I was writing a comment on a welcome blog post by B/X Blackrazor when I realized this message should have a wider audience. I consider myself a fighter in general. I fought in the edition wars. I fought to see my vision of the OSR expand and flourish. I’m fighting in the current culture wars. But like any fighter, deep down, I long for peace. Or at least I’d like to not fight against my fellow gamers. Below is a copy/paste of my comment. Maybe it sways a few people, maybe it’s the start of a movement that will save our hobby from continuing this bitter civil war, or maybe no one will give a shit. Here goes nothing… _______________ First, thanks for the mention! Politics has gotten so bad in our gaming spheres that most of us are finally reaching a tipping point. We have a few choices ahead of us… 1) We entrench deeper, becoming more partisan, more hostile to the other side, less willing to engage with those not perfectly aligned with ourselves, seeing our political adversaries as not quite human. 2) We look towards moderation and compromise, we try to see the other side’s views and engage with more humility, humanity, and understanding. We treat our political adversaries as colleagues on “the other side of the aisle” like it was for the 1980s, 90s, and 00s… before the hyper-politicization of all things. 3) We agree to put politics completely aside and focus on gaming. Any mention of politics is either ignored or shot down until there’s only gaming and non-politicized culture remaining. We throw away our lists, boycotts, blockchains, etc. This also relies on #2 because we need to start seeing gamers as gamers and people like ourselves, not the worst scum you could think of, or inhuman monsters. This will also lead, I believe, to moderation and compromise, which is how we remain a society and country. Personally, I don’t want to stay the course of option #1. It’s as tiresome and unproductive as fighting a protracted civil war. I hope we can move forward with options 2 or 3. Not just for our own sakes, but for the RPG hobby. If we stick with 1, what do we have to look forward to, segregated drinking fountains? This drinking fountain is for progressives, this one over here is for Trump supporters, and maybe there’s a third for everyone in-between. Yeah, no thanks! Hmm… maybe I should turn this into a blog post (if I do, I’ll link to your blog, hoss) because there’s a chance it could gain traction and actually do some good. Something that Raven Crow blogger guy mentioned - we need more clerics because there are wounds that could do with healing.
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Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment, talk about stuff, vent, help me figure out what might heal the divide, or anything really. Communication is key. ;)
VS
p.s. Just a week and a half left to throw in $1 to support the Crimson Escalation Kickstarter!
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About UsMy passion for gaming is something which will keep me happy and energetic all the time. I love sharing my review on games so that my readers can get better gaming experience. I love writing and sharing knowledge with others. |