One of the things I love about being a nerd is that it’s perfectly okay to immerse yourself in the love of a particular subject. It’s actually one of the reasons I love being able to claim the title of ‘nerd’. Unfortunately, though, one of my pet peeves is when some nerds (especially the RPG variety) take that immersion a little too far. Sometimes they take the love of a subject and turn it into an obsession that blows up inconsequential details so badly it turns the magical into the tedious.
Take for example Frozen. I understand that Disney Princess movies may not be for everyone, but there was quite a bit of awesome in that particular movie. Yes, I know there is a degree of eye rolling for many when the musical numbers start, but let’s just roll with it for the moment. Rather than being a direct translation of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘Snow Queen’, the story instead focused on the relationship between sisters Elsa and Anna and their struggles as the eldest deals with insecurity and anxiety over her uncontrolled and powerful winter abilities. It’s an empowering movie for girls or anyone, but it’s also a damn fun movie with a great story and humor woven throughout. I mean, not only is there an unexpectedly awesome talking snowman, but a delicious twist on the traditional handsome prince cliché.
But what did some gamer nerds obsess about? “WHY DIDN’T THEY EXPLAIN WHERE HER POWERS CAME FROM!?!?”
Not all gamer nerds, but I had to walk away from at least one online conversation where several people were complaining about how awful the movie was based solely on the fact that there was no ‘reasonable explanation’ for how or where Elsa got her powers. They called it a ‘failure in world building.’ In their mind, because the movie makers didn’t give a source book’s worth of information on why the powers existed, the movie was crap. I honestly wanted to reach through my monitor and throttle them.
While this is a specific example, I’ve found that I have to avoid most online fandom communities for things I love, especially if I want to keep loving that thing. Whether we’re talking fanzines back in the pre-internet Stone Age, the message boards of the 90’s, or the current generation of Tumblrs, there is an element in fandom that can take the love of a subject too far for my personal comfort zone. Some people love it, I just get annoyed.
Among gamers, there is a need to quantify things they love in the mechanics of their chosen system. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially since there can be great satisfaction in being able to translate a character or an ability from something they love into a workable format in a game they love just as much. The problem comes for me when it’s taken too far and you lose the spirit of the original thing in a sea of minutia.
So what does this mean to us as GMs? Sometimes it’s good to remind ourselves and our players that it’s okay to just ‘Let it Go’. Remember the spirit of what you’re trying to capture in the game and don’t let yourself or your players get too bogged down in the details. I know that’s easier said than done when we’re talking about a hobby that quantifies everything from how wise a character is to how much damage a halberd does, but it’s also supposed to be a hobby where we let our imaginations run free.
If you are getting overwhelmed trying to stat out every single possible permutation of creature the players may come across in your game, it’s probably time to step back and remind yourself of the spirit of the game. If you have a player coming to you with a character they want to play but it doesn’t quite fit easily into the system or setting you’re using, work with them to find the essence of the concept and fit that into the game instead. And if you have a player dragging the game down because they’re caught up in the mechanics and rules (and possibly doing a little bit of power gaming or rules lawyering), it might be time to take them aside and have a talk.
I’m absolutely not saying we need to give up on our obsessive love of awesome things. It’s what makes us the nerds we are. Just occasionally, it might be wise to know when to let the details go. After all, the mechanics never bothered me anyway.
As with most things, if one loses the big picture, the reason for doing whatever it is we are doing the thing itself suffers. In most gaming scenarios it is the story that drives the gathering, much like the film Frozen. If we can keep that in mind we will be a happier lot.
Yep! That’s pretty much the gist I was trying to get to. I want the world and the story to make sense, but I don’t have to know every nitty gritty detail.
I occassionally have this issue in games. “how does he FTL drive work?” “pretty well, most of the time.”
Hi Angela,
“The mechanics never bothered me, anyway!”
What a great article. I haven’t seen Frozen, but I’ve certainly experienced how fandom taken too far can detract from the enjoyment of any subject.
We fans need to remember that the word fan comes from fanatic and we should try and avoid acting out the more negative connotations of the word in our admiration and discussions of our favorite games, books and movies.
Frozen is definitely worth a watch. If you have little kids it’s a must see (girls need to know they can rescue themselves, and boys should know they can do it too), but it’s also just plain fun. 🙂
Good point on the origins of the word fan.
As the father of two young girls, I’m extremely familiar with the film. And yes, it’s a great movie on many levels. (Knowing Hans’ motivations, go listen to the timing and lyrics of “Love is an Open Door” again, and get kinda creeped out.) Any movie where the princesses rescue themselves and love overcomes fear is absolutely fine with me.
I ran into this phenomenon back when D&D was applied to Tolkien, sometimes causing serious arguments. Silly gamers; applying D&D to Tolkien is like explaining the Apollo program with alchemy and Ptolemeic astronomy. 😉
Back in the day, I used to play Champions with some guys who would really dig down into the detail of things. Sometimes it was fun, but there were times when they would drive me nuts trying to parse everything into stats. 🙂
On a Wonkhammer 401k forum I was once savaged for suggesting that the parentage of a tank design indicated clearly a certain role.
I wasn’t trying to rewrite the execrable GW fluff (possibly the worst writing in the known universe in places, definitely in others), I was just having fun riffing on the ideas spun off looking at a daft model.
Another bloke tried some short fanfic in the Lovecraftian mode and got yowled at by a claque who had no idea what he was doing – only that he wasn’t doing it like everyone else was.
Great article, and great advice.
Thanks!
The back story is in plain sight, it’s just written in Old English and Elder Futhark. Which is awesome world building.
It doesn’t make any difference to the story that’s being told, though.
Oh yeah. Only yesterday I was watching Ender’s Game and wondering why the scenes in the free-fall battle globe didn’t garner the same vitriolic criticism salvos which bombarded Gravity almost from the word go.
Then again, I get bent out of shape when anyone writes an airship into a Steampunk story because it is always painfully obvious the writer has no idea how the damned things work or why they don’t work in the situation at hand, more to the point.
*Shrugs*
Horses for courses I suppose.