Wednesday, January 28, 2004

With Great Power Comes Great You-know-whats

Okay, so I bought Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance already. I used to play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons lo these many years ago, and BG has a rep as a fine adaptation of the pencil-and-paper-and-dice game to the console realm.

I managed to rip Kelly away from Simpsons: Road Rage for a few brief moments this evening to try out BG, and got a few minutes into the storyline. One of the non-player characters (NPC) was a tavern owner, who happened to be a woman dressed up like a refugee of I Dream of Jeannie. I'm honestly just listening to the spiel, and Kelly says, "Dad, why does she have such big you-know-whats?"

Well, I could have given her a quick answer, but it was a really good question. So I said, "I think we should ask your Mom." No, not copping out here, I wanted Kelly to hear the perspective of an intelligent adult woman. So while Kelly was explaining to Jean about the woman with 'freakishly large' bossoms, I was laying the groundwork of what the game was.

"So Phin, what kind of people play D&D?"

"Nerds."

"Male nerds. So it's probably true that this game was written by a guy or guys..."

We went on from there, and discussed everything from evolutionary imperatives to shallow teenage boys. Gotta prep Kelly early for that first smiling nogoodnik! I was impressed with how long Kelly's attention held. And I was very happy that Jean was there to spell it out for Kelly from the viewpoint of a real woman, living in the real world. With luck, Kelly will grow up with enough self-esteem that she won't feel the need to buy a pair of great you-know-whats.

Oh, and when I used to play D&D, I knew at least three women who played in my various groups. Granted, they were usually the only woman, but no one ever pawed them that I recall...

3 comments:

  1. Surely you mean "great BIG you-know-whats" ~ otherwise the implication is that you can't have great you-know-whats in other sizes.
    Like mine. *ahem*

    ReplyDelete
  2. This could be Umberto Ecco's new novel:
    "Pascale's Great You-Know-Whats"

    ReplyDelete
  3. Correction. It's Eco, not Ecco.
    This is a neat little link on the actual phenomenon which leads to the title of Eco's novel.
    I leave it to Pascale to illuminate what her namesake if famed for...

    ReplyDelete