Zero Charisma

Anyone else in Veeky Forums see Zero Charisma? What did you think of it?

If you haven't seen it, it's an indie movie about a stereotypical geek GM named Scott (metalhead, paints miniatures, etc.) and what happens when he loses a player for his campaign, and a hipster geek joins and starts to take over the game.

Personally I thought it was a mixed bag. It's a dark comedy that had some funny moments but eventually it got a bit too dark. Towards the end of the movie the plot went off the rails a bit, I felt it could have been handled better although I'm not quite sure how.

Trailer: youtube.com/watch?v=HtgoAt7ZTyE

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I thought it was boring and painted gamers as stereotypical slacker/losers. I've been gaming for 25 years now. I have certainly met sad sacks but all of my gaming buddies are normal dudes with educations, jobs, wives and kids. If anything I'd argue your average rpger is more inclined toward STEM career paths which pay well.

Yeah it was pretty bad about stereotyping, though like you said there are some people out there that fit them. The movie was clearly created by gamers but it didn't seem to have much interest in portraying normal gamers.

I thought this was one of the better scenes:
youtube.com/watch?v=3FYizKD5VuI
I agree with Scott about MMOs heh

One bump to see if anyone else has seen this

I saw it and found it adorable. Mostly in a sense to keep my sanity in check. There are times I (or another gamer I played with) have acted like many of the "dark portraits" of nerdism presented. But in true Hollywood/storytelling fashion, the scope and scale are thrown way out of proportion.

Do I think that PnPRPGs are making a comeback with a younger audience? Yes.
Do I think this is a problem? No; I love a wider player base.
Are rich hipsters ruining the art and giving PnPRPGs a bad name? Yes.
Am I one of these hipsters? Unfortunately; I am trying to do better.

The movie, in a broader sense, is not about PnPRPGs or the individuals who play them, but a story of growing up and learning to handle responsibility. The DnD aspect of it is but the surface layer that the stage takes place on. And, as a comedy, it blows minor inconveniences to plot points. In the end, when he is playing DnD at the retirement home, this is further a proof that the PnPRPG aspect of the movie is but a backdrop.

If this movie was written by 'nerds' and the question is "Why, then, are 'nerds' portrayed in a negative light" is because that what the previous basis for expression is given. Look at other instances, such as Dexter's Lab: 'nerds' would call this a negative portrayal, but its publicity at a wider audience. We haven't even emerged from the forebearers of 'Dungeons and Dragons turned my daughter to the devil!" or, in a more local example: Rod Ferrel, who murdered because of playing a character in Vampire the Masquerade.

What I'm trying to say is, in popular literature and culture, DnD can only be displayed as a comedy to maintain a positive review. If we try to be serious, it turns into a comedy.

Good detailed analysis, user. Although Zero Charisma did portray nerds in a negative light and there was plenty of cringe humor, I didn't feel like it was based on tons of "look at these fucking nerds and the nerdy stuff they do" type jokes like Big Bang Theory. I could be off on that because I haven't watched a single episode of that show, I've just seen a few scenes while channel surfing (I hate most sitcoms, laugh tracks, and that show just seems horrible in general). With Zero Charisma you could tell at least it was coming from creators that loved RPGs.

The guy that played Scott did a great job, he nailed a tough role. Like you said there was some character growth, but I feel like that's an area where this movie could have done a better job.

I've never seen Mazes and Monsters but I know D&D had that reputation you mention back in the day, so as you noted any kind of semi-normal portrayal of the hobby is an improvement over satanic scare mongering. With the ascendance of geek culture lately and the diminished influence of the religious right that stuff seems so far away though.

I loved it. It made me nostalgia hard for my early gaming days. The movie reminded me of what I had to leave behind in order to survive in today's society. Growing up and facing reality has probably made me more charming, succesful and shallow like Miles. But deep down I empathised the fuck out of Scott's character.

>vtm made rod kill

No, being a violent sociopath makes people into murderers like Roddie. Not games. I'd mostly agree with the rest of your analysis though, user.

>muh vrwc

Every group has its bell-ends [ref the fed assault on SJG]. But the handful of bug-eyed zealots in every curve explicitly do not define the rest.

I agree that games do not make sociopaths, I was showing an example of misplaced blame and bad publicity towards RPGs.

>but I feel like that's an area where this movie could have done a better job.

Would've missed the entire point of the character desu. There are two kinds of movies: one where the character goes through a lot of events and emerges different at the end (most movies) and the ones where the character stubbornly stays mostly the same.

While not an excellent film, it did a good job at portraying a grognardand simmering drama within a gaming group. I laughed at the part where the teenager mentions WoW, and he is told to get out.

I honestly kind of sympathize with the GM when it came to fudging the roll though. When it comes to an important character making a story significant speech, and the game doesn't have a meta currency that lets you cheat death in a less arbitrary way, then you should be fine to fudge when it means the story is better.

Having never actually seen BBT, why do actual nerdy people loathe it?

Having never actually seen Transformers revenge of the fallen, why do actual transformers fans loathe it?

I just got back from Iraq, you tell me.

>normies making literal nerd blackface minstrelcy
>casuals and GEEK GRRLS watch it and claim OH EM GEE IM LIKE SO UH NERDY LIKE I ROLL DICE AND PLAY POKEMON ON MY XBOX

That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Are they just making fun of nerds or are people watching it and pretending to be nerds?

