Is it just imagination or are role-playing games disproportionately populated with white males? What is it about the game that seems less appealing to "minorities"? Is my gaming experience different from everybody else's? Look at your local game group, the people you meet with most regularly. How many of them are not white males between the ages of 15 and 40?
The games can be put into a few basic groups: Medieval Fantasy, Pre-American Revolution (American, European, Middle-Eastern, Oriental, etc.), American West, 20th Century Anywhere (divided into Pre- and Post-World War II), High-Tech Futuristic. There may be more, but we’ll stop there.
Role-playing games deal with a huge number of subjects. History, economics, religion, mythology, politics, meteorology, (the list goes on). One must have a fair understanding of all of these subjects (and more) to play well. Is there a subject or combination of subjects involved in the games that puts non-whites off?
Is it cultural? Environmental? Sex based? Money based? Excessive leisure time? Excessive curiosity? Is there a mass psychosis in white males for which RPGs provide subconscious therapy? Is there a mass psychosis among non-whites and/or non-males for which the games provide subconscious aversion? What do you see as the draw that makes white so much more involved in gaming that others?
There aren't really any minorities in our group but if my group is a sampling of the the avergae gaming group (which it is probably not) then I don't know where the myth that almost all gamers are guys came from. About half of our group consists of female gamers.
I can't say for sure why demographics work out the way they do, but I can say that I have encountered African American D&D players before. One of my friends in high school played in our gaming group for a while, and another friend of mine that worked at EB was a big D&D player, though I never played in a group with him.
hmm, 4 white guys in my current 7 player group, but that just might be due to our cities demographics; in the army we had much more versatile cultural and racial groups. Our group usually has blacks, caribean blacks, hispanics; native americans; various whitebread, jews of various color, asians, and some others that don't fit nicely into any group. Our overall gaming group for all games that we have called Thunderhammer where we have over 40 active members; well, we have everything, I think one guys was even green and several have polka dots (course, I think he was sick and the others just teenagers lol).
I suspect its partly (sub)cultural to a significant extent. D&D really rises out of war gaming and is sustained by computer geek culture. Both of these are heavens of the male white middle class youth. That said, while I don't know any black RPGers oriental ones, in Toronto anyway, are very prevalent. Lots of east Indians as well. Interestingly there are lots of oriental war gamers and oriental and East Indian computer wiz kids are hardly uncommon in this neck of the woods as well.
My suspicion is that the root reasons don't have much to do with RPGs at all but instead centre around the root causes of why computer science classes are demographically unbalanced. Essentially I think one gets into D&D in large part because one shares a certain peer group which is predisposed to be introduced to RPGs.
Generally - I suspect - females that get into the game usually enter via a boyfriend or husband that already games. Furthermore she is at a disadvantage if she breaks up with her boyfriend in that its probable that she was gaming with his friends. Now she is no longer welcome at that table and has to find another game. If she really liked it she probably can get into another group but it can be pretty uncomfortable. Your probably approaching a whole pack of strange guys with maybe (if your lucky) a token female and asking to game with them.
Essentially I've met a lot of females that know what I'm talking about when I'm talking about D&D 'cause they once played in a game with an old beau but they stopped when the relationship fell apart and have not gamed since.
My suspicion in regards to Blacks - and this is based on little more then a few isolated personal experiences - is that they are more inclined to be steered away from gaming not just by a peer group that does not game (and therefore no one else to game with) but also due to religion. At least in Toronto Blacks tend to be from the lower class disproportionately. Their usually from families that are more likely to be involved with their local church and their local church is more likely to warn them away from the potential evils of D&D. This was my experience during my formative years in the later stages of grade school and junior high. At this point I was in a mixed peer group that did have a fair representation (maybe an over representation - it was a poor neighbourhood) of Black students. What ultimately happened was that the black kids where by and large pulled from the gaming table by their mothers who had been warned about this game at their local church. This has a snowball effect - even is a particular Black childes parent does not care about the warnings of the nearby church its a fair bet that she does care about what her neighbours think about her, her child and her skills at parenting. So what happened to our first group was that the ethnic lines where drawn at a young age. The white, Oriental and East Indian Parents didn't care if their (male) children slayed dragons in a fantasy world. Other ethnic groups - especially Black parents, where very uncomfortable and warned their children away.
