Necromancer Games Under Fire?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Chick's articles are old, hilarious, and well-known to rpg geeks. There was a kickstarter for a deadpan dramatic reanactment of his cartoon a while back. Come to think of it, one of Necromancer Games' adventures featured a misguided thief named Black Leaf.

Heh -- Dark Dungeons the OSR retro-clone uses Marcie and Blackleaf in a lot of their game examples.

As to Clark -- utterly ridiculous unless it were somehow proven he was gaming or running Necromancer business on taxpayer time, which for a judge is almost too ludicrous to consider. Just proves that fear, superstition, and jealousy continue to rule the ignorant.

I remain in the "gaming closet" professionally for just that reason.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A minor point of clarification:

Judas Priest didn't have to defend its lyrics, which would be odd since the song was a Spooky Tooth cover and thus Gary Wright wrote the song. (Which would have been funny to see court; Wright also wrote "Dream Weaver," notoriously successful bubblegum.) Judas Priest was sued for putting in backwards lyrics with a suggestive message for the listener to kill himself. The judge ruled (erroneously) that the alleged hidden message wasn't subject to First Amendment protection. Thus the trial focused on whether or not the band recorded a backwards message and whether this message asked the listener to kill himself, both of which were of course silly and found as such.

100% correct, and thank you. I was just phrasing it the way most people would have heard it in the news.

 

[Kobold Boots]

I feel badly for Clark. But I think I may be the only person on this forum community that thought these things in order:

1. Man, Clark's had a rough run the last two years. I sympathize.
2. Man, Clark's got a job with significant social impact and heavy responsibility too. I could see wanting to delve into a hobby to break some stress.
3. Oh, crap, he's been posting during work hours considering point 2. He's toast.

People make mistakes, but there's a real difference between posting on a game forum from your job at Gamestop and doing it in your chambers on County property between hearings. A LOT of work can get done during what is popularly referred to as down time. Judges and lawyers don't live in what I'd call the "normal" work world either.

I'm rational enough to know that I don't know what I don't know and I don't know Clark.
Ditto for the fact that media and stories have bunches of sides. We got one.
But come on.. anyone that's like "he who has not browsed at work cast the first.. " get real. Not even remotely relevant.

 

[barasawa]

Ignorant scum.

He posted during lunch at work. So what. Do you expect him to read legal findings during lunch? Heck no, lunch is a time to eat and unwind a bit before going back to work. Only a dumb workaholic who doesn't care about totally eroding his efficiency obsesses about work during lunch.

He's a fantasy gamer. It's something he does for fun. You know, a hobby. It happens to be a social hobby that promotes strategy & tactics, as well as exercising imagination and creativity while often fostering an interest in other things, such as history for fantasy (as most are somewhat based on actual history in one way or another) or in science if it's a science fiction based game. On top of that, most campaigns are heroic, ie you play a hero that is saving the town/world/whatever from the evil villain.
If there's something wrong with that, then perhaps we should ban hunters from being judges as it is often a loner activity and involves killing animals from a distance, often involving hiding. It is known to foster an interest in various ranged weapons, especially guns.
How about NASCAR fans? They sit around watching cars drive really fast in a circle. Obsessing about crashing and dreaming about driving at insane speeds themselves. Perhaps while swilling beer.

Basically I find this a really low and scuzzy way to try and impugn the judge with false innuendo and lies.

I'd like to game with someone like that judge. Anyone that can make it through what he had to in the process to become a judge, and still retain enough fun to play, is someone worth gaming with.

 

[dwayne]

small minded people who can not understand something, thanks to people like this we had the dark ages. If it was up to them we would still be riding horses and using candles to read by with books only approved by the same small minded people. Creativity and forward thinking have always suffered at the hands of those without it, some day I hope mosst are removed from the pool and we can move past superstitious rhetoric and beliefs.

 

[Kobold Boots]

He posted during lunch at work. So what.

Replying to the only part of your post that's relevant. Read the article. None of the quoted posts were posted during a lunch hour or lunch break.

 

[scourger]

Sad. More sad that he is going through bankruptcy and divorce. I hope he doesn't lose his job on top of it.

 

[Libramarian]

The most ridiculous thing about this article is the balance of emphasis on the fact that he plays RPGs vs. the fact that he's filed for bankruptcy twice in two years and is getting divorced. I mean it actually seems reasonable to me to criticize the character and capacity of a judge while they're going through divorce and bankruptcy. But this article is 95% about an irrelevant hobby. Sad illustration of contemporary American culture that playing RPGs is more embarrassing than being unable to manage your finances or keep a marriage together.

 

[tomBitonti]

Heck, just presiding over divorce cases while in the midst of a divorce is possibly a conflict of interest to the right observer.

Additional text omitted.

But, the issue is not just an actual conflict, but also the appearance of one. (I thought.)

A divorce might be an actual conflict; a divorce might give a judge a good insight into the process.

The potential for an actual confict seems pretty high.

Thx!

TomB

 

[tomBitonti]

The article maligns both rpgs and Judge Peterson.

Being an enthusiast hobbyest is hardly abnormal. If such is a problem, then folks who, say, have a similarly strong interest in golf, or sports, or music of several genres should be in a similar bind. Or, say, a scout leader, or an amateur painter.

What I obtain from the listed activities is that Judge Peterson had a small business, and has had a strong involvement in community activities.

The strongest points, pertaining to divorce and bankruptcy, are themselves meaningless without context. Without knowing any details, these tell us very little. Without those details, they seem intentionally prejudicial.

Anyways, this sort of article rather gets under my skin.

Thx!

TomB