In 1985, 60 Minutes ran a story on the controversy over Dungeons & Dragons that included interviews with Gary Gygax and Dieter Sturm from TSR, as well as anti-RPG pundits Patricia Pulling and Thomas Radecki. This is the first section of the video
I like how it was pointed out that the parents of these suicidal almost always claim that their child was well adjusted, yet it just isn't true when serious investigative work is done on the child's background. This interview really take me back in time.
That’s not the only thing they did not consider, the guy was also a certified genius.His family and friends were constantly pressuring him to use his intelligence.This was before “genius” was a series stress problem for some people.This, on top of being gay, on top of all of the other problems is what killed him.
When he first disappeared the parents hired a detective to find him.The detective let out on the news wires that he was looking for a D&D game that had gone to far.This was to protect him.What he really thought was that he had tried to kill himself, or was kidnapped. So as not to let the kidnappers know he was on his trail, he used the D&D angle.In the end, when they found him and found out the truth, the detective tried to recant what he said but the news media, as usual, would not listen.
Kuh-razy. While they do have some evidence that these guys played RPGs and may have been sociopaths, they aren't really showing how there were other factors involved that led to them to act out and become violent. If you cut out Dungeons and Dragons and replace it with say, Yankees Fans you are making a harsh judgement on people without looking at all the factors.
Even the most famous case involving the kid who ran away from home and "lived in the sewers to live out DnD" was later discredited when the guy was found living at someone else's apartment. It wasn't roleplaying that made him run away either, but rather pressure placed upon him by dealing with the fact he was gay.
It makes me glad that when my Mom saw I was getting into RPGs she sat down with me to talk about it, and that she was smart enough to realize that the games weren't making me psychotic, but were allowing me to get out of the house and meet people. Heck, the only thing she disagreed with was the price of the games! :P
I allowed these two videos to post because I wanted everyone to know how far we have come. The people in the early day plowed a hard road and were subjected to this type of foolishness. It is my personal belief that Gary and TSR were treated poorly by 60 minutes.
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