Theo R Cwithin
I cast "Baconstorm!"
[Forked from this thread: "The curse placed on Irving Pulling?"]
In that thread, there's discussion about the D&D scare back in the 1980's-- something that was apparently largely restricted to the US. It's something that's very often talked about, and I get the impression that most serious gamers have some familiarity with the names and general situation.
I hear a lot less about similar "scares" in other countries. For whatever reasons-- cultural, media, etc-- it doesn't seem to be taken as seriously as a threat. However, a couple posters have indicated that it does to a degree.
What are similar scares in other countries?
How did it get resolved, if at all?
Other insights..?
Whether its D&D specifically or other gaming issues, I think it would be interesting to collect these kinds of observations into a single thread.
Here are a couple comments reposted from the original thread:
From France:
From Finland:
In that thread, there's discussion about the D&D scare back in the 1980's-- something that was apparently largely restricted to the US. It's something that's very often talked about, and I get the impression that most serious gamers have some familiarity with the names and general situation.
I hear a lot less about similar "scares" in other countries. For whatever reasons-- cultural, media, etc-- it doesn't seem to be taken as seriously as a threat. However, a couple posters have indicated that it does to a degree.
What are similar scares in other countries?
How did it get resolved, if at all?
Other insights..?
Whether its D&D specifically or other gaming issues, I think it would be interesting to collect these kinds of observations into a single thread.
Here are a couple comments reposted from the original thread:
From France:
Lemme tell you ...
You had Mrs pulling in the USA. In France we had two speakshow celebrities : Mireille Dumas and Jacques Pradel.
Both had talk shows about the horrible effects of RPGs. How people climbed to the roofs of churches playing vampires, and then committed suicide by overdosing.
After the rage died down somewhat, it was revealed the deceased guy was a drug addict undergoind mental therapy after being dumped by his girlfriend, being broke and having failed his uni exams.
Also we had a cemetery profanation beoing framed on RPG players when it was later revealed to have been an act of the local National Front racist thugs drunken party.
Despite all the debunking I was asked for years if I climbed to the roofs of churches at night. And it was serious queries, not jokes. (Some might have wanted to join if I did)...
And I still think it's best forgotten, even if not forgiven.
From Finland:
In Finland D&D and other similar games never really got that much attention in the media, because live role-playing was thrust into the spotlight fairly early. All the claims of satanism, violence, etc. were aimed at LARPers, almost exclusively. This didn't really have much effect, because LARPers here became quite organized (well, they'd have to be to play) and openly defended their hobby on national tv. The position of the media also helped a lot, because every time a story about RPGs and bad influences rose up, a different part of the media did a story on the way the opposers did their story, and the stories became more about how media was handling the stories than about the stories themselves. The media pretty much neutralized itself.