Advocacy 2002 Article Archive

Garrett Henke of Round Table Games, was negotiating his lease when it was revealed what he would be selling in the store he was about to rent - and he was swiftly told "We just don't want to have anything to do with the occult."

This is not the only problem Henke has had with renting in San Antonio.  At his current location, his realtor told the landlord he sold computer games, rather than RPGs, to avoid any more trouble.

It's not often that these types of stories make their way to me, but it only makes me wonder how many times this sort of thing happens without anyone hearing about it.  A lot closer to home, a game store near my office was urged out of a shopping strip because it attracted too many loitering children - kids who were much better off playing in the street, as we all know.  Whether this was a legitimate concern or just an excuse to rid themselves of "one of those stores" will always be a mystery.

Now that Round Table Games has a new home, I'm calling all Escapist readers into action.  Here's our chance to help Garrett out, and give that landlord the obscene gesture of our choosing.  If you're in the San Antonio area, stop by Round Table games at 8812 Lockway.  Buy something.  Buy several things.  And tell him The Escapist sent you.

If you're not in the San Antonio area, Round Table is selling much of their product online, through auction sites such as eBay, Yahoo, and others.  I'll be posting information on how to check out Round Table's wares.  I'll be bidding on some of their stuff, and I hope you will, too.
 

Stephanie was originally believed to have been murdered by her brother and two of his friends.  Prosecutors at the trial portrayed it as "an open-and-shut case against three boys warped by an unhealthy passion for dark role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons."

It turns out that they may have opened and shut the case too quickly, however.  A DNA test conducted in January of 1999 revealed some of Stephanie's blood on a sweatshirt owned by Richard Tuite, a transient from the area with a history of stalking and threatening young women.

The most recent developments involve the arrest of Tuite based on some "new blood evidence" that has recently been revealed.

It's an all-too-familiar story, where the mere presence of an RPG creates a suspect to a horrible crime.  Thankfully, it appears that we may see some real resolution to this particular case. 

For a timeline of the case, click here.

Click the following links to see the original stories from the Escapist archives:
Trial Begins In 'Dungeons & Dragons' Killing
DNA Report Rocks Teen Slaying Case
 
 

Back in 1987, computer role-playing games were called text adventures, and didn't have all the nifty 3D graphics and beautiful environments we have today.  That's right, sonny... we typed all of our commands in, and most of the time the computer didn't know what we were trying to say, and you would get stuck in one spot for weeks just because you couldn't figure out what to do next, and we liked it!

The biggest seller of text adventure games was Infocom, maker of such historic titles as the Zork series, Planetfall, Wishbringer, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and Leather Goddesses of Phobos. One of these games was called Enchanter, and Infocom thought they would try to promote this game by advertising on the back cover of Boy's Life magazine, which has Boy Scouts as its target audience.

This act brought out the self-righteous in force, as Infocom began to receive letters telling them how evil they were and how their games were bringing more evil into the world.  One letter, from a letter carrier, told them that he would refuse to deliver any copies of Boy's Life that ran the advertisement - which, I might add, is a federal offense.  I can only hope that this carrier lost his job over the issue.

This is just another example of what ignorance and fear can accomplish.  For more on this story, take a jump back in time and have a peek at the Winter/Spring 1987 issue of The Status Line.  Look for the article titled "Religious fringe has own ideas about Infocom."
 

Williams, a 28-year-old Alabama congressional candidate, believes that by "taxing the science fiction, you're actually taxing the interest group of space. They're the ones who want to go into space and have space expanded and they're the ones who will actually feel good about spending the money on space." 

Williams compares his plan to gasoline taxes, which are used to build and improve the roads.  His plan is to impose a 1 percent sales tax on science fiction merchandise, and space-related books. 

This, of course, will include our copies of the Star Wars RPG, Traveller, Tribe 8, Fading Suns, and any other RPG or RPG supplement  that Williams deems to be "sci-fi."

The problem here is that the profit margin on such products is terribly small, and most companies won't be willing to take the cut, instead passing the damage on to the writers, game designers, and artists behind these games, as well as many other sci-fi related products.  It has the potential to hurt the genre at its creative core.  And if the market goes in the other direction, by raising prices to offset the tax, they run the risk of decreasing their sales numbers.  (Just think of the last time you heard someone complain because the latest hardcover RPG was priced at 35 dollars!)

On top of this, the sci-fi "industry" does not generate nearly enough money to make a 1% tax a substantial and worthwhile contribution.  If it passes, it stands to be damaging to science fiction, and utterly useless to NASA.
 
 

Elizabeth Woolley of Osceola, Wisconsin says that her son, Shawn, was so addicted to EverQuest that he surrendered everything - his home, family, and job - to play the game.

Shawn had more than his share of personal problems - in fact, if you've been reading this site for a while, you can practically recite them along with me.  He was diagnosed with "depression and schizoid personality disorder, symptoms of which include a lack of desire for social relationships, little or no sex drive and a limited range of emotions in social settings."  He was also an epileptic, and according to his mother, his last eight seizures were due to computer use.

Woolley's lawyer is the "colorful" attorney Jack Thompson, who is most famous for the 1990 debacle over rap group 2 Live Crew.  Thompson attempted to get the members of the infamous rap group thrown into jail because their album As Nasty As They Wanna Be contained numerous instances of words that he just didn't like.

Elizabeth Woolley wants a label on games like EverQuest, to warn people of the potential dangers of playing them for extended periods of time.  This has two problems with it:
 

One of the claims being made by Woolley and Thompson is that Sony has deliberately made EverQuest addictive - a claim similar to that made about tobacco companies - and that they know that their games make people come back for more.

