Date: 2008-11-02 11:52:02 Created: null
This isn't really about roleplaying games (even if it does make me think I should write about those elsewhere), this is really about how narrow-minded people can turn out to be.
Yes, by the way, I've played roleplaying games a bit. Not that much, but I've got a few and have read a lot of rules and sourcebooks and it hasn't done anything more dangerous than get my imagination going and give me an utter feel of pity for anyone so uninformed that they think it's a dangerous hobby.
So, this was the background:
Head is found frozen into river in southern Sweden. Young man has been murdered, chopped up and thrown into river. Investigation shows that he was an active live roleplayer. Switch on big headline in One Tabloid: "Vampire Game May Have Cost Him His Life" (free translation) and rant a little inside in the usual manner showing you know exactly nothing about roleplaying games of any kind.
Oh, they had a few statements from an "expert" as well. An expert that had so much real hard experience from roleplaying that she's (Henrik had an immediate guess who it could be) been threatened several times. Of course it's sad that she's been threatened but hell, you've got to be impressed by someone writing stuff so bad that those who know anything real about it gets so upset they bother to get in touch with her. A bit of detour, back to the subject ...
The scary thing (okay, one of the scary things. There are too many of them sometimes) is how mid-aged women scream out their own lack of knowledge by having no idea whatsoever what roleplaying is, yet assuming it's bad. All this without reading article, because once you do the reporters have to be a bit better and actually note that the roleplaying theory was just a wild idea. A strategically small "might" on the cover made things seem more interesting from that side, as usual.
The Other Tabloid actually rose in my appreciation by not mentioning on cover, and not assuming a connection in the article. They got card games sorted as role-playing, but that's something I can live with.
In all, my thoughts of tabloids only get darker when they try to sell copies by connecting things with an activity still considered "suspicious" that you happen to care about. And I still despise creating news out of thin air as much as usual.
Of course, my thoughts on people get a bit darker too. Whatever ideas one might have about people getting more tolerant is just nonsense. People get more tolerant when they have to come close enough to something (usually against their own will) to realize it's not bad, but don't imagine for a second that all people would even think of getting closer to something they don't know about by their own free will. It's much easier to mark it off as bad and close your door. Amazing that so many people have actually come to accept immigrants when they can't stop suspecting innocent game players. I can always hope my own generation is better, but I won't be making any bets ...
The murderer was a 46 year old man with a dog who was involved in criminal and drug abusing circles. Now, that's a really good reason to suspect all 46 year old men with dogs don't you think? Myself I don't trust those chess players either. War games like that, all that thinking and no showing of emotions has to be bad for them ...