Ignorance on the web

[Kae'Yoss]

Have any of you guys heard of Berit Kjos (Google Check, DC 5)? She has a lot of stuff on the level of Jack Chick and Bill Schnoebelen regarding D&D as some sort of occultic catch-all.

Not until now, but I'll look into it. It's always astounding what people come up with when they want to slander someone or -thing but can't find any actual negative things.

 

[bodhi]

I'll take "Flaming Trolls" for $200, Alex.

It's always astounding what people come up with when they want to slander someone or -thing but can't find any actual negative things.

What is "the Internet"?

 

[TarionzCousin]

I think the article more accurately describes HOL: Human Occupied Landfill.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hol_(role-playing_game)


"P.S. The Game Master in HoL, is known as the Holmeister." --Sweet! That's what I'm going to make my players call me from now on!

 

[Cameron]

I've seen a couple in the past get pretty nasty. You are talking about something that can be a core part of someone's identity. It is such an emotional issue for some people that they have difficulty remaining calm in the face of what they percieve as an attack on their very being. When things start to go downhill, the replies pick up their own momentum, more and more them getting posted faster and faster. While the mods can step in, there are times when it takes a little while for a mod to get to a particular thread and shut it and the argument/flaming down. During that delay, a lot of damage can be done. I seem to recall a heated period a couple of years back. For a while afterwards, posting seemed to be down in general and discussions much more muted. It is simpler to just make it clear it is not an acceptable topic than to try and clean up afterwards.

Well, with regards to things getting out of hand, I have seen a group of Muslims issuing death threats to those arguing against them on the matter of religion on another board, so I think it prudent for the Mods here to nix that before it begins...

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I think the article more accurately describes HOL: Human Occupied Landfill.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hol_(role-playing_game)


"P.S. The Game Master in HoL, is known as the Holmeister." --Sweet! That's what I'm going to make my players call me from now on!

Nah, much too tame for HoL.

The introduction to HoL reads something like this:

"This game will **** you up. If you play this game, you will, sooner or later, jump down the balcony of your local theatre with seven running chainsaws strapped to various body parts, and chances are, it will be the matinee showing of Bambi, too.

So if you want to become the focus of attention on a big, solid, humming chair, go and play this game."

 

[Beowolf]

just to shift some blame to where it is more acceptible and less personal or at least blames religion too much.

i did an essay on this very subject of D&D discrimination, and i can say without a shadow of a doubt that what they came up with was absolutly crazy, let alone unfounded.
just take that pushings woman with her badd group (love the irony of the cool b.a.d.d. guys thought up). they fabricated and cherrypicked constantly, but i have to say ultimately the blame for the anti-d&d craze is not nearly the sole responsibility of the religious community, far from it.

first off, blame the media. if it weren't for sensationalists and alarmist tv shows and news none of the real crazies would have ever been heard. if it weren't for those lowlifes the likes of pushings would not have ever had a voice or be taken seriously. unfortunately our media is.. well a lot of really nasty words (be imaginative and make your own expletive laden description)

while the media is very responsible for helping the nuts get their crap out there, the next level of responsibility falls on all the non religious organizations that bought into the anti-d&d crap. from schools,libraries , to even police stations they all accepted the propaganda material and believed it. had these non religious organizations actually looked into anything themselves i am certain that the anti-D&d craze would have gone nowhere at all. at the very least kids would not have suffered because of it. ( and by suffer i am serious, it got to the point that players had "evidence" and drugs planted in efforts to prove their "guilt". really it was horrifying what was happening at the height of the craze)


i think in the end it was thanks to the efforts of a courageous police officer who looked into the whole story and wrote some information to counter the ridiculous assertions made by the crazies that actually ended the anti-d&d craze at least for most part: they still had pushings on some shows with even more insane accusations, acutally the worst( or at least most unbelievable) of the so called deviltry leveled at D&D came from this end period, they had to make up more and more outlandish claims to get people to listen to them.
thats where we get the brunt of the "they can actually cast spells and summon real demons" bs came from, prior to that it was more that they just tried to cite statistics related to suicide and murder out of context (not that those tactics were not anymore outlandish, considering they actually ended up showing that D&D players committed suicide at rates below the national average) i still get a kick about how they believed that D&D players were casting spells and the like when pushings herself swore she had a telepathic premonition concerning her sons suicide, talk about hypocracy.

i got all my info from around the net, do some searches and you can easily find some great articals and studies done, i found this one where rpgs were used to help treat a young person who had attempted to commit suicide, the therapist really liked how rpgs helped him with his therapy and treatment.

and again it was never most or all churches that got on the bandwagon, i recall a great piece about a group of players at a school who were persecuted by a loony teacher who accused them of casting spells and curses ect. when one of the students was a son of a prominent local minister.


oh and if any of you think things can get bad here, go over to shoutwire, there its a whole new ballgame of flaming and the like. really its everything the net has to offer, especially the worst kind, but you do get some decent debates and conversations now and then. i myself am quite politically minded and have gone from participating in some really great debates to bashing the topic's nazi/kkk/conspiracy theorists/utter nutjobs/ect posters. it lets you cut lose and say whatever,

 

[Kae'Yoss]

i did an essay on this very subject of D&D discrimination, and i can say without a shadow of a doubt that what they came up with was absolutly crazy, let alone unfounded.

I know. Imagine my disappointment when I couldn't find a single invocation in the Player's Handbook. I was really keen on summoning a succubus for those unearthly, forbidden carnal pleasures everyone was talking about! But it only talked about what characters could do in the game, not how it's done in real life. First, I thought that the real knowledge would be in the other core books, or in some supplements.

Now I have dozens of books and still no succubus to keep me kinky kompany. And don't get me startet about mind bondage or violent, destructive powers!

What a rip-off!

 

[DungeonMaester]

Says the guy with "Burn in Hell" graphic as his sig.

Evil, indeed.

But I am Lawful Evil

Ruling the world so you don't have to,

---Rusty

 

[Rabelais]

Damn, why can't I get my astral projection on when I play!! Much less, summoning demonic critters!! That guy must be good.

I'm telling you... you have to call Geek Squad after the Astral Projector goes on the blink...

Hey was there anything about Pentagrams and astral projectors in that Mega-post about the Ultimate Gaming Table?

Seriously though, if you want real ultimate power, you're going to need a ninja.

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

You know what separates us from the close minded nutcases who post on threads like that? We, as a group, tend to be a little more open minded, know that there are multiple sides to every situation, and can think rationally.

And one more thing separates us. We can appreciate a joke, we have a sense of humor, and know that lightly joking comments can be taken in the spirit in which they are offered: levity and humor.

I thought it was because we have opposeable thumbs and the family tree forks.