Reminds me of something I witnessed recently actually - I'm over at a friends house and she's in one her many fights with her pre-teen daughter about what is going to be worn to school. her daughter is complaining that she looks like a total idiot in the overblown winter gear and she's going to be embarrassed in front of her class mates. My friend shouts at her daughter "I don't care what your class mates think!" and then comments under her breath where her daughter can't hear her "I care about what your classmates parents think."
I think something else that can't be played down is that D&D comes from and is most popular in countries which are predominatly white. So while everyone has made definitely valid points it could be even simpler: If only 1 or 2 people in 10 in a country are non-white, and only 1 in 1000 (if that) games, then it's not really a surprise that a non-white gamer is quite rare.
I think a lot of it has to do with the demographics of the locale you're in. Most of the groups I've played in have been mostly white, while my husband, who grew up in San Francisco, played with people of a wide variety of ethnicities.
yep; I would agree; military crowds are vary diverse; now that I am a civilian and working and have been out of college, where we also had a diverse group; my group make up is them same fellars week after week so it doesnt change much.
My last two gaming groups have included black players. I do think, though, that D&D at least has a strong connection with medieval Europe-based fantasy, and that might appeal more to people of a European cultural background. There's a cultural resonance there for people of European descent that's not there so much for people. We might suppose various sociological reasons why fewer teens of various backgrounds besides white, male, middle class don't get involved in gaming as often--some of it having to do with family pressure or peer pressure, some having to do with the way we construct identity groups.
My group consists of three white guys and three brown guys and one brown woman. I think it has to do with where you at and who you generally hang out with in gaming or outside of gaming.
I know a massive ammount of asian D&Ders. However, I suspect that that may be a Vancouver thing. Now, try to find a *gay* D&D player. That is pretty damn hard.
While most of my gaming companions have been white folk of anglo- descent, I once played with a Korean guy for several years. He was a great player and a great person (still is) and we had many memorable gaming moments, the best of which was when we were playing FR and he ran a kara-Tur character. The character didn't know common (English in our games) and spoke in his native Korean (and a bit of rudimentary sign language). It was brilliant.
I'd play with people of any nationality or color as long as they were good people and all about the game.
(I've also known more than one gay person to play D&D and play it very well.)
I know a massive ammount of asian D&Ders. However, I suspect that that may be a Vancouver thing. Now, try to find a *gay* D&D player. That is pretty damn hard.
I've known a few to play in my time, though all my current group is *straight* (I don't use that term usually).
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I'll give two theories. First, for the majority of kids, D&D is the gateway into RPGs, and most D&D players probably read sword and sorcery books first. (At least, that was the pattern my friends and I followed; maybe it's not universal.) As has been pointed out by others, most sword and sorcery follows a medieval European template. I'm guessing that doesn't appeal to many Black and Latino youths. It doesn't appeal to a lot of White kids either, but more often that with the other two groups. It's Friday night and 'Lord of the Rings' is playing at the local theater. It's probably not at the top of most minority kids' "must see" list. I think modern and future RPGs have a better chance of appealing to minority kids (Star Trek and even Star Wars are much more diverse than most fantasy) but that's not how most kids get into the hobby. Asian and Asian-American kids have a big connection because fantasy and sci-fi and anime are big in a lot of their cultures, plus Asia had a huge medieval period of its own. More importantly that just having a medieval period ('cause Africa did too), Asian history and mythology are part of pop culture so kids have some background and can jump into RPGs knowign stuff already. Plus, all those Pokemon-type card games are huge amoung Asians and Asian-American, and I imagine there is a lot of potentioal crossover into paper-and-pencil RPGs.
