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Originally posted by Mkhaiwati

okay, a few more.

I saw Michael Stackpole talk at a recent convention here, and he said quite a lot of things, most of which I don't remember well enough to post with any accuracy. One thing that stuck out in my mind was that in the big cases , Pulling and Egbert, the sons had a lot of emotional problems that existed outside the game. In fact, the accusations against D&D were started by parents wanting to blame something else, not themselves.

Egbert, if I recall correctly, was homosexual in a time it was not accepted at all, and he had made contact with the local "underground" gay society at the college he was going to. He was a genius, in that he was going to college at the age of 16 (I think, I know he was really young), away from home, didn't know anyone, and was a loner to begin with. So when he disappeared into the steam tunnels to commit suicide, and then later showed up at a professor's house (who was also gay), the family did not want to acknowledge this and jumped on the anti-D&D campaign.

Some links:

The Pulling Report by Michael Stackpole http://www.rpgstudies.net/stackpole/pulling_report.html

Interview with Michael Stackpole
http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/539/539635p1.html

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Originally posted by khorne

Ah, Stackpole. Not only does he write damn good Star Wars books, but he also defended D&D against what could be described as a hysterical bunch of overzealous paladins(yes, I've recently reread Thornhold, so I`m feeling a bit anti-paladin right now)

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Originally posted by Lemernis

I regard D&D as a game designed for healthy, well adjusted adults. I don't think it is appropriate that it be geared toward children or adolescents. No doubt there are always going to be some kids mature enough to play it. But the target audience should be the adult, not the child.

This game started as a phenomenon on U.S. college campuses in the mid 70's, when a humble game designer came up with a system to use dice and people's imaginations to "adventure" in fantasy worlds derived (pretty transparently) from Tolkien's Middle-earth. Tolkien's books were being 'discovered' at the time by that generation, and were beloved by many. It's a great idea for a game. For people to grant it any more power than that is silly.

The roleplaying of evil for impressionable youngsters is understandably worrisome to some. But so often anything teens can do to be rebel and test limits with their parents and the broader adult world of authority, they will. That's always going to be there.

Society is doing things arse-backwards if it is constantly conforming itself--even contorting itself--to the needs of children rather than adults. That's craziness. On the contrary, developmentally speaking, what is healthiest is for children to learn how to adapt amd conform appropriately to the adult world--and if society isn't teaching them that, frankly, it is failing them. (Imvho ;))

I've never been a great fan of Carl Jung's thought, because its theraputic applications seem questionable. But I do think the school of thought Jung started does make some intelligent and at least thought-provoking observations about how the human psyche might tend to work with respect to the imagination, as we find it expressed in religion, legend, myth, and the fantasy entertainment genre. Apart from D&D simply being wonderful recreation, I think it can actually be a healthy interest if explored from a Jungian viewpoint.

Where I do think it may become unhealthy is that for certain types its immersiveness probably ends up keeping people from giving fuller attention other important areas of life. But honestly, this can be equally true of avid golfers, sports fans (who do nothing but catch up on recorded games on TV), hunters, fishermen, musicians, etc. Some personalities are drawn to a kind of tunnel vision experience regardless of what their avocation is. And it takes a certain effort for them to keep that pastime in proper perspective in their life.

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Originally posted by ShadowJack

PenKnight,

Thanks for posting that article! It will be very useful in the future.

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