Ignorance on the web

[I'm A Banana]

the difference between player and player character.

You know, this is a real common theme for those who are against D&D, and is maintained to this day for people like the Christians who say Harry Potter is the devil's work.

The core of this seems to be the same core that many of these people apply to the reading of the Bible: a sort of determined literalism that doesn't separate actual events and fictional events.

It seems that a pretty vocal contingent of fundamentalists have a real problem separating between Real Life and Fiction. I'd be lying if I said I haven't encountered D&D players who *do*, actually, have a problem making the same distinction (the guy who always plays a paladin because he wants to crusade comes to mind).

 

[Fifth Element]

"At least three people must play. One is the Dungeon Master, a controlling figure who devises the dungeon map and directs the game's flow. The other players are pitted against one another."

I think I like this part the best. I have personally played in games with less than three people, so hah! And we only try to kill other PCs every once in awhile.

Actually, I like the Google ads the best. I love irony.

 

[bolen]

Come on they left out the part where D&D taught me how to cast spells. Come on if these folks are going to write crazy things, Go all the way!!!

 

[Piratecat]

I would argue that intent is essentially irrelevant when it comes to deciding what constitutes acceptable discourse. One almost certainly could not make a racist joke here without being moderated; why is a sexist one ok? The spirit in both cases would presumably be the same.

Just so folks are clear, we don't tolerate gender, racial or gender-preference discrimination in any way. As part of that, we expect people to use good judgment when making jokes, and we expect the jokes to be funny. I'm not seeing a troubling violation of that trust in this thread.

I'll welcome an email if you want to chat about it, but please don't discuss it here.

And as always, everyone, stay clear of religious discussion or bashing, right?

 

[jhilahd]

I was talking to a fellow churchgoer the other day--she was mentioning a particular famous person she admired who played Dungeons and Dragons which she thought was messed up. I responded with "Why do you think that?" and she said "Isn't it satanic?" and I grinned and said, "I don't know--I've played it for years. What do you think?"

The problem is that there is a lot of ignorance but also some people of whatever religious belief would rather focus on demonizing some other group than actually doing what their spiritual beliefs claim they are meant to be doing. For Christians this includes sharing the message of God's salvation through the story of Christ, being good to our neighbor, praying for others, being charitable to the poor and having honesty and integrity. There are all kinds of problems that any given society has that are way more important than whether or not people are playing a fantasy roleplaying game.

Can I get an AMEN!
Preach it, Brother!

Jhilahd
Christian gamer for 20 or so years.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

It would be way too easy to step over the line in this thread so I'm going to be reserved.

This isn't really about religion or any of the other issues that generally get pointed out, not even singling out isolated or non-mainstream parts of society. At it's core it's about human nature, a lot of people need something to hate and ostracize in order to prop up their own sense of place because their entire world is based on how they perceive other people as perceiving them. Rather than the self-discipline and internalized sense of self they don't have without the approval of others. Some of them can change, some can't.

 

[Piratecat]

Just to forestall any problems -- no discussion of religion at all, please, pro or con. As usual.

 

[phindar]

I would just like to say:


Blackleaf! Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

[DogBackward]

I've been wondering... what's so bad about religious discussion? And saying "it leads to flame wars" doesn't count, because there are far to many things that lead to flame wars anyway. If you're worried about a religious discussion getting out of hand, why not just do the same thing that you would do to any other discussion that gets out of hand? Shut it down.

From what I've seen, most of the people on this site could handle a mature discussion about any subject. Why is religion specifically banned? Using the reasoning I think you're using (ban it before it becomes a problem) you'd have to ban jsut about everything people could possibly discuss, as eveything is potentially problematic.

Keep in mind, this is just me wondering and asking, not trying to start a revolt or something. I just want to know the reasoning, is all.

 

[Baron Opal]

Because religion and politics are two topics that people are very passionate about. So passionate in fact, that sometimes even really close friends avoid speaking on the subject because the truth is so obvious you just can't understand why he insists on being so wrong.

Practically every thread on such topics becomes too intense; feelings and pride are hurt. Sometimes you can skirt the line by asking what and why the other person believes and just leaving it at that.

Also, there is another forum, Circus Maximus, where such discussions are allowed. So if you really have to talk about it, you can talk about it there. Everyone there knows not to get their feathers ruffled over it, and if you do it's your own damn fault for going there.