Retrospective Rants

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joeyh1996.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joeyh1996.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joeyh1996.substack.com

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Hello, hello, and welcome to Retrospective Rants, with me, Joey Huff, as your host.

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This episode, I must bring to your attention a matter most nerdy.

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I must defend tabletop gaming.

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But you already talked about anime, I know.

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And you talk about movies and video games all the time.

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I know,

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but...

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And you already do silly comedy sketches and voiceovers,

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so how is tabletop any nerdier?

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It's not!

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Fine, it's not.

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But...

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tabletop gaming has been associated with classic nerd culture for longer than most

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of the other things I've talked about.

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At least over in the West.

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And now, I must defend its honor against strawman arguments...

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and preconceptions that most reasonable people don't care for anyway.

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So, let's get to it, and we'll start with a personal story.

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I was introduced to tabletop gaming through two avenues.

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First was through school.

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Lord of the Rings was very popular at the time due to the movies,

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and so were the Games Workshop minis that were made for their battle game using the

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Lord of the Rings license.

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The minis, even at that point, were extremely expensive.

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So I never got an army going.

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I just saved up my money and bought a group of 10 Easterlings because their armor

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was really cool.

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It was like a samurai Saracen look and gold and red is really cool.

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But some of my more well-to-do friends were very familiar with the rulesets for

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both the Lord of the Rings game and also the Warhammer games,

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which the Lord of the Rings game is based on.

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And they'd often pontificate on why my tiny band of very,

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very poorly painted models had no chance against their much larger armies.

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Yes, I was bullied by the Warhammer and Lord of the Rings nerds, so you just...

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Just get your shots in now.

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Now the other avenue where that I was introduced to tabletop gaming through was my

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beloved uncle Ninoy.

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He was a gamer and a nerd par excellence and often asked my parents if we as a

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family could join in his gaming sessions,

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but he respected my parents' wishes to the contrary.

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They didn't want,

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it's not that they didn't want me to game for ethical or moral reasons,

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they didn't think Dungeons & Dragons was bad,

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but...

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I was little,

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and I was an undiagnosed and unmedicated autistic kid,

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and they knew if my character died,

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which can happen in any RPG,

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that I would most likely take it personally.

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And, hell, I still take it personally, even in the

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even in baby 5th edition games.

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But as I grew and attempted to mature,

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I got models just to paint,

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still not a whole lot of them,

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and I played with my uncle and cousins using one of the older,

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but still less lethal Star Wars RPG systems.

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I was even able to be the dungeon master for a couple of the games we played,

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and since then,

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I've played in college with my friends,

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and afterwards,

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also after we all graduated,

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and I was even able to bring new people into the hobby of sitting around a table or

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a space with friends,

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throwing dice,

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and hoping for the best result.

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All while we try and live our best adventurous life in miniature,

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away from the grind of everyday life.

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We've had to do it via chat apps for a while now, a couple of years now, but

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We make the best of it that we can.

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There's no match for being there in person, but we still have fun.

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Anyway, you might ask, what's the point of this personal story?

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First off, to show and admit that I cannot be objective in any analysis of tabletop gaming.

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Playing at the table with friends and family may not be my entire identity,

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but it's a big part of it.

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and yet I still don't believe it disqualifies me from providing an objective

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defense of the hobby,

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because my personal experience and its relationship with others' personal

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experiences runs counter to several of the stereotypes surrounding the gaming

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scene,

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which I'll now list and debunk.

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Stereotype number one!

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There's a notion that gaming is for people with bad family lives

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or who need an escape from their families,

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I was introduced to gaming through my family,

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via my uncle.

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I was able to spend more time with my family, with my cousins, through gaming as well.

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Even as kids,

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we made some stories that we still repeat on phone conversations or at family

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gatherings,

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and they bring back fond memories of good times we shared.

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I already admitted to some bias,

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but if anything,

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quite a few of my family ties were strengthened because of the leisure time we

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spent together gaming.

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I can't speak for every person,

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but tabletop gaming,

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be it role-playing or strategy,

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requires more than just one player,

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and often requires cooperation.

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In that way, it is also the dynamic avenue of social engagement

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and occupies more of a neutral and utility-based position in family bonding rather

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than any negative or positive position.

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It all depends on who you play with.

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Second, gaming is supposedly reserved for socially disabled people.

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Eh,

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I admit gaming does seem to attract a crowd of socially awkward folks,

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but,

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you know,

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anti-social people or

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people with antisocial personalities?

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I mean, you spend time together, you interact socially.

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I've already shown that's the case.

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So,

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I don't believe that the idea that gaming rewards or encourages social regression

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has any merit.

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Third stereotype.

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Gaming distracts from more important issues in life.

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Alright, well, I would suggest that

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It doesn't distract from good work any more than any other leisure activity might.

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People who play basketball on the weekends with their friends are also taking time

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away from work.

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Parents who need to have a date night and leave their kids with the grandparents or

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a babysitter are also taking time for themselves.

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And sometimes you might be too tired to work out

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then sometimes you might have a big argument with your paramour and you both need some space.

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But you're also not quite in an antisocial enough mood where you want to just hide

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and curl up with a book on your own.

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So you might as well just game with some friends.

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Take some time to engage in pretend adventures away from pressure alongside people

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who want the same.

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We all need a break from pressing matters so that we can get back to them with renewed energy.

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And gaming is just another way to do that.

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A fourth stereotype, or slander.

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Gaming is the refuge for people with extremist and dangerous beliefs.

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Again, I can't speak for every gamer, but...

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for maybe 95% of gamers, we're not the most politically extreme people.

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I mean,

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we like gaming because it lets us have a way to live,

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well,

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it gives us an avenue away from the ugly extremes of life.

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Sure,

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we might have a political joke slip in,

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and other times we're under a lot of pressure from our real l…

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joeyh1996.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joeyh1996.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joeyh1996.substack.com

Give a Listen to this!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joeyh1996.substack.com

To restore balance to the internet I've made a video about my favorite tropes to follow up the one about my least favorites, and in a new format! Give it a listen!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joeyh1996.substack.com

A long overdue rant against the use of the creative Arts as a tool of agenda based change and why it's a fundamentally flawed approach. Hope you all enjoy!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joeyh1996.substack.com

Sorry for the late upload, been feeling under the weather and was then overwhelemed with other tasks that needed completing. But Now I'm back...again. 

This episode is a more casual sort, where I just list off some of my least favorite tropes in fiction and give a brief explanation on why I dislike them so. Enjoy!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joeyh1996.substack.com