It's easy (and a cheap laugh) to say that roleplaying only attracts spoddy types who can't get laid. Whilst it's true that a lot of people who fit this description enjoy these games, I think the causality is somewhat clouded.
I really enjoy roleplaying games and used to play with my old schoolfriends, none of whom were these geek-loser types. When I went to university, I joined the RPG society there but quit pretty quickly because I couldn't stand the obsessive zitty nerds who were the only people there.
Now, I would really like to get back into RPGs, but I can't because I know the only people I would find who would want to play are people I would rather not play with. I wonder how many people are put off getting into roleplaying games - which are basically just like cool board games but with continuity - because they don't want to spend their time with frighteningly nerdy people. This is especially true of women, who have to beat those horny nerds off with a stick.
Incidentally, there is an separation between the positive geek traits (understanding and passion for technology, belief in technical meritocracy, intelligence and hard work) and the negative geek traits (social disfunction, obsession, elitism). It is completely possible to have the positive traits without the negatives - why don't people seem to get this?
I hate telemarketing as much as the next man, but picking on the poor bastard who is making the calls seems like kicking a guy when he's down.
Being a telemarketer must be just about the worst job you can do in the developed world. Working in a tiny box with low pay, restricted toilet breaks and ever increasing targets. You're bound to spend all day getting shouted at by the people you're calling, your supervisor or both. The only reason you would possibly be doing that job is if you were desperate.
For this reason, I can't bring myself to pick on them. I just politely explain that I don't want their products and hang up when the conversation is concluded.
I've got a PhD in CS and have been postdoc-ing 2 1/2 years. I'm currently looking for new work.
I got a call from a recruitment agent about a Python job. I have quite a lot of Python experience since my PhD code was all in Python and I've used it for all kinds of jobs from databases to my mp3 jukebox. However, when I started telling him about this he said that only *commercial* programming experience made any difference. He said, and I quote, "The fact that you could do this job with your eyes shut is neither here nor there, the people who employ you will need to justify their decision and they will do that with commercial experience".
This obviously means that a Geography graduate with 2 years working for a crappy IT consultancy has more effective programming experience than me, even though I've been programming for more than 10 years.
I'm not saying that this agent is typical, but nevertheless I think that as long as you have the minimum (probably a degree), quite a few employers don't give a rusty f*** about how much more education you have.
So I guess it's about software. I'm a Debian user too, and there is a great joy in knowing you need some tool and just putting in a one line apt-get to retrieve and install it, all for free.
I would also agree about the feeling of limitless power that comes with Linux. Whatever you can think of, somebody has written an app for that and in many cases that app will be functional and powerful.
However, I still occasionally feel pangs of longing for "it just works". You plug a bluetooth dongle into Windows or the Mac and it's all ready to use. You plug one into Linux and then you start the trawl through supported chipsets, compiling your own modules from the set of competing available drivers, fighting your way through configuration files and dumps from/dev. Ugh.
Peter
Slashdot Mirror
It's easy (and a cheap laugh) to say that roleplaying only attracts spoddy types who can't get laid. Whilst it's true that a lot of people who fit this description enjoy these games, I think the causality is somewhat clouded.
I really enjoy roleplaying games and used to play with my old schoolfriends, none of whom were these geek-loser types. When I went to university, I joined the RPG society there but quit pretty quickly because I couldn't stand the obsessive zitty nerds who were the only people there.
Now, I would really like to get back into RPGs, but I can't because I know the only people I would find who would want to play are people I would rather not play with. I wonder how many people are put off getting into roleplaying games - which are basically just like cool board games but with continuity - because they don't want to spend their time with frighteningly nerdy people. This is especially true of women, who have to beat those horny nerds off with a stick.
Incidentally, there is an separation between the positive geek traits (understanding and passion for technology, belief in technical meritocracy, intelligence and hard work) and the negative geek traits (social disfunction, obsession, elitism). It is completely possible to have the positive traits without the negatives - why don't people seem to get this?
Peter
I hate telemarketing as much as the next man, but picking on the poor bastard who is making the calls seems like kicking a guy when he's down.
Being a telemarketer must be just about the worst job you can do in the developed world. Working in a tiny box with low pay, restricted toilet breaks and ever increasing targets. You're bound to spend all day getting shouted at by the people you're calling, your supervisor or both. The only reason you would possibly be doing that job is if you were desperate.
For this reason, I can't bring myself to pick on them. I just politely explain that I don't want their products and hang up when the conversation is concluded.
PeterI got a call from a recruitment agent about a Python job. I have quite a lot of Python experience since my PhD code was all in Python and I've used it for all kinds of jobs from databases to my mp3 jukebox. However, when I started telling him about this he said that only *commercial* programming experience made any difference. He said, and I quote, "The fact that you could do this job with your eyes shut is neither here nor there, the people who employ you will need to justify their decision and they will do that with commercial experience".
This obviously means that a Geography graduate with 2 years working for a crappy IT consultancy has more effective programming experience than me, even though I've been programming for more than 10 years.
I'm not saying that this agent is typical, but nevertheless I think that as long as you have the minimum (probably a degree), quite a few employers don't give a rusty f*** about how much more education you have.
Peter
So I guess it's about software. I'm a Debian user too, and there is a great joy in knowing you need some tool and just putting in a one line apt-get to retrieve and install it, all for free. I would also agree about the feeling of limitless power that comes with Linux. Whatever you can think of, somebody has written an app for that and in many cases that app will be functional and powerful. However, I still occasionally feel pangs of longing for "it just works". You plug a bluetooth dongle into Windows or the Mac and it's all ready to use. You plug one into Linux and then you start the trawl through supported chipsets, compiling your own modules from the set of competing available drivers, fighting your way through configuration files and dumps from /dev. Ugh.
Peter
That's interesting. Care to elaborate? Peter