My second theory is that, even more than race/culture, social class has a lot to do with playing RPGs. As we all know, it ain't cheap. Poor and working-class families are more likely to spend the little disposable income they have on something flashy, like a big TV or a video game system than on a pile of books. Leisure reading just isn't a habit many people. I teach middle school in a very poor neighborhood. The school did a huge "reading readiness" survey a few years ago of all the homes in the district and found the average number of books in most of our kids' homes was 2.3, with the Bible usually being one of them. Our community library IS very busy and people do borrow A LOT of books, but I doubt there are any RPG books available. I'm not saying that poor people don't read; I've had a few students over the years who love fantasy and read tons of books (sadly though, statistically, this means that there are more kids who don't read at all). And I run a D&D group after school with some of my students (1/2 male, 1/2 female, 100% Latino). I mixed some of my old D&D books in with the other books in my class library. They found them during free-reading time and asked me to teach them to play. They'd heard of it on a few TV shows where it was mentioned mostly as a joke but didn't know anybody who played. We use my books to play and they've got OGL stuff to use at home. But as long as there are less minority folk in the middle class than their should be, RPGs may remain the providence of moderately well-off white guys. (Isn't is a kinda' sick-sad paradox how you have to act like a middle-class person to become one, but only know that if you already are one?)
PS - I know I totally ignored the scarcity of female RPG gamers, but I'll leave that to people who have more first-hand experience.
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When I was back in Gainesville, this friend of a friends that was from Argentina came over and we were playing Rifts. He totally flipped out! "Rifts, omg you gotta let me play! I tried playing in Argentina, but we all half knew English, so we tried to figure it out,..." He was going off! I've never seen a happier guy to score a game group in my life, man.
Then like all his roommates were playing,....I was running like 6-8 people at a time. It was the craziest!!!
Well, don't think that this really matters and I don't really care if my players are white, black, pink, etc...
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Well, don't think that this really matters
Fair enough, and in the big, cosmic scheme of things, it probably doesn't. But it is of interest to me for a couple of reasons. First, just 'cause someone has a different skin color than I do or her grandparents came from a different country than mine, it doesn't mean she will necesarily have a different perspective than I do, but it sure makes it more likely. And I like that. I like to hear other people's ideas and have them challenge mine. It's why I went to college, it's why I travel, it's why read the message boards here at Paizo. Second, in order for our hobby to grow and prosper, we need more people to play RPGs. And if there is something about our hobby that turns certain groups of people off or keeps them from playing, I think it's worth it to ask why and consider doing something to make it more interesting or more inviting to them. Third, as a kid, I learned a hell of a lot from D&D. From vocabulary and writing skills to logic and statistics to being able to read a map and having better social skills, D&D made me a smarter person. As a teacher, I want my students to have the same opportunity. To answer the original question, Do too many white guys spoil the broth? Naw, white guys are cool, hell, I'm one of 'em. But it'd be fun to play other folks, too, once in a while.
This white guy cooks the broth (as the DM)-and has been doing so for over 25 years with an all-minority DnD gaming crew-meaning I'm the 'minority'... :)
We are easygoing about it-never fail to crack an 'off color' joke and I give as good as I get. Race features in our gaming chatter and banter, as well as on breaks and in mainstream life hanging out/socializing with these lifelong friends of mine.
It's gone from why I always had to explain why there's no black folk in the Flanaess (1983) to today, when we just went over the racial overtones of '300' while battling Dragotha. In the end, I can say there's no bunch I'd rather play this game with, no greater camraderie I've known, as when the dice roll and black white brown and red get together-to gang up on green!
VERY interesting topic.
I don't really "know" why this hobby seems to be white guy centric (as it appears to be), but it really does depend on who your firends are.
I was taught this game (many winters ago) by a white guy, and my first group (in high school) was mostly european decended white guys. Since then however, most of my gaming groups have been very mixed (as is Canadian society as whole). There are MANY Arab Canadians (especially in cities like Montreal), but due to the cultural bias, not many of them are gamers. When I did find a group of them to play with (granted we had to teach some of them the game), they became my default group. And when some of my anglo firends moved cities, it became an all Arab Canadian group. We even joked about trying to real in white guys or gals.
