Just my opinion man

Morbidity and Me ・・・ The Lure of Disaster

August 2, 2015 — Leave a comment

On the first day of kindergarten, we practiced a tornado drill. The other kids in my class thought nothing of it, but I was terrified. I wasn’t just starting school, but I was in an entirely new country. My family had just moved from Canberra to Ohio. I didn’t really know what a tornado was, considering I was from a place that has pretty unremarkable weather. A few weeks later, there was a real tornado warning on TV. My mother freaked out and made my brother and I hide in the basement. We didn’t really know what we were doing. The tornado missed our county, and the storm passed. I was no longer afraid, I was excited. Continue reading

Gatekeeping ・・・ Elitism and the Cycle of Rejection

May 31, 2015 — 1 Comment

There’s a very vicious cycle we constantly face in the gaming community. Actually it pretty much permeates through all alternative pop culture (I really don’t want to call it ‘geekery’ because…ugh).

Here’s a classic example:

Person A complains they can’t find anyone interested in X, they meet Person B who shows passing interest in X. But they don’t know everything about it. Person A will be snide about how they really don’t like X or they would know this or that about it. They assume they’re in a position to pass judgement.

I’m guilty of this. I’d say most enthusiasts are. I’ve done this with music, TV shows, games, anime…you name it. I’ve been a repulsive elitist, and it really isn’t that self-satisfying, because you’re terrified of running into someone who might actually know more. You’ll meet your match. It’s tiring to have to constantly be the know-it-all. Continue reading