Yes.

>I honestly kind of sympathize with the GM when it came to fudging the roll though. When it comes to an important character making a story significant speech, and the game doesn't have a meta currency that lets you cheat death in a less arbitrary way, then you should be fine to fudge when it means the story is better.

Nah, I actually sympathize with Scott through most of that movie. I am a loser faggot with a mostly empty life that I try to fill with roleplaying games, so i understand him getting autistic over his group getting fucked up. I just have social sense so I don't do that shit. But if some guy gets a critical hit on the main leader because he wants to be a dick, you do several things.

> okay, are you sure you want to do this
> would your character really do that?
> what do you other players do about that? your friend just threw a sword at someone for no reason
> okay, well you killed this guy, but guess what? his guardians are enraged.
> oh you ruined the plot? well you're gonna have a much harder time stopping the undead hordes now that you killed the MacGuffin-giver, aren't you?

Getting asshurt is pointless when you have so many other tools in your GM toolbox. I know it's a comedy but I've seen shit like that happen in real life. Scott had no ability to improvise and railroaded, that was his problem. I can almost excuse his manchildness when he's an ugly fatass that no one would love anyway.

>Are they just making fun of nerds

Yes, This is coming from a fan of the show. I started watching it expecting it to be cringe humor where the guys are pathetic with women, but written from a more sympathetic mindset, and lots of references to "nerd culture" shit, except actual inside jokes. I wanted those, not because of "muh sekrit klub" but for the same reasons you might browse a D&D humor thread. I fully expected it to be fairly casual but I didn't expect it to be shit and I sure didnt' expect all the characters to turn into hot Chads that fuck three women at once. Stuart is the only character on that show I can even slightly identify with.

Have you met your wife's boyfriend yet?

>Look at other instances, such as Dexter's Lab: 'nerds' would call this a negative portrayal
I have never met a nerd who hated on Dexter's Lab. Shit was fantastic.

The actual stereotyping happens mostly to the main character. I don't see the issue at all.

Originally people hated it because it was really fucking poorly written and flat.
Now, people hate it because hating it is a meme and some retards picked up the "nerd blackface" argument (which was valid but a minor, compounding factor rather than anyone's main gripe) and parrot it ad nauseaum because it's easier than a well-made rebuttal (and you can only have so many proper discussions before anyone sane will just move on, so you end up with the dregs who still care for some reason and lack the insight to make meaningful comments)

It's like most pop culture phenomena, really. Monty Python was great partly because it was unpredictable and fresh, then it got repeated to the point of cliché. Inception failed to properly utilize its central conceit of dream spelunking (apart from that guy conjuring up a grenade launcher, and the amazing scene with the spinning hotel corridor, which both signified how much Nolan dropped the ball on exploring the central conceit in favor of just a decent-ish standard story), but then people hate it because it's easier to complain about the kinda anticlimactic last ten seconds. The list goes on.

Dexter's Lab as a total, yes; I would agree nerds find it positive. I was referencing the DnD episode where Dexter flips his lid while Dee Dee takes over. Is a near identical plot to Zero Charisma.

And Veeky Forums in a thread a week ago decided it was actually a very good portrayal of tabletop gaming. It showed the good aspects (cooperative gaming, imaginative and improvisational aspects, fun guys having fun (everyone but Dexter)) and showed how not to do it (Dexter) and why it wasn't a good way to do it.

It had both a great lesson for kids on how to behave when playing tabletop, as well as making it look attractive, socially involved and just plain fun. Dexter was just being that guy, but that doesn't make it a poor or negative portrayal.

From a gamer viewpoint yes, I completely agree with you. But when the episode aired, the not-tg minded individuals did not take it well (of course with everything there are a few outliers). Turner got a huge amount of negative criticism for airing an episode about DnD at the time.

I lived near the Cartoon Network building until the end of the 2000's, and there was a near constant riot, not just about CartoonCartoon shows.

I don't get it. So was Miles just doing an "experiment" or not?

There were many things he could have done there. Although he honestly needs some better improvisations skills if he wants to GM. Losing his shit over being nudged off his comfort zone a bit only makes him seem like a bad GM. On the other hand he is pretty much a shit person with anger issues, so I guess it's kind of understandable for him to react that way.

>Yes, This is coming from a fan of the show. I started watching it expecting it to be cringe humor where the guys are pathetic with women, but written from a more sympathetic mindset, and lots of references to "nerd culture" shit
It kind of was like that in the beginning though. They just threw the whole idea off the window and made the show about how the shitty nerds develop to be normal people.

I think the movie is more about the life of a sperg than roleplaying itself. There are several examples of sensible people who partake in the hobby there.

Meh, the anger issues I understand. He is an angry child, essentially. But I have anger issues, too, just not over a game. If I cared so much about things going my way I would play by myself.

What kind of experiment are you talking about?

I didn't know ther was a DnD episode, I'll have to check it out.

It made gave me feels. I miss living in Austin, TX and gaming at Great Hall Games where the game store scenes were filmed.

tfw I sympathized with Miles way more than Scott.

Not entirely so, I found his behaviour dickis and dissagreed with his attitude in several points, but still I found him mostly cool while Scott was a plain cringefest that was at the moments painful to watch.