RPG A Day 2020--Day 27: Favor

RPG A Day 2020: Day 27—Favor

I can’t think of a song about favors, so that means I need to write an actual entry today. Unfortunately, it’s another difficult prompt to write for, and to further that misfortune, I believe the ideas that I do have have a negative vibe to them.

I think about how over a period of time many things that were once in favor have now fallen out of favor. The way the game is played, the way people play them, the attitudes of the enthusiasts and even the creators of the games have changed and for the most part it hasn’t been for the better from my perspective. Here’s the most recent triggering: An old quote by Gary Gygax and a more recent one from Johnathan Tweet—now labeled misogynistic by the snowflakes that be. Here’s the link to an article by one of the offended who may well be a “friend” to RPG A Day for all I know.

https://stargazersworld.com/2020/08/26/the-misogyny-at-the-core-of-our-hobby/ 

I’ve tried to post the Gygax one, but you can read both comments from the original blogger’s post and  make your own judgement about how offensive they are.  Neither seem overtly misogynistic to me. Both comments seems like an observation and a report of facts. Stating facts have fallen out of favor over the years.

What is in favor is being overly critical at every statement that doesn’t tow the woke line. What is in favor is "cancelling" a person or finding them "problematic" long after they're dead. Here’s the response from the original blogger to the "offending" quotes:

“Over the last few years I have realized that looking up to “industry luminaries” is often a terrible idea. More often than not our “heroes” turn out to be terrible people. Even worse their often harmful ideologies make it into the games they created which make it hard to separate the art from the artist”.

Brother,—or sister, wouldn’t want to assume gender now would I?—did you ever hear the Tragedy of Chris Benoit the Crippler? If you think these benign comments from a couple of "industry luminaries" make it “hard to separate the art from the artist”,  then you better go find a safe space and hold on to your soy latte should you ever decide to investigate the matter.

I always end these "tough love" posts with the caveat that the hobby is big enough for everyone. Play how you like. Even if you have to clutch your pearls when looking at older material. I'd hope my SJW targets would use my ranting to grow a spine, but in this case, I can’t say that I fully understand why the hobby wants to change so radically to please a demographic made up of  non-players who’ll screw around a little with it then move on to the next thing they want to ruin while alienating the core  audience—niche as it may be at times—that made the thing a thing in the first place. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.