Quote from: blackstone on November 27, 2024, 08:21:29 AMIt not only a matter of respecting other people's opinions and beliefs, but to refer to the OP: why bring up either politics (or religion for that matter) at the gaming table? It has no bearing on the game.

Quote from: Bedrockbrendan on November 28, 2024, 10:18:27 AMI think this sort of thing varies from group to group. I used to have a weekly game with friends I went to high school with and we often talked and debated politics, but it never got ugly and usually happened after the game (and there were always a range of views present). I think that is harder to do with people you know less well or who aren't similarly aged peers. Most groups I am in politics are hardly mentioned. If and when they are I try to keep everything as friendly as possible.

Like Brendan, I tend to play with friendly groups where we are casual. We'll typically chat about various topics during breaks in play, or as we're waiting for people to arrive.

So for us, it's normal to sometimes talk about non-gaming stuff like each other's lives, stuff we've heard or things that are important to us - job, friends, family, news, etc. For example, one of my friends in my current gaming group is an architect and I've been interested in her opinions on housing policy and its effect on development. It would feel weird to zero chit-chat for five hours and then leave.

Other groups are different, I know. In different groups over the years, I've seen varying amounts of out-of-game chit-chat. But zero chit-chat has seemed like an extreme.

Greetings!

Interesting. My groups discuss politics all the time. Religion is often discussed as well.

Having such discussions has never been a problem.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

I just ban it during games. I am conservative and basically everyone else in my regular gaming groups are college educated liberals. You can guess how they reacted to the US elections and how they would respond to even a little criticism of liberal policies.

Quote from: SHARK on November 28, 2024, 05:31:02 PMGreetings!

Interesting. My groups discuss politics all the time. Religion is often discussed as well.

Having such discussions has never been a problem.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

The game session mentioned in the opening post was in a public space - the back area of a game store open to the public.
Really Did not need the headache of a politics argument right then. Just needed gamers who looked like they were having fun.

- Ed C.

Quote from: Koltar on November 28, 2024, 09:19:32 PMThe game session mentioned in the opening post was in a public space - the back area of a game store open to the public.
Really Did not need the headache of a politics argument right then. Just needed gamers who looked like they were having fun.

- Ed C.

So you really don't care if people discuss politics at the game table as long as it doesn't happen in your store and could possibly make it or you look bad.

I can understand that, but it doesn't mesh with your thread title very well.

I found the most mature method in America of discussing religion and politics in public areas for playing games was tearful accusations and hyperbolic catastrophizing. Wait no... Is that right? I think I got lost with too many noun phrases in the above sentence. Did I do a double negative, or a double entendre? I'm getting lost in my dotage.

Anyway, the point is... you don't do it again! Or with less volume, whiskey, and tears. Something like that. Hope that helps.

I always kept politics out of my games.  I don't want to know unless you are my friend outside of this game and then I only want to know at the coffee shop and not at the game table.

Quote from: Emerikol on December 03, 2024, 11:39:35 AMI always kept politics out of my games.  I don't want to know unless you are my friend outside of this game and then I only want to know at the coffee shop and not at the game table.

Yeah and lets be honest, people's political leanings or thoughts has nothing to do with the game being played.  I always keep politics out of my games and I stop political talk before it starts.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on November 27, 2024, 10:36:48 PM

Quote from: GhostNinja on November 27, 2024, 08:38:19 PM

Quote from: blackstone on November 27, 2024, 09:36:05 AMOnly grifters like Anita Sarkeesian believe and spread that bullshit.

She and her ilk are stupid twats.

Last I heard she married herself in a ceremony (not kidding).
 Is she even relevant anymore?  Seems like people caught on to her and she had to scale back because she wasn't getting alot of attention anymore.

She backed off from media activism for a few years. She recently announced her return. The reaction has been mostly "Meh, her again?"

https://www.reddit.com/r/kotakuinaction2/comments/1fkja31/feminist_anita_sarkeesian_is_back_to_game/

Quote from: Ratman_tf on November 27, 2024, 10:36:48 PM

Quote from: GhostNinja on November 27, 2024, 08:38:19 PM

Quote from: blackstone on November 27, 2024, 09:36:05 AMOnly grifters like Anita Sarkeesian believe and spread that bullshit.

She and her ilk are stupid twats.

 Is she even relevant anymore?  Seems like people caught on to her and she had to scale back because she wasn't getting alot of attention anymore.

She backed off from media activism for a few years. She recently announced her return. The reaction has been mostly "Meh, her again?"

https://www.reddit.com/r/kotakuinaction2/comments/1fkja31/feminist_anita_sarkeesian_is_back_to_game/

Last I read, she married herself in a ceremony, white dress and all.  I hope her and her right index finger are very happy together.