My last group in Dubai was like the United Nations of D&D (all expats). One American, One Brit, One South African, One Australian, One Iraqi, and moi (a mix, but still mostly white males)...hmm...very interesting as to the "why"...same goes for gender division, etc...
With regards to some people's mentioning of it being based on European fantasy as a possible explanation of why it's popular with European decendants, i'm not sure. I mean we (bunch of Arab Candians) loved it...and our favorite setting was Japanese themed (Rokugan), even though none of us has ever set foot in Japan (yet..fingers crossed lol)...oddly enough, our LEAST favorite setting...you guessed it...Al Qadim (Arabian setting)...felt too contrived and cliched LOL...go figure.
Whatever the reasons, my experience is its a richer and much more fun game when the group is mixed...so keep spreading the love of the hobby and be safe my friends.
Cannot speak of ethnicity, as I don't really know any non-white gamers...
About the gender, I have noticed that female gamers, unless playing with SOs, tend to gravitate towards other games, and especially LARPs (evil tongues suggest that women like LARPing since it's so much about clothes...). I do know some female powerwargamers but I think they are a minority within the minority...
VERY interesting topic.
I don't really "know" why this hobby seems to be white guy centric (as it appears to be), but it really does depend on who your firends are.
I was taught this game (many winters ago) by a white guy, and my first group (in high school) was mostly european decended white guys. Since then however, most of my gaming groups have been very mixed (as is Canadian society as whole). There are MANY Arab Canadians (especially in cities like Montreal), but due to the cultural bias, not many of them are gamers. When I did find a group of them to play with (granted we had to teach some of them the game), they became my default group. And when some of my anglo firends moved cities, it became an all Arab Canadian group. We even joked about trying to real in white guys or gals.
My last group in Dubai was like the United Nations of D&D (all expats). One American, One Brit, One South African, One Australian, One Iraqi, and moi (a mix, but still mostly white males)...hmm...very interesting as to the "why"...same goes for gender division, etc...
With regards to some people's mentioning of it being based on European fantasy as a possible explanation of why it's popular with European decendants, i'm not sure. I mean we (bunch of Arab Candians) loved it...and our favorite setting was Japanese themed (Rokugan), even though none of us has ever set foot in Japan (yet..fingers crossed lol)...oddly enough, our LEAST favorite setting...you guessed it...Al Qadim (Arabian setting)...felt too contrived and cliched LOL...go figure.
Whatever the reasons, my experience is its a richer and much more fun game when the group is mixed...so keep spreading the love of the hobby and be safe my friends.
hehe UN of DD hmm UNDD, DDUN, well, let you work on it; you need patches or something; bringing the world together one die roll at a time :)
well, i know that playing can be cheap; all you really need to play this game is one writing instrument and some paper, the desire to play and an imagination. We all played it as teenagers because we didnt have any money. heck; we didnt even have any dice. We used to put paper chits in dixie cups and swirl them over our heads and pull out a number; gives new meaning to high fantasy. My first group had one set of books; and in 1980 when we got the DMG it was like a bar of gold; hehe it had one of them school book cover wrappers and was treated gingerly. With it we changed from D&D to AD&D, took us years to even find a vendor for dice until someone located a Dragon mag; heeh wont tell you the number, but it was low; very low and we found one 300 miles away and wrote to him. Sigh, the good old days; I dont think I have ever played in an all white group, hmm; ponder.
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Yeah, I haven't seen any gamers that weren't white yet either, but I have met my fair share of female gamers (and have converted a few personally). Our typical Friday night gaming group consists of 3 males and 2 females. Myself, my 2 best guy friends, my wife, and one of her girl friends. For a while, my wife's friend had been bringing her roommate to game and the numbers were even but she's more of an "actor" than a "gamer." She's a decent enough roleplayer but she's completely lost when it comes to coordinating strategies and being useful in combat. We tried to explain it to her and help her out with it, but eventually she decided that it was just too much to take in. She managed to enjoy the White Wolf games that we played in though, since the combat system was much simpler. We haven't played a WW game in 6 months now, though.
