My mother panicked when she found out I started playing D&D with a friend at high school. She consulted the closest mental health professional she knew which happened to be the psychiatrist at work. The psychiatrist didn't see a problem with it as long as I knew where fantasy and reality were. After hearing that, my mother gave her blessing for me to play D&D. I should probably add that my mother worked in the local jail as a nurse.
So to make a long story short, I couldn't play D&D without getting the approval of a prison psychiatrist.
Yeah, and he was roundly despised for it (and justly so!)
I do not believe that anyone ever converted to Christianity as a consequence of reading any of Jack Chick’s gospel tracts. But I do believe that thousands of Christians were converted by them into something else — something more like the ugly dishonesty and nasty triumphalism that were those tracts’ main attributes. He helped persuade such Christians that bearing false witness against their neighbors should be the hallmark and cornerstone of their religion.
If he was just an angry bitter old man, it'd be easier to pity him: how awful to live your life in that headspace, right? But he did damage, too, and that's harder to just feel sorry for.
We had someone who would, unironically, leave these around the office. It was amusing at first, but then he began targeting individuals with them rather than just leaving them in a few public places and had to be told to stop. I read a bunch of the tracts during that time, they were quite bizarre. I did share the D&D one with my gaming group, though.
The same actors previously played in a series about an RPG world. The video is hilarious while technically not a parody: it was enough for them to stick to the plot.
A lot of Christians think they are a parody of their beliefs. They are a very odd form of fundamentalism with some serious shade thrown at certain Christian churches.
I did enjoy Cthulhu Tract as a parody of whatever Chick Tracts are.
I recently set up a short campaign for a few people at work who had never played D&D but wanted a taste. I was surprised that several people were immediately worried for us because of the "darkness" it would bring into our lives. I always thought that was a concern from decades ago, but apparently I was wrong.
The world has been seeing an uptick in religiousness; Christians have been amassing political and publishing power in many countries. Maybe that has something to do with the ”darkness”.
The western nations have been seeing the opposite of an uptick. Churches are generally in decline, while the number of non-affiliated is rising. Even in the US. Some American denominations still have considerable political power because of various factors, but their membership numbers are shrinking.
I'm always amused by this, because I have had to opportunity to DM for clergy several times, and my current group is run by our Deacon.
DnD started out as a kind of fantasy where we have the power to fight darkness directly. The way the genre has evolved has changed that, but to a large degree it's still a game where we act out stories and "practice being good guys."
Isn't it fascinating how media and parents fear that their children are confusing fiction and reality but in the end it's them who take fiction for reality.
“Reality” is a consensus construct, so part of childrearing is trying to ensure that your progeny have the “correct” subset of beliefs.
(Even if you are a Platonist, which I suppose I am, for part of mathematics at least, there are plenty of people, perhaps a majority, who, for example, know almost no maths at all)
Believers always feel attacked by fiction, because the existence of fiction opens the possibility, that the basis of there faith could also be completely fictitious.
> When everything is mainstream, when attractive and popular kids are programming computers, immersed in role-playing games, fluent in comic books, writing the rules and setting the boundaries, what becomes of the kids who still can’t fit in? Dear’s book made me wonder who we’re missing. Where are their steam tunnels, real or imagined? Where do they go when they’re tired of being told how to be?
For me, the mainstream takeover of subcultures has always felt very superficial. The subcultures I've been a part of (Pen&Paper, LARP, early Internet, Gothic) have registered that the masses have taken elements as (often purely visual) tokens and this has often led to a "glut" of new people entering into the subculture, but this was usually not long lasting and was often mostly also purely superficial.
There were always people (and niches) in the depths in which one could feel comfortable. However - I must admit - it became harder to find these depths and to get through the superficiality. The niches have become even more self-isolated and it has become more difficult for newcomers with real interest to immerse themselves.
One of the biggest annoyances for me is when people enter some subculture, then demand the subculture to change to acommodate them rather than them changing to acommodate the subculture.
I had it happen a few times that it changed to something unrecognizable to me and thus I left it for a new one.
