How Did It Start?

[palleomortis]

I have the same question. The only people I know that hate RPGs are other gamers that don't like a particular system. And even then, hate is too strong a word for the people I know in person. It mostly just applies to anonymous people on the internet. I think if I asked 10 people at random on the street if they hated RPGs, I'd be surprised if any of the 10 would know what I'm talking about.

On the topic - I saw a guy at lunch today wearing a Games Workshop T-Shirt. I wanted to go over and say "uh, this is d20 turf buddy, we don't want your kind around here" which I thought would be hilarious just by virtue that he's probably used to no one even knowing what the shirt's about. Then again, if he spends a lot of time on the internet he'd probably pull a knife on me. And until they change the artwork I don't think d20 is worth getting stabbed over.

Yea, My mom has never really been very supportive, but my dad plays so she lets it go. I found out why tho, a while ago. My mom and dad got into an argument about d&d, and my dad told her that as long as she didn't do anything stupid*wink wink* then it was a fun game! My mom apperantly played it with him once, and WASN'T doing the smart stuff *wink wink*

 

[Henry]

YES!!!! What's with all that?

Truth be told, Doc Awkward's site above explains it better than anyone here can, I'm betting. He's got it thoroughly.

 

[palleomortis]

Yea, just saw it. True stuff. I can't believe some of the people. True, losing a loved one is dificult, but to rage a war on every player in the world is a bit insane.

 

[palleomortis]

Refferring to the mom that started B.A.D.D.

 

[WayneLigon]

YES!!!! What's with all that?

Well, use Google like he said and you'll find out The quintessencial paper on the spread but not the root cause is is Mike Stackpole's Pulling Report, http://www.rpg.net/sites/252/quellen/stackpole/pulling_report.html

I used to have a link to a great page that explained all the minutia behind the Egbert incident, but can't find it right now. The Escapist summary is probably the best:

... the tale of James Dallas Egbert, who hid in the steam tunnels beneath his university and attempted (and failed) to commit suicide with a drug overdose. There is no evidence that he went down there to play D&D, as there was no one with him, and he didn't have any dice or books. Plus, he admitted his intentions to the media. Despite that, investigator William Dear, chose to print the gaming angle, partially in an attempt to protect both Dear and his family members from the truth about his homosexuality and drug abuse.

Dear's book, Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III, is still in print and available from Amazon.

A slow news day, incomplete but sensationalistic 'facts' and pure laziness combined together to create an urban legend that still hasn't died to this day. You don't see much media attention from it, since that's switched to video games, but you still find it. A kid asked me about D&D at the comic shop three years ago or so and his Mom pipes up with 'I've heard of people that've died playing that'.

 

[Dr Awkward]

In a nutshell, it was the Egbert/Dear case that created the legend that D&D was "dangerous" - then the Pulling case colored it specifically "occultic" and/or "satanic."

I've been meaning to add that point to the FAQ. Something else that doesn't appear there that came to me after I wrote all that - Pat Pulling was approached by a police officer right after her son was found dead and asked if her family worshipped the devil. When she recoiled from the question, he showed her a D&D book that he had found in Bink's bedroom. She admitted to having no idea what it was (all of this comes from Pulling's book "The Devil's Web").

It's possible that's where her whole campaign started, right there. If that officer had a Barry Manilow LP in his hand at the time, things could've been very different.

- DocAwk

 

[palleomortis]

Poor egbert, I told my mom too much school would kill me, but noooooo...

 

[HellHound]

Ok, I know that there are the people that absolutly HATE D&D and other rpg's, but the thing I don't know is WHY? How did it start that gave them such a bad rep?

For me it was one set of products that gave me the hate.

The original Dragonlance modules.

Never have I played a more rail-roading adventure. It didn't help in the least that the other players and the DM had read the novels, but I hadn't.

I quit playing and running AD&D and swore to never pick up AD&D2e after that, and moved on to other games.

I never did get back into AD&D1e, and never bought into 2e at all.

It was having kids approaching gaming age and the release of 3e that brought me back.

 

[CarlZog]

Suicide is a horrifying thing to deal with, particularly when it happens to the young. Afterward, people need to know why, need a cause, something to blame; parents desperately need something besides themselves to blame.

I the case of Pulling and Egbert, I think the game made for an easy scapegoat, and one that the media was quick to latch on to. It had all the earmarks of a compelling story: something dark, threatening and mysterious was insidiously inserting itself into the lives of our young people. Details at Eleven...

Having nothing to do with suicide, there are other folks who are just always looking for scapegoats -- something or someone to blame for everything that's wrong. Look around; D&D is the absolute least of the innocent things in this world that are stamped as "evil" by somebody or other.

Carl