Day 14 of #RPGaDay2019 produces the word "GUIDE."
When the initial list comes out in July, I take the time to build out the post title and tentative schedule for each day's question and save it into drafts. Sometimes I get the motivated, , break the rules, and type the day up early. Other ones I admit being stumped on and wait till the last minute to hastily write-up something.
This day was a little different. I knew exactly what I wanted to talk about, and up until Tuesday, I had no way of writing without the gaming community running me out on a rail.
Gatekeeping (small-g) isn't inherently bad. There are only really bad Gatekeepers.
Hold your rotten vegetables and death threats.
First, from here on out, using a capital G in any gatekeeping term will refer to the horrible practice of throttling access to people from a group or identity base on bias or ignorance.
Well before the various convention scenes blew up, the idea of having a woman, black, or gay person enter a number of comic book/gaming shops would result in the figurative circling of the wagons, while the staff and 'regular' customers only hoped that ignoring them or aggressively interacting with them would make them go away.
Even ignoring the basic tenants of moral decency, it's a horrible financial decision not to be nice to over two-thirds of the population that isn't white, straight, and male (Let's not even look in the fact of what percentage of that population identified as "nerdy.") No wonder our collective hobbies of geekdom have always been niche and enough of us complain that we can't make friends.
So, actively excluding people for no reason is bad, okay! Common basic decency, folks.
But then there's gatekeeping (small -g). Which, by definition, and most opinion, is the same thing. Except in practical non-internet terms it's not.
I'm sure someone will focus on every instance where this is false, but gatekeepers historically let far more people in than keep them out, and for good reason.
We are all the gatekeepers to a vibrant, diverse community of millions everytime we interact with another gamer, veteran or a casual friend expressing interest for the first. We want more people to come into our community, even if they're only visiting to see what all the fuss is all about.
And like a proper gatekeeping, we need to be vigilant of only one particularly heinous group.
Assholes....
Now, not all assholes are Gatekeepers, but all Gatekeepers are assholes. Regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or political affiliation.
Many towns charge a toll to enter their gates. Gaming and geekdom does to, and the toll is mutual for both parties.
When the initial list comes out in July, I take the time to build out the post title and tentative schedule for each day's question and save it into drafts. Sometimes I get the motivated, , break the rules, and type the day up early. Other ones I admit being stumped on and wait till the last minute to hastily write-up something.
This day was a little different. I knew exactly what I wanted to talk about, and up until Tuesday, I had no way of writing without the gaming community running me out on a rail.
Gatekeeping (small-g) isn't inherently bad. There are only really bad Gatekeepers.
Hold your rotten vegetables and death threats.
First, from here on out, using a capital G in any gatekeeping term will refer to the horrible practice of throttling access to people from a group or identity base on bias or ignorance.
Well before the various convention scenes blew up, the idea of having a woman, black, or gay person enter a number of comic book/gaming shops would result in the figurative circling of the wagons, while the staff and 'regular' customers only hoped that ignoring them or aggressively interacting with them would make them go away.
Even ignoring the basic tenants of moral decency, it's a horrible financial decision not to be nice to over two-thirds of the population that isn't white, straight, and male (Let's not even look in the fact of what percentage of that population identified as "nerdy.") No wonder our collective hobbies of geekdom have always been niche and enough of us complain that we can't make friends.
So, actively excluding people for no reason is bad, okay! Common basic decency, folks.
But then there's gatekeeping (small -g). Which, by definition, and most opinion, is the same thing. Except in practical non-internet terms it's not.
I'm sure someone will focus on every instance where this is false, but gatekeepers historically let far more people in than keep them out, and for good reason.
We are all the gatekeepers to a vibrant, diverse community of millions everytime we interact with another gamer, veteran or a casual friend expressing interest for the first. We want more people to come into our community, even if they're only visiting to see what all the fuss is all about.
And like a proper gatekeeping, we need to be vigilant of only one particularly heinous group.
Assholes....
Now, not all assholes are Gatekeepers, but all Gatekeepers are assholes. Regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or political affiliation.
Many towns charge a toll to enter their gates. Gaming and geekdom does to, and the toll is mutual for both parties.
- Acknowledge that you're bother gamers.
- Don't be a jerk to each other.
- Don't tolerate jerk-ish behavior in fellow gamers.
- Call them out on it.
- If called out for your own jerkish behavior, acknowledge the possibility, apologize, shift gears appropriately.
And since this a two-way street, we as gatekeepers can actively regulate the Gatekeepers, whether catching they as they enter, or policing them if they're already a active member of the community.
Can we keep out redheads that weigh exactly 111.7 pounds, have hairy knuckles, webbed feet, more than 759 freckles on their left shoulder, and a tattoo of the lyrics for "The Wheels on the Bus" on their left inner thigh?
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