More Answers

[mundens]

This time to mashugenah's questions

1. How do you see yourself in relation to the Wellington Gaming Commnity? You're obviously well known about the place, and more experienced even than people like me, but do you see yourself as filling a role in the Wellington RPG community?
   
   I am a cultural icon and a living work of art
   (Actually, I stole that last bit from the Wizard of Christchurch).
   
   I'd like to think I was an ancient and revered cult leader who had droit du signeur (or jus primae noctis, if your latin is better than your French) over all new roleplayers, but I have recently been informed by evie_fae that she is the cult leader, and I am merely one of her inner cirlce of high priests and enforcers, so I suppose I'll have to ask her first
   
   But seriously, no, I don't really fill any role other than making other people feel better about themselves at parties by being the oldest one there, and maintaining the KapCon website. Depending on your viewpoint I might act as a sort of living example (warning?) of what a roleplayer might turn into if they don't give up and go straight before it's too late.
   


2. What is your view on moving in the same social circles as at least one of your children?
   
   That's up to them. It's not like I've made an effort to join their social circle, my children have grown up and joined mine.
   
   For instance, I was roleplaying and socializing with margrave_yuri for probably several years before panda_pitt ever met him, they now happen to hang out a lot together. The same could be said for a number of people. In some cases, I've known them since before they moved to Wellington.
   


3. What happenned to gamers in between you and, say, Luke (et al). There is a big cluster of us in our mid-late twenties, you representing older gamers, where are the 30 & 40 somethings?
   
   Most of them have given it up for other things, or they belong to "the RPGA crowd" who still regularly play their 56th level female drow assasins, but are basically don't socialize or play with people outside of the gaming group they've been playing with for the last 25 years. Some of them probably still live with their mothers.
   


4. What literary agent (author, game designer, philosopher, historian etc) has had the biggest impact on your psychology, and how does this manifest itself?
   
   Biggest impact on my psychology, huh?
   
   I think perhaps the two indivduals that have influenced me the most over life are probably Robert A. Heinlein and David Bowie.
   
   RAH broke taboos in literature that still people shrink from, such as portraying cannibalism as something that could be very spiritual and uplifting, and was one of the first to explore what the concept of aliens meant to Christian mythology. He also wrote what could be considered the definitive time travel story, "All You Zombies", which to me also asks some very deep questions about the place of an individual in the universe.
   
   He also wrote possibly the most wonderfully crafted three-word sentence ever written in science fiction:

   The door dilated.

   Think about the amount of information conveyed in those three words!
   
   Finally, RAH named part of his massive book Time Enough For Love, "The Man Who Was So Lazy He Had To Succeed". It was autobiographical in several ways but it also triggered a chord in me, and I have followed the concept my entire life!
   
   Bowie was the first of my "I wanna be like him" idols. From the original Space Oddity album and the concise exploration of the ethics of revolution it contains, "Cygnet Comittee" I have always admired his lyrical capability, and the way he morphed his appearance too.
   
   I could rave on for hours about Bowie's lyrics, but I'll spare you on this answer anyway.
   
   So, how did it affect my psychology? It made me liberal, bisexual, happy to break taboos and wear odd clothing, determined to read all sorts of things, and to try and remain tolerant, with a great liking for sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Basically it turned me into a freakazoid.
   


5. What are your views on the viability of our Western civilisation as it stands, considering both the impacts we have on other cultures, the world and ourselves, and the psychology which has resulted in our way of thinking?
   
   "Western culture" is just another phase, and in comparison to other historical cultures, is fleeting.
   
   It has had an amazing effect on the world, but it's primary effect (and the one thing it will really be remembered for) was to suggest that change is good. Up until this civilization, change was always considered bad. But, in doing this it, it guaranteed it's own destruction. Any structure that encourages change. encourages it's own dissolution, but that is a good thing.
   
   When a portion of the human race evolves itself into the trans-human, and then the post-human, current cultures may be preserved, museum-like, for those who do not want to change, but tthey will then be evolutionary dead-ends, living on the generosity of "the gods".
   

Woo! that took a while!

Comments

I protest Sirrah!

[eloieli.livejournal.com]

Mashugenah asked:
What happenned to gamers in between you and, say, Luke (et al). There is a big cluster of us in our mid-late twenties, you representing older gamers, where are the 30 & 40 somethings?

To which you replied:
Most of them have given it up for other things, or they belong to "the RPGA crowd" who still regularly play their 56th level female drow assasins, but are basically don't socialize or play with people outside of the gaming group they've been playing with for the last 25 years. Some of them probably still live with their mothers.

I do not play 56th level drow assasin or live with my mother. I also socialise outside the group I roleplayed with back then, and in fact rarely roleplay with them anymore.

We do exist, we are out there, and we are no bigger geeks that the rest of you (which is pretty big) ;P

Don't take Evies brother as a representitive sample :)

Re: I protest Sirrah!

[mundens.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry [Unknown site tag].
It was a bit of a generalization. I admit.