Out of the gaming closet

I put up a post a few months back that talked about the gaming closet – the fact that I didn’t really talk to my co-workers about my gaming hobby. I felt a little bad being closeted like that, but working in finance in a somewhat senior position, I was worried that being known as a D&D player might hurt my reputation.

I’ve since decided that I’m comfortable with who I am, and I’ve started letting people know that I’m a gamer when it’s appropriate. I first mentioned it to a co-worker who knew that I used to play Magic: The Gathering. He asked if I still played, and I told him that I had moved on to D&D. No bad reaction from him – that’s one good sign.

Next, a co-worker of mine who works in another state was visiting Colorado for work and I invited him over for dinner. He already knew that I liked board games, so I talked about D&D (and we ended up playing Castle Ravenloft). It turns out that he used to be a big D&D player several years ago, and he asked to be included the next time I start up an online game. Cool! The fact that I’m his boss probably means that the DM-player relationship would be too awkward, but still, it’s nice that he was enthusiastic about it.

Now we come to today. I’m excited about my plans to attend GenCon for the first time this summer. I work in Colorado, but my company also has offices in Indianapolis (home of GenCon). I travel for work from time to time, and I asked my boss about maybe making a business trip out of a personal vacation that I wanted to take to Indianapolis in early August (okay, so I haven’t told my boss about my gaming yet). He put me in touch with a co-worker in Indianapolis who could coordinate my business trip.

When I called that guy on the phone and explained that I was trying to schedule some work either before or after my personal trip, he asked about the dates and then what I was in town for. I said that my wife and I were going to a gaming convention, and he said, “You mean GenCon? I’ll be there, too!”

It turns out that he, too, is a gamer, as are some of the people he works with in Indianapolis. He invited me and my wife to join him for a game while we’re in town. How cool is that?

So, to sum up, I’m taking some confident strides out of the gaming closet now, and I’m glad for it. The air smells sweeter out here!

3 thoughts on “Out of the gaming closet

  1. I am still in the closet about my gaming. I just feel that it’s none of my coworker’s business in what I do and I certainly hate getting “that look” when I use to tell people what I do. I don’t see myself changing anytime soon.

    Have fun at Gencon!

  2. I’m pretty open about my interests (comics, gaming, horror, fantasy/sci-fi) and no one says much about it. When it comes to gifts that is the stuff that most people buy me. I’ve generally got a gaming book of some kind with me, where ever I go, and I often read them on breaks.
    Unfortunately I never run into table top gamers. The only gamers I ever meet are video gamers. You lucky duck.

  3. Just found this post from your 201st one. I always find it interesting how everyone varies so much on their confidence level with gaming (table top more so than video). In the last three years since I got back into it, I have been completely open about it. A lot of the people I work directly with know I playing D&D and other similar types of games. I print stuff off the office bus-hub all the time. Everyone knows who it belongs to of course. However I have yet to find any other table top gamers at work. I recall another guy in my usual gaming group that is completely in the closest about it and just freaks out whenever he does something with it while at work. I always get a good chuckle at the stories he tells me of trying to print something off and hurrying to the printer or finding out he accidentally printed it to another printer at a different office all together.

    My next step is going to be to begin blasting my social media networks in hopes to get some new gamers interested or at the very least maybe find a gamer or two that I didn’t know about who may be looking to do some gaming.

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