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Fear of Girls, a D&D Documentary

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sun Jan 29, 2006 11:33 AM
from the i-wanna-see-how-drunk-i'm-getting dept.
It's funny. Laugh. Entertainment Games
FhnuZoag writes "Google Video is hosting the short film 'Fear of Girls', written and directed by Ryan Wood. The film is a hilarious 'documentary' dealing with a pair of self-declared elite table-top roleplayers. The film has already appeared at a variety of fringe events, but here's a chance to see it for free and online from a server that probably can survive a slashdotting." Allright, so it's not that funny, but since I'm off to play D&D this afternoon, it tickled me.
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  • Fear of girls?! (Score:5, Funny)

    by conner_bw (120497) on Sunday January 29 2006, @11:34AM (#14593429) Homepage Journal
    I don't know if this counts as an accurate anthropological study but has anyone tried entering World Of Warcraft as a female character? If anything, it is 'they' who probably should fear 'us' ...

    • Re:Fear of girls?! (Score:5, Funny)

      by dc29A (636871) on Sunday January 29 2006, @11:45AM (#14593480) Homepage
      I don't know if this counts as an accurate anthropological study but has anyone tried entering World Of Warcraft as a female character? If anything, it is 'they' who probably should fear 'us' ...

      If a man would roleplay a woman in WoW, he'll end up rich, in a big guild with TONS of friends. A friend of mine tried this stint in EQ, people would use to give him items and gold because they thought he was a real woman.

      • Re:Fear of girls?! (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Feanturi (99866) on Sunday January 29 2006, @06:16PM (#14595212)
        A friend of mine tried this stint in EQ,

        I myself attempted this years ago, on a MUD, all text, so there wasn't even a sexy avatar to look at, just a female name. I made a cleric named Freya, and set about playing. A group found me immediately and pressed me to join, and they started loading me up with gold and equipment, and rapidly started getting me xp. All the guys (which IIRC was all of them, period) were emoting smiles and winks and whatnots at me constantly, and one even broached the subject of mud marriage, asking me if I'd heard of it. This character was less than 1 hour old at this point, and already being asked to marry?!? I had barely said two words to any of them, mainly "Thank you" for yet another pile of gold or armor or whatever. I suppose, that since I had already been given a sizeable amount of gold and equipment it was considered we had 'gotten to know each other' already. I decided to just quit out, came back in with my regular male character, and continued on able to enjoy the game once again. I've never ever bothered to try making a female character again, it's just not worth the hassle.

        I've known real live female gamers that only play male characters for this very reason.

      • Re:Fear of girls?! (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Grail (18233) on Sunday January 29 2006, @09:13PM (#14595863) Journal
        The worst part is, if you don't "come out" and explicitly state that you're a guy playing a female character, you'll end up getting chewed up and spit out of your guild when someone "finds out" that you're a guy in "real life", and they've spent all this time being nice to you (sending you equipment upgrades, running you through BRD and LBRS where noone else wants to go anymore).

        People get so attached to those purple-skinned breasts and somehow assume that they're going to get lucky if they be nice to the character ingame. Then they hear you on Team Speak or see your picture on the guild website and get all angsty because they might be "turning gay".

        And saying, "no" doesn't help either - "you don't have to run me through BRD for the fifteenth time tonight, go get some sleep" translates to, "I love you and care about you, and I want you to know that soon I want to make sweet love to you." Then when they say, "but I love you" and you say, "um... I'm a guy", that translates to, "I'm a raving homosexual and I am going to abuse you in so many horrible ways, and while I'm at it I'll rip apart the very fabric of your reality and leave you standing naked in the street, both metaphorically and literally."

        Go figure.

        • Re:Fear of girls?! (Score:5, Insightful)

          by ultranova (717540) on Monday January 30 2006, @03:02AM (#14596839)

          Unless you are actually "roleplaying", and not out to kill and have fun, who gives a flying as to which character sex someone else selected?

