MSNBC 'expert' suggests DnD played a roll in the Pamela Vitale murder

[Aaron L]

Somewhere I read it was a cros of Lorraine, or something. Just looked it up and it's a cross with two horizontal bars. Goth symbol?

I've been reading about this, and I've read so many disgusting condemnations of "goths" and weird kids who are "diferent", and the like, and it's pretty disgusting.

 

[Del]

I sent this through CNN's comment form:

Re: Horowitz murder.

As someone who works in the role-playing-game and internet business I know that I speak for many in this now million dollar industry that Dungeons and Dragons and other games have been disproven as a path to crime and murder. The same goes for White Wolf Publishing's Vampire the Masquerade RPG.

Right wing religious groups will no doubt try to tie these games and the goth community to this tragic murder, in an effort to deflect blame from a christian religious link in the form of the cross that appeared at the murder scene.

We in the creative writing industries do not wish to be society's whipping post, as fans of Dungeons and Dragons were in the 80's.

Best regards,
Del Esau

e-Sprawl Network
www.esprawl.com

Black Powder Games
www.esprawl.com/bpg

 

[Del]

While we're at it why don't we call it a letter campaign:

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form1.html?39

Tell them through the above form that DnD doesn't lead to murder, if you feel so moved.

 

[LostSoul]

I still think that any press is good press.

Then again, I never had to deal with parents who wouldn't let me play "the game of the DEVIL!" Probably since it was my Dad who bought those Basic D&D books for himself.

I still remember fondly looking through that book when I was 5 or 6. The maps were so cool! And that example of play, with the goblins and the elf who charms them, and the Thief who died from that poison needle...

DM: "You hear a lot of shouting from inside the other room."
PC: "Oh man! We forgot to loot Black Dougal's body!" (or whatever his name was)

 

[Shemeska]

I sent this through CNN's comment form:

Re: Horowitz murder.

It was MSNBC, not CNN.

Go overboard to the wrong network and you'll only make this community seem knee jerk, even more than the right that in the 80's blamed DnD for society's woes, or the left that does the same thing now with lyrics in music or violent video games.

 

[Hand of Evil]

But are not most gothic symbols religous in nature? Reporters throw out terms as buzz words and as long as they cause a stir they will use them.

 

[Mystery Man]

On 'The Abrams Report' on MSNBC, I just overheard one of their so-called experts out of nowhere suggest that Dungeons and Dragons had a roll in the murder of Daniel Horowitz's wife, apparently because there was a 'gothic symbol' carved into the dead woman's back, and the suspect arrested today was a teenager. The 'expert' made some vacuous reference to 'like cases that happened in the 80s'. Lovely...

Of course this is MSNBC, so probably all of 8 people in the country were actually watching tonight to hear that tripe, but bad press for DnD is bad press, and while it's nowhere near the idiocy of the 1980's, it still sucks.

And for the record, I don't have a clue why I had MSNBC turned on. It's 4:32AM, and I just wanted something on the tv for background noise. It got my attention though when it spouted that line. *sigh*

You must be one of the other 4 people that watches that channel.

 

[Henry]

Pfah! We can ONLY HOPE D&D is branded as dangerous again! SALES SPIKE AHOY!

Seriously, it bugs me too to see this. However, it doesn't get to me as it once did, because I know the underlying popularity of Fantasy, and just how many people now KNOW what D&D is, or who have one or more gamers or roleplayers in their families and understand the basics of it through them. Even in areas where the D&D hysteria used to be common in the 1980's, it's no more than the occasional "I thought that was bad, or something", rather than the desire to ostracize or burn books as it used to be. You'll still have extreme cases, but then, you always will.

 

[Henry]

Also, though this is "about gaming", it's slightly more about the societal aspect of this, so I'll move it to off-topic.

 

[CrusaderX]

Right wing religious groups will no doubt try to tie these games and the goth community to this tragic murder, in an effort to deflect blame from a christian religious link in the form of the cross that appeared at the murder scene.

Why single out the right wing? Especially since the LEFT wing are the ones with a very vocal and high-profile history of demonizing D&D (Tipper Gore) and video games (Joseph Lieberman).