Those Wierdos Are Funny!

Posted on Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Filed under Movie, Random Thought, Rant

Did you see the movie Role Models with Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott? Aside from being a pretty decent flick that featured two of hottest guys in Hollywood, the movie also featured some pretty geeky stuff. Pauly Bear and Scotters (that's my nickname for them… don't ask…) play two guys that screw up and are court ordered to be Big Brothers to troubled kids, and hilarity ensues.

One of the kids is into a live action role playing game they call LAIRE. The first time we the audience are introduced to LAIRE, as well as Pauly Bear, we kind of laugh at it's silliness. Grown men and women dress up in costume and run around pretending to be knights and sorcerers and kings and what not! That's comedy gold, right? The movie goes on and all the characters eventually love and accept each other, including the kids fantasy hobby.

So what in the world inspired me to surmise that mediocre movie for you in two small paragraphs? I was just reading through some of the MMO blogs I read on Google Reader during lunch when a co-worker stopped by to ask me a question. The article I was looking at just happened to have a large picture from WAR that spotlighted some Elves kicking some Greekskin booty. This, of course, led to a "What's that?" discussion, which then led to the "Oh, you still play those kids games?" conversation, which then led to "Well, no, they're not kids games, it's more like a hobby" which led to… well, you know where this conversation leads. We've all had it at one time or another, especially us MMO fans.

The worst part about these conversations is that the person tends to perceive you as something Less Than until you can convince her/him that their obsession with American Idol and whatever prattle is on during Thursday Nights now is rather more inane than enjoying a thought-provoking, active-involvement game. Assuming you can get that point across. Or they come to understand that different people enjoy different forms of entertainment. It's a little annoying and tiresome to have to explain that over and over again to others, but it is part of the price we pay for playing MMOs.

In any case, this was more of a rant than a conclusive thought. Just like the poor kid in Role Models, it gets tiresome to have to justify our hobby, but give it time and people will come around.