          And if you are roleplaying, well... I'm not really a great wizard capable of snuffing dragons with a mean glare and a snap of fingers, so since I'm already roleplaying something I'm not, why would gender be the hanging point ? Most people don't seem to have any trouble switching species and playing elfs and half-orcs and halflings, so why would female be such a taboo character ?

          Or is it simply the fear of being thought as a homosexual or somehow "lesser" man that makes this a special case ?

    • Re:Fear of girls?! (Score:4, Informative)

      by Minwee (522556) <dcr@neverwhen.org> on Sunday January 29 2006, @01:13PM (#14593793) Homepage
      A recent survey [nickyee.com] showed that over 50% of all female World of Warcraft characters were played by male players. Who exactly is supposed to be fearing whom?

      • Girl by appearance or girl by action? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by AlpineR (32307) <wagnerr@umich.edu> on Sunday January 29 2006, @02:10PM (#14594017) Homepage
        Until I read your comment, it didn't even occur to me that someone would assume I was female just because I played a female dwarf on WoW. So finding that 50% of female characters are played by males seems like a big "Duh" to me. I figured players picked their character based on appearance or the personality of the role, not based upon their personal gender preference. Would you assume that J. K. Rowlings is a man because she writes about Harry Potter?

        The bigger surprise to me is that so few females play male characters. I question the survey -- it just seems too one-sided. If the result is real, then maybe it's because females have no choice in most games and are forced into female characters. So when they do get a choice, they overwhelmingly play as females.

        AlpineR

        • Re:Girl by appearance or girl by action? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Minwee (522556) <dcr@neverwhen.org> on Sunday January 29 2006, @07:34PM (#14595553) Homepage
          Having played WoW, I question why anyone would choose from the male characters available at all.

          Those have got to be the stupidest looking collections of polygons I have seen since E.T on the Atari 2600.

          • Re:incorrect (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Golias (176380) on Monday January 30 2006, @02:06AM (#14596722)
            If I am going to play a game where I am looking at someones ass all day, it's going to be a female ass.

            It seems that a lot of guys who play female characters feel, very strongly, they need to tell everybody in the world that they are doing it "to look at the cute female asses" while playing the game.

            Look, just say it. It's fun to play with gender roles.

            That explanation is a lot less sad than obsessing over the posterior of a CARTOON for hours on end.

      • Re:Fear of girls?! (Score:5, Funny)

        by harlows_monkeys (106428) on Sunday January 29 2006, @02:53PM (#14594164) Homepage
        A recent survey showed that over 50% of all female World of Warcraft characters were played by male players

        Even more surprising, 100% of Elves in World of Warcraft are played by Humans!

    • Well, after watching over my shoulder for a bit, my fiance tried out WoW the other night with a female character. Within a few minutes, she'd been given 2 free bags by another (flirty) female character. So I can't tell whether it was a guy whose thought my fiance was really female, or another female, or another guy who thought it was another guy.... it's a crazy mixed up world. Hey, free bags though... SCORE.

      P.

  • offended? (Score:5, Funny)

    by JeffSh (71237) <`gro.0m0m' `ta' `todhsalsffej'> on Sunday January 29 2006, @11:36AM (#14593434)
    I think Taco doesn't like it because it hits too close to home. I myself loved it :D

  • Pretty Damn Good Quality (Score:5, Interesting)

    by eldavojohn (898314) * <my/.username@@@gmail.com> on Sunday January 29 2006, @11:37AM (#14593444) Homepage Journal
    I didn't RTFA but I did WTFV.

    And it was good. Very funny, very well done. Where the hell does YNG Turk Films get that kind of cash to make something as high quality as that (come on, the closing credits were stunning). Has it really become that easy to manipulate video on your home computer? Probably, but these guys know how to entertain.

    After looking into more of YNG Turk Productions [yngturkproductions.com], it seems they're based out of Hopkins, Minnesota (just like MST3K!) but there seems to be little other information about them. What I do know is that they've done quite a few comedic sketches and you can find another one on Google Video called Pitching Mother [google.com] but they've also done other various (primarily comedy) skits in their times. Will Ryan Wood gain a cult following?

