The term "paradigm shift" has found uses in other contexts, representing the notion of a major change in a certain thought pattern—a radical change in personal beliefs, complex systems or organizations, replacing the former way of thinking or organizing with a radically different way of thinking or organizing.
That major change of thought pattern happened for me in regards to gaming. Not in gameplay, narrative designs, or anything else. But a complete readjustment in how I thought roleplaying games were perceived by the market at large. That sudden realization that things had truly changed.
I gamed through part of the Satanic Panic era. It actually lasted longer here in the rural backwater rural hells of Missouri than it did in some other places. I had to put up with people acting like I was some sort of devil worshipper if they found out I was playing those "evil games". So we hid it most of the time. Didn't break out the books in front of others (until near the end when some of us finally stopped giving a damn) and only played in our friends basements and anyplace else where people couldn't see us. Church leaders said it was bad, teachers said it was bad, hell my useless ass excuse of a step mother even gave me a few lame "warnings" about it.
So I always figured it would be that way. The ostracized gaming community that everybody else shuns. Sure we had a few big break outs in popularity like Vampire the Masquerade but that quickly got shot to hell by a few idiots who were barely connected to the community did stupid violent things. Even with online popularity building rapidly it still felt like we were just the outsiders.
Then the shift happened for me. I was at Wal-Mart in Desloge Missouri. When I walked through the book section and saw the 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook on the shelf. It stunned me for a moment to see that sitting there, like three copies of it. At a local Wal-Mart. Like it was normal.
Because it had become normal and more mainstream but I hadn't noticed.
That right there was when I realized things had changed. Changed a lot since the days of my youth when I was rolling dice with my little group of friends in high school. Soon they were selling dice (called campaign dice) there as well, the DnD Starter Set was on the game shelf in the toy section. They even sell a dice tower there now. And I'll admit I bought the little box with three dice sets in it just for the sheer humor of buying them from fucking Wal-Mart.
Now we even have a Time Magazine Special about Dungeons and Dragons and how it changed the gaming world. And it's a positive thing.
Still I'm not sure why I didn't notice how mainstream it was going before that. Manga was going mainstream, anime as well, should have seen it coming. But I didn't and I'm kind of glad about that. Because I got that wonderful shock to the system when I did finally notice.
Is there a point to all this rambling? No, not this time. Just me thinking about how much things have changed and feeling like typing it all out.
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