Historical Perspective: 1980s "60 Minutes" segment on D&D

[Crazy Jerome]

The horrifying thing about the whole mess is that, as Gary stated, teen suicides were very strongly on the rise, but parents constantly went out of their way to find new and interesting things to blame. I can't help but wonder if it was perhaps this behavior that lead to some of those suicides.

I don't wonder much about that. I think you are correct, and that is exactly what happened. Consider:

1. When actual studies were done, it was shown that roleplayers were less likely to commit suicide or otherwise engage in destructive behavior. Not equally unlikely to do so, but less likely to so do. I don't think anyone ever established if there was a causal relationship, or it was simple correlation of people who were generally better adjusted wanting to roleplay, but nevertheless the link was there. Certainly, hanging around well adjusted people couldn't have hurt some borderline individuals. So it is arguable (though not proven of course) that had roleplaying been more supported, there would have been less suicide.

2. D&D players usually displayed cult-like behavior only when pushed into it by hyper-sensitive reactions by those around them. All that hiding it from their parents, sneaking around, etc? No one that was supported by the various authority figures in their community ever did much of that.

To the degree that D&D was ever a problem, it was a self-fulfilling problem caused by the people who claimed it was a problem.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Haven't had a chance to watch the Youtube links, so I can't remember exactly what's done with them, but generally the 60 minutes style is:

Take an issue going on, and tell the viewers about it, taking no "stand" one way or the other.

Interview key players in said issue, and let them respond to what the big questions are.

Then make no comment on the interview, just show the interview and let the viewers determine their own thoughts.

While it IS good and proper journalism to merely present facts to allow viewers to decide for themselves they chose not to investigate to find if the assertions WERE facts. All they did was broadcast assertions and let Gary Gygax say, "PROVE it." That's NOT good journalism. That's gossip. They don't have to take a stand on an issue one way or another (and shouldn't unless they are actually presenting editorials) but they SHOULD expend the effort to INDEPENDENTLY verify the statements made by interviewees to see if they are actually true and factual.

If they were going to interview Pat Pulling who claims her son committed suicide because of D&D, just putting Gary Gygax on the air as well doesn't make their reporting proper, fair and balanced. Gary and TSR weren't even obligated to determine if Pat Pulling was actually correct. Because 60 Minutes was choosing to allow her to present those statements THEY had the obligation to determine if she - OR those they allowed to voice supporting OR contrary statements - were simply spewing complete bullcrap.

60 Minutes has won both accolades AND faced embarassingly deserved ridicule, condemnation, and lawsuits. Journalism should be a required course in school - not so people can learn how to report news, but so that they can learn to recognize reporting from editorialism, and when reporting in any media actually IS proper, balanced, and accurate.

Repeating the assertion that parents WATCHED their child actually summon demons in the kitchen ["Mom, Dad... This is Mr. Cthulhu. Mr. Cthulhu, these are my parents - or rather they are now the mindless shells of flesh whose sanity has fled them."] should be a big clue that the entire report is likely to be baseless crap.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

That's gossip.

Journalism is not good business, gossip and slander presented as good journalism are great business.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Journalism is not good business, gossip and slander presented as good journalism are great business.

I think Thomas Jefferson once said in discussing the 1st Amendment that newspapers should be divided into four sections: Truth, Probabilities, Possibilities, and Lies. The last three sections would be daily features and the first section would be published only rarely as needed.

 

[Ranger REG]

I've still got friends worried about that today. One of my coworkers asked me why I'm so open about my love of D&D and roleplaying games, as that's not something that would generally attract a female. I asked her what the point to hiding it was, since it's not like I'm going to hide all of my various "nerdy" hobbies every time I bring a woman to my bed, because clearing out a metric ton of RPG books, novels, comic books, miniatures, and action figures would be more effort than it's worth.

I think she equated D&D to porn, something you shouldn't say on the first date meeting a woman.

Then again, these days, saying you like porn isn't that much of a shock value to women, unless you're dating a granny. No offense to Morrus's grandma.

