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OpinionJournal - Taste

What makes gamers different from the rest of humanity?  I ask this question because I have found a pattern which I can't explain.  I have found that in life I can usually understand what people mean behind what they say.  Call it intuition, empathy, psychicness (or whatever the word would be), or just plain greater than average intelligence, its something I inherited from my mother, I think.  Often times, when just in a one-on-one interaction, when people appologise for not being clear I dismiss it as something I didn't even realise was a problem.  In groups, once people become frustrated with their lack of comprehension or misinterpretation, I often reinterpret what the speaker wanted to say. 

I take this idea of reinterpreting what the speaker had to say from one of the listening skills I learned in therapy.  In therapy they taught us to repeat what people say in different words to insure that both parties understand that the same thing was communicated.  Its a listening skill which helps cut down on miscommunication troubles, and I still use it today when I'm given ambiguous orders or requests.  However, I've also adapted it to situations when I believe that I understand what someone is saying but others don't.  I'm almost always correct, and people are always grateful regardless. 

The sole exception to this is when a gamemaster is not being understood by the other players.  I've found that anytime I reinterpret a misunderstood or uncomprehended gamemaster someone at the gaming table snaps at me and says something like, "You're not the gamemaster!" or, "He's the gamemaster, not you!"  It's something that happens everytime I try to do the other players a favour, and I don't understand why.  Not only do I not understand why my fellow players wouldn't want to help the gamemaster and themselves communicate better, but I don't understand why if that happens in gaming situations why it hasn't yet happened outside of gaming when I'm reinterpreting someone for others. 

Typing of role playing, previously I said, "Despite not being a fan of vampire..."  After catching up on some friends journals I realized that that wasn't quite true.  Sometimes I'm quick to generalise and/or exaggerate.  I'm not a fan of the way most vampire campaigns turn out.  However, to be fair, my favourite role playing campaign of all time was a vampire campaign.  However, its been so long since I last played in that campaign (eight years?), that what first comes to mind when I think of vampire is live action games which run into out-of-game politics.  That's what really turns me off.  Additionally, many people run vampire with less horror and more superheroics than I personally care for.  Vampire is basically gothic superheroes, but it needs to emphasise the horror or I might as well be playing MSHAG. 

Speaking of horror (metaphorically, I didn't want to use "typing of..." as a transition again), I just watched the fourth episode of Shada.  If you're not tuning in every Tuesday for a new episode start now!

Who would have thought that a James Bond movie single would have a music video with a Star Wars reference?  Kind of cool.

Thanks to alienista for the quiz: