One of my FB friends had posted an article about an indie comic about the history of items made for fun and how people have tried their best to put a stop to them. Even chess. CHESS was considered bad for the minds and bodies of the young people. Chess. Anyway, the conversation started off of this concentrated a lot on how parents today are doing their best to edit out whatever might be harmful to their precious little darlings. I commented that, as the comic states, this kind of war on fun is nothing new.
In fact, when I was in middle school, I was the dreaded villainess in the minds of a mother or two, due to the fact that I introduced their innocent sons to Dungeons and Dragons. Yes, I was the wicked seductress who was luring the boyz away from their wholesome pursuits and whispering in their ears to worship the devil. Or something. That's what she made it sound like I was doing. Mostly I just let them borrow my step-father's copy of Fiend Folio. Maybe that was enough.
The funny thing is, later that afternoon, I went to i09 and found this article at the top of the page. I guess it was the day when we all discuss the baffling fear that adults had about D&D. Though, of course, there was plenty of propaganda to feed their fears. People would publish booklets and tracts about the evils of pen and paper gaming. It was believed that people would kill themselves if their characters died. I never saw that happen. Ever. Most people would just make another character.
This scare got very serious. They did a 60 Minutes report about it and, of course, there was the movie Mazes and Monsters. Mazes and Monsters was everyone's fears about D&D set to film. Someone gets too deeply into their character and violence happens. It actually involved people walking around and doing their pretend adventuring, which some people did, but not the majority of us because with nerdling children, there are things we just don't consider fun. Like walking. Anyway, yes, this scare was so huge there was a movie about. Preachers would preach about it. People would burn their books. All over a bunch of geeky kids sitting around with books, dice, paper, and maybe some little figurines. I never had the figurines. I did have a great dice collection though.
What really amazes me about the whole D&D scare is how it was based on so much misinformation. They had this list of boys who had killed themselves, but when one looked a little deeper into the cases, there is no real link between roleplaying and their suicides. Mental illness, hopelessness, depression, too much pressure, and all the usual suspects are the reasons, not a game. This is a classic case of people wanting to point the finger at something young people do to have fun and believing that if they get rid of it, all the children will be safe.
When the conflict between Christian Mama and me happened, I was in sixth grade. I'd just recently moved to the area and out of the very bad situation that was Stepfather #2. I was trying to make friends, trying to find a way to get the kids around me to relate to me, in my own little nerdgirl way. In the process of doing that, I was cast as the villain by a grown woman. I was a 12 yr old kid.
She didn't stop anyone from worshiping the Devil (because no one was) and she didn't stop anyone from casting spells (because no one was) and she didn't stop anyone from thinking they were a werewolf (because no one did . . as far as I know). What she DID accomplish was to make an at-risk, new to town, vulnerable, and lonely little girl feel like she was an awful person. She threatened the friendships I'd worked so hard to establish. She reinforced all the negative shit already going on in my head. I didn't kill myself (clearly) but if it had happened, it would have had a lot to do with her and nothing to do with gaming.
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