Monday 21 July 2014

Checklist For a Middlebrow Media Piece on D&D in 2014

HOW TO START

[  ] Receive Wizards of the Coast press release from editor, noting "40th anniversary" and "New Edition."

[  ] Write keystone paragraph on this basis, consulting universal trend story template 44B, "Hip to Be Square."

IN SOME ORDER, INCLUDE MOST OF THESE

[  ] Recall either: A: dim memories of your own high school campaign;  B: those weird kids playing in the corner of the student center

[  ] Note nerd stigma

[  ] YET! IT IS NOW HIP TO BE SQUARE: mention two or more trends from list: Peter Jackson films, World of Warcraft, "Game of Thrones", Community 

[  ] Note satanic panic

[  ] Disseminate, without exactly dispelling, one further stigma from list: no girls play; mental instability; steam tunnel high jinks; table play in costume; game revolves around killing and stealing

[  ] Recite cool and successful people who have played, including at least three of: Vin Diesel, Stephen Colbert, Junot Diaz, any big name SF/fantasy author, anyone from D&D With Porn Stars

[  ] Google "history of D&D", follow link to Amazon, read two pages of Playing At The World, glaze over, fill in facts from Wikipedia instead

[  ] Describe play, including funny dice/DM control/player freedom, complex rules/wild imagination, obsession with achievement/no way to win; point out paradoxes if writing high-middlebrow

[  ] Illustrate with dice, figures, nerds, game art in some combination

[  ] Cite/invent benefits of playing including creativity, literacy, numeracy, problem solving, preparation for an increasingly surreal "real" world predicated on escapism and self-invention, favorable comparison to video games

[  ] Find parent teaching their kid to play, or be that parent; makes good "face to the future" closer

11 comments:

  1. You give journalists way too much credit. My guess is someone at Hasbro wrote the story, stuck it in a press release, and faxed it over. ^_^

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  2. Could you set up a bingo card for this, thanks...

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    Replies
    1. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxG9boSHEiNlSWFPM05GNm9FekE/edit

      Done

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    2. Wow, keen! (also, link cos I old school and do html)

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    3. Brilliant, Rachel. You earn a cookie.

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  3. LOL. Well done. That said, it doesn't sound like such a terrible article, aside from the fact that we've all read it 10-15 times already.

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  4. This template will soon be included, unironically, in community college journalism classes worldwide.

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