lovest1274:

Here is a link to a recent article in Indianapolis Monthly regarding Gen Con.  It's started some buzz here in Indy among the gamer communities. 

http://indianapolismonthly.com/monthly/article.asp?articleID=3

FWIW -

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=170471

Mark:

Mr. Rehagen,

Didn't care much for your article on gamers. It was shallow in tenor, lacked a meaningful breadth of sources, and showed a dependence on stereotypes that modern journalism should be above. It's a shame since you seem to be able to write well enough, otherwise. You can do better, so please do.

As always,
Mark Clover
www.CreativeMountainGames.com

Mr. Rehagen:

Mr. Clover,

   Thanks for the feedback and the constructive criticism. Sorry that you didn't like the article, but I appreciate your taking the time to read it and respond to it. And thanks also for the subtle compliment.

  I was wondering if you wouldn't mind letting us publish your letter in our monthly letters section. And if you know of anyone else who's read this or other articles and had feelings one way or another about it or about the magazine in general, encourage them to write as well.

  Take care,

  Tony

Mark:

Mr. Rehagen,

I would like to see you take a second look at the convention with an eye toward its less stereotypical qualities including the teamwork fostered by gaming and the educational efforts it supports.  Getting in touch with the outfit that runs the convention would likely glean a wealth of information and help show a more well-rounded picture of the hobby. 

I hadn't expected it would be used as a published letter to the editor, but go right ahead.  I would appreciate if you add the first paragraph of this email to the other as an addendum.  Thanks you for your reply.

As always,
Mark Clover
www.CreativeMountainGames.com

 

He's asked for others to give him feedback, so don't be shy about it. :)

Mark:

He's asked for others to give him feedback, so don't be shy about it. :)

Better yet - contact the editors and publishers... you know - the ones that chose to print the article... they are the ones that need to be educated about Gen Con...

WoodForSheep:

Mauve?!?! Tell me you did NOT just say that. I thought the whole point of this thread was to break down stereotypes. If those stereotypes were true, then the 'fabulous' gay part of me would cancel out the 'socially inept' gamer in me and I'd just be normal. And we know that's not the case.

I'll let you in on a little secret. Gay people don't go through half the crap that the Q.u.e.e.r Eye guys put those poor breeders through. We just watch them fall for it and laugh our asses off. 

Dude...I like mauve. Seriously. (I was just trying to do my best Carson impression, that's all. But I do like mauve. :)

Q.u.e.e.r Eye is definately hyperbole. But that's really the point. Gay culture tends to have more of an emphasis on style, though...do you think that's fair to say? Not that there's necessarily a vanity involved. Just style. I teach on a Big Ten college campus, so even though it's in Iowa, it's a haven for those who don't fit in to the rest of conservative Iowa :) But I have to say that the gay guys I've known *tended* (not always, but most of the time) to put much more effort into having some personal style than your average straight guy. What do I see from the vast majority of high school and college age straight guys these days? Roll out of bed, cram a baseball hat over your unwashed, uncut hair, and hit the streets in your baskeball shorts and t-shirt. Most gay guys I've known pay more attention to style than that. Not necessarily 'fashion' or 'appearance'...just 'style'. It's always seemed to me that it's just an accepted part of 'gay culture', if there is such a singular thing. And I applaud it.

So, when you have the Fab Five taking some straight dude on a whirlwind, I think the point is 1) ratings, because it's fun to watch, but 2) that they're hoping just some small portion of if all sinks in after the show. These clueless guys they get are never going to adopt all of the fashions and grooming habits they try to enforce. But the point is that if generic slob A learns *only* to keep his apartment clean, or do something else other than the 'baseball-hat-cram' on his head, or shave properly and regularly...well, that'll be something.

I mean, come on...Generic White College Guy definately has a LOT to learn about these things.

Mark:

He's asked for others to give him feedback, so don't be shy about it. :)

I replied to them via the Contact link, with a link to this thread. They're free to come get all the honest feedback they want, if they want to make the effort.

As soon as I sumbitted my reply by using the contact links I got an email asking if they could use my comment in the next edition.  So using the contact us link does work!

I wonder if the next issue will be printed in time for Gencon?

dtb:

Mark:

He's asked for others to give him feedback, so don't be shy about it. :)

Better yet - contact the editors and publishers... you know - the ones that chose to print the article... they are the ones that need to be educated about Gen Con...

Well, I did CC two editors with my own email to him.

I had to calm down a bit before I could compose my reply (only took about 18 hours). This is what I sent them.

Your recent article regarding the Gen Con gaming convention and its participants was as lazy and insulting of a piece of journalism as I have read in a professional magazine.  Mr. Rehagen found an extreme example of a conventioneer and portrayed that extremeness as a standard of all participants.  Following this method your journalist would describe all Colt’s fans as drunk or painted blue.  The article is reminiscent of racist propaganda where a stereotype is created or reinforced by careful observation of only those actions that fit that stereotype.