Before this group (and before 2 of my friends moved away), we used to have a BIG gaming group who met at another friend's house. That group was 7 people and had 4 males and 3 females. Towards the end, we added another male and another female to the group, but the game ended about a month later. We were, however, all very much white.
I know a massive ammount of asian D&Ders. However, I suspect that that may be a Vancouver thing. Now, try to find a *gay* D&D player. That is pretty damn hard.
Not in downtown TO. Their pretty common here. Now a gay, black female RPGer might be pushing things however.
What is it with the messageboard lately and these deep, insightful topics and posts? Makes me want to grab a few of the anti-WOTC/D&D crowd and sit them down in front of a browser to show them the light. "Knuckle-dragging" indeed!
But I digress.
This is a fascinating topic. As some of you may have surmised already, I'm black, I live in New York, and I've been playing D&D and other role playing games regularly since high school, although I was first introduced to it while I was in junior high school at my church's Youth Group. For a long time, the only black people I knew who played D&D were me and another friend of mine who played with a small group of other black people on the other side of brooklyn far, far away from me, so I never played with him really. My true education in the hobby came from a pair of white guys- one of whom had hair down to the middle of his back and wore a black duster (Ah, Dave. You raging stereotype, you!)- who were two years ahead of me. While we played in the hallways of our high school, we attracted a small crowd of onlookers of all races, many of whom ended joining our game. By the time high school ended for me, my regular troupe was three white guys, an asian girl and guy, and me, the lone black guy. But there were tons of people who joined the game on occassion- puerto rican/hispanics, asians and whites were many of our "rotating" players.
Then college came and we all went our separate ways. Junior year, I started an anime club and found out that more than half of the people in the club also were interested in D&D- and that all of those interested were girls. This new troupe consisted of four white girls, one black girl and one male black DM (me). At least one of the girls was gay(noone else has stepped forward yet). Eventually one of the girl's MUCH younger sister got interested in the game and started playing with us, which added another black girl. She got so into it(and the LoTR movies and novels and anything and everything associated with hobbits) that she started DMing for HER high school friends, although I don't know the demographics of that group.
Still, I couldn't keep all my gaming to my college buddies- my old high school troupe and I eventually graduated college and decided to start up another game. This one's a monthly, and has the same white guy and asian girl (who decided to get hitched to each other), one other white guy, me (the lone black guy once again), and the older black sister from my previous group.
Not to mention the people who got into gaming that I do martial arts with. I'm running a weekly game myself with a group that consists of myself and another black guy, a white girl from my college group, and three other white guys. The testosterone level is a little high, but it's weekly gaming at its metagamingloriousness.
It's probably because I live in NY, but I've never seen a group of gamers that wasn't mixed on some level. Any and all are welcome at my table, and I have yet to be turned away from one. The only problem I've really come across has been elitism, and that's something that transcends races and genders (see above). Either way, I love this game.
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It's gone from why I always had to explain why there's no black folk in the Flanaess (1983)
There are black folk in the Flanaess - the Flan.
They might not have an "African" culture, but they are black.As for the thread in general, I never bothered keeping count of the race of my players, I was too busy playing the game.
(the lone black guy once again),
What is it that attracted you to the game? What is it you think attracted this other mixed group of non-WASPS males? That's the gist of my question. Is there racial/cultural/gender thing that puts non-whites off? Several people above have tendered very good, insightful arguments. Give the perspective of someone who is part of the that non-white group and tell us what you see as the reasons there are not more non-whites playing the games?
Thanks
'There are black folk in the Flanaess - the Flan.
They might not have an "African" culture, but they are black.'
I stand corrected, Sam - but that was the point with my players-they found it very odd to be playing/interacting with Tenha people and culture, whom they always thought were 'shoehorned' into the setting, and who were oppressed/invaded by the (mostly Suel)Stonefist of course...to quote NyrDyv.com on the Duchy:
'Alcoholism, prostitution, and debauch has been the fate of many of these wretched exiles. Even those with some skills to offer are caught up in black despair.'(Poor choice of words there)
Who would want to identify with this kind of people-not my crew! They stayed as far as possible from this negative stereotype-even to the extent of playing Suel on occasion, or mixed race half elves. Only one player had a full-blooded 'Flan' human, and even he was raised by elves and later knighted in Furyondy, where he settled with his elven bride.
