No. Not in my opinion, and not in the opinion of a number of experts [see references], but unfortunately not everyone agrees with me.
The whole issue of the dangers with role-playing games was really sorted out years ago. However, after the recent high school shootings it has made a small reappearance. At it's height during the 1980's the anti role-playing game movement was figure-headed by two people: Patricia Pulling and Dr. Thomas Radecki.
Today, it seems that only a small number of conservative Christians still feel (and occasionally campaign) that role-playing games are dangerous.
The bad press on role-playing games was started by two unrelated and sad events: one in 1979 when a 16 year old boy went missing, and the other in 1982 when another 16 year old boy committed suicide.
James Egbert was by all accounts a bright but troubled child. By age 14 he had graduated from high school and started university, but he became dependant on drugs, was an untreated epileptic, and a homosexual in a homophobic climate. In mid-August, at age 16, and immediately before his exams James decided to kill himself. He hid in the steam tunnels beneath his university dormitory and attempted to overdose on drugs.
His suicide attempt failed, and upon regaining consciousness he ran away. When his disappearance was discovered his Uncle hired a private investigator to find him. The private investigator found a map of the steam tunnels in James' room and concluded that he had gone there to play Dungeons and Dragons. At which point the press picked up the story.
James turned himself in a month later and at the time stated that Dungeons and Dragons had nothing to do with his disappearance.
Unfortunately the story does not end there: 11 months after turning himself in, James shot himself in the head. He survived the shot, but died six days later in hospital.
Irving Pulling was also by all accounts a bright but troubled child. He was part of gifted student program where they did play Dungeons and Dragons.
However it seems that he was depressed by his inability to find a campaign manager for his election bid to the school council, that he admired Adolf Hitler, and that according to his mother, Patricia Pulling, he would run around their back yard barking.
On June 9th Irving shot and killed himself with his mothers handgun a few hours after he happened to have played a game of Dungeons and Dragons. His mother became convinced that the game had something to do with the suicide and ended up concluding that her son had been cursed during the game, forcing him to kill people, and that to prevent this from happening he killed himself.
Opposition to role playing games has historically come from the following areas:
"The evidence in these cases is really quite impressive. There is no doubt in my mind that the game Dungeons and Dragons is causing young men to kill themselves and others. The game is one of non-stop combat and violence. It is clear to me that this game is desensitizing players to violence and also causing an increased tendency to violent behavior."Throughout the 1980's Dr. Radecki made many statements in which he found that numerous video games, movies, television programs, animated cartoons, action toys, role-playing games, and books, contained very high levels of violence and that they caused violent behavior in their players, viewers and readers. His criteria for violent acts included: tickling, snowball fights, and fist shaking - he found that The Smurfs averaged 13 violent acts per hour. There was no scale to the violent acts: tickling was every bit as violent as murder. In 1987, the Missouri Court of Appeals allowed Dr. Radecki to testify as an expert on the game Dungeons & Dragons on behalf of Darren Molitor (who was convicted of murder in 1985, and believed that the game had encouraged his violent behavior). In the trial Dr. Radecki said:
"But the tendency toward that type of behavior could certainly very easily be increased by D&D played, when the two people have played together. There's more of a desensitization of playing with violence between the two of them and it's certainly possible that you-know, certainly likely, indeed, that there is a desensitization towards playing with violence or even commission of intentional violent behavior between the two."The court was unconvinced, stating that his testimony was an example of his "inability to apply his perception of the general effect of playing Dungeons and Dragons to the particularized mental state of the defendant". The court further denounced his testimony because he had not even talked to the defendant to determine his state of mind. Dr. Radecki would often cite in his credentials his faculty position at the University of Illinois School of Medicine. It seems that he was never on the faculty, however he was given the honorary status "clinical faculty" which is given to doctors who are accredited to practice at a teaching hospital. It does not involve any faculty duties. His status was removed in 1985. In 1992, the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation revoked his medical license for "engaging in immoral conduct of an unprofessional nature with a patient". Dr. Radecki resigned from NCTV turning it over to his colleague, Carole Lieberman. The IDPR later rejected Dr. Radecki's request for early reinstatement of his license following complaints about his Surrogate Parenting Institute. Dr. Radecki is now involved with Doctors & Lawyers for a Drug Free Youth and only shows up in the media when publicizing the results of his sting operations on alcohol stores and outlets.
All other opposition to role-playing games seems to come from a small number of conservative Christians who object to role-playing games (and fantasy games in particular) because it encourages thinking that disagrees with the Christian worldview.
The arguments go like this:
The conclusion of the above points is that by playing role-playing games players fantasize about a non-Christian or anti-Christian worldview and that this encourages them to cast aside their real world Christian morals in favor of game immorals.
Not long after the death of her son Patricia Pulling set up B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons) an organization that set out to prove a link between role-playing games, suicide and Satanism.
During its years of activity B.A.D.D made many public accusations, assertions, and recommendations that one can, at best, consider questionable. For example: it recommended to United States law enforcement agencies in it's profile and questionnaire: "The Who What When Where and How of teen Satanism" that (amongst other things) officers "Keep an open mind", "Stay objective", but also that "If individual is involved in satanic activity, he/she will deny a great deal to protect other members of the group as well as the satanic philosophy". Which is the same as saying: Keep an open mind but don't believe anything they say.
In 1989 Patricia Pulling published "The Devil's Web: Who Is Stalking Your Children for Satan?" a book which seems (please note: I have not read this book, only its reviews, the book is currently out of print) to warn parents and society in general of the dangers inherent in allowing children to listen to heavy metal music, and play role-playing games, and that allowing children to do so could lead to schizophrenia, Satanism, murder, and suicide.
In 1990 Michael A. Stackpole, a novelist and game designer, published a review of Patricia Pulling and B.A.D.D.'s activities in which he described the book as: "a monument to illogical thinking and innuendo". I recommend reading his paper [ see references ].
On October 15 1997, Pat Pulling, 47, died of cancer in Richmond, Virginia. B.A.D.D. is currently inactive.
Because of all the hoop-la surrounding role-playing games there has been quite a bit of study into its effects.
I find the conservative Christians argument that role-playing games are bad because they disagree with Christian worldview and can alter your morals to be so vague that they could apply to any fictional activity.
Fictional books, movies, television programs, and even children's play activities can be (and are) created which disagree with Christian worldview and teaching, contain fantasy pastimes, create memories and could (in theory) prompt the evaluation of ones values. Should all fictional activities be banned? I don't think so.
I have been unable to find any studies that investigated the claims that role-playing games enforce non-Christian worldviews upon the players. However I have found that the views of the conservative Christians described in the previous section do not seem to be representative of all conservative Christians. In fact it seems that most conservative Christians ministries ignore role-playing games altogether - it's simply not an issue.
Additionally, I have been unable to find any opposition to role-playing in other cultural or religious groups. I did find reports on how Saudi Arabia had banned the Pokemon role-playing card game, but this seems to be because they objected to what they felt was the Star of David printed on the cards, rather than it being a form of role-playing game.
have also seen many observations and references that state that role-players tend to be of above average intelligence.
Weather this is because role-playing encourages intellectual development, that these people tend to be attracted to the games, or that the industry is just being conceited is unknown. I haven't seen any research on this topic.
My personal opinion is that the former applies: that by forcing players to come up with creative solutions to problems the game encourages creative thinking, develops problem solving, and mental agility.
B.A. Robinson for the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance compiled the following list:
To me this strongly suggests that the claims that role-players are more likely to commit suicide, and that they are more likely to commit crimes of any sort, is simply incorrect.