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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.
Comments
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Mediocre? D: It's the first comedy I've actually enjoyed in years.
i enjoyed that movie. the hollywood ending almost completely destroyed it for me, but the bit in between the first 15 mins and the last 15 mins were excellent.
the thing is, it's all down to social conditioning.
it's just not cool anymore to wear armour and slay dragons (how could that EVER go out of fashion?!).
thing is though, really, who wouldn't enjoy running around a field with a huge nerf sword smacking the first person you see every which way?
no one. fact.
it's amusing when someone rips you for talking to strangers online, pretending to be some warrior of legend in a silly fantasy backdrop.
then you deconstruct their life infront of the magic box and it's "reality tv".
no interaction, no situational assessment, no influence on what it is you're watching.
just staring at a screen, watching people you couldn't care about doing things much less interesting than you could be doing had you just got up and walked out your door...
Fortunately I work in the tech field and at my former work most of them played MMOs or FPS games.
Now as a consultant, I sometimes come across that situation. If I ever feel like a discussion is headed that way, it usually stops in its tracks when I describe a keep siege or RVR event. They realize how amazing it is that someone can get 20+ perfect strangers to follow single directions for a common goal. ;)