The point being that IMC I didn't play up the Flan as dispossessed, even if they lost their only modern kingdom in the course of our gaming careers.
D&D players are mostly white because the same is true of Americans as a whole, and mostly male because it's a nerdy pasttime. I think guys are more drawn to the rational, competitive and violent aspects of the game, whereas women are more drawn to doing whatever it is they see other women doing.
Is it just imagination or are role-playing games disproportionately populated with white males? What is it about the game that seems less appealing to "minorities"? Is my gaming experience different from everybody else's? Look at your local game group, the people you meet with most regularly. How many of them are not white males between the ages of 15 and 40?
To a large extent it comes down to 1) socialization, 2) education level, and 3) personal interest.
Socialization is a HUGE factor in determining leisure activities. Family and peer opinions carry a great deal of weight in determining what is "acceptable." Role-playing is still considered a "fringe" activity by much of society. Some social groups even think of it as inherently disruptive/evil/offensive.
Roleplaying requires a broad knowledge base. It's no real surprise that role-players are more common among college-educated (or other backgrounds that require training in several different subjects, such as the military).
Role-players must have an interest in "playing pretend" or using their imagination. The rules only cover the mechanics; the people involved have to infuse the stat-blocks with personality and "life." Imagination is, unfortunately, still undervalued among "grown-ups" who are focused on "the real world."
Taking those three factors together, white males have, in general, had greater leeway in social activities, better education opportunities, and more acceptance in using their imaginations over the past 30 years. This is changing; as social norms evolve and education becomes more accessible, those who wish to use their imaginations have greater opportunities to do so. If anything, RPGs have more competition now than they did in the late-70's/early-80's.
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I know a massive ammount of asian D&Ders. However, I suspect that that may be a Vancouver thing. Now, try to find a *gay* D&D player. That is pretty damn hard.
Quite common, actually. Some people have suggested that gay men in particular are often drawn to roleplaying games during their youths as an escapist respite from bullying (and to give the bad guys what they have coming to 'em) and as a means of finding a group where your real identity doesn't matter.
My group is more gay than straight.
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Who would want to identify with this kind of people-not my crew! They stayed as far as possible from this negative stereotype-even to the extent of playing Suel on occasion, or mixed race half elves. Only one player had a full-blooded 'Flan' human, and even he was raised by elves and later knighted in Furyondy, where he settled with his elven bride.
The point being that IMC I didn't play up the Flan as dispossessed, even if they lost their only modern kingdom in the course of our gaming careers.
In general, I agree. That's one of the reasons I dislike the way the Touv appeared. They seem to be doing little more than sitting around, waiting to be exploited by the Scarlet Brotherhood.
So even though I kept the Flan as dispossessed, as a long term concept, not the way the Tenha are portrayed, that just set it up for the players to have Flan PCs that "stood up to the Man," or otherwise promoted themselves despite any status issues.
And remember, few in the central Flanaess care about racial origin, so it was mostly an issue of where on the quasi-feudal power scale they started, not where they ended up.
I am kinda curious what is meant be "elitism" as it is not something I am familiar with, though I guess some peeps think that "Viva la Raza" which literally means "up with our race" might be racist, but as it was explained to me; it is not to be better than anyone else more like a dont get stepped on kinda thing. I am not Spanish or Mexican, but other than my parents, I pretty much thought my name was Hito (from parents) and Wedo (from everyone else) as a kid (which means boy and blondie) repectively to everyones parents as I was one of the only non Hispanics in my elementry school. I learned the game from a Spanish American and play with several types of Hispanics all the time, but then, this also accounts for about half my freinds and coworkers. Sure, I look like white bread, but I dont consider myself white at all and am certainly not a caucasian, I mark Other on most forms. Unlike most races if you call them that or cultures, my ancestors didnt mix much with others; kinda like the Basques in Spain, but probably due to geography more than anything else. More Finns live in Finland than any other place, there are only about 235,000 in the U.S. and is a marvel to geographers as it is one of the only true nation/states as almost any Finn can and will answer some basic cultural questions the same way. When I think of White Guys, I think WASP, of which I am not any of those letters (though a lot of Finns are the P part as their are a lot of Lutherans).