No mention is made in the article of the number of families (father, mother and children) who attend, or of the other conventioneers, of all ages, who go to work, or school, everyday, and who fit the standards of normal average people.  Instead everyone is portrayed as a sex fiend exile from reality with no social skills and no interest in them.  Mr. Rehagen did a disservice not only to the participants of Gen Con, but also to your readers.  Instead of a fair portrayal of a group of people who are often misunderstood, your readers only learned that Mr. Rehagen couldn’t be bothered to look beyond an individual, and a stereotype, to produce a good story.

Well said, sir.  Well said, indeed.

I got an e-mail this evening asking if they can post my message in their Letters to the Editor section.  I gladly responded yes.  I think we should write as many well-reasoned and well-worded responses as possible so that they are swamped with articulate letters protesting such shoddy work.

They won't care if we write letters. I attended an AP convention one time. Journalists are all slovenly, balding, unshaven, Kerouac-wannabees who won't blink for a second if making up 'facts' gives them a better story than tracking down real information. They'll throw their own mothers and daughters under a bus as long as they get the scoop on the story before press time.

The certainly aren't above stereotyping

(completely off topic...) I like gay guys, they always give the best hugs and I like good hugs.

(back on topic) I got the same letter about publishing my letter.  I also got a letter from the author.

Cynthia,

Thanks for your feedback regarding the Gen Con article. I assure you it was never my intent to offend anyone. Hope this finds you well, and I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to respond.

Take care, Tony

I'm not sure how he could say most of GenCon was pimply,faced, stuttering guys and not figure he was going to offend soemone but there you are.

Jirel_:

I'm not sure how he could say most of GenCon was pimply,faced, stuttering guys and not figure he was going to offend soemone but there you are.

Might start to question his intellect at that point...

Tom Javoroski:

Jirel_:

I'm not sure how he could say most of GenCon was pimply,faced, stuttering guys and not figure he was going to offend soemone but there you are.

Might start to question his intellect at that point...

...or his integrity.

He just got intimidated by every person in the building having an IQ well over his own.

I did chuckle at: "“Then once a year, they all congregate here to mate. It’s like that movie, March of the Penguins.”  Come on, you gotta admit that part was funny. 

I also liked, "People need to be weirded out every once in a while."  {gets out his freak flag}

Ripley:

What do you expect from a Mag that has that horrible MIDI music playing the whole time...

Isn't it in a US3 song called called Cantaloop/Flip Fantasia?

Steve G.
Project Manager & Penguin Ninja
AvatarArt

I'm glad to see that Mykal is upset by this. 

After some conversations in last nights online chat I realize that there probably is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that could be distorted by a journalist who doesn't understand our motivations.  It still doesn't justify what the writer published. 

The way I read the story, I thought that Wells was a composite of stereotypes, just another piece of the fiction, but I guess I was wrong on that point.

Still, it looks like this writer may have opened the IM up to a little bit of libel.

Legio-IX:

He just got intimidated by every person in the building having an IQ well over his own.

Well, with they way I spell (soemone) you would never know it. 

NDGeekboy:

The way I read the story, I thought that Wells was a composite of stereotypes, just another piece of the fiction, but I guess I was wrong on that point.

Still, it looks like this writer may have opened the IM up to a little bit of libel.

Yes and no, depending on what the writer changed/ignored.

If the writer changed a line that Wells said completely, that's libel.

Picking and choosing is poor journalism, and I'd never hire that guy again, but *technically* it's not libel.

Either way - the writer is not very good at what he does.  If he's trying for the sarcastic, "I thought gamers where just these guys who sat in mom's basement and congregate every year for gaming and sex" and then at the end changes his mind to find out that hey, most gamers have good jobs, are not social rejects, and have never lived in mom's basement, thus shattering sterotypes - he failed miserably.

If he was trying for a realistic bit of journalism, he failed miserably.

Any good writer would have interviewed more than one person.  Any good writer would *notice* what is going on around them - which would have included the Nascrag guys being married and having the aforementioned rings on their fingers.  Any good writer would have double and triple checked anything they wrote before publishing it, unless said writer wants to work for the STAR - in which case they aren't a writer, they are just a hack.

Since our writer did none of the above, I choose hack.

Hey WoodForSheep...

You're a member of the Yahoo group with Wells? If you get a chance, could you tell Wells that people aren't upset at him? At least, I'm not, and it doesn't seem like anyone else here is. I have no problem with Wells and his group doing whatever they want to do at Gen Con. That's the point of Gen Con...enjoy it how you want to enjoy it.

The problem is the journalist. We all know that there are people at Gen Con who do things that even normal Con-goers think are strange...but most of us don't care. It's when those people are painted as representational of everyone that we have a problem.

In fact, let me retract that. I don't think you could pick ONE person or group, at Gen Con, and say that they are representational of the 'average' Con experience. If you picked a t-shirt and jeans role-player, then the mini-gamers and full-time swag hunters and card gamers would be saying "what about us?" I think that, in a way, everyone at Gen Con thinks everyone else is 'different'. And that's not a problem.

Again, it's the journalist. If you could tell Wells that if you get a chance, I'd be grateful. I don't want the guy thinking that people think it's his fault. He doesn't have to apologize for how he enjoys Gen Con.