Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!sjsca4!greg
From: greg@sj.ate.slb.com (Greg Wageman)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Cybertape
Message-ID: <1990Jan18.221509.13995@sj.ate.slb.com>
Date: 18 Jan 90 22:15:09 GMT
References: <1990Jan13.232613.25328@agate.berkeley.edu> <9670@hoptoad.uucp>
Reply-To: greg@sj.ate.slb.com (Greg Wageman)
Organization: Schlumberger ATE, San Jose, CA 95110
Lines: 48

Opinions expressed are the responsibility of the author.

In article <9670@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes:
>greg@sj.ate.slb.com (Greg Wageman) writes:
>>I think you underestimate the power of such a medium [cybertape].
>>Remember the Dungeons and Dragons craze of the 1970's?  A bunch of
>>pimply-faced geeks pretending they were Conan the Barbarian?
>
>I just can't let this go by.  Back when I played these games, in the
>late 1970's and early 1980's, I played with a lot of different people.
>Few (if any) of these were "pimply-faced geeks".  In their number were
>several certifiable hunks of the different-girl-a-night variety, as
>well as new wave girls-to-die-for.  These simply could not be placed in
>the "pimply-faced geek" category by any stretch of the imagination.
>Others included a successful carpentry contractor and his wife, both in
>their late 40's, and other socially normative types.  If forced to
>classify the group, I would say they were disproportionately people
>working (or trying to break into) creative fields like music, art,
>theatre, and writing.  Few were nerds, geeks, or other kinds of social
>outcasts.  Like most insulting stereotypes, this one radically
>oversimplifies reality in the cause of the accuser's ego.

Explanation and apology: I did not intend to imply that all D&Ders are
or were pimply-faced geeks, although I see how you might read it that
way.  I chose an (unfortunate) stereotype, that of a gangly-limbed
adolescent pretending to be someone almost diametrically different, to
illustrate my point about the use of imagination.  I played D&D quite
seriously for many years myself, and am well aware that D&D players
are at least as diverse as any other group; certainly more diverse
than the readers of Usenet, whom I would never even consider trying to
pigeonhole.

I suppose it is due to the nature of Usenet that one assumes the worst
possible intentions on the part of the writer, and reads in the most
nefarious context, but I assure you, Tim (and all concerned), that
ego-gratification was not and is not my purpose for writing here, at
least no more so than it is the motive for engaging in any form of
conversation.  Given the frequent ambiguity resulting from excessive
brevity imposed by lack of time and the medium itself, more charity in
our inferences would benefit us all.  What goes around, comes around.

Let's continue the discussion, shall we?  I promise to choose my words
more carefully in future.

Copyright 1990 Greg Wageman	DOMAIN: greg@sj.ate.slb.com
Schlumberger Technologies	UUCP:   {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!greg
San Jose, CA 95110-1397		BIX: gwage  CIS: 74016,352  GEnie: G.WAGEMAN
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