Broth; hmm, is this the soup metaphor from JFK? I always thought the metaphor of the American Salad Bar as more appropriate to how the geography of our country really is demonstrated as sometimes little bits of the carrots mixes with the beets or the lettuce or somesuch falls into some other open container and somebody now and again tries to clean up the spillage, but wait long enough and it starts all over, but basically most things stay with those like themselves and that idea seems to be ingrained in a lot of people. Of course this is all prattle :) so; do to many tomatoes ruin your salad? Or, do to many hard toasted garlic laden white guys ruin the salad; or is your salad all lettuce; hehe is late in the day.
(the lone black guy once again),What is it that attracted you to the game? What is it you think attracted this other mixed group of non-WASPS males? That's the gist of my question. Is there racial/cultural/gender thing that puts non-whites off? Several people above have tendered very good, insightful arguments. Give the perspective of someone who is part of the that non-white group and tell us what you see as the reasons there are not more non-whites playing the games?
Thanks
Hrm...Well, as a child, I spent a lot of time in the library. My mom used to pick out a lot books for me and one day she brought home my first fantasy novel- I forget the name of it, but it had a lot of psychics in it- a girl who was a telepath, an archer who was telekinetic, and a few other characters. I was hooked and needed to find more books- I picked up Time of the Twins, and Dragon's Wing both by Weis and Hickman and that was the start of my illustrious fantasy career.
It sounds as if I started off the same way as most of us here- a bookworm. So were the vast majority of the people who I got into it. I was picked on just as much as anyone else for being a nerd, maybe a little more because my particular strain of geekdom was considered "white". It's too easy to say that "non-whites" are less cerebral, and its patently untrue to boot. It may be because D&D is a very sedate game, and most people in this country- especially those who aren't asian and/or white- (contrary to popular belief) are pretty physically active and are not particularly intersted in sitting around rolling some dice. Still, I really don't know. I think it's just that we're all a bunch of geeks.
To a large extent it comes down to 1) socialization, 2) education level, and 3) personal interest.
Socialization is a HUGE factor in determining leisure activities. Family and peer opinions carry a great deal of weight in determining what is "acceptable." Role-playing is still considered a "fringe" activity by much of society. Some social groups even think of it as inherently disruptive/evil/offensive.
Roleplaying requires a broad knowledge base. It's no real surprise that role-players are more common among college-educated (or other backgrounds that require training in several different subjects, such as the military).
Role-players must have an interest in "playing pretend" or using their imagination. The rules only cover the mechanics; the people involved have to infuse the stat-blocks with personality and "life." Imagination is, unfortunately, still undervalued among "grown-ups" who are focused on "the real world."
Taking those three factors together, white males have, in general, had greater leeway in social activities, better education opportunities, and more acceptance in using their imaginations over the past 30 years. This is changing; as social norms evolve and education becomes more accessible, those who wish to use their imaginations have greater opportunities to do so. If anything, RPGs have more competition now than they did in the late-70's/early-80's.
Actually, I'd have to say Dragon has hit the nail on the head here, particularly in terms of "playing pretend". Non-whites, particularly immigrants, don't have much time to spend in a fantasy-land: they usually have to work -very hard- from day one. Those who are born of them are instilled with these very same values and do their best to press them on their friends(I forget what this phenomenon is called), and it spreads from there.
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Ive been playing this game since 1981, I am a half maori half scottish male. My current gaming group contains a metis woman and one native male. Out of a five player group, I do believe that the anglos are the minority. I do understand your point though but since I didnt grow up in North America, the fact of moinorities in gaming wasnt really an issue at all. Thats my two cents.
Yes, Zealot, that is EriK Mona. For all of our sake, do not flatter him too much. It might make his head swell too and damage his eye! ~GRINS~ sorry Erik.
