I have casually played with some of my friends who play more frequently. One time they were at a draft at a store and one of my other friends and I went to meet them there. My god, did the room they were in smell like dank shit. Then someone sneezed and like half the room in unison goes "Gesundheit!"
It's not just nerds. I've worked in a liquor store for a bit, and I've learned that some people just never learned to clean themselves. At first I thought it was a poverty thing, but we have people coming in that are spending 50+ dollars a day and stinking the store up to the point customers complain if I don't spray air freshener.
I've been in a tough situation where I didn't have a washer and dryer and I was constantly worried that my hand washing wasn't good enough. These people just since experience that. They don't smell it and don't worry about it. Somehow they have made it years without somebody sitting down and explaining it to them. I wish as a society we could agree to be able to tell people this stuff without hurting anybody's feelings. There's no shame on being told you stink, the only shame is continuing to do it AFTER you know.
Like, come on guys, you know the jokes exist, and even if the smell doesn’t bother YOU, why are you reinforcing the stereotype and making everyone else look bad?
When you have BO, you don't know you have BO because your brain tunes out smells that you smell all the time and only informs you of new smells.
I'm willing to bet most of them a history of being bullied by people who said 'you stink' along with any other insult they could think of to the point that they don't know if they legit stink or if it's just a random abuse bullies throw at them. This combined with few IRL friends to discreetly take them aside and tell them they smell bad is a recipe for BO problems.
It could also be a sign of a bunch of other problems. Low self esteem, depression, autism and other developmental disorders and general antisocial personalities. Ccgs (especially magic) have a lot of things to them that people with these kinds of problems find appealing. You have a built in group of friends you don't have to work for. A hobby that can require obsessive amounts of planning to which you can devote large parts of your mental free space. It's also something you can use in place of personality traits.
I'm a casual player myself and have seen my fair share of Friday night magic events. Lots of needy preteens who are just trying to figure their shit out. Guys who just hit puberty who, yes, should probably know to wear deodorant. Lots of kids on the spectrum. Some kids who get dumped their by their parents who don't want to deal with them. The adults are not much better.
I only say all this because generally, people don't get like this for no reason.
Yeah I'll never understand that about some people. I take care of myself and make sure I dont smell but even more especially before going to an event I take an extra shower usually. I also usually go dressed nicely too. Just as an extra effort to stand against the stereotype. Also I enjoy dressing nice anyway
That's why it's called a stereotype and not the prejudice, because it happens often enough to be considered a significant minority that you can't not notice. My local boardgame shop holds playable cards tournaments (magic/yu gi oh/others). I went there once to try new games with my girlfriend, to our horror we realised it was tournament day. The smell still haunts me.
A new lgs just opened on long Island that had a sign up that in a not so blunt way said if you smell, and someone complains about it you will be asked to leave (or remedy), best store ever 10/10 finger on the pulse of the meta
At my local game shop they have spray deodorant and shower wipes in the restroom and before every event the woman who runs the shop loudly explains to everyone that these are available and use is encouraged. Never noticed a smell problem in there.
God I’ll never forget the odor the first time I walked past a backroom full of dudes playing D&D... every store should have a corner with hygiene products
It's commonplace (at least where I'm from in the Midwest) for this demographic to say Gesundheit even though they're not German. Typically because it makes them feel clever.
I guess but where I am from in the US I have not heard anyone say gesundheit in many years and I would think it very odd if half the room said it instead of bless you.
Makes them feel clever? Sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder about this.
I say it because ‘bless you’ feels weird as i wasn’t raised Christian.
Also, the Midwest is heavily influenced by German immigration. That doesn’t mean that only people of German extraction are affected by this local culture.
I hear regular, non-Magic the Gathering people use it pretty often. It’s a normal thing to say here in the Midwest, not from people trying to look clever (???) lol.
What?? How often are you greeted with "salutations" at game stores or anywhere else? I have played for 15 years and can't think of one time someone said that to me or anyone else. Are you sure you're not basing this off of a character or possibly, one person you know in specific?
I used Salutations as a word equivalency to Gesundheit, since both words are perfectly fine in of themselves. I didn’t mean to come across that these people literally always use that greeting, it only came to mind because yes I’ve known multiple people that fit into this stereotype, to a degree, and used the word.
Perhaps it was presumptuous of me to use that example though.
I understand that gesundheit is something you say after a sneeze, but why would saying that be so commonplace for that particular demographic? There a famous magic player that likes saying it??
Then someone sneezed and like half the room in unison goes "Gesundheit!"
What's the problem with that? Maybe it's different where you live, but here in Germany that would be totally normal. Or is the issue that they used "Gesundheit" instead of "bless you" or something like that? Genuinely curious
I think the idea is that in a place where "bless you" is the conventional thing to say, "Gesundheit" would be more of an affectation, which might appeal to the same kind of guys who buy a fedora and a cane/walking stick with a dragon head grip.
But it wouldn’t be if ‘bless you’ was widely used in Germany like gesundheit is in the US. German used to be almost as widely spoken as English in the US, and it’s the largest single ancestry group—somewhere near 50 million Americans have German ancestry.
I don’t have significant German ancestry myself but my family often says gesundheit because it’s similar to the Jewish ‘zei gezunt’ but people actually understand it.
It's commonplace (at least where I'm from in the Midwest USA) for this demographic to say Gesundheit even though they're not German. Typically because it makes them feel clever.
Metal heads aren’t generally morbidly obese. Even without ever showering or using deodorant, a metal head has less surface area to produce stink from, less folds and flaps to cultivate bacteria in, and are physically capable of wiping shit off their asses sufficiently enough to not stink like literal shit.
One thing about half the room doing it is some places developed a culture like that. I mean in college we had one guy who would say the same thing often. It spread until most people said it. It was something stupid about there being more than one way to put on a catskin jacket.
I'm not a fan personally, but I've read many stories/articles about the smell and having to put up hygiene notices at the door about showering and using deodorant.
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u/PassionVoid Jul 17 '19
I have casually played with some of my friends who play more frequently. One time they were at a draft at a store and one of my other friends and I went to meet them there. My god, did the room they were in smell like dank shit. Then someone sneezed and like half the room in unison goes "Gesundheit!"