Such a waste, she was a solid 4-5, she could have found a man to take care of her and raise children, but she choose the crazy cat lady path.  Can't wait to hear her rants when she's in her 60's, gray hair, shawl and covered in cat hair.

Quote from: GhostNinja on November 27, 2024, 08:38:19 PMIs she even relevant anymore?

Anita is not important anymore, no.  But there have been shitbirds doing 'the personal is political' for quite some time now, and while this a (possibly top-down) rollback of this compared to 2020, this rollback wasn't fought for or pushed back against by society- it wasn't a grassroots thing.  And as such, we'll see these types of division things again, and simply put, your table has to not tolerate people who simply MUST have their non-democratic way.  If your table is a bunch of politically activated social activists and you, you're not gonna have a good time.  If you have one or two people with extreme lefty politics that can be fine as long as they don't push their politics at the table too much, or engage in the "your politics is evil, my politics ISN'T EVEN POLITICS, it's called BEING A GOOD PERSON" monkeybrained bullshit.

Quote from: Venka on December 03, 2024, 03:22:42 PM

Quote from: GhostNinja on November 27, 2024, 08:38:19 PMIs she even relevant anymore?

Anita is not important anymore, no.  But there have been shitbirds doing 'the personal is political' for quite some time now, and while this a (possibly top-down) rollback of this compared to 2020, this rollback wasn't fought for or pushed back against by society- it wasn't a grassroots thing.  And as such, we'll see these types of division things again, and simply put, your table has to not tolerate people who simply MUST have their non-democratic way.  If your table is a bunch of politically activated social activists and you, you're not gonna have a good time.  If you have one or two people with extreme lefty politics that can be fine as long as they don't push their politics at the table too much, or engage in the "your politics is evil, my politics ISN'T EVEN POLITICS, it's called BEING A GOOD PERSON" monkeybrained bullshit.

This. When we've had a table of just friends, we've occasionally had politics discussions before or after the game--or even more rarely during a break.  Same as we've had all kinds of other non-gaming discussions during those times.  That's because I'm not "friends" with people who can't separate the personal from the political.  Even amongst those friends, though, we don't want to talk politics a lot (or religion or sex or any of the other topics that get people riled up).  Gaming time isn't a time to be riled up about real life.  By the same token, I really don't want to talk roof repair, or raking leaves, or any of the other stuff that I should be doing right now instead of gaming.

When the person is political, then the politics is always personal. I can only game with that mentality when the person still has enough of a surviving filter to understand that game time is not the time to get "personal".  If the content of the pretend elves thing is itself "personal" to said person, then they aren't well-adjusted enough to be playing an RPG at all.  I'm certainly not going to enable them in that pursuit.

For me, it's less the politics and more the mindset that makes people think it's appropriate to constantly derail the game by bringing up real world politics.  People with this mindset are just tedious and self-absorbed people who don't know how to act in a social situation.  Since playing a ttrpg is inherently a social situation, this is a problem.  I just don't want to deal with these tedious, juvenile narcissists who have to make everything they do about whatever their pet issues are.   

Does it matter if the game includes politics as part of the setting as something the PCs can meaningfully interact with? For example, the Battletech setting might feature mercenary PCs that have to consider the politics of the setting--and which can parallel real life politics to varying degrees. Another example is the Star Wars setting where "Young Senatorial" (or something like it) has been a heroic archetype since the beginning. Either of these can certainly invite in-character political discussions that would never come up in a game about dungeon crawling.

In my games it doesn't come up often but it does come up.  There's always some side chatter.  I've never had an actual problem with it because I play with friends and for-real adults who have the maturity to be able to get along with others even when they disagree on some things.

Quote from: Koltar on November 28, 2024, 09:19:32 PM

Quote from: SHARK on November 28, 2024, 05:31:02 PMGreetings!

Interesting. My groups discuss politics all the time. Religion is often discussed as well.

Having such discussions has never been a problem.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

The game session mentioned in the opening post was in a public space - the back area of a game store open to the public.
Really Did not need the headache of a politics argument right then. Just needed gamers who looked like they were having fun.

- Ed C.

Greetings!

Right, Koltar. I agree. Some subjects are not appropriate in that kind of public setting, especially so with strangers and in your case, customers.

Most of the time, I am playing with groups of friends who happen to be gamers that I have known now at least for several years. We actually eat food together, hang out, participate in different activities together, so talking about politics, religion, or anything, really, is never a problem. It is just normal conversation amongst friends.

I do agree also, I stipulate, that when I get together with a game group--of acquaintances, mixed with random strangers at my local game store, I always avoid politics and religion as topics.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK