At FanimeCon, a local Anime convention that goes on near where I live, the brochures for the convention often have an advisory about maintaining personal hygene for the sake of all 'con goers. The fact that they have to mention this to people strikes me as rather alarming- its like a theater program having some print at the bottom saying “Please remember to put on deodorant before attending the play so that other theater goers are not assaulted by your stench” :eek:
So I would say part of the stereotype holds true. Similarly, people will often costume as characters that, erhm, are not reflective of their dimensions (seen far too many cosplayers of the beachball variety crammed into sailor suits over the years)
The absolute smelliest place I’ve ever been was in a room where a tournament for Magic the Gathering was being played.
(I’m usually used to being “the girl” in geek settings, such as the comic book store. But that place FRIGHTENED ME. I had to leave the building. It was bizarre. And horrid smelling.)
i rpg and i don’t smell, although i do know a few who do get quite stinky, especially during cons, but not moreso than normal people. then again, i’ve also spent extensive time on drum corps and marching band busses, so maybe my sense of smell has become accustomed to sweaty stinky things.
I quit gaming because of this type (combined with the antisocial strangeoids). So for at least one person, the percentage of such hygienically challenged people was sufficiently large that it was not worth trying to find the “special normal group” of adult players.
If I were to make a generalization based on the posts so far, I’d say that role-playing gamers frequently have hygiene problems and science fiction fans mostly don’t. I’m not even sure why you put the two groups together. Are both role-playing gaming and reading science fiction so alien to you that you think that the people who do them are identical?
As a magic player, I would take offense, except that I know it’s true. Bear in mind, however, that in a room of 200 tightly crammed people, it doesn’t take very many to make the whole room smell. Most magic players (all but one of the ones that I know) have perfectly respectable personal hygiene.
Eh, I’ve been in plenty of meetings with professional white collar workers crammed into a small room for long periods of time. The room does not start to reek.
Well, don’t most people not smell themselves reeking even if they do, since you get used to your own aroma? That said, I am not a gamer, though I have played certain games for hours on end. I also take lots of showers. Showers are good. Twice a day.
The people who take the most pride in their appearance are usually active in the world- dating, partying, networking- what have you. Conversely, most role-playing gamers who are into it seriously tend to be less socially oriented than the former group, and therefore do not pay as much attention to their appearance. Comparing the two, one would get the impression that gamers are “ugly”; but there’s nothing really wrong about the gamer’s looks, it’s a matter of relative perspective.
Mixed into the gamer groups are some socially inept individuals. In many circles people who can’t adjust azre shunned; but in the gaming world one takes on a persona, and variety is encouraged, so the inept take on an unpleasant role and are accepted for it. For instance, the player-killer. He obviously can’t get away with real antisocial behavior- stealing from companions, backstabbing them, and being generally disagreeeable- but he takes on the role as the party’s “thief” and tries to get away with all that he can, going to eztremes if necessary.
That was a lot of wind that can be summed up thusly: If you’re trying to attract the opposite sex, you don’t have time to game. If you spend all your time gaming, odds are that you’re not that concerned about dating, and your appearance isn’t as crucial.
I have observed RPG people in their natural habitat and my vote is that they do stink when the gaming is going on, and on, and on… It is definitely a steamy nasty funk.
I have “felt” a similar smell. I once boarded a gambling boat and went to watch a room full of poker players go after it. It was only 10:00pm and these guys already were stinkin’ up the place with their stress-out (or is it competitive?) funk.
Myself, I keep clean. But I’ve known a few stinkers in my time…
One guy, we’re still nbot sure if he just didn’t bathe regularly, or didn’t wash his clothes, or what… it was almost like Pigpen from Peanuts, you could see the little cloud around him.
Well, I used to do RPG at conventions a fair amount back in the 70s and 80s, and I was generally the one renting the room, and GMing. I was very popular because I would run my game with short breaks every couple hours built in to teh adventure. They used them to get more junkfood and drinks, I went into my bathroom and took fast showers. I miss my GM trunk - I had an anvil case from a drummer who bought new, it was on wheels and held all of my gaming stuff, and locked so I would just put the info in it and lock it up so people couldn’t sneak peeks at the game in progress=) If somebody started reeking I made them go shower. I usually had an overflow of people trying to get into my games because of the more civil environment. Of course the fact that I would keep a pot of coffee on all the time, and had structured it for short breaks people were able to play and know they would be able to eat and drink, and not miss out on any of the adventure. My con clothing allowed for 4 or 5 outfits each day, and 2 hall costumes. I usually wore scrubs for gaming, comfy, easy to roll up and transport, bright colors. sigh I should get back into cons again, I had such fun at Baltcon this spring=)
And here we learn to balance everything in life - it is possible to have both types of game. Just requires time management skills. And controlling the urges to cut off one to do the other.
I’ve been a vendor at quite a few cons and I’ve dealt with a good number of con stereotypes. The people at these cons run the full gambit of hygiene and social skill (Which are directly related of course). And it seemed to me that all it would take is one or two stinkers to putrify a room. So although most people in the room were OK, it would still be foul.
One reason for foulness among gamers is that many of them, especially in the card games, are just hitting their teen years. Ask any 5th or 6th grade teacher about their students in warm weather. The kids REEK.
Another problem is the usual environment in which you find the freak-reek. Game stores use the same furniture until it falls apart. That furniture just sits there and absorbs funk from the various occupants until it is a major offender in it’s own right. Now imagine a store full of this vomitous furnishing. Even if the visitors are clean and showered, the room reeks and soon they are contaminated as well.
With all those caveats, there is still the fact that yes, many gamers are foul. I think I may have been one of them. As an undergrad, I’d get done working out at the gym and think, “Gee, my sweat dried off, so why shower? Let’s roll up some PCs!” YES I know better now! But as a guy in his mid-30s, I have friends who still haven’t learned it, though.
Don’t take that as representative of Magic the Gathering environments. One of the things that drew me to Magic is that you can play a game in a half hour, unlike Dungeons and Dragons, which can go on forever. If you play Magic for a few hours some afternoon or evening, there’s just no excuse for smelling bad.
I, too, played a lot of D&D in college, and after a three-day marathon (yes, three days), everybody was getting ripe, girls included (yes, there were girls). The few D&D games I’ve played recently ran after work, and we played for about six hours. Nobody got smellier than they would have sitting in a bar or movie theater. I’ve noticed there are role players with {ahem} less than adequate hygiene, but they tend not to get invited to many games around here.