Okay, maybe this should be in the Roleplaying message boards for Star Wars, but does anybody notice that a lot of gamers do not bathe? Seriously, I am not trying to offend everyone, but as someone who has started to get into Star Wars miniatures, LCG, and the Edge of the Empire, the guys at the game stores in my area just smell awful!!! Is there some unwritten rule that if you play board games or frequent gaming stores, you should abstain from bathing? I mean use a little deodorant. It just bothers the hell out of me because I want to enjoy the game, but the guy across from me smells like he crawled out of a dumpster. I am not talking about some single guy in his 40's who lives alone, some of these dudes are in there early 20's.

Am I the only one who has noticed this? The RPG guys are probably the worst. I just have to get this off my chest. Let me know if I am out of line, or if you have experienced the same problem. How have you handled it? Thanks for your time.

You are referring to "gamer funk", a phenominon as old as Dungeons and Dragons. Actually, it is a lot older but only became associated with gamers specifically since then.

All I can say is that X-Wing has generally not had the issues that I have found with most other games. Worlds was especially noteworthy. Hundreds of gamers all in one room, and I did not once notice the funk, and that is REALLY unusual. I have never been at a game event/convention before where that did not happen, the other guys who were there and I had an incredulous conversation about the general cleanliness and lack of funk at the FFG Event center.

Still, you may find yourself with better luck if you spend time away from the gamer-crowd in general. Good luck, and don't feed them cheese. Because if you think they smell bad on the outside ...

"I dont care what you smell you furry oaf, get in there!"

/kicks wookie down a garbage chute...

this is for you.

Working for GW in the past, I've had to handle it on occasions. We always kept a can of deodorant in the toilet and subtlety suggested that certain regulars might want to use it.

It's never easy to broach. But I never had any of them take it badly. Saying "there is some deodorant in the toilet" is normally enough to give them the hint without being openly offensive.

Oh boy.

I can tell this thread is going to get a few sideways looks.

I was an assistant manager at a local family owned game store years ago, in my late twenties. Yes this is very sad and very true. The fact is that some people who live these games are social misfits who don't fit in with the general public very well at all, so they hang out at game shops.

The way I handled the real dirt bags was to literally spray the immediate area they had fouled with Lysol disinfecting air freshener (using the can like mace) to get the point across, and to clean the **** funk. If the stinker was also a jerk, I would tell them that we have had some complaints from paying customers (and we did from time to time) and that they need to clean up before they come to the shop to hang out for three hours in the common area and bother the actual customers...seriously.

These creatures give gamers a bad name, and I do not like it one bit. Some of us work for our money and just like to buy cool games and toys. We do not like these creeps eye balling our moms, sisters, and girl friends either...

There is NO EXCUSE for this subhuman behavior...not in my book.

I was an assistant manager at a local family owned game store years ago, in my late twenties. Yes this is very sad and very true. The fact is that some people who live these games are social misfits who don't fit in with the general public very well at all, so they hang out at game shops.

The way I handled the real dirt bags was to literally spray the immediate area they had fouled with Lysol disinfecting air freshener (using the can like mace) to get the point across, and to clean the **** funk. If the stinker was also a jerk, I would tell them that we have had some complaints from paying customers (and we did from time to time) and that they need to clean up before they come to the shop to hang out for three hours in the common area and bother the actual customers...seriously.

These creatures give gamers a bad name, and I do not like it one bit. Some of us work for our money and just like to buy cool games and toys. We do not like these creeps eye balling our moms, sisters, and girl friends either...

There is NO EXCUSE for this subhuman behavior...not in my book.

I agree with this fully!

We have a rule at our gaming group: don't stink. It is unspoken of right now, but people have approached me about it in the past. I have a can of spray deodorant in my car for this reason though I prefer pit sticks.

Don't let it get so bad that people complain. Just talk to them when you notice it and say something like, "hey, i enjoy playing with you, but sometimes there is a bit of an odor coming from you. Please don't make it a bigger issue than it already is." Then drop it unless it does become an issue again.

Let's all be totally honest we have all had days when we haven't been the freshest, maybe we have been out all day doing stuff or maybe we spent a week at the end of 1999 getting drunk and moving from New Years party to New Years party grabbing sleep on floors or leaned against speaker stacks. And in these situation the last thing I would be offended by was someone handing me a deodorant can.

In programming land we call this "coder odor".

