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

Hi, I've just started writing an article for my Prince of Dorkness column in The Post which is provisionally entitles Religion, Roleplaying and the Moral Majority. Basically it's going to be about the big hoohah about Dungeons and Dragons which started in the 80's and is still going on today. I'd really like a Christian perspective on the subject as I want to make the article as reasonable as possible rather than just presenting a one-sided veiwpoint. So... what do you guys think about roleplaying games and the people who plyy them? Also what do you think about the right-wing Evangelist groups who are the main perpetrators of this D&D-bashing. There is a thread here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F135418?thread=609340 Or you can leave a message in my PS. Thankyou.

Hi, Mr Dreadful. I am first to see this (I assume) so I'll give you my (inaequate) answer...

It's been a long time since I played any D&D type games - in the 1980s, the University science fiction society of which I was a member, was almost turned into a gaming club. That's when I had my few experiences of Dune, D&D etc.
In 2000, my son got a PSOne and was completely obsessed with Final Fantasy, all of the games from 6-9 (as sold in NZ, apparently they are numbered differently in the different countries where they are sold.)

My comments now are about Final Fantasy, and such games as Syphon Filter etc. As a Christian I have no problem with them, although they often have what's called "occult themes" - these border on sf/fantasy. I admit I don't have much experience of the "harder" games such as have been mentioned in your thread on 'Ask'..

I go by a principle somewhere in the N.T, that "to the pure all things are pure", that is to say, what you see in these things comes to a large extent from what you bring to them. 99% of people (kids, teens and adults) are well aware that it's just make-believe. Mind you, I am a big fan of sf/fantasy as well. (I have encountered some books I have decided not to finish, because I hate what I call "effing and blinding" and if a book is full of that, my taste is to reject it.)

To many of the evangelical/right wing groups you mention, this issue is just another battle in what they see as a culture war. From that point of view, I have some sympathy for them, if not their views on games - a lot of it is on the principle of avoiding even the appearance of anything that could be harmful. I think it's founded largely on ignorance of the games. (But they'd say, probably that my view is based on ignorance of the potential harm.) This is just my view, and other Christians might and may disagree!

Apple.

Hmm, an interesting topic.

I personally haven't had much experiance with D & D and other actual roleplaying games that involve the use of dice and imagination, as they also involve quite a bit of setup work and rules, and books, and so on. Lazyness is quite the factor here. What I did get into, and am still into, is a card game called Magic: The Gathering.

This is another game that many Christian groups have really laid into, due to the fact that the basis of the game is that each player plays an all powerful wizard called a "Planeswalker," much like a small diety. There are spells, and creatures, good and bad, though most articles tend to focus on the Black cards, which more often than not involve demons, death, etc, rather than white, which involves angles, holyness, honor, and so forth.

Ramble = off. Anyhow, I played this for quite a while, and I think I understand how Magic and games of that nature, where you roleplay as someone in a world quite apart from God, with magic and demons and suchlike, is considered bad. The game Magic was actually a contribution to my fall from faith early on in my teens, and the reason for this is quite clear to me now.

Games like D & D can be detrimental in that fashion, but only, /only/ if you start to put yourself into the game world, and start merging the fantasy with reality. I had gotten very interested in the books and stories behind the game, and through them, I became very interested in the occult, and so forth. I imagine that this is also the case with the problem cases involved in other roleplaying games. Now, I am now a Christian, reborn, you might say, but you also might find it suprising that I /still play Magic/. This is because I know now that it is a GAME, and only that. I play it with my friends for fun, and now that I'm a bit older and smarter, we enjoy it for the mental competition and relaxation it provides, rather than for some escape from reality.

Wow. I'm still rambling, aren't I? I'll try to wrap that all up quickly. My point is, roleplaying can be dangerous, if you find yourself wanting to believe the role that you play is real, and the real world is not. When this occurs, bad things happen. If all things are kept in context, I see no problem with them.

I've never seen role playing as a problem, to be honest, I wonder at half of the things the right-wing Christians in the States go on about. It's only a game after all.

I think that role playing games are fun, but like anything taken too far, can detract from personal faith...

but that's what it is, personal faith. I find myself able to play roleplaying games regularly, and still have a grasp on reality, and focus on my spirituality. I do know people who cannot seem to apply the vibrancy and energy toward their faith because of obsession with an rpg. I don't, however, find this any darker force than television, video games, work, or anything else one can become obsessed with.

As far as occultic themes go, myth and the fight of good and evil are part of the human experience, and should be treated as such. C.S. Lewis, the Christian apologetic author, talks about that a great deal, and employs the mythos of many different faiths to convey his own convictions. One who claims Christianity should not be afraid of myths, themes in culture, but should learn, observe, and challenge themselves with them.