2010-07-08 Where are the Evil Dudes

Actually... maybe I’d rather not get involved.

• Update*: Actually I see that other people have been voicing what I wanted to say.

James Edward Raggi IV kicked it off by saying I Don't Get It. Replies ranged from “Fuck that” ¹ to “Labels bad, freedom good. Mutually exclusive...” ² To me, labels seem to be an integral component of any rational discussion. Without generalizations and abstraction you’ll never be able to reason about anything beyond the most immediate of details.

I Don't Get It

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I didn’t get it and wrote a long rant about it. Then I deleted it again. But now I can just quote other people:

• “It’s just a convenient label. No-one would think it’s «pretentious and punk-as-fuck» to call a vintage car a vintage car, so why the hostility over the Old School label?” ³
• “And while I’m on the subject, can anyone tell me EXACTLY what the difference is between OSR gamers and Non-OSR Old Schoolers, other than the fact that some of us like a fucking label? I get a lot of Labels: Father, Husband, Grognard, Gamer, etc. Is Old Schooler an ok Label? How about 1e Gamer? Or just Gamer? Is that Ok?” ⁴
• “Perhaps I’m so out of the loop that I simply don’t know any of the sub-text of the conversation?” ⁵
• “Not everyone’s like me of course, but I thought I should say something, as there are people here that seem adverse to labels or having others label them. To me, that’s like being adverse to adjectives and adverbs.” ⁶
• “It’s all very well to jump up and down ranting and making accusations on the blogosphere, but without any actual evidence, it all sounds like sour grapes and hot air to me.” ⁷
• “OSR is not a term labeling a group of people, it’s a description of a trend that is happening within the RPG community.” ⁸
• “I’ve been watching the pattern of OSR blowups over the last year, and I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t the same dozen or so people reacting angrily whenever anyone says something they don’t like, and the rest of us wondering what’s happening and wishing there wasn’t so much arguing.” ⁹

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Thank you, David Macauley, Joseph Browning, and all the other voices of reason.

David Macauley

Joseph Browning

Also, Rob Conley says “[The OSR] is a glorious mess and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” ¹⁰ — I agree! 😄

Rob Conley

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Interesting discussion here with Dan Proctor, Matt Finch, Rob Conley, Robert Fisher, Finarvyn, and many others chiming in: From The Desktop: My Final Stance on the OSR Debate by Rob Kuntz.

From The Desktop: My Final Stance on the OSR Debate

​#Rhetoric ​#Reason

Comments

(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)

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Beautiful; Loved the quotations method.

I looked at the conversation before reading your post, and agreed completely.

I think there’s a point of maturity a person reaches, when they realize that labels happen.

– LionKimbro 2010-07-16 21:34 UTC

LionKimbro

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Thanks. I appreciate your comment regarding the method in particular. Always good to get feedback on that. 😄

I still haven’t tagged the page “RPG” for fear of it showing up on blog rolls and aggregators and taking some flak. At the same time I feel disingenuous. What a stupid situation to be in. I feel as if I were afraid of owning my words. Maybe I should post something about that on CommunityWiki. If only I knew what it meant.

– Alex Schroeder 2010-07-16 22:29 UTC

Alex Schroeder