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Yes, Zealot, that is EriK Mona. For all of our sake, do not flatter him too much. It might make his head swell too and damage his eye! ~GRINS~ sorry Erik.
This is going to be way off topic and I suppose that his ego is going to make it crowded in his office, but he is the best thing since sliced bread. I absolutely love everything he writes and I think his work in the Forgotten Realms is what brought me back into the gaming community. For that I am thankful and a big fan. (Ok big fan in the adoring way, not the MISERY I am going to break your legs and hold you hostage sort of way.)
~laughter~ Zealot, Erik has always been a very nice person on these boards. I too agree that he is doing a great job with both the mags. I was just having a little bit of fun at his expense. ~grins~ I am expecting him to get even sometime.
I do declare that I am using way too many I's in my posts. I guess I will quit while I am ahead.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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This is going to be way off topic and I suppose that his ego is going to make it crowded in his office, but he is the best thing since sliced bread. I absolutely love everything he writes and I think his work in the Forgotten Realms is what brought me back into the gaming community. For that I am thankful and a big fan. (Ok big fan in the adoring way, not the MISERY I am going to break your legs and hold you hostage sort of way.)
Great. That's going to go in the letter's section for sure.
Ah hell, I've got to admit, Erik, you and the rest of the Paizo staff are doing amazing things. I rest peacefully at night knowing that if 4e blows, 3.75 will be safe in your hands.
I know a massive ammount of asian D&Ders. However, I suspect that that may be a Vancouver thing. Now, try to find a *gay* D&D player. That is pretty damn hard.Quite common, actually. Some people have suggested that gay men in particular are often drawn to roleplaying games during their youths as an escapist respite from bullying (and to give the bad guys what they have coming to 'em) and as a means of finding a group where your real identity doesn't matter.
My group is more gay than straight.
I've gamed in 2 separate groups with gay males in them. One was the DM and another was a fellow player. I've also co-written some pretty cool adventures (hint, hint... watch issues 145-147) with a gay male writer. Don't know why I'm posting this other than I saw someone say it's hard to find gay D&D players and it's not as hard as you think.
Is this even related to the original topic? I didn't actually read it :|
I know a massive ammount of asian D&Ders. However, I suspect that that may be a Vancouver thing. Now, try to find a *gay* D&D player. That is pretty damn hard.
We've got the whole spectrum in our group on that particular rainbow.
Previously, my gaming group had women outnumbering the men, with more gay folk than straight folk, but did have a majority of white ethnicity - we had one brown fella, and a native woman.
Now, my group is all white except for a Japanese woman, but we've still got a good mix of gay-straight-lesbian-bi going on.
More Finns live in Finland than any other place, there are only about 235,000 in the U.S. and is a marvel to geographers as it is one of the only true nation/states as almost any Finn can and will answer some basic cultural questions the same way.
True, Finland is probably the most homogenous country in the Europe, in terms of culture, language, religion etc...which explains why I haven't played with non-white people: I know very few non-white people.
hmm, I have never knowingly gamed with a homosexual, but would guess they just play like everyone else; I know a few, but they are not gamers. I seem to game mostly with nosexuals, ie; peeps just not having any kind of encounters so they keep playing; us married and semi married peeps seem to be out of the norm as most married people have to cut way back on their gaming. Not sure how this applies to the cultural phenomenon(sp?)of this game being generally driven and played by middle class whites; we have only scratched a bit at the monetary aspect, I guess lower income players probably dont spend much time cruising this site.
Hmm, I have never met anyone who considered Finland as part of Europe; I guess that will change now with the EU. I know many icelanders didnt consider it to be part of Scandanavia and the viking epics just fearfully call us the mystics and barbarian wizards kinda over there hehe. Hehe we only use the word Finland in the last hundred years or so that others know what we're talking about. So, do Finns consider Finns to be white? I have heard it both yes and no, am I white; i have no idea, but prolly not as our bloodline is mostly Mongolian if I understand it right and we seem to have a lot of genetics in common with the Japanese as both our peoples have by far the highest incidence of the AB blood types. Just idle thoughts.