Post originally by Nawara at 2004-04-14 12:51:48
Converted from Phorums BB System

> I've never met... an American tourist
> wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt, shorts
> and a camera slung around their neck.

They're out there. Actually, if it's in a Caribbean nation, and they're not wearing socks, they're probably the GOOD type of American tourist... better than the polo-and-khaki guys or obese chain-smokin' girls who talk louder to people who don't speak English. I saw plenty of those when I was living in Beijing.

Anyway, my point is that stereotypes are based on reality. I had never heard of the SciFi-beanie one, but the more common perception of SciFi people, that of socially inept losers who dress like nerds, is pretty accurate (I fit this description up until about five years ago). Similarly, most people don't expect that French people will be wearing striped shirts and berets. They DO expect that French people will be rude at first. As vice-president of UNC's International Student Association, I have met a LOT of French people. And they usually have a demeanor that, at first, is quite similar to rudeness. I learned later that they're actually wonderful people once you get to know them. But the stereotype is there for a reason. Partially because it's somewhat true, and partially because the occasions where it fails are less visible.

So it is with gamers. There are tons of gamers who aren't skeevy losers who don't deserve to live. But if you go into a typical FLGS, the people who stand out are the foul-smelling, unkempt, antisocial people who verbally harass male customers and sexually harass female customers. Unfortuneately, these people make Gamers-who-don't-need-to-die uncomfortable, and they go other places, increasing the percentage of mutants at your typical FLGS.

(Yes, I'm stereotyping mutants. See?)

Of the three game stores I go to, one has managed to be less, um... dungeony than the others. They created three rooms, each with varying levels of sunlight. The front room is comics. The second room is roleplaying games and action figures. The back room is the "gaming room", a dungeon where people are allowed to spend all day "rolling up" characters if they want. My girlfriend stays in the front room, where all the people are normal (except the mutants walking through), while I sometimes venture into the second room to look at gaming stuff. It feels like pearl diving, though, as I try to get in and get out as fast as possible. If I stay too long, some 40 year-old hobbit-looking freak with a potbelly sticking through his Gundam Wing T-Shirt will crawl out from under a rock (or, similarly, walk out of the back room) and start harassing me about his Level 50 Paladin with four 18s.

See? These are stereotypes.

:-)

-Nawara