When I was a young nerd, a local busy-body told my mom that I shouldn’t be allowed to play Dungeons & Dragons because “It’s devil worship.” Such complaints continue to this day. But I do have one thing to say on behalf of these folks: At least they had the decency to not label themselves “Pro-Gamer Groups.” In lashing out at nerdy pleasures, at least they never pretended to “represent us.” We never had to read absurdist headlines like “Pro-Gamer Groups Oppose Dungeons & Dragons.”
In contrast, we often have to read absurdist headlines like “Pro-Consumer Groups Oppose [Something Good for Consumers]” (such as, say, the XM-Sirius Merger). Indeed, if a “pro-consumer group” backed a few mergers, it wouldn’t be called “pro-consumer” for long. Go figure.
READER COMMENTS
jb
Feb 20 2007 at 10:36pm
Hey, can you throw us a link to the article? I’m in the mood for a laugh. Played D&D as a kid, and now I play D&D Online with people all over the world. It’s awesome!
Aditya Dash
Feb 21 2007 at 1:49am
On the bright side at least they make the effort to label themselves as pro-consumer. It is still better than the industry lobbyists who demand regulations for the benefit of the consumer (without pretending to be a pro consumer group). Maybe this is the path forward, in India lobbyists like Auto-Rickshaw Unions openly oppose measures that would benefit consumers (eg. installing meters in the rickshaws) by stating that such measures would make the consumers worse off.
Michael Stack
Feb 21 2007 at 10:27am
I once got kicked out of my 8th grade science class for insisting that Dungeons and Dragons was not devil worship, and that D&D players were not going around taking their own lives, or the lives of others.
Right about that time (this was back in the mid-to-late eighties), there were quite a few D&D ULs about; kids playing D&D, losing their level 36 player, then taking their own life, or killing their mothers, or something else equally silly.
This science teacher started repeating these stories as if they were true. I insisted that they were fabrications, nothing more than Urban Legends. For this, I was kicked out of class. Some devotion this so-called science teacher had to open inquiry, eh?
Boonton
Feb 21 2007 at 10:55am
Michael Stack, you should consider it a valuable lesson. Irrationality and close mindedness exists in all human beigns…even those who think of themselves as very enlightened (the hardest thing, though, is to see it in yourself).
Speaking of legends, can we have a link to this article? I just searched Google both web sites and news and cannot find any article for a self-proclaimed ‘pro-gamer’ group opposing D&D. I’d love to read what their beef is with the game.
DrObviousSo
Feb 21 2007 at 11:42am
Heh. Long time reader. Longer time DnD player. I love the analogy. I’m actually going to be playing DnD tonight…I’ll report back if Satan shows up.
Caliban Darklock
Feb 21 2007 at 12:41pm
I think these groups are “pro-consumer” in the same way the Ku Klux Klan is “pro-white” – it’s the other half of the picture that more correctly describes the agenda.
TGGP
Feb 21 2007 at 1:33pm
Boonton, did you not even read Caplan’s post? There is no article because it never happened. Here is what Caplan said “We never had to read absurdist headlines like “Pro-Gamer Groups Oppose Dungeons & Dragons.””
Boonton
Feb 21 2007 at 1:52pm
ahhh I get it. Sorry about that, read too quickly…
Tuffy
Feb 23 2007 at 9:45am
Nah, it was badly written. I skimmed the whole page looking for a link.
Comments are closed.