D&D on trial (again)

[JollyBGood]

I haven't seen this mentioned here.

Anyone catch the trial of the Office Shooting Spree defendant on Court TV?

I was amazed to see D&D being the topic of cross examination when the defendant took the stand. (complete with pictures of the defendent's gaming table).

What a bizarre story. He's maintaining he was born without a soul and that he struck a deal with an angel. He could 'earn' a soul if he could manage to save 'millions'. So he was sent back in time to Hitler's bunker in 1940 to kill the 7 nazis who engineered the holocaust. (I'm not making this up). Of course the 7 nazis turned out to be his co-workers and the 'bunker' his place of employment. I wouldn't be surprised if this was taken from a published adventure somewhere.

His testimony sounded like a typical gamer describing how his character problem solved a solution to an adventure hook.
He couldn't used weapons made of 'steele' for some reason and there seemed to be all kinds of self imposed rules as to what he could and couldn't do to accomplish his 'mission'.

At one point the commentators pointed out he seemed like he was playing a 'game' when he went on a shooting rampage and asked anyone who had played D&D to email them.

Everytime I heard them say "Dungeons and Dragons" I cringed. I half expected the defendent to pull out his dice (or worse a copy of KODT) as he sat there.

There was even one guest commentator who commented about the game and 'loner geeks'.

Jolly Blackburn

 

[Nightfall]

Jol, I'm not fan of things like Court TV (though I'm a fan of Law and Order (WAAAY back in day... ), so for me...D&D being on trial is just another way of society backlashing against what they see as "escapism". It's the same with any type of literature or thoughts that don't conform to the norm. Still this does hurt some people, but to me, it just proves the ignorance of others.

 

[rounser]

I find legal professionals and politicians scarey, because they are in positions of making important decisions affecting real lives - and seem just as often to be utterly ignorant about the topic they're making decisions on.

You can see the results of this acutely in the IT industry, where laws with glaring problems that are immediately apparent to even casual observers with a technical background are being generated seemingly monthly in recent years.

I remember reading about a Senator who was beloved because - among other things - he actually bothered to research the topics he was making decisions on. Speaks volumes.

 

[Nightfall]

And people wonder why I want to find God...or at least be one! :evil:

 

[BOZ]

I find legal professionals and politicians scarey

they all go to the same layer of Hell as insurance agents when they die. i work for an insurance company, i should know.

 

[Corinth]

Not all of them. Some are on the side of the angels. In the U.S., we call them "The National Lawyers' Guild". I'm proud to have two of the MN chapter's leadership as players in my Mage game.

 

[Mistwell]

Thank you, to those of you who have summarily bunched all people in my profession (law) together and shamelessly insulted all of us. Really, really appreciated.

I hear all gamers are the same too. And they all commit mass murder and blame games.

 

[Darklone]

Reminds me of a T-shirt with a chainsaw wielding troll...

"Not all RPgamers are psychotic geeks and serial murderers... BUT ME!"

 

[Aitch Eye]

Which side was it that brought up the issue of gaming? It would help to know if the prosecutor's were trying to make him look bad, or the defense was trying to make him look crazy, or whatever else it was that they might have been trying to do. I think people might react to assumptions about what was going on, and it's not clear from the description here.

And really, if the guy is insane, then his gaming may play a part in reconstructing what was going on in his head or led to the sequence of events. Not that gaming was responsible, but insane people can latch on, react to, and interpret things in ways that aren't entirely, you know, reasonable. That's probably a large part of the definition of insanity.

Most guys who're attracted to Jodi Foster don't try to kill the president (and I'm sure she wouldn't be that impressed by a guy who did). If someone thinks "Helter Skelter" is an incitement to race war, or draws a Star Trek insignia and a swastika on his vest and shoots preschool children, or is inspired by the story of Abraham and Isaac to become a serial killer, then they obviously don't have a subtle and informed grasp of their source material. But if you're going to find out whether, in what way, and how much someone's insane, you do have to bring it up. The lawyers in this case may be going beyond that, and maybe we should be worried, but I can't tell from what I've seen here.

Of course, in the examples above, it's easy for the general public and news commentators to draw a distinction between the insanity and the objects of fixation. With D&D, they just might prefer not to. If they don't know much about it and have no personal stake in it, there may not be much emotional satisfaction in knowing they were fair to it. I'm a little more worried about things on that end, but as I hadn't heard about this case and Court TV's ratings aren't tremendous, I'm can't guess how much impact it will have.

 

[hong]

Thank you, to those of you who have summarily bunched all people in my profession (law) together and shamelessly insulted all of us. Really, really appreciated.

I'm a statistician in the insurance industry. Join the club.


Hong "all we need now are a politician and a used car salesman" Ooi