What D&D and gaming in general has done for me...

[DonTadow]

It provided me the perfect hobby. I remembered struggling in college trying to find something that combined my love for writing, strategy and games . The game made me more open minded and I gained friends that I would have never gained otherwise. I lost a lot of friends but I gained a lot of better ones in the process.

And, though it was a joke earlier, I've dated some really cool women because of the hobby. WHen I went out on dates it was the one subject that seperated me from the carbon copy hip hop guys my last few girlfriends were used to dating.

 

[Aristotle]

What has D&D done for me...
Aside from being a huge money sink and luring me away from other tasks, even when those tasks should take priority? It's saved my life.

I hung with that "wrong crowd" everyone always talks about. I came up with them. I pulled pranks and vandalized with them. I fought with and beside them. If it weren't for a guy in summer school back in the 6th grade, who lent me the original Dragonlance trilogy and offered to show me a cool game, I probably would have died or gone to prison with them too. I saw to many friends lowered into the ground. I watched to many of them turn our childhood pranks into dangerous criminal activity and eventually get locked up for it.

It's so strange to me that a game I had to hide from my parents, due to their strong religous beliefs and a seminar that they attended at a church about "satan's games", ended up being the one thing that could keep me in the house and out of trouble. While my "friends" were scrounging up cash for a gun, I was doing the same for another pizza and a boss of soda.

Peripherally it also inspired me to seek out knowledge and better my understanding of the world around me. It was a contributing factor in my purchase of a computer in '96, which lead to me finding an interest and career in information technology.

Gaming has been very good to me.

 

[buzz]

I was already a voracious reader and writer of genre fiction when I found RPGing, so I'm not surprised that it's become a life-long obsession for me (save for the inevitable years in college when you decide you're "too grown up" for gaming [and are afraid of not being able to meet women], but even that did not last long). I mean, they're *books you can play*. That's pretty much nirvana for me.

Anyway, the main thing I can say RPGs have done for me is to forge some of my closest friendships. RPGs (and D&D in particular) has always managed to provide a great excuse to get out and meet people dring those times in my life when I was feeling left out or alone. Some of my strognest friednships were born out of gaming. Only my invovlement in music (various bands and so forth) has even come close.

This is the main reason I could never understand the hostility towards gaming. It's one of the few geek activities that's inherrently *social*.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

As a pre-teen and teen, D&D expanded my vocabulary and improved my spelling. It gave me a constructive outlet when many of my friends were out doing things they could (and sometimes did) get arrested for. It really has defined a large part of my life. It sounds sad, but it is true. The game, and role-playing in general, are very helpful in exercising creativity and expanding the mind. I am glad I started gaming again.

DM

 

[Oryan77]

D&D keeps me from being in debt. If I roll dice this bad as a player in D&D, I don't trust Lady Luck at the Casino. D&D is a life saver.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It helped me learn to think outside the box and Gygaxian English in 1E expanded my vocabulary enormously, even if half the words were for prostitutes, obscure French polearms or "fane."

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

The best thing it did for me is help cultivate my creative side and meet great friends.

The worst thing it did for me si create a huge money sinkhole and time sinkhole. But I would have blown the time and money on something else, I'm sure.

 

[Napftor]

D&D both inspired and allowed me to be published! And of course there's the entertainment it's given me and my friends for the last 20 years.