Rather than duplicating the Studies & Literature page here as citations attached to each of the following questions, we recommend that anyone seeking scholarly backing for our answers check that page.
If you don't find your question here or elsewhere on the site, feel free to e-mail the CAR-PGa officer for your area and ask. You may also want to let the webmaster (e-mail: webmaster @ this domain, car-pga.org) know if you think that the question should be on this page.
The Attacks
- Do RPGs cause crime?
- No. Not only has the so-called "D&D Defense," where a defendant claims that "RPGs made me do it," never stood up in court in those cases where a criminal was desperate enough to try it, but there has been no scientific evidence of any such connection, either. There is good scholarly research on this subject that shows no connection.
- Are RPGs Satanic/pagan?
- No. This claim generally rests upon two items:
Firstly, there is the fact that fantasy RPGs (FRPGs) tend to feature worlds with pantheons of gods. However, it should be realized that RPGs are explicitly works of fiction and make no claims regarding reality. Additionally, worlds with invented gods do not normally include Satan, as they are non-Christian settings, and any supernatural evils in them are universally depicted as unpleasant, dangerous beings whose worship is unrewarding if not extremely dangerous.
Secondly, there is the fact that FRPG worlds normally feature magic. Once again, RPGs are explicitly works of fiction and make no claims regarding reality. The magic does not work in real life and does not claim to. For a more humorous counterpoint to this claim, see
The Escapist's "Spellcasting 101" page at
http://www.theescapist.com/random011102.htm.
It should be noted these attacks only apply to fantasy settings, not to RPGs in general; there are plenty of non-fantasy RPGs out there as well. RPGs are religiously neutral and enforce a claim of unreality upon their settings. (They would not be called "role playing games" otherwise.) It should also be noted that a few game authors and more than a few players are clergy. Finally, there are a number of studies and reports that show that RPGs have nothing to do with Satanism and would not make a good tool for Satanists.
- Do RPGs cause suicide/mental problems?
- No. As with RPGs and crime, there is no evidence supporting this claim. This lack of evidence has been cited by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Health & Welfare Canada in the past. A variety of studies have shown gamers to be psychologically normal. Finally, there have been studies that suggest that blocking fantasy (in the general sense of daydreams, etc.) is more likely than accepting it to lead to psychosis. A person who has a pre-existing mental problem may find that an RPG interacts with their problem, but this is not unique to RPGs, and role-playing (a general category into which RPGs fall) is also used as a tool in psychotherapy.
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From Parents, Bosses, et al.
- Should I let my child play an RPG?
- Maybe. There is no hard and fast answer to this question, as it depends on the circumstances involved. RPGs have no inherent dangers; you should treat them just like any other recreational activity. Assuming that your child wants to play—we are not advocating forced recreation (and peer pressure counts as "forced")—the following are the sorts of questions that you should be asking about any of your child's activities, RPGs included.
Find out whom your child will be playing with, particularly who will be running the game. (A group may decide to have that responsibility rotate between two or more members.) If the child is young enough to require adult supervision, find out who will provide that. Ask what sort of game the group will be playing: the setting, the characters' goals, etc. (Players of a game that is just starting may need a session or more to make those decisions.) Find out when the game sessions will be and how your child will be getting to them. Finally, in the unfortunate circumstance that your child is seeing a counselor or psychologist for social difficulties or problems distinguishing fantasy an reality, their therapist should be consulted, as you would consult with them regarding any new social or imaginative activity in those circumstances.
If you still have concerns, you should discuss your concerns with your child. You could also talk with the person running the game or an adult who will be present. You may even ask to read the rules books for the game in question or to observe a game session. In the end, it is your decision as to whether or not the game will be appropriate for your child and the circumstances reasonable.
- Should I let my employee (or whomever) be involved with RPGs?
- Unless they are asking the company to support it in some manner, it doesn't involve you or the company, so why should you care? That being said, there's no reason why you shouldn't allow it. (The only concerns expressed in response to in the equivalent question from parents do not apply to adults.) In short, treat RPGs just like any other recreational activity.
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From Players, GMs, Shopkeepers, et al.
- How do I get a parent to let their child play my game?
- You might not be able to; whether or not they're correct, it's the parent's right to make that decision, and they might not be open to changing their mind. That being said, here's how to try:
Respond to the parent's concerns. If you don't know how, find the parent's question/concern on this site and give our response to it. (Don't be afraid to hand out this site's address, too.) If you don't know what the parent's concern is, that's your first problem; you have to talk to people. Oftentimes all someone really needs is to have a real person talk to them and reassure them. If you're a GM, we suggest calling the parent and saying something along the lines of "Hi, my name is [name], and I'm currently running/organizing a game of [game]. May I ask what your concerns are regarding [child]'s playing with us?"
Be prepared to be flexible if necessary. For example, one parent worried about the violence level may just need reassuring that the violence will not be graphic, but another may need an assurance that the characters will be able to solve many or most of their problems nonviolently, even if this means that you'll have to partially rewrite the adventure. Other questions that you may have to deal with include those listed under the equivalent parents' question above.
- How do I get my parent to let me play a RPG?
- This is really the same question as above except that you may need to divide the talking between yourself and the GM. Also, don't burn any bridges; you will get too old for parental interference soon enough, no matter how long it may seem now, but family ties are difficult to repair once damaged.
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Other
- Why care about attacks on RPGs when there are so many more serious problems out there?
- It is perfectly correct to say that there are a great many more important issues than role-playing games. There are a variety of arguments to be made as to why the existence of large injustices does not mean that it's okay to ignore the small injustices, but perhaps those are the wrong arguments. Let's start with this, instead: What makes you think that our members don't work to correct the large injustices as well? And if we do work to correct the large ones, what is wrong about our getting together to correct a small one in our spare time?
None of us particularly feel the need to flash our activism credentials about, and even if we did, CAR-PGa is not the place to do it; CAR-PGa tries to remain politically neutral on non-RPG subjects to avoid alienating half of our potential audience. Furthermore, we shouldn't have to justify our attempts to help others to anyone. If we want to help others defend their hobby against charges that it causes murder, suicide, and Satanism, that's our choice. Someone has to do it.
And someone
does have to do it. It has been years since the last time gamers were libeled in a major newspaper or in the movie theaters or on national television, but all of those have happened. Police conducting a murder investigation once questioned a child in a marathon interrogation without allowing access to his parents or a lawyer—which is illegal on several counts—on the sole evidence that he played a role-playing game despite the fact that there were already reports of a better suspect. People can lose their jobs and as recently as 2005 have been threatened with such for being involved with a role-playing game. All of this causes us no little amount of disgust and moral indignation, and if we can do something to prevent those things from ever happening again, we'll consider it time well spent.
Finally, of course, there is the fact that part of the point of this website is to give other people the tools to defend themselves so that we don't have to do quite so much of the work ourselves. After all, we can't let this issue take time away from more important ones.
- How can I help?
- Join CAR-PGa. We don't charge dues, just work for the cause (i.e., helping out).
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