Is D&D good?

[VirgilCaine]

I mean, heck, its not even totally unselfish - haven't these people ever heard of having a legacy?

Ever watch PBS? "Paid for in part by the Carnegie foundation"?
IIRC it was Carnegie who thought it would be a disgrace to die with so much money and so he created a charity to spend some of it. So some rich guys do think of it.
You could make a book analyzing why rich people don't establish more charities nowadays.
One theory I have--look at the income tax and corporate tax and capital gains taxes and see how much is taken out. Then figure out why people are so greedy these days. Greed breeds greed, I suppose.

 

[TracerBullet42]

all - I'm sorry it's been coming out in some of my posts, but I'm having a REALLY bad week (about the 4th worst ever, and if you knew my history, that's saying a LOT) and I guess its got me thinking more than usual about how things are just screwed up all over. I feel like I should be doing more with my life, and looking around, I see a lot of other people that it seems like are letting themselves and the rest of us down, too. And it makes me feel guilty about not doing anything about it, but I'm tired. If you're happy and enjoy D&D, I don't mean to take anything away from that - probably the best GOOD thing in the world is managing to be happy in all this crap.

Like Rel said...try doing something nice for someone. Better yet, for many people. It doesn't even have to be something big. Just something. Go to the mall and hold open the doors for people. Help someone carry stuff. Have pennies on hand for when the guy in front of you at the cashier has a total of $20.02. Pay the toll for the car behind you at the manual booth. Buy lunch for someone. Talk to the bored cashier...anything. Oh, and always say, "Thank you."

People will think you're crazy...in a good way. And it just might change the way someone thinks about the world...

Maybe I'm just obliviously optimistic, but I know it makes me feel better to help someone out. Especially complete strangers.

 

[Henry]

Torm, another way you could have improved your outlook this weekend was by coming with me to the gameday, and meet some of the these cool people you're talking to but I hope it gets better, bud.

 

[Greyhawk_DM]

I hope this isn't considered off topic, I'll give it a try and hope for the best.
I'm doing a report for school on D&D and have only found extremely negative things about D&D. (all religious) is there anywhere that shows why D&D is a good thing?
Hope someone can help.

Here is an article written by Tracy Hickman on the Ethics and Morality of the D&D game.

http://www.trhickman.com/Intel/Essays/Ethic1.html

Later...

 

[Trainz]

I can't begin to describe why D&D is good. Here's the most important one in my case:

When life is hard, and I get depressed, at least I have my weekly game to look forward to. You have no idea how many times this happened to me. Hell, a decade or two ago, it might even have prevented me from doing something terribly bad (I don't have a particular event in mind, but it might).

When I play, I don't answer the phone. I'm having too much of a good time.

In this day and age, sometimes it's hard to find something in your life that you feel passionate about. D&D always gave me a "love at first sight" feeling of trepidation. For 19 years. Every week.

That's something quite powerful.

 

[Caspian Moon Prince]

Years ago, several friends in my gaming group became EXTREMELY religous to the point of being nutcases, not as bad as ol Chick but to the point they called D&D evil...and they played the game for years. Anyways, this caused a big schism in our groups that left it down to two members(my best friend and me).

Shortly afterwards my mother started thinking that my few(very few) teen age rebellous acts were because of D&D and soon said I wasn't to play it. I still did saying I was playing other rpgs, which she didn't have a problem with, and eventually convinced her otherwise. She was more excited that I was when I was getting published for the first time(down in the signature). Also, one of the people from that group eventually calmed down and has since played again on occassions.

That was slightly off-topic, but that was just to show some points in my life where people thinking D&D is evil has influenced my life. Besided my friends that left, most people, including my mother, have only heard the "bad parts" of D&D. Most will come around if it is explained to them using facts. I did, and it really helped.

D&D, and rpgs in general, are games that really expand a person's horizons. I have learned a lot from playing and learning about roleplaying games. There truly is no type of game better IMO.

 

[Hida Bukkorosu]

I think you misunderstand me. I'm NOT down on myself or other gamers, exactly. I know that what we do - most of us, anyway - is a lot better than what we could be doing. And there are good aspects of gaming - fellowship and social skills, history and math and so on.

It's just this: For most of us, in the game, if our characters heard that there was a horrible plague, or a famine, or an oppressive government in a neighboring land (that wasn't an enemy), we would be off and charging to the rescue. And this is a certain amount of hypocrisy when we DO hear these things everyday in the real world, and we just keep on keepin' on. And I'm as guilty as anyone else. Because its HARD. And I don't have Holy Smite. Would that stop my Paladin? No, but it stops me. And that's bad.

And I said "bad", not "evil". It's not evil - evil is the scumsuckers who set things up like this in the first place. The ones who don't fight the good fight even though they HAVE the power. The ones who make us forget that if we all got up and did something, we WOULD have the power.

I game, and it makes me happy. And I don't feel bad for gaming. I feel bad for giving up the good fight. Gaming just happens to be one of the things I do since I surrendered. And I don't think I'm alone. Why is it that it's mostly those of us who are smart enough to understand what's going on in the world around us who are drawn to RPGs? A desire to escape to somewhere where we can win the good fight, at least until we have to go home again?

I probably would've remained quiet on this subject if I had seen more balance in the responses, but everyone is usually so eager to defend what they're doing that they DON'T provide balance. And there is the slightest kernel of truth to the point the Fundies make (that a lot of them probably don't understand, themselves), which is that anything that doesn't serve good serves evil in a way. It's cliche, but true - all evil needs to win is for good people to stand by and do nothing.

It's because most of us aren't Good. We're Neutral.

And that's OK by me.

 

[Li Shenron]

To me, D&D is not more "good" or more "evil" than any other game. It doesn't do harm to people, except possibly taking their interest away from other things in life If that would qualify as "evil" - together with the fact that while you are playing your not "helping the world" - I suppose that 99% of activities are evil, including working, doing sports, watching tv or cinema, listening to music, having an artistic activity, collecting, reading, and why not even going to the church while you could instead help the poor in a more concrete way.

It's a game, and I don't understand how it possibly have any moral or ethical complication to sit at a table, talking to each other and rolling some dice.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, I seem to recall an article in Skeptical Enquirer... (SI is a debunkers magazine published by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, members of CSICOP have included John Gardner, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, and the Amazing Randi.)

Let's do a quick Google.
Well, it was in the Winter 1994 (vol. 18, no. 2) issue, but the article itself is not found by Google. I did find an article citing it though.

Article

The Auld Grump

 

[Torm]

Rel - I wasn't exactly targeting the rich, save that they are the ones that you can SEE doing what I'm talking about the most. It's pretty much anyone who doesn't follow what Uncle Ben said about power and responsibility - regardless of how much power they wield. I guess that even includes me, since that's part of what I've had my knickers in a wad about.

VirgilCaine - Carnegie was a name that kept floating through my head while I was writing that, but I decided to leave individual names out, 'cause I was afraid it would change the subject from the moral issue I was talking about to the pros and cons of a single person. He does illustrate my point, though - here's a guy that did do some of what I'm talking about, even though he was known as kind of a jerk in the business world of the day. Where are our Carnegies?

all - I appreciate the kind words and suggestions. It helps when I can remember that people do still care enough to spare kind words for a stranger. And I am starting to feel better about things. And since I guess that's a Good thing coming directly out of D&D, I guess what I'm saying is.....

nevermind.