h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

<<It was a big issue here in the 70's thanks to that Tom Hanks movie where a D&D player murdered someone; my mom said it was a true story but who knows?>>

It was a true story, most reports conveniently neglected to mention that the murderer was already mentally unstable and that even the people he RP'd with thought he was wierd.

Answering post 25...

The Force is my ally; I shall not turn
It maketh me to wave round a green lightsaber
It leadeth me beside the still moisture vaporators
It restoreth my hand
It leadeth me in the path of the light side for midichlorians' sake

Yea, though I stand above the Pit of Carkoon
I will fear no Sarlacc: For the Force is with me;
Artoo and Threepio, they comfort me
Yoda preparest a tree before me with a presence of mine enemy
2-1B annointest my body with Bacta; my cup of weird looking blue stuff runneth over

Surely Yoda and Ben will follow me all the days of my life
and I will bring balance to the Force, forever.


H.

For what it's worth, I've never encountered the whole 'D&D is evil' thing (though I have heard of it), but then I am a British Christian...

I've never played D&D, though I have been a Games Master for a super-heroic RPG which was great fun. I'd quite like to play a fantasy-based RPG, though. Surely these games are semi-improvised drama, just with no audience?

David

You've hit the nail on the head there David...


By the way, I hope none of you guys who have posted here mind me quoting you in the article... it seems fairer to do that than just write it in and claim it's all my own work.

Yes David - improvised drama just about sums it up. You have put into one line that took me a whole page to explain.

Somebody recently asked me what it is with RPG that is so attractive. They were even more confused when I said that it can get so intense that it can reduce you to tears. They looked at me as if I was crazy and they may well be right. I had to think about it and came up with the following rationale.

How many people have seen a movie or play and have not been moved, even to tears, by the events being portrayed? In those circumstances you are allowing your imagination to be taken over by the author, to suspend reality and become part of the illusion created by the author. It is a very common phenomena - the entertainment industry depends on it.

With RPG, the same process is being used, only it is now in real time. You are not reacting to pre-determined events as written down in a script, but creating events of you own in real time. You are both the audience being inspired by the author, and at the same time, the author inspiring the audience. This becomes a self perpetuating chain reaction that can lead to sensations no time displaced author could ever hope to create.

Because of the interactive nature and the intensity of feelings it can engender, events can sometimes take unexpected turns. This can leave the participants with unpleasant emotions that no author can or would want to provoke - on the other hand it can also go the other way and lead to experiences that take you to the heights of passion.

To set this chain reaction in motion needs two people with a similar imagination and the skills to translate what is in their minds into words, at the same time reacting to the other person’s imagination. You need to get inside the other persons mind and to allow them to get inside yours so that both minds begin to work as one. It is rare to get this meeting of minds that can precipitate the chain reaction, but when it happens, watching a play or movie, no matter how well written and played, will be mind-numbing in comparison.

Donald

I have encountered the anti-roleplaying sentiment in Britain. I had a couple to my door attempting to force a copy of the watchtower onto me. On the frount cover it mentioned an article about why D&D players were going to hell. When I asked about this they told me that there were pictures of demons, which lead to devil worship and pictures of angels, which devalued the concept of an angel and made fun of it. I asked them to explain why the pictures of angels didn't inspire angel worship then I pointed out that the angels are classified 'lawfull good' and thus desirable and the devils 'lawfull evil' and thus undesirable so isn't it the other way round. They soon got exhasperated and left.

I've also come across a group of protestors outside of a wargames convention who were protesting the iraq conflict. One of the gamers pointed out that we don't have any military authority and most of us don't support it either. To which the protestor claimed that we were all simulating this sort of thing and that we were the most likely to push "the button". No, he replied, we know a lot about what might happen if someone did, we're the least likely to do it.

Until someone who actually plays the games gets worried. Or I see a truely objective study on the subject. I'm not going to buy into any of the dangers (physical or metaphysical) of any form of gaming.

As for what we get out of it, Donald makes an eloquent point, but I think theres more to it than that. I do improvisation and roleplaying and they certainly feel different somehow. I'd say if you want to know what it is play a game. If you don't feel like it just accept our right to do it, I don't know why people jump off cliffs into the sea, but I don't start claiming they're going to burn in hell for it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4397159.stm

Great... just as things were really looking up for RPGs another nutter does something stupid.

To put things into perspective people kill other people over disputes about hedges.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/2989364.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1138749.stm

Lets ban all hedges and people from gardening as it obviously makes them weak to Satans will and allows Him to make people kill others.

Nutters are nutters no matter what sends them over the edge.

I know that a nutter is a nutter is a nutter... it's just that when the cause of the nuttiness can be taken as somehow morally degrading it gets jumped on.

I'm sure that if they thought could get away with it there'd be at least one group who'd try to ban hedges.

Acid Override; you actually got Watchtower people exasperated? WOW!
I cannot believe it.............
Mr.Dreadful; I read the link you posted; nutters as nutters as has been said; but are people actually paying REAL money for pretend swords? I didn't quite get out of the article if it was real or virtual....was he stabbed with the sword? Are these just virtual players who hunted each other down or what?
How wacked!
Is your article for here?

I only talk to Watchtower people when I have a horrible hangover and had beans on toast when I felt peckish in the morning. Luckily we have an anti-proseletyzing law here...

Does anyone really care what the nutters think if they don't bother you?

People pay real money for pretend swords. I have sold some virtual money (in everquest) for real money, a transaction I was happy with. At first I thought these people were nutters, but thinking about it a bit I come up with the following rationalisation to make the world seem a little less disturbed.

Computer gaming is a hobby just like any other, some people like gaming others like (for example) badmington. I like both, but this is largely irrelevant. Nobody bats an eyelid when people play real money for things that might get them ahead in a badmington game, the latest trainers, a better raquet etc. So why should people care that people are paying real money for something that gets them ahead in a game? I mean, a game of everquest is exactly as artifical as a game of badmington - neither occur naturally unless you specifically set out to do them. If data wasn't considered real property which could be bought, sold and fought over (if your already unhinged) then nobody would pay money for any computer programs.

Unfortunately, SnowWhite, this was a real stabbing over a virtual sword.

Does anyone know what kind of game Runescape is?

MMORPG

= Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game

Just for anyone that's not the wiser .