Did Bad make D&D Good?

[Scribble]

So I remember back in the day whenever someone at school found out I was a D&D player, they'd either call me a dork, a satanist, or they would be into gaming as well... (But I knew most of the gamers.)

It always amused me, that D&D was probably one of the only (if not the only) hobby where one could be both a nerd and a satanist...

But my question is, do you think D&D would have become as "big" as it is now without the bad things that happened, and were associated with it?

Like the Leith Von Stein murder, and the various "suicides" blamed on D&D?

Did these things inadvertantly turn D&D into an icon, and in a sense put it into people's minds enough to turn it into a known thing?

 

[Crothian]

I'm pretty sure those were some of the best things to happen in D&D. That was marketing unlike anything TSR could have done. Heck, that's better marketing then anything we are getting today.

 

[Halivar]

But my question is, do you think D&D would have become as "big" as it is now without the bad things that happened, and were associated with it?

I was not connected to the gaming community in any way, so until the big bruhaha, D&D was just an advertisement that one the back of all my issues of the Transformers comic book. When all the paranoia popped up surrounding D&D, I must admit that I was both frightened and morbidly curious. The highschool kids in our apartment building all got together on a big picnic table on the playground and played; I'd hide out in the big wooden castle next to them and listen to them roleplay for hours. I always wanted to play.

 

[Scribble]

I'm pretty sure those were some of the best things to happen in D&D. That was marketing unlike anything TSR could have done. Heck, that's better marketing then anything we are getting today.

I agree...

But it's something I never seem to see people take into account when they talk about another game taking D&D's place, or why D&D is the top dog.

 

[El Mahdi]

I'm pretty sure those were some of the best things to happen in D&D. That was marketing unlike anything TSR could have done. Heck, that's better marketing then anything we are getting today.

The first D&D viral marketing campaign.

 

[Scribble]

Maybe Paizo should secretly hire some Satanists to murder their parents for drug money and blame it on Pathfinder...

KIDDING!

 

[Nadaka]

I seem to recall back in the 90's white wolf got really "popular" because it got a lot of bad press for being associated with the goth/emo movement and a couple vampire cults/killings.

 

[Scribble]

I seem to recall back in the 90's white wolf got really "popular" because it got a lot of bad press for being associated with the goth/emo movement and a couple vampire cults/killings.

Yeah I remember that too actually... I think of all game systems out there Vampire has the most recognition (next to D&D) with non-gamers... But I think it's more the LARP version then the tabletop.

 

[Dragonbait]

I think all the bad press came around because it was already popular. All the bad press (most of it was false) just brought D&D into the public eye. Video Games are satan's tools now, but instead of having video game players join satanic cults, the devil is making kids wear dark clothing and killing their classmates via video games.

Evil, horrible games!

 

[jaycrockett]

I find it funny that 4th edition is the first version of the game where you can actually play a devil worshiper as a character (infernal pact warlock), yet no one seems to care much. Heck you can even look like the devil. Folks these days are too busy getting upset over alien side-boobage in Mass Effect.

It speaks to the relative popularity of D&D vs. video games, I guess.