    I have to admit, the best thing about being a geek/nerd is that I love to see myself made fun of. I absolutely die laughing and love it. Any other stereotype gets offended whenever you make fun of them. And if you can't be lighthearted about everything, then you're going to have a hell of a time making it through life.

    • Re:Pretty Damn Good Quality (Score:5, Funny)

      by MutantHamster (816782) on Sunday January 29 2006, @11:54AM (#14593514) Homepage
      Did anybody else notice a strong Christopher Guest influence? The prayer-before-the-dinner scene was the most pronounced part to me. I certainly thought it was funny. I thought about doing a Guest style mockumentary on Policy Debate at my school, but that's another story.

      The part about high school reminded me of a thing I read in Dragon Magazine about making an RPG version of real life, where all the players tried to design themselves as characters and pick stats they saw as reasonable. I imagine there'd be a severe shortage of Charisma in that party.

    • Re:Pretty Damn Good Quality (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kfg (145172) on Sunday January 29 2006, @11:59AM (#14593540)
      KFG's Revelation:

      If you can't laugh at the serious stuff; and if you can't take the trivial stuff seriously, you've missed the point and are going to have a hell of a time making it through life.

      Insert whatever serious/trivial stuff suits you, such as work/play, religious/secular, etc.

      Along the way you may discover the First Corollary; that the only difference between the serious stuff and the trivial stuff is whether or not you take it seriously or laugh at it.

      KFG

    • Re:Pretty Damn Good Quality (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Lumpy (12016) on Sunday January 29 2006, @02:06PM (#14594002) Homepage
      As an indie filmmaker I can answer your questions.

      1- where they got their money. I can tell you this this production cost them almost nothing. Maybe a couple hundred bucks expenses in production incidentals.

      2- Is it really that easy? yes and it has been for almost a decade now. Anyone with a copy of Adobe Premiere and a way to get video in (DV makes life really easy) has what it takes. I can set you up with everything you need to shoot a short of this quality for less than $1000.00 total. including camera, audio, lighting and editor. (Hint an old P4-1.2ghz machine with 512 meg of ram and a copy of Premiere6 thta can be had for dirt right now, coupled with a el-cheapo Canon DV camcorder, some shop lights, a painters pole and gaffers tape to hold a $59.00 audio technica shotgun microphone out there.)

      Anyone with a desire to do this can do it easily. and if you already own a PC that is of decent speed (Even a PIII 1ghz will do it well) you already have most of the gear. (a pinnacle DV500 card with a copy of Premiere 6 and extra tools costs about $150.00 most places on the net right now.)

      finally what gear you have means nothing. I know of a group that has 4 Canon XL1-HD cameras as well as a high end AVID editor with all the goodies and tens of thousands worth of gear and they suck horribly. Their video looks good but it's a nice and shiny turd.

      I have also seen something shot on a really old VHS camcorder and edited in camera win awards and have people in the audience clamoring to see it again.

      Good writing, good direction and most of all Competent crew = good project. Gear and money does not.
  • When calling the link directly, it tells me "Currently, the playback feature of Google Video isn't available in your country.", but the coralized link [nyud.net] works fine :-)

  • my experiences with AD&D (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 29 2006, @11:51AM (#14593505)
    Please be careful with AD&D, people. I used to play AD&D - it completely consumed me, even to the point of losing my own identity... my world became one of the occult, I was awash in Satanism and witchcraft. I believe that I could cast spells on myself and others that would make me irresistable to women, or great at athletics. Once, I jumped from the roof of my junior high school after having cast "feather fall" on myself... it was at that point that friends and family intervened.

    I'm sure that some of you won't believe me, or will think that I'm lying, but it happened to me. My story was actually made into the made-for-tv movie "Mazes and Monsters".

