D & D Israeli army frowns upon D&D playing recruits

[Vorput]

This is a 4 year old article, but I just stumbled across it. Perhaps it's been discussed before. I'd object, but I evidently have a weak personality.

Link

Fans of the popular roleplaying game had spoken of rumors of this strange policy by the IDF, but now the army has confirmed that it has a negative image of teens who play the game and labels them as problematic in regard to their draft status.

[Aus_Snow]

edit --- oh, it really is that old a topic, on EN World. OK.

[Piratecat]

Yup. A few past links:

Guess I'm not joining the Israeli army.
D&D in the Military?
RPGs & the Armed Forces - a liability?

[Vorput]

Ah yes- looking again I remember reading some of those threads while they were ongoing.

Man, my memory is awful...

[FireLance]

You know, when I read that thread title, my first thought was, "I would frown upon a game playing my recruits, too."

Which was closely followed by, "In Israeli army, D&D play YOU!"

[Mark]

A couple of past threads on the matter -

Guess I'm not joining the Israeli army.

Israeli army frowns on D&D (merged)

[Hairfoot]

IIRC, upon further investigation it turned out that the IDF guy was talking about LARPing, not D&D. Non-gamers tend to call everything roleplayish "D&D".

[arscott]

Well thank goodness their irrational bias is only targeted against a small segment of the Role-playing community. That's all right then.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by arscott

Well thank goodness their irrational bias is only targeted against a small segment of the Role-playing community. That's all right then.

They came first for the LARPers, and I did nothing because I was not a LARPer . . .

[MichaelSomething]

This reminds me of something. I once heard that someone got out of jury duty because they said they play D&D. But I don't remember the source. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

[Hairfoot]

Originally Posted by MichaelSomething

This reminds me of something. I once heard that someone got out of jury duty because they said they play D&D. But I don't remember the source. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

It might simply be because D&D implies literacy.

[Shades of Green]

It's a myth, at least for the most part. I personally know several people who played D&D (and other RPGs) who were conscripted into the IDF; I even know of some who actually played D&D while in active service (in a military base).