Ander's Area

12.20.2000

I want you to go here and read the first part of the article, where esteemed writer John Friggin' Rizzo discusses the stigma of playing Magic: the Gathering. And because most of you won't, I have copied a quote from said article.

[T]ry to explain Magic to someone - anyone actually, who is neither a gamer nor interested in activities that do not lie along the beaten path of acceptable "hobbies." Try that while summing up our game in a neat little sound bite that conveys its actual meaning. You can't.

-John Friggin' Rizzo

And, because that paltry quote fails to deliver the whole message, here's another.

The Stigmata holds that Magic, on its face, is a game for nerds and loners and guys who can't get laid. It's a game for young pimply-faced kids who are either way too close to their Mothers or are currently in their "rebel" stage. It's for the oddballs, the losers, the ones who don't fit into an "acceptable" class or clique. They are probably the kids who get picked on in high school. The different people. That's what I thought too, once. But rest easy, young whippersnappers, for you have it easy. You're young. Wait until you grow up. How big of a loser do you have to be to be playing Magic when you're in your late twenties-early thirties or older? How sad is it to see a thirty-year-old guy with a bunch of twelve-year-olds as his "peers," playing such a nerdy game? What kind of total geek would have a hobby where they were old enough to be many of their fellow participants Father? What kind of perfect dork could grow up, get a job/wife/kids/house, and spend their time fiddling around with fruity little cards when there is a "real" life to be led?

-John Friggin' Rizzo

What Mr. Rizzo is lamenting the fact that, on the whole, Magic players try to hide the fact that they play Magic from those who do not fit into that demographic. I'm certain, if it were taken to apply to those of us who play Dungeons and Dragons, or Final Fantasy, or any of the whole gamut of products available that qualify one as a "gamer," that the above quotes would translate perfectly. In the end, though, it's pretty irrelevent. That, however, is a fact I've yet to really realize. When Nick (one of the guys on my floor) asks me if I'm "doing more of that Dungeons & Dragons" stuff, I simply say yes, even if I'm working on a deck, or creating a game of my own, or even if I'm just writing about one of the above topics. Put simply, most of the activities my life revolves around are activities I'd just as soon hide from the common populace. And you kow what? I'm tired of all that. So here it is, ladies and gentlemen:

I, Jason Love, am a gamer.

Call me childish. Call me frivolous. Whatever you call me, though, will not be totally accurate unless it makes some reference to the fact that I am, and continue to be, a gamer.

What, really, does that mean? I don't know. You'll have to figure it out for yourself.

Complaint of the Moment
I wish, I wish, I wish I had my essays done.

Copyright© 2000 The Dumping Ground, but why anybody'd want to claim they wrote this is beyond me.
nifty_epitome@hotmail.com
jalove@ukans.edu