WayneLigon
Adventurer
The following italiced text is from the City of Heroes board... Now, it sounds like someone's made-up fantasy to me but since it invokes a real person I thought I'd put it here and see what's what. I was not aware Dee was ever on staff at TSR, either, but that's something I rarely paid attention to then. Anyone know someone who can confirm or deny? I have no idea if Jeff reads these boards or not.
The net just puts issues in higher relief. I have been writing RPGs (or used to) since Gygax owned Tactical Studies Rules. True story, and from Jeff Dee, who co-wrote Villains and Vigilantes, so it's on topic for CoH ;-)
Jeff was a staff artist for TSR at one time (before joining the ranks of incredibly well paid writers and artists at FGU, tch'yeah). One day a tour came through of half a dozen kids. Possibly emotionally or intellectually challenged, he thought, since their motions were uncertain, their eyes did not track properly, their speech seemed blurry, etc. Two adults were shepherding the kids along, and he realized their dialogue with the children was along the lines of "and this is where they draw the pictures, you see, they make the images up here, etc."
He asked later and verified that these were kids so immersed in D&D that they were well into psychological damage territory. Their therapists had arranged a field trip to Lake Geneva to demonstrate that the game was a creation of people in offices.
That level of disassociation seems to be an inherent trap in the hobby in all its forms, for particularly vulnerable individuals.
The net just puts issues in higher relief. I have been writing RPGs (or used to) since Gygax owned Tactical Studies Rules. True story, and from Jeff Dee, who co-wrote Villains and Vigilantes, so it's on topic for CoH ;-)
Jeff was a staff artist for TSR at one time (before joining the ranks of incredibly well paid writers and artists at FGU, tch'yeah). One day a tour came through of half a dozen kids. Possibly emotionally or intellectually challenged, he thought, since their motions were uncertain, their eyes did not track properly, their speech seemed blurry, etc. Two adults were shepherding the kids along, and he realized their dialogue with the children was along the lines of "and this is where they draw the pictures, you see, they make the images up here, etc."
He asked later and verified that these were kids so immersed in D&D that they were well into psychological damage territory. Their therapists had arranged a field trip to Lake Geneva to demonstrate that the game was a creation of people in offices.
That level of disassociation seems to be an inherent trap in the hobby in all its forms, for particularly vulnerable individuals.
