Historical Perspective: 1980s "60 Minutes" segment on D&D

[WizarDru]

For younger players, the notion of anti-D&D hysteria may seem quaint or hard to believe. It may even sound slightly ridiculous or that older gamers are exaggerating the impact of it. For those looking for historical perspective (or those looking to be reminded about 'the bad, old days', I present to you the following YouTube links to that report. If you ever wanted to see Gary back in the day or what Pat Pulling looked and sounded like, now you can.

Note: there's a good chance that CBS will request these removed once someone notices, so catch it while you can.

Part 1: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbcWKWp2UE4[/ame]

Part 2: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lN0nrrynb8[/ame]

Keep in mind that this was when the show "60 Minutes" was usually one of the highest rated shows on TV (this was before most folks had cable and pre-news channels), bringing in over 20 Million viewers weekly.

 

[WizarDru]

Nearly forgot to add: every claim made against D&D in this report has long since been proven false, from the 'D&D leads to suicide' to the ''Bink' Pulling was well-adjusted'. For details, you should visit the always excellent Escapist RPG Advocacy FAQs and read Michael Stackpole's very informative, detailed and well-researched Pulling Report.

If you've never visited the Escapist website, I highly recommend it. At the very least, visit the Spellcasting 101 section, as it's pretty darned funny.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

Wow, thanks for posting this! That really brings back memories...and not all of them are good!

I remember watching this 60 minutes episode when it came out. I also remember my aunt pulling out the B.A.D.D propaganda (given to her at church) when we came to visit, and trying to convince my parents that D&D was dangerous!

Fortunately, my father didn't get along with my aunt very well, and wasn't disposed to take her advice on much of anything ;-)

Ken

 

[Grimstaff]

Fascinating stuff, Wizardru, thanks for posting this.

It's very telling that out of 5000 suicides in 5 years, they connect 28 to being D&D players, and use that as grounds for their "expose". Of course, no numbers on how many of that 5000 were football players, cheerleaders, etc.

I also like the "expert" who claims one family actually witnessed their child summon demons into his bedroom with the spell from the D&D handbook.

Its infuriating to see the Pullings sit their impassively while their daughter weeps, taking no responsibility whatsoever that their son died from a self-inflicted wound from dad's own handgun. Remember parents, its ok to have guns in the house with your kids, just make sure they don't have any of that evil D&D...

 

[TerraDave]

One thing about all those acusations. They were good for sales.

Though they also led TSR to take a lot of the flavor out of the game in 2E.

 

[Festivus]

Wow, thanks for posting this! That really brings back memories...and not all of them are good!

I remember watching this 60 minutes episode when it came out. I also remember my aunt pulling out the B.A.D.D propaganda (given to her at church) when we came to visit, and trying to convince my parents that D&D was dangerous!

Fortunately, my father didn't get along with my aunt very well, and wasn't disposed to take her advice on much of anything ;-)

Ken

I can recall that you didn't openly talk about playing D&D, especially at High School, where you would be met with scorn and taunted as being a devil worshipper. Yes, it really was that bad. You had to speak in code about gaming and offer subtle clues (Star Trek was a giveaway) and guess if someone else was a player. To this day I still don't offer up that I play D&D... my wife volunteers that information freely without anyone even prompting her (to which I still flinch a little).

 

[WizarDru]

One thing about all those accusations. They were good for sales.

Though they also led TSR to take a lot of the flavor out of the game in 2E.

Both quite true. Gary stated multiple times that D&D didn't really take off until the controversy began...but by the time of this report, that was already pretty much peaking. It was the Egbert case that was mostly responsible for making D&D a nationally exposed thing.

 

[WizarDru]

Its infuriating to see the Pullings sit their impassively while their daughter weeps, taking no responsibility whatsoever that their son died from a self-inflicted wound from dad's own handgun.

Agreed...or the exploitative nature of the report itself, zooming in and prolonging it. Ironically, Patricia Pulling herself would later admit that her son used to walk around on the lawn 'baying at the moon like a wolf'. Besides the fact that they claim this is the first time they'd ever seen the D&D books, there were multiple sources that made it quite clear that her son had a lot of emotional problems prior to his suicide...none of which were D&D related.

 

[Dr Awkward]

Note: there's a good chance that CBS will request these removed once someone notices, so catch it while you can.

I've got both videos backed up, in the event that someone needs to see them. (For research purposes, of course!) Just drop me a note - contact info is on the site.

Now, I've got to find the Geraldo Rivera "Games That Kill" hatchet piece...

 

[Dykstrav]

How about those reports of nameless, locationless kids summoning D&D demons and astrally projecting themselves? And the leading questions? Are they making a program about investigative journalism, or are they simply citing urban legends?

I never really watched 60 Minutes before, but if this is their idea of journalism, it doesn't seem like I'm missing much.