Mazes & Monsters: Any Good?

[Mark Hope]

Mazes & Monsters is a prized peice of gamer culture, not least for its 80's-era rpg-hysteria. Worth it for the wonderfully hokey gaming scenes, if for nothing else. Buy it. It'll tide you over until Dorkness Rising comes out in a few weeks...

 

[Darkwolf71]

It is a fictional movie, based on a fictional book that was based on a real life 16 year old kid's disappearance and eventual suicide.

Real short version: Child prodigy suffers depression and is a closeted homosexual, his confusion and pressures from his family drove him to leave his college and make several suicide attempts. An investigator was hired to find him, in his investigation he learned about the D&D game the kid played. He formed a hypothesis that we are all familiar with: live action game, character dies, kid tries to kill self. He abandoned the theory, but after he finally located the missing boy, he was asked to keep the truth secret. Wanting to do right by the boy, he returned to his abandoned idea and called it truth. Several years later, after the kids final, successful suicide attempt, the investigator wrote a book telling the real story of the case, but the media already had it’s ‘truth’ and the damage was already (unintentionally) done.

You can read a (longer) short version at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dallas_Egbert_III#Egbert_incident

or a much longer, more detailed account here:
http://ptgptb.org/0006/egbert.html

It is a sad and tragic story. I think anyone who role plays should be familiar with it, as it is indeed the basis of much of the confusion and hate that D&D is still subject to, even today.


The movie? Heck, I like it. Own a copy. The acting is ‘early eighties bad’, but it’s not horrible. It’s only Tom Hanks’ second film but his talent still shows through.

 

[deadplayer]

I think it's a fascinating sociological/anthropological artifact, but a lousy movie.

I think so!

 

[Felon]

Fun little movie. I particularly like the parts they went over the top with, like the ritualistic method of telling everyone about their character, and how mortified the gorup was when one of the characters actually died.

 

[Soel]

Tom Hanks' crying scene on the top of the Twin Towers is a gutbuster! Ranks right up there with Brad Pitt's crying fit in Seven.

But the super downbeat ending...There's really no hope to be found.

 

[Felon]

But the super downbeat ending...There's really no hope to be found.

Hey, Robbie is having a great time off in his fantasy world. What's he missing out on? An 8:30 to 5:00 job five days out of the week? And on the weekends, spending $4 a gallon at the pump while carrying out his honeydo list and drivng his kids around? Makes me wonder why those kids in the D&D cartoon were so anxious to get back home.

I'm envious of anyone who can pull off a psychotic break of that variety. It entails all of the fun of sitting around in your undies smoking bowls and playing Xbox all day every day, while at the same time qualifying one for an SSDI payout.



This cup is easily half full.

 

[Umbran]

I liken it to Jack Chick's Dark Dungeons in purpose. It shows what some people think about our hobby ...

Just to be clear - it is about what some people thought about our hobby, more than 20 years ago. The movie was released in 1982, based on a book from 1981, which was based on a case from 1979...

 

[Fast Learner]

Just to be clear - it is about what some people thought about our hobby, more than 20 years ago. The movie was released in 1982, based on a book from 1981, which was based on a case from 1979...

But worth noting that Dark Dungeons is still published and available.

 

[Umbran]

But worth noting that Dark Dungeons is still published and available.

Jack Chick's personal persistence does not imply anything people in general.

 

[Fast Learner]

Jack Chick's personal persistence does not imply anything people in general.

Granted.