Seriously? What cave have these people been sleeping in for the last 30 years? Yes, you’re right: things cost more than they used to, young people use curse words. But you know what? D&D turned out just to be a fucking game, one that may inspire dorky behavior, but nothing like the kind of disgusting behavior displayed by sports fans.
I lived in Huntsville for over a decade, and I’m here to tell you that you’ve got a lot more to fear from people who give a shit about the Iron Bowl than from people who liched out their 20th-level necromancers.
Where in the spectrum of warning signs about Bishop’s instability does D&D fit? Somewhere between the school shooting and shooting her own brother? Between shooting her own brother and sending a pipe bomb? Between sending a pipe bomb and conking a stranger at IHOP over an inconvenience? How about so inconsequential as not to be worth fucking mentioning, much less an entire article?
Well, okay. LARPers are a scary breed. The run around with foam swords, lobbing bean bags at eachother. Dī meliora!
Tell you what, you start counting deaths that can be linked to games and I’ll start counting deaths that can be linked to religion, and we’ll see who gets to seven figures first. Then we’ll see which is scarier.
Fortunately it seems the comments section on that article are universally tearing the Boston Herald a new asshole.
I hope the editor and/or the reporter (depending whose bright idea this was) get a mark on their permanent record for this unless they make a Save vs. Idiocy on a d20.
I viewed that incident as a step up for D&D in the social hierarchy. In a different article I read, the officials made the point that, whether or not it’s actually dangerous, the prisoners are no longer entitled to the privileges of civilized living. This may be the first time I’ve seen D&D officially declared one of the privileges of civilized living.
That piece sure has a heavy editorial bias. Particulary the phrase “egghead escape” to describe D&D - isn’t that kind of unprofessional? Is the Boston Herald always like that?
As a LARPer for over eleven years, I get this all the time.
Two of my neighbors will make fun of my hobby all the time. They’ll explain it to people (oftentimes while I’m not around, mind you) using condescending language and wild exaggerations. One of them will then turn around to me and say:
“Hey, you wanna play some Heroscape?” :rolleyes: They play at least once a week.
If I was in prison I’d be very afraid of someone wanting me to play with Uncle Wiggily.
Unfortunately, my wife is of the mindset that D&D players are all socially backwards nerds incapable of establishing and maintaining healthy relationships and refuses to let my 17 year old honor roll son play. I tried to remind her that I used to play and I turned out OK.
Hmm. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t want him to play?
