10.25
This actually happened. I was handing out flyers out on the quad yesterday, trying to get people to play in my D&D game (we only have three steady players), and I ran into this guy who claimed to be a filmmaker.
He was really excited that I was out there with a 20-sided die necklace around my neck (he seemed to love that), trying to get people to play D&D. At first I was happy to talk to him too, I thought he might join me in a game. (N00bs are always welcome in my games — I actually enjoy DMing for them the most. ^^ ) He took my number and gave me his card and said he’d call me back. The next day I get a call from him saying that he can’t make it to my game that weekend but he’d love to go to another game and film it. (!!) This was really exciting to me — a professional filmmaker showing interest in one of my games, and possibly producing something which will be seen by non-gamers and inspire them to take up the hobby!
But then he started saying some things that worried me. “I think this will be a blast,” he said. “We just need permission from your parents and we’re good to go. If you’re interested, we can make something we can enter in a film festival! Imagine this — it’s about some gamers going to a Dungeons & Dragons convention! And it’s called “D-Con”, but it’s short for “Dragoncon”!”
“Okay…” I said, not finding this as funny as he apparently did, since of course there is both a real D-Con and a DragonCon.
“Doesn’t that sound funny? A D&D con!” he continued. “There aren’t any D&D cons, right?”
“Uh…. actually, there are hundreds of D&D conventions, I have been to about 20 of them,” I told him. At this point my alarms were starting to go off. What kind of person gets the “big idea” that they are going to make a documentary film about Dungeons & Dragons, but doesn’t even do the minimal legwork (or have the minimal knowledge) to realize that there have been D&D conventions for 30+ years? (That, since they are descended from wargaming conventions, there have been D&D conventions before there was even D&D?!?) Regardless of the fact that it is RPGs we are talking about here, doesn’t a filmmaker or any kind of creator have the responsibility to do the most basic research on their topic? @_@ Would you interview the Pope and say “So what is your problem with the Left Behind books?”
“Oh,” he said, and continued. There were a few awkward exchanges. Finally he went on, “I want you to know, this project isn’t going to be disrespectful to D&D. We’re going to show the passion of the fans! But we need to keep it funny, you know? I’ve played D&D myself. I played a….” (pause) “…elf ranger. He was…” (pause) “…neutral good. My elf was 120 years old. Just a young elf, you know.”
Now I was getting really irritated listening to this guy read something about elves off of Wikipedia and attempt to fool me. ^_^* I told him that I’d think about it and then I hung up. I should have just hung up in his face. I’ve rarely encountered such base misunderstanding of D&D, particularly coming from someone who claimed to have interest in it, but clearly thought of D&D as some freakish thing which hardly anybody does. Let alone that he didn’t even realize there are already pseudo-documentaries on roleplaying, at least on LARPs, such as Darkon and Monster Camp. It’s true that there still needs to be a really good documentary about tabletop RPGs, but obviously this guy wasn’t going to make it. I got the feeling that he wanted to sort of parade me on film as an example of a ‘weird gamer’ AND get me to do research for him. (Quote (when I asked him to give me more information about his planned ‘documentary’: “I’ve *been* giving you information, Theo! I’m an idea man! I come up with ideas!”)
Unfortunately for people like this and fortunately for gamers, it’s *THEY *who are out of the loop and behind the times. Anyone who doesn’t realize that millions of people play D&D, that a growing number of people play RPGs every year (not even counting MMOs, etc.) is so out of it that there’s little point in pushing enlightenment on them. ^^ He can just sit back and watch as our numbers grow until he’s the only one who doesn’t know how to play in the D&D game at the Old Folks’ Home. Gamers deserve better than this kind of treatment. We’re past that.
What an idiot. I’m glad you hung up on that guy. We, as gamers, don’t have to put up with people who try to perpetuate stereotypes at our expense.
That’s sad. The worst part is there’s already mockumentaries out there about gamers, and were designed by real gamers, and thus the humor was hilarious. I bet this guy would make some lame jokes that were really only funny to people outside the gamer circles in a failed attempt to poke fun at us; when really we’d just sit around shaking our heads and going “Gee, the Nerd vs Jock mentality died after high school fellas.”
Once I told someone I played D&D. Her response was, “Really? I thought D&D was just a made-up game people used to epitomize geekiness.”
~
“Really? I thought D&D was just a made-up game people used to epitomize geekiness.”
Nope, that would be Klingon Boggle.
That’s a riot. Though as a filmmaker of sorts, I feel compelled to apologize for the shady way this one comported himself.
The lack of research (”There’s no D&D conventions”) is what really bugged me. ^^* And of course, yes, anyone with just a little knowledge of D&D can do a better parody of RPGs than someone who has none. Doesn’t this guy even watch The Guild?!!
Over here the reactions I’ve gotten has been that some people think that it’s either a devil worshiping game or a joke. Truth is that so much people become so self absorbed in their own worlds that everything outside of it is a joke. Most people are delusional when it comes to gauging their standards of what is and isn’t normal.
You know, you could invite him to play a game with you. Maybe a few hours of role-playing and dice rolling would change his opinion of D&D from “that weird game that those weird people play” to “this cool game that I tried once.” He might not want to right away, but if you made the recording contingent on him trying the game at least once, I bet you could get him to sit down and try it.
Of course, whether you want to inflict this person on your players might depend on how patient said players are. :-) But it might be a better option than saying “no, you’re an idiot, go away.”
@Sherp Yes, it would have been cool to invite him to a game. ^^ Maybe I missed an opportunity…
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