Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 (Tek) 9/28/84 based on 9/17/84; site shark.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!shark!hutch From: hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) Newsgroups: net.suicide,net.games.frp,net.kids Subject: Re: Suicide and D&D (Re: Violence and the arts) Message-ID: <1513@shark.UUCP> Date: Sun, 25-Aug-85 03:55:10 EDT Article-I.D.: shark.1513 Posted: Sun Aug 25 03:55:10 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 26-Aug-85 01:43:00 EDT References: <6601@ucla-cs.ARPA> <449@im4u.UUCP> <1198@teddy.UUCP> Reply-To: hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR Lines: 48 Xref: watmath net.suicide:716 net.games.frp:1865 net.kids:1752 Summary: In article <1198@teddy.UUCP> lkk@teddy.UUCP (Larry K. Kolodney) writes: >In article <449@im4u.UUCP> riddle@im4u.UUCP writes: >>I'm no fan of the culture of violence, but the case for linking D&D with >>suicide seems to be overstated. Interested readers can take a look at page >>18 of today's New York Times. It seems that a group of fundamentalists in >>Connecticut is trying to get the local school board to ban Dungeons and >>Dragons from the schools, on the grounds that D&D caused a 13-year-old boy >>to commit suicide and is the work of the devil to boot. The kid's friends >>tell reporters that it wasn't D&D that made him kill himself, but drugs. >>Chalk another one up for the fundamentalists' grip on reality... > > >I personally don't see how drugs are any more likely to make someone kill >themselves than D & D is. Both are ways of finding alternate realities. Some >people use drugs (or play D & D) because their everyday reality is unpleasant >(while others have different reasons). These people might kill themselves >because their (perceived) life stinks, but drugs are unlikely to actually cause >that. > >Drug use and D & D playing were (it is likely) BOTH symptoms in this case. >-- >Sport Death, >Larry Kolodney While drugs (and roleplay) can be used to "find alternate realities" their most effective uses are extremely different in most cases. If a 13-year old, by definition a very unstable personality in the throes of change, is using psychoactive drugs, then the drugs are very likely to make any perception that "life stinks" worse. This is especially true of drugs like cocaine, which gives incredible downs to go along with the spectacular highs, or alcohol, or just about any depressant. Roleplay is a method for learning coping strategies. Sure, any decent game is going to have a lot of purely fantastical stuff that isn't directly useful. But, while the kid is playing the game for the fantasy, at the same time the game process makes it necessary to learn to communicate well, to express ideas clearly, to think and plan ahead, to see past the superficial appearances, to try different strategies. Roleplay lets a kid make mistakes that aren't fatal, that aren't final and irretrievable, and that is a very useful tool for kids. Mistakes with drugs are often fatal, final, and not particularly useful tools for anyone who doesn't know what they're doing. Roleplay is a game. Drugs are no game. Don't even pretend to equate the two. Hutch