    It's a dark, dark path to go down, and one I suggest you avoid.

    • Re:my experiences with AD&D (Score:5, Funny)

      by FhnuZoag (875558) on Sunday January 29 2006, @11:57AM (#14593528)
      Once, I jumped from the roof of my junior high school after having cast "feather fall" on myself.

      Did it work?
    • I think the issue may have been less with AD&D and more with you being an idiot.
    • > Please be careful with AD&D, people. I used to play AD&D - it completely consumed me, even to the point of losing my own identity... my world became one of the occult, I was awash in Satanism and witchcraft.

      Well, if you had more Wis you would have known to play a Paladin rather than a mage, so that when the chips were down you could dice Satan up with your +19 Holy Sword of Demon Slicing, and thus not succumbed to evil.

      Also, girls greatly prefer us manly Fighter types to you nerdy Wizard types,
    • Once, I jumped from the roof of my junior high school after having cast "feather fall" on myself... it was at that point that friends and family intervened.

      This is a common mistake. Please do not forget that feather fall spell only acts on characters which have a very large piece of cloth attached by ropes to their shoulders. This was sadly omitted from the manual.

      Also, feather fall only affects your downward movement and if you push off too much you can still crash into the neighboring building.

    • I think we all need to be reminded of what D&D geeks are really like. 8-bit theatre, Final Fantasy style [newgrounds.com]

    • Re:my experiences with AD&D (Score:4, Interesting)

      by icepick72 (834363) on Sunday January 29 2006, @12:27PM (#14593639)
      Yes, it's hard to tell around here who's pulling legs and not, however you brought to mind a recent story. Just this week in Toronto (Canada) a cab driver was killed by one of two teens street racing their parent's BMWs; the interesting part about the story is "Investigators say a copy of a popular video game simulating car races was found in one of the cars" Do I believe the game put the idea in their heads? Yes. Do I believe the game is bad? No. (but I digress) Those were two normal kids who pulled a stupid stunt. I did stupid tricks in vehicles when I was young; most of us have. It's just a bad decision, not a case of reality vs. fantasy. Unfortunately sometimes somebody gets hurt or dies. On the other hand I have a friend who suffered from schizonphrenia and at a certain time in his life had a really hard time separating reality from fantasy (e.g. the government was after him, bill gates put microchips in his family's heads, etc). Fortunately he pulled through thre roughest parts, And he's always been the most careful driver I know (remember "Driving MIss Daisy"!) even though he played racing games and such, funny enough. His fantasy vs. reality struggle wasn't based on a notion from a video game or movie. His world was very different from within his own mind. You just never know. It all depends on the person. I don't think you can fit all AD&D players into one category to be "Careful" of.

      • Re:my experiences with AD&D (Score:5, Insightful)

        by John Hurliman (152784) on Sunday January 29 2006, @03:01PM (#14594199) Homepage
        It's also possible that kids who enjoy street racing might be fond of a street racing video game, instead of two video game fanatics that decided to start street racing after the latest Gran Turismo came out.

        • Re:my experiences with AD&D (Score:5, Funny)

          by Total_Wimp (564548) on Sunday January 29 2006, @07:37PM (#14595572)
          It's also possible that kids who enjoy street racing might be fond of a street racing video game, instead of two video game fanatics that decided to start street racing after the latest Gran Turismo came out.

          This is quite insightful. The same thing happened to my cousin. His mom tried to take away his copy of Grand Theft Auto thinking it was ruining his life but she didn't realize he was really a powerful mob boss who just liked playing the game because it reminded him of his job.

          TW

  • For Non-US users : workaround (Score:5, Informative)

    by GrAfFiT (802657) on Sunday January 29 2006, @12:06PM (#14593564) Homepage
    Someone suggested to use the coral cache : Link here [nyud.net]. As the coral cache is multi-homed, you can be dns-round-robin-ed to a non-US mirror and thus be showed the Non-US notice. Just flush your DNS cache with : "ipconfig /flushdns"; for linux, restart your dns daemon. Try again a few times and it should work.