I agree rodent. I had a bit of gamer funk one week because I had been working all day, then I went flying (middle of summer in what is essentially a glass bubble) in a light twin, and then went to x-wing. I smelled BAD. What did I do? I came next week not smelling bad. I think we are talking more about the people that can be depended on of having an odor that can travel across a room like a bad fart.

Let's all be totally honest we have all had days when we haven't been the freshest, maybe we have been out all day doing stuff or maybe we spent a week at the end of 1999 getting drunk and moving from New Years party to New Years party grabbing sleep on floors or leaned against speaker stacks. And in these situation the last thing I would be offended by was someone handing me a deodorant can.

We are talking about the life stylers who bath on accident, when it rains while they are at the bus stop... not reasonable Ratts.

Let's all be totally honest we have all had days when we haven't been the freshest, maybe we have been out all day doing stuff or maybe we spent a week at the end of 1999 getting drunk and moving from New Years party to New Years party grabbing sleep on floors or leaned against speaker stacks. And in these situation the last thing I would be offended by was someone handing me a deodorant can.

We are talking about the life stylers who bath on accident, when it rains while they are at the bus stop... not reasonable Ratts.

Yep I've found lots of nice bathing water down in this sewer, and I do like going for paddles in it.

The gal at Game Empire would spray Fabreeze into the air during Pathfinder day until the gamers complained to the boss.

i love how some of you guys find it taboo to speak of bad odors in front of the rank people.. these "creatures" (as it's been mentioned) clearly need others to shame them into bathing regularly seeing as mom isn't doing a good enough job of it

plus, public shame usually works

i'm usually the first one to blurt out "which one of you didn't shower today? because it stinks in here"

This sounds like a job for Bath Vader.

Gamer funk knows no age or game boundaries. Some gamers just plain smell like they failed to wipe their butts after defecating.

I find the historical gamer crowd tends to be higher on the hygiene scale.

I agree with Executor.

The only way gamers who stink know they stink is when others tell them. This is due to simple biology. We are all unaware of our own BO, because of a phenomenon called "sensory adaptation." When the sensory nerve endings in our noses get the same smell over a long period of time, they get used to it and adapt by simply ignoring it. They don't send the signal to the brain, and so the brain doesn't know that its body smells bad. The exception to this is when we develop a degree of self-awareness about it and our brain compensates for our sensory adaptation by creating an "artificial smell" when it knows that we ought to stink (after a long day of working in the sun, after we just got through taking out the garbage, after we get up out of bed, etc.). This is why a lot of "normal" people don't have to think about showering; they know they ought to or else they'll stink, so they have a compulsion to do so.

People who aren't so socially adapted however often fail to form a proper degree of self-awareness about their BO, because they aren't aware of it becoming offensive to other people.

However, if they are told, politely, that they don't smell very nice, and if they're not complete sociopaths, they'll likely begin to bathe more regularly because when they're in the presence of others, they'll start to become aware of their BO.

"OI! Dude! You stink. GTFO!"

And that ends my interaction with Gamer Funk.

I know I tend to give the Magic area a very, very wide berth at Gencon. I always thought it was exaggerated until my first Gencon. Nope.

Yep.
Best way to combat it is to be up front with the offender.

When I worked at a local game store, we had a large sign right by the register:
"Offensive body odor prohibited"

Most guys that had the issue weren't all that upset to be told about it, provided you did it tactfully.
The ones that were bent out of shape about it either got over it or didn't come back.

Regardless, the business is still there, and still doing just fine without them.

Don't get out to game enough but perhaps it's noticed just because you're actually there to notice it. I'm sure no one ever noticed how much "stink" comes off of everyone they may be playing an online game with because they never have any face to face contact.

If you encounter it be respectful about it. Sometimes the offender doesn't recognize it and at other times there may be some pretty logical reasons for it. I'd tell you I can pick up smells at work that some of you have never even been exposed to.

I haven't encountered this. But I do not play any games except x-wing and the people in my gaming group do not have this problem thankfully. A number of us are married so I'm sure that kind of stink wouldn't fly at home, let alone in public lol.

I haven't encountered this. But I do not play any games except x-wing and the people in my gaming group do not have this problem thankfully. A number of us are married so I'm sure that kind of stink wouldn't fly at home, let alone in public lol.

In don't particularly miss the old days except the scantily dressed hobbits, they don't seem to be as acceptable any more.