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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnBrown" data-source="post: 405908" data-attributes="member: 2243">Mkletch,I agree with your statements above that touch on how D&D can stimulate academic interest in many people.  It was not my intent to state otherwise.   I would disagree, however, that inspiration is the same as education.  Both are important to a person’s growth, but they are not the same.  A person may become inspired to learn more about real medieval cultures from playing D&D, and thus educate themselves, but D&D certainly doesn’t provide you anything but the vaguest hints about how real medieval cultures developed, operated, and evolved.  You have to go elsewhere beyond the game to find the facts, D&D only provides the myths.Many astronauts and astronomers claim to have been inspired by Star Trek, and if it hadn’t been for that show, many of them wouldn’t be in their respective fields.  I don’t think anyone would suggest that Star Trek is a good example of real space sciences, however.    As a child, I was inspired to learn more about computers from playing Pong and Space Invaders.  Playing these games, however, did not impart to me any computer programming knowledge; only years of education and work in the field did that.   Did Space Invaders play an important part in my development?  Yes, (as embarrassing as that is to admit <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ), but it didn’t actually teach me anything.Inspiration and Education.  Both important.  Both work together.  Both very different. As for how long I have been playing D&D, a little over 22 years (I will be 35 in a couple of weeks).  Using the term “probability analysis” was mistake on my part in my earlier post.  No actual probability analysis actually takes place in D&D.  Simple fraction to decimal comparison (1/10 is the same as 10%, 1 in 20 is same as a 5% chance, etc.) is about all that is used playing D&D, at least from a general perspective.  My first exposure to this was during math lessons in the 3rd grade.  The concept of the Bell Curve?  I first learned of that (if my memory serves) in 5th grade, right around the time I started playing D&D.   I would suspect that most others have similar educational experiences.  D&D gave me an opportunity to apply that knowledge, but it didn’t teach it to me.Concerning the issue of moral and social lessons, I agree with the spirit of your statement, and certainly wouldn’t want to dismiss any positive effects that D&D has had on your life, but none of my important life lessons have ever occurred from the act of role-playing.  Positive social concepts, such as teamwork, mutual support, being a good loser and a gracious winner, can just as easily be reinforced through any athletic activity, or from even going out in the work place and getting a job (which certainly had a more profound affect on my life than playing D&D ever has <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ).  You are right in saying social interaction can teach a person many things (good and bad), and that D&D provides an opportunity for the interaction. It is the interaction with other people – not the game itself – that is educational, however.  Any activity that provides the same type of interaction will provide roughly the same education.  Going out and experiencing other cultures, and other points of view will impart much more knowledge than sitting around a table pretending to do so ever will.</blockquote>

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