The Gaming Controversy

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Modern video games have come under a constant barrage of accusations of having a bad influence over the behavior of the gamers that play them. But before the realm of video games game under attack, the realm of table-top gaming was subject to similar accusations.

I'll start this discussion with a personal story from my enrollment in Du Quoin High School. During my senior year at DHS, 2002-2003, I was in the computer lab next to the library after school one day printing out sheets to play the game, 'Dungeons and Dragons.' The sheets were for the other players to use to record information. A nearby teacher, which will remain un-named, found it curious that I was using the printer (though, I have no idea why). They strolled over, glanced at the sheets, and asked what they were for. I didn't think anything of it and simply replied that they were for Dungeons and Dragons. They returned to their seat and the room remained silent while I waited for the last of the sheets to print out. I then returned to the computer I was using to close down the Adobe program I had used to open the files to print them out when the instructor stood back up and walked over next to me and asked in a very calm voice, "You don't worship the devil, do you?"

Looking back on it now I can't help but laugh about what may have been going through that person's head to have come to such an absurd conclusion, but at that moment in time it confused and angered me. Even now, years later, I meet people who approach the topic with intolerance and ignorance. So this, my friends, is for you.

A game called 'Chainmail' served as a basis for D&D's creation in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. From there the game evolved spurring newer editions and changing hands, even up to present day, as owned by Wizards of the Coast producing the 4th edition of the game.

The game is played with any number of players, with one person acting as the Dungeon Master, or in simpler terms, the one who will dictate the direction of the plot and action. Everyone else creates a fictional character to play as in the story made up by the DM. An example would be Frodo Baggins, from J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings.' Frodo, the fictional character, takes actions in Middle Earth, a fictional world, and things happen as a result of his actions. Now, instead of Tolkien controlling both what Frodo does and what happens to Frodo from what he has done, imagine Tolkien only being able to dictate what happens to Frodo from his actions, and someone else is deciding what Frodo does. D&D is played much like a 'choose your own adventure' book.

But every game needs rules (the books) and an added chance of random happening (dice) to run smoothly and be fun. D&D uses several books and many different shaped dice to play the game, in addition to small figures a player may use to visually depict their character.

D&D is actually no different than several authors sitting around and passing around a notebook, each adding on to a single story. However, the misunderstandings of a few people through the course of the game's history resulted in many false accusations and assumptions.

During the 1980's, religious groups, primarily Christian, accosted the game of being satanic. From the point of view of someone who didn't know anything about D&D looking at a D&D book (meaning that they don't know it is a fictional game), I can easily understand why they would jump to that conclusion. Religions, as written in most D&D books and even books based in D&D settings such as Forgotten Realms, was based around polytheism like the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. Though there are instances where D&D follows a monotheistic view, they are few. This does not make it satanic. This is taking a religious and historical concept and adapting it for fiction.

In 1982, Patricia Pulling's son committed suicide, and knowing her son had played D&D, claimed that a curse from the game had been placed upon her son before his death. She founded the group called 'Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons' and accused the game of promoting demonology, rape, murder, satanic rituals, suicide, prostitution, and the like. She lost all of her court cases.

In 1979, the James Dallas Egbert III attempted suicide in the steam tunnels under Michigan State University, and after failing, then hid at a friend's house. He successfully committed suicide a year later. The investigator hired to search for him during his time missing, William Dear, speculated that he had gotten lost during a live-action (live-action means to physically play out what you do in a game, but with obvious limitations) version of D&D. This speculation, to take to be true on the basis of insufficient evidence, was taken by the press as fact. It wasn't until five years later that Dear revealed that it was instead his father that played the large part in Egbert's suicide.

Research conducted by the American Association of Suicidology, the US. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Health and Welfare (Canada) all concluded from their studies that there was no causal link between the gaming and suicide. Though these accusations continue.

I state these things, not to make the point that the people thinking these things are largely misinformed (though they are), nor do I state them to make D&D fully innocent of everything done involving it (anything taken too far can be dangerous). But instead I state them to make a point placed on my position as a growing teen being asked the question, "You don't worship the devil, do you?" Was it really necessary for a teacher to ask a student such a question, based only on what must have been his own opinion, since no study relates to what he asked to have been true? Students, adults and people of all ages are subject to this thinking. Surely we can keep these generalizations out of our houses of education. Just as video games have come under fire now, learn to distinguish fact from speculation. Not only will you appear smarter, and actually be smarter, but you may spare a person from feeling like the outcast that they are not.

And by the way, I do not worship the devil. And yes, they stood there and waited for me to answer.