REPRINT: My KODT article

I felt it was appropriate for me to show my original letter to KoDT magazine discussing my lack of gaming opportunites that spurred my recent trip to Origins 2005 (see previous post). I will also include a link to the original forums I posted it in, to show the tremendous support I received, as well as show how this degenerated into a discussion of dice and PH color.

Minorities (esp. blacks) in Gaming and Geekdom #447754 - 04/07/04 12:26 AM

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Wow, am I asking for it.

I have read the letters on women in gaming, Christians in gaming, but never this. I think this is another true bias when it comes to gaming in particular and geekdom in general.

Just as some women view gaming as childish (which it is sometimes), geeky (also which it is sometimes), and unwomanly to play (not going there...). Some Christians feel that is is perverted, corrupt, and leads to the worship of false gods (bleeech). But nobody seems to want to point out the racial side of this.

Let me explain all this. I am an African-American in a predomitely black neighborhood in Southwest Atlanta, Georgia. I am also a confessed geek and recent gamer. This is utter torture. I have to travel over 50 miles on public transportation in order to get to my closest game store. The only good can that comes here is DragonCon, and I have yet to go, because it is nowhere near me.

No one in my neighborhood is interested in gaming, not just because of the geek factor, but because it is seen as a "white" thing to do.

Usually, I don't make a deal about race or anything. Hey, I usually don't care. But this, being so close to me, has really gotten to me.

My point was put best by my experience at The Dragon's Horde, a game store I used to visit before the transit got to me. The owner is black, and is also in a predominate minority area. He told me that when he first open up, most of his business came from the white gamers in North Georgia that came down to his store. But when he ran a Magic: The Gathering workshop/tournament that I attended, he was able to get a lot of the neighborhood kids to come in and play. He used the competitive and confrontational nature of that game to appeal to them. But after the tournament, someone wanted to run a D&D one-shot. I ended up the only black (besides the owner) who stayed to play, and the only other minority I remember staying was an Asian gentleman. Even now when I remember it, my heart hurts, because of what a lot of my friends are missing, and what I am missing.

You can even see it in KODT, where it "seems" (if I am wrong, please correct me) the only character of color is Nitro . He lives in Muncie, where he can game to his hearts' content, but it still seems that he is adding some color to these monochromatic proceedings, to paraphrase Loveless from the Wild, Wild, West movie.

I dont' mean to be offensive, and I apologize if I have missed something. Charge it to my head, and not my heart. I am just expressing my opinion. I wish to hear from others with similar experiences, as well as any opinions on the matter. I hope that one day, I can live in a place where I can play RPGs and not feel like some sort of sellout.

But maybe I am just kidding myself.

Thanks for hearing me out at least.