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October 16, 2004

Heart of Dorkness: D&D at 30

Even CNN lowers itself to cover the anniversary:

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Dungeons & Dragons players gathered in game stores around the country Saturday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the grandfather of fantasy role-playing games -- a pop culture phenomenon that has influenced myriad video games, books and movies.
An estimated 25,000 fans in 1,200 stores celebrated the anniversary Saturday, said Charles Ryan, brand manager for role-playing games at Wizards of the Coast, a Renton, Washington, company that owns Dungeons & Dragons.

...

Dungeons & Dragons went on to become one of the best-selling games of all time, inspiring fan devotion so great that some travel thousands of miles to play in tournaments.

There have been Dungeons & Dragons books, movies, puzzles, even a Saturday-morning cartoon show.

All quality entertainments, too.

The game peaked in the 1980s, but there are plenty of fans left. Some 4 million people play D&D regularly. Many of them laugh at a common suggestion that fantasy gamers are geeks: Of course they are, they say.
"I think a lot of people who get drawn to this game are loners, but here's a real opportunity to come out of that shell and feel safe about it," said fan Mitch Hamburger, 32.

Yes. There's something empowering about having a nicely-statted character sheet and smiting a couple of kobolds.

Look at me! I just rolled the shit out of that d4! Man, I'm fuckin' cool!

Related Dorkiness: Just on the phone with Son of Nixon.

Me: "I went to a blog party last month."

SoN (perfectly serious): "You mean like physically at a party, or just 'partying' in a chatroom?"

Me: "Give me some credit, for crying out loud."

Blog-party.

Me and bunch of dudes sitting around in a chatroom, telling each other how "freakin' wasted" we are.

That's me. Such a fucking dork that even a "friend" thinks that I'm "partying" on-line-- and then bragging about it.

posted by Ace at 07:50 PM

Comments

Snort, Ace ... too funny. I mean, I'm a loser, but at least I can blame my five kids (5 kids under 9 y/o.) I have NO life. Before kids, I got my "out" by being a bartender. Just a thought.

Posted by: Carin on October 16, 2004 08:04 PM

Five kids under 9? That's like 9 months and 15 minutes apart.

Posted by: Joe R. the Unabrewer on October 16, 2004 09:05 PM

Former dorks are the best people later on.

Posted by: lauraw on October 16, 2004 09:35 PM

True, lauraw, in a sense, but I would add that there are no "former dorks." It's like being a former marine -- no such animal.

But they have grown up to rule the world.

Posted by: George on October 16, 2004 10:47 PM

Shut up George, LOOSE LIPS...

Posted by: lauraw on October 16, 2004 11:43 PM

"I wanna cast - MAGIC MISSILE!"

Please tell me I'm not the only one who loves that Dead Alewives D&D routine :).

Posted by: on October 17, 2004 12:50 AM

Above comment was me - wasn't trying to be *that* mysterious.

Posted by: Sonetka on October 17, 2004 12:51 AM

I have some links you'll appreciate, Ace. They're at the end of the post.

Posted by: ccwbass on October 17, 2004 01:36 AM

Ace, if this is your way of announcing to the blogosphere that you're looking to DM a campaign and need players... Well, you have a funny way of doing it.

Posted by: someone on October 17, 2004 04:44 AM

--Ace, if this is your way of announcing to the blogosphere that you're looking to DM a campaign and need players... Well, you have a funny way of doing it.--

LOL, Ace does have a way of showing it.

But to be fair, Wizards of the Coast found a damn good way of modernizing the system. They latched onto Neverwinter Nights by Bioware and will never ever let go. The player created worlds have fared well, financial model or not. The greatest test will be the next online incarnation of D&D Online, to be specific, based in the world Eberron, which will be coming out in the next year. NWN2 is being developed, but will Eberron overcome it? Who knows. It's wizards vs Bioware.

