*** BIG UNPLANNED RANT ***
yeah, it's unsurprising that the skills one learns at these psychological games mirror the ones that make male friendship fun. it's one of the many reasons the ad-style language of WotC pisses me off, as evidenced by my friend's gf observing rich hagon at the belgian GP and asking, "does that doofus really
play magic?" KEEPIN' IT REAL.
another dire case is a certain old classmate of mine and old cfb colleague of yours, who likes basketball. once upon a time he made offensive jokes and ribald drawings. now, though his period of philistine resistance to these things has ended, his articles admit of no error, nor irony or context. people become their public personas, which is often tragic. some people are nothing BUT public personas, which is even worse. #OWS (also cf. how the John Rizzo article attracted both much more attention and opprobrium than the typical schlock of Drew Levin.)
that being said! it's worth noting that these people rarely get married or even laid (the aZn balla is afaik incel for a year and counting), but when they do, they choose
GAMER GIRLS. let me preface some analysis by saying that there have existed women who are great at card games and life; there are scores of women who are wonderful within
mtg. but these are rare. the public faces are often girls who are not good at
magic; these girls are not even all that into
magic. most are hard on the eyes; a small minority are good-looking but crazy. in short, they are frauds.
though they are frauds, they
are women, and though it is pathetic they have gravitated to
mtg to gain unconditional and therefore worthless positive attention, it is a good way to assure constant adulation from nice guys, well-wishers, and self-styled progressives who tell themselves misogyny is a primary problem with the game, oblivious that it is in fact themselves. also, as the typical slur against
mtg is at its core "it doesn't get you laid," the gamer girls of
mtg do a good job of dispelling that, thus bringing the game closer into the mainstream. fake office workers exist, as do fake frat boys and fake sorority whores: why not fake nerds and fake nerd girls? these phonies help legitimize the hobby. viewed in this way the knuckle-dragging idiocy of
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ur/267 is kinda encouraging.
(i will also not complain about that consolation of one's mid-twenties, "ugly people's engagement photos")
anyway, people of low self-esteem tend to come together (nb: wotc salaries aren't that competitive -- though a bounty compared to being a "pro magic player") so the gamer girls get with the weird guys. a certain employee is actually blogging his progress at "talking to strangers," which deserves to be quoted at length:
[I'm settling into a night of three Breaking Bad episodes, and I decide that I need snacks. Off to Fred Meyer I go!
I literally just buy: cheese, meat, crackers, ice cream, and sweet tea vodka. It's going to be a good night.
As I get my receipt and start to walk away, out of the corner of my eye I notice a girl also get her receipt and start to walk out of the store behind me. She seemed attractive in my fleeting glimpse. She keeps following me until we're almost at my car near the back of the lot.
I turn around and jokingly say "I feel like I'm being followed." She says "oh sorry" in a way that makes me think she was actually sorry. I laugh and say "no problem" and get to my car, across from hers ...]
this topic came up the other night with an old friend who dated a BPD ("Pierce" to my novella readers). though PUAs by and large annoy me, we decided "negging" was a fancy word for "friendship" (something Mr. Stevens discovers at the end of
The Remains of the Day), and that the concept had to be given its own name to highlight an essential misunderstanding of how people get along. to not "neg" women as one would men is not just ridiculous, it's also misogynistic -- women don't want to hear more insincere compliments from men; they get more than enough from other women.
one (the theory goes) does not "neg" a woman with low self-esteem; it is as futile as getting a wotc employee to laugh at himself, or a goldfish to cuddle. likewise one does not neg twoo articles, nor make a joke to Drew Levin; they attract bands of sycophants, and, what's worse, they
like it. these people are in fact the opposite of friends, and their pretense towards support and friendship is as vapid as chess; courting them is a sign of MTGS-style mental illness. when this lack of criticism is applied to women, the worshipful attitude -- a refusal to judge -- is what brings about the trouble in my novella, though it wasn't until a year and a half later that i was able to conceptualize it this way. i do hope the 'pros' don't take as long as me to get sane. CLIFFS: 'gamer girls' are a way to treat the symptoms and not the causes of "insecurity," that disease of diseases. my friend's gf, who hates hagon, had the proper sense of wit and context to judge him correctly, but do
magic players? and this is what i mean when i say "games are too often used as escapism."