So at this point, I feel like gatekeeping, (ofc not based on race gender or such things, but rather specifics to the subculture) has become mandatory, even at the cost of keeping a, possibly sizeable, portion of genuinly interested people out.
Tabletop games, and any activity where you meet with a small group of regulars, is resistant to the perils of popularity. More people playing D&D means the publisher can publish more books and offer accessories, because they're confident there's a market. But my core playgroup hasn't changed much for years. We meet new people at open events, and if we like then, we'll invite them to join our regular group.
It's naturally resistant to mainstream dilution. More so because it's a game where we write the narrative, choose the themes, and freely change the rules.
Really bizarre that this author refers to the college student as a "child" and refers to college students in the 70s as "proto-adults" implying that today college students are children. College students are young adults. Its really frustrating to see people treat them like children and especially to imply that they should be treated like children.
And our friends at Campus Crusades for Christ and their annual 'D&D is evil' speakers. The sad part was how easy it was to hand out a pamphlet that refuted all of the speaker's sources before the speaker had ever spoke.
Readit News
So to make a long story short, I couldn't play D&D without getting the approval of a prison psychiatrist.
Sometimes it takes someone who has seen real problems to put things in perspective.
Deleted Comment
To reiterate: she works at a prison.
ahh, back when the satanic panic spread by mimeograph and the spittle-flecks of rage and fear damn near left flecks on the page.
Yes, this is an actual publication by a christian organization; it's not a parody.
I do not believe that anyone ever converted to Christianity as a consequence of reading any of Jack Chick’s gospel tracts. But I do believe that thousands of Christians were converted by them into something else — something more like the ugly dishonesty and nasty triumphalism that were those tracts’ main attributes. He helped persuade such Christians that bearing false witness against their neighbors should be the hallmark and cornerstone of their religion.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2016/10/24/haw-haw...
If he was just an angry bitter old man, it'd be easier to pity him: how awful to live your life in that headspace, right? But he did damage, too, and that's harder to just feel sorry for.
The same actors previously played in a series about an RPG world. The video is hilarious while technically not a parody: it was enough for them to stick to the plot.
I did enjoy Cthulhu Tract as a parody of whatever Chick Tracts are.
I think I'd rather get the fabled apple with a razorblade in it than Christian gospel in my trick or treat pail.
In the realm of moral panics I thought were settled in the 20th century see: https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-grand-thef...
Dead Comment
DnD started out as a kind of fantasy where we have the power to fight darkness directly. The way the genre has evolved has changed that, but to a large degree it's still a game where we act out stories and "practice being good guys."
(Even if you are a Platonist, which I suppose I am, for part of mathematics at least, there are plenty of people, perhaps a majority, who, for example, know almost no maths at all)
https://mssv.net/2020/08/02/what-args-can-teach-us-about-qan...
https://medium.com/curiouserinstitute/a-game-designers-analy...
It contains many of the familiar "satanic panic" elements such as wild allegations of child abuse.
And then there’s deflection where you accuse people of things before they can accuse you of them.
Nerd on nerd violence has to stop.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_(David_Bowie_song)
> When everything is mainstream, when attractive and popular kids are programming computers, immersed in role-playing games, fluent in comic books, writing the rules and setting the boundaries, what becomes of the kids who still can’t fit in? Dear’s book made me wonder who we’re missing. Where are their steam tunnels, real or imagined? Where do they go when they’re tired of being told how to be?
But... what's the answer?
There were always people (and niches) in the depths in which one could feel comfortable. However - I must admit - it became harder to find these depths and to get through the superficiality. The niches have become even more self-isolated and it has become more difficult for newcomers with real interest to immerse themselves.
I had it happen a few times that it changed to something unrecognizable to me and thus I left it for a new one.
So at this point, I feel like gatekeeping, (ofc not based on race gender or such things, but rather specifics to the subculture) has become mandatory, even at the cost of keeping a, possibly sizeable, portion of genuinly interested people out.
It's naturally resistant to mainstream dilution. More so because it's a game where we write the narrative, choose the themes, and freely change the rules.
Ah, pharisees, gotta love them.