Their competition is Middle Earth Online by Turbine. I fully expect MEO to whomp D&D, but we'll see. Wizards have been pushing Forgotten Realms for so long with so much detail, no one gives a shit. They've broken the D&D system into two camps. You either know FR, or you don't. Most of us don't. (I saw that Ravenloft comment in the other thread, damnit!). I give a shit about Forgotten Realms. What a generic asshat of a world. I want new, different, better. Which is what led me to all those other different worlds in the first place. Wizards never got that. That people wanted something different. So, they've been advertising to a different audience with Eberron. They hope to capture the player-base they fucked all these years by concentrating on FR.

My bet is, people abondon FR in droves for Middle Earth Online and Turbine sees numbers that were only wet dreams when they were building the Asheron worlds.

/geek

Posted by: on October 17, 2004 07:38 AM

Oh, the above comment is mine, btw. And I have an axe to grind. TSR, when they were still TSR, had a contest. The best fantasy writer could get a job with them. Submit your stories. I did. I won the contests, and then they merged, and my idea of pumping out D&D material went to hell, so they can all fuck themselves.

/bitterness

Posted by: Rob on October 17, 2004 07:43 AM

Joe - actually the closest they come is 13.5 months apart in age. I got the 2-year-gap thing DOWN after that mishap.

Posted by: Carin on October 17, 2004 07:56 AM

Hey, at this so-called "blog party", do you get to 'talk' to people or do you post comments in a thread...curious

heh.

Posted by: sonofnixon on October 17, 2004 11:16 AM

I'm with you Son of Nixon, I think this "blog-party" was probably something where Ace and company figured out how to use "roger Wilco" and all ended up on a channel (probably password protected: "wonketteass")talking about D&D and miami vice. We'll know for sure later if Ace puts up a post in which he compares Crockett and Tubbs to a chaotic good Paladan and a neutral Dark Elven Ranger.

Posted by: senator philabuster on October 17, 2004 11:47 AM

Where are the cheetos?

Posted by: Brock on October 17, 2004 06:37 PM

Amazon.com Widgets

Now Available!
The Deplorable Gourmet
A Horde-sourced Cookbook
[All profits go to charity]

Top Headlines

You might think that movie critics by nature are effeminate and bitchy, but, did you know that grass is green and red peppers are red?

"We have black ghetto fatigue"

Odd 90s-Retro Susan Collins ad against the Nazi Hotchkiss "hobby farmer"
I like the throwback AOL style of the ad.

Podcast: Sefton and CBD bounce around from Maine and its pet Nazi, to the cracks in the Democrat messaging, to the failure of California and its effect on the 2028 election, sea drones rescuing Apache crews, and more!

Seattle mayor shrugs off millionaire-tax concerns as 44% of business leaders consider leaving
It happens in all the blue states, but WA and Seattle will be different! [CBD]

TJM definitively ranks the films of Alexander Mackendrick

VOTE JEFF CARTER FOR NV STATE TREASURER!
[CBD]

Mary Margaret Olohan
@MaryMargOlohan

NEW: Five FBI employees were fired today over the infamous Richmond Catholic memo on "radical traditionalist Catholics," FBI source confirms to @realDailyWire.

Oof. Reviewers do not like Scary Movie 6. The criticism I keep hearing is that the movie mistakes a reference for an actual joke. The movie (they say) keeps Key Jangling a reference to another movie (or some other pop culture ephemera) and you expect there to be a joke but nope, the Key Jangle was the joke. Other reviewers say that the promise that "no lines will be uncrossed" is a fake-out, and that the movie is bland and inoffensively corporate.

TJM introduces you to the movies of Alexander Mackendrick

Whoops! I posted about Dan Goldman losing the NY congressional primary. He might do that, but it won't be tonight -- the primary isn't held until June 23.

One race to keep an eye on: the Levi's heir nepo baby and egregious "Designated Liar" Dan Goldman -- one of the Democrats from a safe district Democrats send out to spread their most indefensible lies -- may actually lose his lower Manhattan/Brooklyn set due to, get this, antisemitism in the Democrat primary electorate.
Antisemitism? In the anti-Nazi Democrat Party? Sounds crazy, I know, but apparently the anti-Nazi Party wants to eliminate Jews.