 

[Wolv0rine]

While I was a young gamer during the Pulling Era, I saw few actual ramifications of it in sweet, crumbling Toledo, Ohio. That's not to say I saw no ramifications of it however. I hated Tom Hanks for YEARS over that inane movie he did, still find no humor in Chick Tracts, and still regret that D&D was BANNED from all schools in any way, shape, or form by the Board of Education. That pretty much nipped the joy from the official Game Club in my high school right there, I'll tell you. One year it was D&D, Champions, Toon, Mechwarrior, and all kinds of cool stuff. The next year...Bam... it was chess, checkers, and miniature tactical games. Now, I'm not knocking chess, checkers, tactical mini games or the like... but this was NOT what I had joined the club to do.
Luckily for me, my mother was only slightly concerned over D&D and talked to me about her ignorance... (even going so far as to suggest I write a game called Angels and.. something, I forget...) until I explained that in the majority, the monsters and evil stuff in the game were pretty much there to be killed, overcome, and serve as opponents. At which point she basically went "Oh, I see. Okay"

Which, overall, was much less disturbing than the day she knocked on my bedroom door with a fruit tray for me and my friends and asked in a whisper if I was having an orgy.

 

[Tikigod]

I got pretty lucky growing up in a small Iowa town. It was pretty insulated against the hysteria. In fact, my Mom bought me D&D in 1981. She knew I read Lord of the Rings, Shannara, Conan, etc., that I read tons of comics and she thought I would dig this new game. The only trouble I ran into with my parents is that they refused to allow me to take my games to college. They thought it would get in the way of my schooling. (it was beer that did that )

Never once did I run into people thinking it was evil and satanic. Most people just thought it was nerdy.

I do recall hearing about people thinking D&D was evil, but never around where I grew up. I remember being excited about D&D being played in by the kids in the movie E.T.!

 

[LightPhoenix]

I've still got friends worried about that today. One of my coworkers asked me why I'm so open about my love of D&D and roleplaying games, as that's not something that would generally attract a female. I asked her what the point to hiding it was, since it's not like I'm going to hide all of my various "nerdy" hobbies every time I bring a woman to my bed, because clearing out a metric ton of RPG books, novels, comic books, miniatures, and action figures would be more effort than it's worth.

Heck, I still worry about that today, and it's not the comics or figures or novels that I think about. I wish I could say I don't consider how any woman I'm interested in would react to knowing I play, but that's a total lie, and it's really a shame.

Shifting gears...

Someone above mentioned "nerd stigma." While that has certainly abated somewhat over the years (though I would not under any circumstance say completely), I still think that there's an intimidation by people that are perceived of smarter people. I say perceived because I'm certain that if you took a cross-section of role-players, our bell curve would not be as much above average as we or others like to think. Still, people tend to get very intimidated by smarter people, and that often results in lashing out in less than logical ways, and a lot of it now is more subtle.

As an aside, I think that's why you see a lot of people, even today, and especially women, that try to hide their intelligence, and don't overtly broadcast it. Intelligence is intimidating, and when you're trying to get a date or make friends that can be off-putting.

 

[Shroomy]

After thinking about it some more, I do remember that my friend whose dad forbid D&D in his house did tell me about the burned D&D book "screaming" (ditto with the ouija board). I wanted to prove them wrong, but there was no way I was going to go through the time and expense of buying and then burning a book. At least, that's the advice that Captain Howdy gave me.

 

[leonarr]

This on in Australia on our version of 60 minutes in '86.

I'd started gaming in '85, one of the guys at school got me into it. We used to play at his place, because his parents spent the whole weekend in their bedroom, leaving the kids to look after themselves (kids were 14, 11 and 5). Their house was a pigsty, there was mold on plates in the kitchen. As long as we weren't noisy, we could do whatever. The 5 year old used to throw darts at people, and we would play mock combat with wooden poles.

Yet when they saw this feeble attempt at fear journalism, they decided that Jesus cried because of D & D, and banned their kids from playing it.

They still spent all day in their bedroom, their place was still a pigsty and they didn't look after their kids, but hey, at least their souls were safe from the evil of Dungeons and Dragons.