Yesterday, I bought the newly released Adventurer’s Vault supplement by WotC for the Dungeons & Dragons game. I walked up to the salesman, put the book on the counter and handed over my hard earned cash. After the purchase was complete there was the slightly awkward moment whereby the assistant looked at the book… waited… then asked if I would like the book placed in a bag.
I laughed and said yes. I quickly explained…
“Even though its not a secret anymore, and being a nerd is much more socially accepted these days, I still feel like I am buying pRon when I buy a role-playing game…”
He quietly moved further down the counter, put down the plastic bag he was holding and picked up a brown paper bag instead.
“I know”, he said, “I feel the same way…”
We are all a product of our childhoods. Mine was a fairly strict protestant upbringing. Instead of hiding Playboys under my mattress I hid D&D manuals. I’m not kidding. I got busted once. Ended up in a whole world of trouble. I have spent parts of my life not being invited to parties becuase apparently nerds don’t know how to drink (we do by the way…) or know how to have a good time apparently (again, we know how to laugh politely at other people’s jokes just as well as the next person…).
While this has changed, and being able to fix people’s computers to allow them to access pRon has made nerds popular (sort of…), many of us still carry the scars of rejection. After tonight, I realised I can still feel embarrassed about the whole thing. Not to worry, every Sunday ten people fit in my small apartment to have dinner, drink beer and play games. That’s a lot more friends than many people have.
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