Henry Rosoff
@HenryRosoff

🚨EXCLUSIVE POLL:

Brad Lander is 34-pts ahead of Congressman Dan Goldman with #NY10 Democratic Primary voters. @ZohranKMamdani is backing the former Comptroller.

@bradlander: 57%

@danielsgoldman: 23%

Poll by @PIX11News & @EmersonPolling.

MORE: http://pix11.com

Oh my Totenkopf Tattoo, that is a DRUBBING!
I'm usually very anti-antisemitism but if the Communist Antisemite Jihadists can pull this one off, Go Communist Antisemite Jihadists, Go!

Democrat Senator Rueben Gallego, who served his wife with divorce papers when she was nine months pregnant so that he could marry his side-piece, counsels us that we should not judge Graham Platner for his infidelity because these things are personal matters, Racists:

Sahil Kapur
@sahilkapur

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., on Platner: "We know that Graham has lived not your typical political experience. He's been very clear and open with his wife, and they worked through whatever they worked through. At the end of the day, this man has had 60 more town halls than Susan Collins has. He's winning the polls, he's willing to accept that he has grown as a person, and I think we should accept that."

Gallego says the drip-drip of revelations won't harm Platner's campaign.

"I think you guys are all in a bubble here right now. The drip, drip that's actually happening is Americans are really, really hurt the fact that gas is still high, food is still high, they can't buy a home, you can't afford rent. They're not going to care about text messages and everything else like that that happened years ago, especially when it was worked out between spouses."

I like that he says that it's okay that Graham Platner sexted 12 different women within months of marrying the woman to sponge off her because he wasn't then "living a political life" -- the clear meaning being, "We all cheat, we just don't cheat when we're running for office, and he didn't know he was running for office when he was sending dicpics to half the women he ran into."
Except he was running: His own wife turned the sexts over to his campaign.
And obviously Reuben Gallego didn't let his "political life" get in the way of his extramarital dating life:

Podcast: CBD goes solo in a short segment...talking about Iran, the nativist issues surrounding Reform and Restore in the UK, and the delicious pain of an imploding Democrat Party, courtesy of Talerico and Platner!

TJM ranks all of John Ford's films. All of them. TJM is very tired.

Funny -- if you don't mind clicking on TikTok. "Amy.Pranks.22" set up an AI scam-call screener which replies to a foreign scammer trying to get her bank information with Trumpian bluster. This might be fake because I don't see how a program can respond in real time, but it's funny.

Food Thread Pizza Dough Recipe

The ULA rocket just launched
Thanks to Joyenz
The rocket's enormous engines are fueled by "the volcanic heterosexual lust between James Talarico and his Neighbor With a Uterus 'girlfriend'"
I hope Amazon's rocket works better than the Amazon Prime app does as far as allowing people to watch the black and white version of "Spider-Noir"

From the CA Post:

Spencer Pratt is now Karen Bass' biggest headache.

A bombshell California Post poll conducted with McLaughlin & Associates shows the reality TV star-turned-mayoral candidate has surged to a statistical tie with the incumbent mayor.

And voters blame homelessness, affordability and the direction of Los Angeles as the reason for turning on Bass.

Pratt now leads the field with 30.1% support, compared with 29.5% for Bass, setting up a razor-thin race heading into next week's primary.

Socialist councilwoman Nithya Raman sits in third place at 23.4%.

Thanks to beckster

Just like "Spartacus" Corey Booker, now that James Talarico is running for a higher office, he unveils his previously-unknown "girlfriend" and hooboy, it just so happens she used to work for him, and, get this, likes to "dance the night away" at gay bars
Gee I wonder where they might have met
Oh and she's a vegan
When Corey Booker needed a "girlfriend," he conjured up known LGBTQ activist Rosario Dawson. How convenient that when these guys need a girlfriend to show off to the normies that just happen to find an activist with a strong history of and interest in Supporting Gay Men
But seriously, this James Talarico romance with a Neighbor with a Uterus is a love story for the ages. The passion of their lovemaking is hotter than a blue star with a core of Primordial Sex Atoms created in the Big Bang