Joining the army? Better quit playing D&D

[Cav88]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles//0,7340,L-3052074,00.html

Where's flatfoot? I want his opinion on this. 😛

 

[TklDuo-Ann]

While I think that D&D and other similar fantasy games can be totally harmless, the concern is a valid one in some cases. For those who are immature and/or easily convinced of the supposed reality of some of these games, there is a risk. I've known a few people who were so convinced that the powers they had in the game carried over into reality that they actually ended up hurting themselves...my own brother being one of them. One even killed himself as a result of being convinced that he had other lives to use once the current one had been spent.

I don't know if I'd go as far as the IDF did with their policy. But, in a nation where infiltration by extremists is a major concern, I can't really say that I blame them. Games like this are perfectly safe IF you're grounded in reality. If you aren't, well...

Ann

 

[Moses25]

You mean I'm not a dragon-slayer? 🙁

Better roll the dice again...

Cheers.😀

 

[Oddjob0226]

I liked the website... what was that, the Daily Jewish News? I prefer to get my current events from the Honky Tonk Gazette....

There are people who do idiotic things when they play D&D, but mostly, if people are mature enough to play D&D as a roleplaying game, and are mature enought to seriously consider joining a volunteer army (unlike the one in Isreal) then they are probably mature enough to serve in some of the more specialized capacities within that army. Real killing yay, fake killing nay? Bollocks!

 

[MrMacphisto]

*shrugs* Some would say that any population as religious as the Israelis is "detached from reality." I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

 

[Knox The Hatter]

Their own version of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell?"

I remember watching my first D&D, it was while I was in the Navy. This guy on my ship used the back room of this hobby shop on Little Creek Road in Norfolk. He and these three or four other guys sat there for FIVE FRICKIN' HOURS discussing the next move. Incredible. I knew right then that this wasn't for me. The fact that these guys resembled the crew that would later hang out with Anthony Michael Hall in "Sixteen Candles" didn't help either.

Eventually, on my ship, "Dungeons and Dragons" became synonymous with "Space Cadet", and "dweeb", and worse.

 

[Oddjob0226]

Eventually, on my ship, "Dungeons and Dragons" became synonymous with "Space Cadet", and "dweeb", and worse.

Yeah, that's about what it is, a big slice o' nerdom, but nothing more sinister. Moshe, let the kinder play.

 

[General Zod]

Wasn't there a movie in the early 80's called Monsters and Mazes? I think that was the name It starred a young Tom Hanks It was about a group of role playing people who basically went to far with it Tom Hanks character went off the deep end and became his role playing character
I have played those games in the past However none of us dressed up like our characters and played the game in a cave like they did in the movie I think if you are mentally unbalanced it may affect you

 

[Oddjob0226]

Luckily, the army doesn't let mentally unbalanced people in.

 

[MrMacphisto]

Luckily, the army doesn't let mentally unbalamnced people in.

LOL... Anyone remember Tim McVeigh or John Mohammed?

 

[featherfingers]

Eventually, on my ship, "Dungeons and Dragons" became synonymous with "Space Cadet", and "dweeb", and worse.

Tron, I hear you loud and clear! I was on the USS Enterprise in 1982-84 and I remember a big Dungeons & Dragons tournament going on right outside the chow hall. Those guys really took that game to heart. I never got to know any of those dudes but they looked a little bit too intense as they played that game... they're probably running corporations these days.

 

[Oddjob0226]

LOL... Anyone remember Tim McVeigh or John Mohammed?

Oh, but that all happened AFTER their service - just like with Charles Whitman and Eric Rudolph.... hey, that's interesting.

Jessica Lynch, I'm watching you.

 

[MrMacphisto]

Oh, but that all happened AFTER their service - just like with Charles Whitman and Eric Rudolph.... hey, that's interesting.

Jessica Lynch, I'm watching you.

True... but the question is: were they really that insane to begin with, or did the service cause them to go insane? Either way, it doesn't look too favorably on our military. Don't get me wrong; we have the most powerful military in the world, but it's always good to observe the psychological effects that it sometimes has on its soldiers.

 

[Cosmo_ac]

AD&D is harmless. IF a person who plays the game starts having dilusions, then more then likely they have a great deal of other issues.