  • Talk about sexy (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jesus IS the Devil (317662) on Sunday January 29 2006, @12:09PM (#14593574)
    If there ever was a group of people who reproduced less than monks, this crowd would be it...

  • The title is misleading... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Entropius (188861) on Sunday January 29 2006, @12:12PM (#14593588)
    ... my D&D group is half female, and the only one that's really feared is Tammy, who has a tendency to catch party members in blast spells...

  • The Gamers (Score:4, Informative)

    by jafiwam (310805) on Sunday January 29 2006, @12:13PM (#14593591) Homepage Journal
    There is a funny "spoof" D&D movie called "The Gamers" put out by "Dead Gentleman Productions" if you are into that sort of thing.

    It's about 45 minutes long, and totally hilarious if you have been around or been a gamer for a while.

  • eh, it was just OK (Score:3, Insightful)

    by AlterTick (665659) on Sunday January 29 2006, @12:38PM (#14593679)
    My friends and I actually watched this last night just before our (somewhat) monthly RPG. I thought it managed to be both too exaggerated and not weird enough at the same time. I think part of the problem was that the guy with the glasses obviously was just an acting nerd pretending to be an RPG nerd. The other guy had the proper mild, deadpan-earnest delivery one would expect from a real RPG nerd. The guy with glasses kept contorting his mouth into some buck-toothed nerd caricature and chewed the scenery like a veteran bad actor from theater club in high school. The homo-erotic "subtext" was so ham-fistedly exagerrated that it was robbed of all meaning. Basically, he acting and writing was so mediocre that I basically watched the whole thing thinking "I'm watching two guys pretend to be nerds, poorly". The one moment of inspired humor in the whole thing was the "dueling prayers" at the dinner table. That actually made me laugh.

    Seriously, if they wanted to do an actually funny RPG nerd bit, they should've done more research. Take a video camera to OrcCon, or GenCon, or even find a local RPG store that has the traditional "tables in the back" and go watch those guys. I can think of half a dozen real life RPG nerd incidents that, if simply reenacted, would be three times as funny as some ham actor dork spasmodically lifting his shirt and rubbing his chest in a poorly simulated homoerotic frenzy.

    • Re:eh, it was just OK (Score:5, Informative)

      by lexarius (560925) on Sunday January 29 2006, @01:38PM (#14593890)
      The DM is a frequent poster (and moderator) at a popular RPG board which shall not be named for fear of Slashdotting. He runs games at cons. The other guy was in fact an actor, not the other way around. He doesn't know anything about gaming, but his acting abilities helped him there.

  • Here's how to save/play this with Free Software (Score:5, Informative)

    by lindi (634828) on Sunday January 29 2006, @12:57PM (#14593735)
    wget -O FearofGirls.flv http://tinyurl.com/dgfey [tinyurl.com]
    mplayer FearofGirls.flv

  • Spell: Fear of Girls (Score:5, Funny)

    by Korbeau (913903) on Sunday January 29 2006, @02:10PM (#14594013)
    Spell: Fear of Girls
    Level: 1
    Description: The caster gains +10 protection from all Charm effects and +5 bonus to Charisma checks from female characters. The components required are 5 mod points on Slashdot. The casting time varies depending on how fast the player's computer can boot when he arrives home Friday night. Once the OS is loaded, an invisible social shield will slowly form around the caster which lasts 48 hours. This shield protects the caster from answering the occasional phone call from Chaotic/Evil Warriors and Rogues that may invite him to go out during the weekend with vague ambitions of getting laid tonight. It may break at any time if the computer is left unattended for more than 30 minutes (the caster may be granted cumulative +1hrs grace periods per visit to the mystical porn elf). When protected by the shield, the caster is immune to any afterthoughts from realizing the last time he has spoken to a girl for more than two minutes was five years ago and that it was answering a survey over the phone - and can thus focus on the careful study of his spellbook undisturbed.

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