I wasn't going to post this link here as I figured things were getting a little heated, but after PMing it to Bullgrit he has suggested I do since it answers his question about what the in game curse was. It's about 5 minutes in.
It's worth noting here several things, IMHO.
1) Pulling comes off here the same way she did when this was new: a grieving mom who doesn't want to believe that her son was patently unhappy or troubled and is sure something DID this to him. The TSR PR rep right after here says EXACTLY THAT. And the data we have about her son indicates that he was DEEPLY troubled in the weeks just prior to his death. It's quite likely he was suddenly transformed from a normal teen to a schizophrenic...and Pulling was unable to deal with that.
2) Pulling didn't influence so much influence people as reinforce the bias of those who already agreed with her views. Case in point,
Dr. Thomas Radecki, MEDIA WHORE, who apparently still has a website and
is still peddling this same nonsense. It's just that
no one is listening It's also worth noting that Radecki is not a child psychiatrist and if you look at his c.v., you can see a downward spiral of media appearances and career options. Eventually he lost his license for 5 years for inappropriate conduct with a patient, but apparently later got it restored. Today he'd be a typical 24-hour news 'expert'. If someone is deserving of ridicule, here's your guy.
3) This 60 minutes report certainly wasn't meant to be actually informative. The bias is pretty strong...not to smear D&D so much as to garner viewership. To that end, they misrepresent details for the sake of story. From
The Escapist (RPGA advocacy website, not the video game magazine):
"BADD and other anti-game groups and individuals have often attempted to connect this tragedy to gaming - despite the absolute lack of evidence to that end, and weighty evidence to the contrary. Daniel had pled guilty to auto theft previously, and was facing sentencing within a month. He was described as being "extremely afraid of the criminal justice system," and did not want to return to the school, which would have been part of his deferred sentence.
The parents of both boys have always maintained that games had nothing to do with the suicide - even Lafayette Police Chief Larry Stallcup admitted initially that the game had no connection."
I guess I just don't understand why Pulling herself should be so singled out amongst so many idiots. At least she had grief to explain her behavior. Radecki has continued to peddle the same nonsense for decades, but no one seems to care about him. Hell, Pulling's only real influence is in that she made outrageous claims and people were willing to believe her without fact checking because they WANTED to believe her. She didn't get people put on trial except for the principal of her son's school...and I'm pretty sure his legal fees were paid for by the school board and the teacher's union...up until the point the case was thrown out.
And if you don't accept that Pulling's grief was a reasonable excuse (and that's a valid position to take), then why do Mary and Pat Dempsey get a pass? They co-wrote
the BADD 'information booklet' that was ignored by all but the most desperate police investigations (again thanks to The Escapist). You might target Darren Molitor, author of the famous letter after his murder conviction...but then you'd have to note that he was surprised and confused that anyone would still believe his letter today, more than 20 years later, or that it was still being circulated.
it just seems odd to me to hold on to such bile for such a long time. The perfidy of these morons is well documented (thanks to the efforts of dudes like Michael Stackpole and Bill over at The Escapist, among others). Saying we need to spit on the shadow of someone who died in the 90s and who ironically had a hand in making D&D
more popular (according to EGG), just seems silly.
