B.A.D.D. is coming back!

[Apache]

Given that the guy who does Schlock Mercenary is a Mormon, and just about all Mormon kids I've ever seen own a PS2/Xbox/PC and play online 'RPGs'....such as WoW.....I foresee this guy slinking off into new depths of obscurity after he gets the mocking he richly deserves.

[sjard]

I've lived my entire life in Utah*, was raised LDS, and have never heard of MormonTimes before today.

That said, I've gamed with about 80 or so players over the past three decades, and I can think of about 6 offhand who weren't LDS.




*Well, except for a 3 year period during high school which was on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.

Originally Posted by Apache

...I foresee this guy slinking off into new depths of obscurity after he gets the mocking he richly deserves.

I recognize the name, vaguely, and as I recall his reputation here isn't the best.

[Ed the Coastie]

I suspect that Monahan may indeed have been confusing a game such as World of Warcraft or (more likely) EverQuest with Dungeons & Dragons...especially since he spoke of the would-be missionary "suffering withdrawal symptoms from an addiction". Computer game addiction is relatively easy to hide in comparison to an interactive social activity such as traditional role-playing games like D&D (I can't believe that I just used the word "traditional" in describing D&D!). In 30+ years in the hobby, I've never known any young church member to be involved enough in D&D or any other RPG to exhibit such a level of addiction and for his bishop to be so completely unaware of it that he allows the young man to go serve a mission.

(Or words to that effect, anyway...)

[Anders]

Originally Posted by sjard

I've lived my entire life in Utah*, was raised LDS, and have never heard of MormonTimes before today.

That said, I've gamed with about 80 or so players over the past three decades, and I can think of about 6 offhand who weren't LDS.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Mormon Times is a website and newspaper insert containing news and information for and about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Mormon Times is produced by the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is not an official publication of the LDS Church, and is separate from the weekly official Church News section included with the Deseret News.

So it's not an official publication and has no special position. Ah, well... I guess Mormons can be misinformed just like the rest of us. And I agree with Ed - he may very well mean World of Warcraft and write D&D because that's what he associates it with. He may even think WoW is 'a kind of D&D'.

Still, might be good to keep an eye on things.

[SolemnGolem]

Huh, I never knew that's what BADD stood for.

I wonder if anybody ever formed BAGURPS.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by SolemnGolem

Huh, I never knew that's what BADD stood for.

I wonder if anybody ever formed BAGURPS.

Nah it would be R.A.G. Raging Against GURPS.

[sir_pudding]

Honestly it reads to me as very typical of the deeply religious complaining about the influence of the secular. He's saying essentially "Young people should spend their free time doing religious things instead of fun things." which the devout have been saying since the first shaman. It is nowhere near the Patricia Pulling hysteria. No deaths are being blamed on D&D in this article.

[baakyocalder]

There will always be RPG haters. The question is whether they are credible enough to the right people.

I'd worry more about the video games than tabletop games, since in my experience, people can be a lot ruder and isolate online than they can in a face-to-face or online interactive RPG. In the MMORPG, it's hard to know if someone is a jerk or just having a bad day. Face-to-face or online, you get to know people. Sort of like in the Knights of the Dinner Table comic. If Bob Herzog has a tie, you know he's had a bad day at work and is going to try and raise the combat by being a jerk to every NPC.

As gamers, we just have to make sure we are clear on what we do to the people who don't hate. After some education, most people will either want to see what we do or realize we are fairly innocous and let us be.

[sjard]

Originally Posted by baakyocalder

There will always be RPG haters. The question is whether they are credible enough to the right people.

In this case I doubt it is even that. More likely to be just more targeted version of "Be in the world, but not of the world."

I've seen that used as the baseline for saying that people should avoid any movies with ratings above G, most, if not all TV, books, etc that don't lead to spiritual growth or personal knowledge.

[Guntruck40]

Interesting , we have people from both inside and outside the Church of LDS commenting on this and all agreeing.
.
. This Buffoon is OBVIOUSLY Running for some type of office or appointment . "Never let a crisis go to waste." And if you don't have a crisis, manufacture one.