chriton227
Explorer
I really wish that was always the case, but it is reported that the Israeli Defense Force screens recruits to determine if they are role players, and if they are, sends them for a psych eval because they consider participating in role playing games in indicator of a weak personality or a detachment from reality. A large portion of those referred are given low security clearances as a result, limiting their military career options. Many of them likely wouldn't have been sent for the psych eval had they not admitted to playing RPGs.
At one point the Swedish government looked at pulling funding from an organization of gaming clubs because of a belief that there was a correlation between playing RPGs and committing acts of violence. They commissioned a study which ended up refuting this belief, but this is another example of role players being subjected to additional scrutiny just because they were role players
I've also known people who felt that anyone participating in RPGs was morally corrupt and potentially dangerous (due in large part of the mainstream media scares of the late 70s and early 80s) and nothing anyone (particularly a role player) could say would change their mind. How do you think things would go if those people were in a supervisory role and found out one of their subordinates was a role player?
I don't know if these events are common enough to be considered persecution, but it is definitely enough to make me wary of letting people know I'm a role player until I know them well enough that I don't think it will change their impression of me,.Gaming isn't important enough to me to be worth risking future career advancement or community relationships over.
