And I’ll say that my observation is that not only did it not improve my social skills, it didn’t measurable improve those in the various friend groups, some of whom, 40 years later and still gaming, are just about as awkward as when they were in high school.
You are conflating awkwardness with poor communication skills, they aren’t the same thing at all.
Plenty of charming, boisterous people can walk into any room and dominate it with their charm, DND won’t teach you that, but it will teach you how to converse in your own voice.
It really doesn’t matter that is fantasy, I think that makes it a more powerful as a teaching tool not less.
sxan@midwest.social 1 week ago
You believe that social skills aren’t dependent on communication skills?
The claim was that it taught social skills. I claim it will only do that if the teachers have excellent social skills. Not all teachers are good, or are good at teaching social skills.
You’re conflating social skills, and military experience, with management ;-)
I didn’t say the military made people good managers. Management is a very specific skill set, and you don’t have to be socially fluent to be a good manager, although it helps. And being a good communicator, and having good social skills absolutely does not automatically make you a good leader!
You seem to be reading things in my comments that I’m not saying. For example, that I had a bad time gaming; or that the military makes good leaders. We have a communications gap here; how can I be more clear?
I’m not sure how to read your last paragraph; it seems to be an expression of frustration with men, in general, and I don’t know what kind of response I can provide. You haven’t had positive experiences with ex-military (usually male) managers? How many of those have you had?
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 1 week ago
Too many and most of them elected themselves to be leaders in situations I was in because they foolishly but decisively believed they were going to have to take charge in order for things to happen.
sxan@midwest.social 1 week ago
Oh, yeah. Bias to action is often cultivated, and considered a positive trait. It can be really bad, especially in people who are bad leaders.
I’m sorry you’ve had that experience.
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 1 week ago
Well it keeps happening because the military acts like it knows on an institutional level how to shape someone who will fight tooth and nail and use every tool at their disposal (even if it doesn’t exist yet and they have to invent the necessary tools themselves) and militaries all through history have proven exhaustively that their very structure promotes rule followers who are catastrophically ill-equipped to operate in an environment of rapidly changing rules and evolving tactics.
No, if the militaries actually gave a shit about this good impro