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Slatz_Grobnik
01/08/09

In reply to Is "Otaku Week" on MTV2 All About Dissing the Nerds?
"Doing Nerdkind a disservice" implies there's some way to do it where it provides a service. These things come off as embarrassing as many of us are, to one degree or another, still embarrassed at ourselves. Thus any public "outing," especially if someone else isn't feeling shamed about it, makes us feel more ashamed.

The shame, even, takes up both sides then, because we're both ashamed at what we're hiding and, looking at someone else, ashamed that we feel necessary to feel shame, when others don't.

Well, I suppose that's the psychobable interpretation at any rate. Still, I do think there's some truth there, even for those of us who have mostly moved on.
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Mount_Prion
01/07/09

In reply to Is "Otaku Week" on MTV2 All About Dissing the Nerds?
At the last NYComiccon I put on a Naruto Jounin vest and a sign that said, "[Photo] Copy Ninja" with a big Xerox X, since I'm an entry level corporate whore.
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corpore-metal
01/07/09

In reply to Is "Otaku Week" on MTV2 All About Dissing the Nerds?
What I don't understand is how it's acceptable for a middle-aged fat guy to strip to the waist, paint himself with team colors, get piss-pants drunk and bellow incoherent nonsense about a football team on national television but somehow cosplay is beyond the pale.
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Annalee Newitz
01/07/09

@corpore-metal: Good point. Though to be fair, I'll be a lot of sports fans cringe when they see the sports "cosplay" too.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
01/07/09

@Annalee Newitz: Damn, once you phrase it that way, it is quite silly, isn't it? Sports Cosplay. *shiver*
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evildead1971
01/07/09

@corpore-metal: i love when the "jocks" at work spend 20 - 30 mins talking about fantasy baseball, football & hockey and then give me funny looks when i talk about D&D
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crashedpc - Haifisch
01/07/09

@evildead1971: My friend's roommate in college actually burst into tears when his fantasy football team lost. Same guy who called us losers for playing a little Halo every once in a while. He was calling up friends to commiserate.
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Pope John Peeps II
01/07/09

@corpore-metal: You know how to get away from that? Pick kickboxing as your second hobby. Then they'll be confused by your dual nature. In that confusion there will be a moment where you'll be able to kick them firmly in the nuts.
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Paul_Is_Drunk
01/07/09

@corpore-metal: As a jock and a nerd, it's surprisingly easier to pick up women with, uh... "Sports cosplay" than actual cosplay. That's how I measure their social acceptance. Sad, but true, and I'm doing my best to change perceptions.

That said, what's with all the nerd vs. jock stuff? A lot of us jocks are multi-classed nerds.
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Slatz_Grobnik
01/08/09

@Paul_Is_Drunk: It depends on how you mean "with." Sports is more socially acceptable, so it's less likely to be a dealbreaker if suddenly and inadvertently revealed.

On the other hand, with the thing itself, I think sports and cosplay are pretty equal for picking up women. The technique required is much different between the two, but I'd give even odds either way.
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t3knomanser
01/07/09

In reply to Is "Otaku Week" on MTV2 All About Dissing the Nerds?
I'm slacking off at work so that I can work on the character background for my new D&D character, so I'm getting a kick out of this post.
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Pope John Peeps II
01/07/09

@t3knomanser: Speaking as a 15 year veteran of DND, I can tell you that the only person who will ever care about your character background is you. As you will tell by the following one act play:

Player: Okay, so my ranger hails from the far northlands, where he honed his craft hunting the mammoth dire whales of the pole with his tribe. Cut off from his hunting party, he survived out on the ice for 2 months with only his wits and a small knife. He is a master of survival in arctic wastelands.

GM: The King calls your party together and is sending you deep into the desert.

Player: FUUUUUUCK!!!
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Belabras ate my dingo!
01/07/09

@Pope John Peeps II:

You've been playing with the wrong groups of people PJP2

@Smeagol92055:

Rockin! Just be aware that the pace in PbP games is much slower than regular play.
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Pope John Peeps II
01/07/09

@Belabras: Haha. So you think! But EVERYONE DOES IT! A GM crafts a well plotted out mission, only to have that dark brooding assassin character try to sell out the party. But that would throw the whole mission impossibly off plot, so the only thing he can do is contrive a way to say "no".
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Pope John Peeps II
01/07/09

@Belabras: actually, now that I read my response, I realize that my DND friends were all dicks.
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Slatz_Grobnik
01/08/09

@Pope John Peeps II: Well, yeah. That's why you don't hand a DM a monotool. You create something with many hooks, and with fancy enough lures on them so that he wants to use your backstory.
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