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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 1085622" data-attributes="member: 7240">Joshua,Let's take a really minimalist approach here, just to illustrate clearly what I'm saying.D&D entails having literacy skills at a certain level. People who have low or non-existent literacy skills cannot play the game without the assistance of others. I cannot see how anyone could argue that the 5-20% of our population with low or non-existent literacy skills would be represented amongst D&D players in exactly the same numbers as people with high literacy skills.Even if one credits that a certain portion of D&D players have some form of illiteracy, there is absolutely no way that such people would be attracted to D&D in precisely the same numbers as people without literacy problems. Based on this reality alone, one can state that D&D players are more literate than the population at large.In self-selecting samples, certain traits are almost always over-represented. I would be stunned if, as you contend, amateur basketball players have the same average height as people in society at large. People are disproportionately attracted to recreational pursuits in which they are relatively advantaged. A certain portion of the population are arhythmic -- I don't expect these people to be proportionately represented amongst amateur ballroom dancers.One's proficiency at the skills set required for a hobby is, even if not the primary factor, clearly a significant factor in determining whether people take up that hobby. What you are in effect suggesting is that whether people are good at a particular recreational activity has no bearing whatsoever on whether they take up said activity. Now, it is no doubt true that in some cases, proficiency at an an activity has no bearing on whether an individual takes it up. But, from a statistical standpoint, what you are are arguing is not that it sometimes has no bearing (which I can accept) but, rather, that it never has a bearing.</blockquote>

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