It's a strange criticism, when you think about it.  Of course Sony has made the game deliberately engrossing; if they didn't, no one would want to play for more than an hour or so, reviews and word of mouth would pan the game, and before too long no one would be playing.  That's a poor business strategy.

It is in the company's best interests to make a game that holds the player's attention.  Faulting Sony for making a game that's just too good for it's own good is downplaying Shawn's  real problem.  Elizabeth Woolley would do much better to start a group to help people with emotional addictions, rather than trying to slap a label that no one will read on a game that a lot of people enjoy.  Unfortunately, in her grief, she may never see it that way.

So why all this ado about a video game, when this site usually focuses on tabletop RPGs?  Well, it seems like history is repeating itself here, with a distraught mother who has recently lost a child teaming up with a professional who believes that most entertainment is evil.  Last time, it was Patricia Pulling and Thomas Radecki, and they did quite a bit to convince many people that role-playing was dangerous and evil.  Our next contestants, if they make it past the EverQuest round, may not stop there, and could attempt to carry on where Pat & Tom left off, if they are so inclined.

At the very least, the outcome of this trial, if it makes it that far, could set a precedent for future cases that involve games of any kind, even RPGs.  A positive decision could be very beneficial for us.  Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Had Harris and Klebold been carrying stuffed chocobo dolls with them during the shooting spree, however, things would be very different for Edios, I'm sure.

While one shouldn't complain about a brief glimpse of logic and intelligence in a situation that is otherwise free of both, this should stand as a perfect example of how just plain dumb this lawsuit is.  According to this line of thinking, if the Columbine Killers had left their guns at home, blocked all of the school exits shut and burned the building to the ground, this lawsuit would instead target Stephen King and the producers of the Carrie movies.

It also sets a bad precedent where a murder weapon can be seen as a connection to any form of entertainment that features the same weapon.  Remember how many comments were made about D&D immediately after the Columbine attack (click here and here in case you missed them).  It could have easily been dragged into this mess if there had been the slightest connection between the killers and RPGs.

Correction: (09/24/02) Two mistakes were pointed out to me in this story - first, I spelled Eidos incorrectly (which I corrected above), and second, Eidos did not create Final Fantasy VII - rather, they published a version of it for the PC.

McDermott, who shot and killed seven of his coworkers on December 26th, 2000, took the witness stand to plead his case.  He was born without a soul, he claimed, and could only obtain one by accepting a mission from St. Michael the Archangel.

O'Reilly focused on McDermott's gaming background during cross-examination, and suggested that his experience with the game had honed his storytelling skills well enough to create the Hitler story.

And really, who can argue with that?  It's a fact that role-playing develops a person's ability to create stories and characters out of the blue.  But is this really the case here?  And if not, will this set a precedent where any gamer on the witness stand will find themselves accused of perjury just because they're so darn good at it?

On the plus side, this particular article doesn't stoop to dragging out the bad reputation that D&D has acquired over the years, despite the fact that the murderer in this instance is a former gamer.  The article even gives a fairly accurate description of D&D: "a fantasy game in which a ''gamemaster'' creates an elaborate set of circumstances and characters and a problem for them to solve."

Even so, expect some of the anti-gamers to use McDermott as another example of a gamer gone wrong, ignoring all of his mental problems and childhood trauma.  It's just their style.

For more on this story, click here.
 
 

It's not hard to see the process here: Rimer tells police and youth workers to start looking for signs of "occult behavior."  The police and youth workers begin looking, and finding things that fit every possible definition of "occult behavior," from Pokemon to Crowley books.  "Whadayaknow, he's right!", they exclaim.

Granted, there were certain to be some intelligent, critical thinking individuals in the audience who didn't fall for it.  But consider the comment by Jimmy Pentecost and Paul Bloomfield, two youth ministers who attended the seminar: both mention that they have noticed an increase in kids who are interested in Dungeons & Dragons and bands with "disturbing lyrics" such as Marilyn Manson.

Never mind that most kids like music with "disturbing lyrics," and that recent waves of "neo-angst metal" and "controversy rap" have started to become popular.  Never mind the fact that Dungeons & Dragons has recently released a new edition that has exploded in popularity.  Never mind the basic concepts of statistics which would dictate that both of these subsets of kids would be encountered in increasing frequency because of the above statements.

Admittedly, Rimer does take a moment out to tone down a bit, and even goes so far as to say that not all instances of "occult behavior," including odd clothing, strange music, and those terrible role-playing games, will lead to suicide or homicide.  Still, it's troubling to see such efforts of satanic panic being spread among those who are charged with being protective and accepting of young people.

And lest you think I'm being too hard on Rimer, remember this: his "occult reference library" contains a copy of Patricia Pulling's "The Devil's Web."  That is his reference material for information about Dungeons & Dragons.

For the full story, click here.
 
 

This kind of puts the whole "gaming advocacy" thing into perspective, doesn't it?  Try to think about this story the next time you start to forget just how lucky you are.

For more on this story, visit Patrick Cockburn's column on the subject.
 

Hulbert and Clara Schwartz met in October at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, less than two months before he killed her father on December 8th.  Hulbert mad a statement that creatures named Ordog, Sabba, and Nicodemus gave him permission to kill the scientist.  Both have told police that they have a strong interest in fantasy, vampires, witchcraft, and the occult.

For more, click here.

Editors note: This story seems to be clear of "gaming influence," but it still scares me quite a bit, mainly because I'm a regular at the MD Ren Fest, and I was possibly even at the fest on the day these two met.  Brrrrr.   - Bill
 
 

Yes, this strip appears on this page with the written consent of John Kovalic - thanks for asking!  Dork Tower is copyright 1999, 2002 Shetland Productions, All Rights Reserved.  Yep.  All of 'em.  Every last stinking one.  Discover Dork Tower for yourself at www.dorktower.com!  Buy the print comics, too!