So, any of us that have been in or around any type of gaming community have likely at one point come across this situation: You’re at a gathering or tournament, and there’s someone around that smells and/or looks… less than fresh.
Obviously your course of action differs depending on the setting: if it’s a large scale tournament (basically, something not hosted by someone at their residence), there’s really not much you can do except move away from the offending person/people; unless of course you’re especially bold and have no qualms about calling someone out over their stench. What if it’s something smaller… something held at a private residence instead of a public venue? My question is this: if you have control over who attends the gathering, what do you do if someone walks in smelling like they spent the last three days sleeping in a dumpster?
I have people over at my place to get games in occasionally, so this is a subject I’ve mulled over from time to time. I’ve made it pretty clear before I invite people over that I expect them to be clean (larger gatherings I actually make a point to mention it plainly). I joke a lot that I have no problem denying entrance to offensive smelling people, but I’ve yet to actually encounter a situation where I’m faced with the decision to eject someone or not.
I think most people just opt to suffer in silence or move away from the person, which is the standard polite thing to do. I guess what I’m wondering is if you should really ask everyone else in attendance to put up with one person who couldn’t be bothered to freshen up before going out? I know that personally I am very sensitive to smells, and if an odor is strong enough I can start gagging and potentially vomit over it. I wonder; does the overall comfort of the group take priority over embarrassing one individual?
Smelly gamers, I think, have now become an expected pitfall of attending any type of community event. Although I’m sensitive to the fact that no one likes to be embarrassed on front of a bunch of people, I have to wonder what possesses people to consciously go out smelling like they rolled around in dog crap. I am in no way suggesting that unwashed gamers are the standard, but it comes up often enough that it’s a concern.
So, 8wr community, what say you?
