posters before. :rolleyes: Every post other people make is nerdrage, concern trolling, obsession, toughguy posturing, done in a fit of madness, etc... while every post you make, of course, is full of sneering disdain at having to stoop to post..yet you keep doing it...but it doesn't mean you're interested of course...

Talk about fucking internet cliches.

Quote from: Voros;957235Thankfully I haven't encountered a nerdragemacho specimen as you describe in real life, I would wonder how they could get through life without being punched out.

In the case of one particular coworker of mine (I swear, he's like a living blog!), it's solely because I am afraid of getting fired and/or arrested.

Quote from: Willie the Duck;957238Here's the thing- I don't see the in-your-face. I've been on that site for years and was able to not even know that.

Mmm. Well, perhaps I'm too quick to assume the worst - I haven't spent enough time there to really get a feel for the place.

Regarding the OP rather than politics in different forums -

I generally don't think that RPG material is effective at directly causing political change. I do think that RPGs can have positive real-world change - because the hobby is active and often encourages reading, learning, problem-solving, teamwork, and imagination. On the other hand, many politically-charged projects seem like preaching to the converted.

While that's my opinion, it's potentially worth discussing - if it's with people who are willing to actually discuss, and not simply spout their views without listening. There are those who feel that internal activity can serve to teach people, raise consciousness, or other political goals - and that could be for either conservative or liberal causes.

The post sounds on the tongue-in-cheek side to me. If they are willing to hear objections and other views, it could be OK - but it could also be filled with jerks and/or zealots.

Quote from: Simlasa;956264Has it become a thing at GenCon, to be seen on panels that show off your PC street-cred? Kinda curious, but not enough to go look it up, what other 'stretch goals' the talks might be aiming at this year.

Last year Gen Con made a big deal about the "diversity" of the Feature Presenters ("Now with 50% females!" "Look, Industry Insider of Color!"). Should be interesting if they keep that line of marketing for 2017.

Quote from: Voros;957206A) Worrying about what strangers at another table as discussing is OTT, sorry for pointing out the obvious.

Me frowning at someone else's table discussion is OTT? Okey.

QuoteB) No kidding. It is just much less likely to be in-your-face, as rude and dogmatic as what you encounter on the net. Do you think the posters here would be as full of nerdragemacho if we were actually face-to-face?

Depends on the poster.

Quote from: Tristram Evans;957237Generally speaking, an asshat is an asshat regardless of their philosophy or religion. In most cases any ethical concerns adopted by them are treated as just another weapon in their asshat arsenal.

Can't speak for others, but in my case what you see is what you get.  At last GaryCon in my OD&D game somebody put on his character card "Name unpronounceable by humans" so I promptly dubbed him "Turd Bucket."

Quote from: CRKrueger;957255Every post other people make is nerdrage, concern trolling, obsession, toughguy posturing, done in a fit of madness, etc...

Damn...you covered every single one of basic impulses. Except beer.:-)

Quote from: jhkim;957271Regarding the OP rather than politics in different forums -

I generally don't think that RPG material is effective at directly causing political change. I do think that RPGs can have positive real-world change - because the hobby is active and often encourages reading, learning, problem-solving, teamwork, and imagination. On the other hand, many politically-charged projects seem like preaching to the converted.

This brings up the general effectiveness of any artform in creating political change. It is a tricky question and in general people I think overate it but it can't be completely dismissed either.

We probably all know the guy who is a punk rock lover of DK with far right views, listens to reggae or soul but is rabidly racist or a extreme but oft cited example those who worked in the death camps and went home to listen to Mozart and read Goethe. Or on the other political spectrum Lenin was a huge admirer of Tolstoy while he starved and murdered Russian peasants.

But then there's no denying the political impact of Birth of a Nation in helping revive the KKK and the tie between soul music and the civil rights movement.

One of the ironies of those who believe in using pop culture music to political ends is we've had 50 decades at least of 'progressive' popular music but that hasn't prevented Nixon or Reagan winning in a landslide. Too often the Left in the US obsess on the politics of pop culture and seem to leave the real world politics to the right.

Clearly these panels are preaching to the converted. Just as on Facebook and similar venues, you will encounter an unending stream of more or less progressive content served up to those who agree with these values, much of it outrage-bait, while the more right-leaning folks, who are perhaps just short of 50% of the US population, simply don't engage in as much of this.

So in social media, traditional media, pop culture, and now things like Gen Con panels, we have a form of capture by loud-talking left-leaners and a retreat by conservatives who mostly go silent or into ghettoes. This has been happening for decades. The result is great shock among progressives when the true numbers of non-believers is revealed, as in Brexit, Trump or even the plummeting sales of "diverse" Marvel comics.

Generally, the right doesn't make trouble, get violent etc, despite all the mischaracterisation. Will they one one day? In pop culture, thankfully right now there is still plenty of choice. If you want progressive comics, video or tabletop games you can have them, if you want traditional stuff not based on identity politics you've still got them.

Quote from: Voros;957316This brings up the general effectiveness of any artform in creating political change. It is a tricky question and in general people I think overate it but it can't be completely dismissed either.

The power of art is in its interpretation, and the message changes with the #Zeitgeist. And art targeted to the converted simply validates their views, not change them. Finally, ever notice how icons of real world rebels are used in any rebellion regardless of what they actually did or stood for? All they'll remember is that one stood against many...

The war is not fought with art, the war is fought over what art means.

Quote from: The_Shadow;957328Clearly these panels are preaching to the converted. Just as on Facebook and similar venues, you will encounter an unending stream of more or less progressive content served up to those who agree with these values, much of it outrage-bait, while the more right-leaning folks, who are perhaps just short of 50% of the US population, simply don't engage in as much of this.

Based on the actual voting trends it seems actual the numbers are about 10% Neo-Puritan (aka the SJW's; offended at the notion that someone somewhere might actually be happy), 8-12% Deplorable (aka vocal Anti-SJW; number variable with where we are in the inevitable Neo-Puritan cycle of self-destruction) and 78-82% "Look Here's a Funny Cat Video/Porn" (aka the "Leave Us the Fuck Alone" crowd). The vast majority of the Deplorable crowd are just Funny Cat Video folks who got pestered enough by the Neo-Puritans to motivate them to retaliate. The biggest problem the Neo-Puritan crowd has is they literally do not understand how to stop pestering and so drive more and more of the FCV's into the Deplorable camp as their version of happiness is declared 'unacceptable' by the wet blanket brigade.

This will continue until enough Funny Cat Video types have been driven into the Deplorable camp to drive the Neo-Puritans back into their bubble-like enclaves. Then the Deplorables will go back to watching Funny Cat Videos (which is all they wanted to do in the first place) while the Neo-Puritans, remaining utterly convinced that they are the only ones who know how to properly run everyone else's lives, begin the process of finding new way to annoy the Funny Cat Video people all over again.

MODS!! Please damn this thread to Pungency!!

I like Chris's voting thread breakdown, and I will discuss it when this thread leaves the main RPG forum.

I see some of what Voros (and others) are saying. We all (with myself first in line) should only start any potential political smelling thread in Pundit's forum and keep the Main Forum purely focused on arguing life and death emergencies in our all important elf pretending!

Quote from: Ratman_tf;957112What do I have your permission to worry about then?

Thank you for asking. I'm assigning you "Mercury in sushi."

I'm too addicted to sushi and sashimi to worry about it myself, but I'm told its really, really bad so I'm delegating it to you.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;957307At last GaryCon in my OD&D game somebody put on his character card "Name unpronounceable by humans" so I promptly dubbed him "Turd Bucket."

Put that in your book!!!