Gaming: That Personal Connection
So, about that last post...
Off-list, I got a question from a friend who was wondering if we should talk about things like this in public. After all, it wasn't that long ago that a whack-job with family issues blamed Dungeons & Dragons for her son's suicide and ignited her own very profitable little corner of the 1980s Satanic Panic. Should we, my friend asked, discuss such subjects and risk having our words turned against us?
As someone who grew into my gaming habit at the height (or depth) of the Satanic panic, I still ponder the implications of what I say and where I say it when I write about the medium. Even though Patricia Pulling and her media-whore crusade are over a decade in the grave, I still find myself wondering, "Is this going to be used against us?" I mean, I'm an out-of-the-broom-closet Pagan game author and designer whose primary claim to fame is a best-selling game about *gasp* MODERN SORCERY! So, yeah - I share those concerns.
And yet, it would be both dishonest and untrue to pretend there's not a deeper level to roleplaying games... and even worse, to trumpet the virtues of the medium one moment and then retreat behind the "It's just a game!" defense when someone questions those levels.
Those levels are there. I've been a gamer for 30 years, and have been involved with acting, psychology, art and mysticism for about the same period of time. Roleplaying is a powerful medium when you look at it in depth - it reaches into us and extends out from us in ways that other media, other than acting, just don't share. When you approach roleplaying from a mystical or psychological perspective, it meets all the definitions of ritual theatre. And sure, you can use ritual theatre for sheer fun... but even a game of "Cowboys & Indians" speaks volumes about the people playing it, the roles they choose, the energy they attach to the game, and the society around them at the time.
And yet, there's nothing "satanic" about those elements. They are utterly, wonderfully human.
This isn't "evil" we're talking about - it's ART. And art, at its best and worst, is potent stuff.
It's also, by many definitions, magic. And that's a scary thing for a guy like me to admit, because I remember when some cops really DID try to arrest me for "doing that D&D thing" back in Richmond during Pat Pulling's Reigh of Error*. The BADD folks were wrong about almost everything they said; there were no demon-summoning rituals, no homosexual propagandizing, no "real magic spells," coded messages, or incitements to suicide. There was one element, though, that they were right about, and that's the potential connection between a roleplaying gamer and the character she portrays. From the standpoints of psychology and anthropology, that bond IS a form of magical practice. If that idea scares someone, he ought to give up roleplaying!
Obviously, I'm not saying that roleplaying a vampire makes you a vampire. If that was true, I'd have long ago become a vamp-elven-pirate-cyborg with shapeshifting superpowers! (I'm not one already? Damn...) But the games you play, the roles you choose, and the ways in which those roles behave in a game setting - they really do say a lot about you. And as someone who fielded the occasional demand to talk to the "REAL authors" of The Book of Nod, or dealt with the Mage fans who wanted magic lessons from me ("Um, guys - it's FICTION!"), I must, in honesty, recognize that some people really do get too attached to their fictional creations and wander away from the line between fantasy and reality. That recognition has fueled my creative ethics since the early 1990s, and it fueled my post the other day.
Now, I'm not saying that raping a character is the same as raping a person. However, I have seen various women (including my roommate, whose in-game rape inspired this post) FEEL violated by that act, even as they recognize that the assault itself is fictional. Some topics and traumas sit very close to the surface, and dealing with them through an interactive medium is tricky... and risky... and potentially hurtful. At best, it's really goddamn inconsiderate to play fast and loose with someone else's psyche that way. Like I said, no sane fantasy gamer freaks out about getting stabbed by an orc; I've seen several people, though, get angry or depressed over a character's death. Magnify that effect several times over when sexual assault enters the question, and it's not hard to see why raping characters (PCs or otherwise) is, at the very least, careless about people's feelings.
Is this something that would-be Pat Pullings could use against RPGs? Yeah, it is. So what? Does the possibility of broken bones keep people from playing football? Does the potential for car wrecks keep people from driving? The risk of busting your head open on concrete does not make riding a bicycle "satanic," anymore than playing Clue makes you a murderer or detective. People who want to ban games - RPGs or otherwise - because some media campaign told them such things are evil... those people should be informed MORE about the truth, not less. The "dangers" of roleplaying games are far fewer and less severe than the risks accepted in many other forms of activity, and the benefits overshadow the risks by a huge margin. The best way to deal with people who would ban those activities is not to close ranks and keep silent, but to challenge those people openly, be honest and aware about what we're doing, and make sure that we're NOT living up to their fears and propaganda. To do what we do, responsibly.
To address a related question posed by my friend: Yes, I think gaming is socially entrenched enough these days to withstand idiots like Pat Pulling. Besides, paper-based RPGs have diminished in influence and popularity since the 1980s. The real gaming boogyman these days manifests as video and MMORPGs - games that, ironically, showcase the occasional hazards of connecting too deeply with your imaginary creations far more vividly than D&D ever did!
Talk about scary...
----------------------
* - In all fairness, I was wearing a sword at the time... a stage blade I'd rented for the Halloween costume I was also wearing at the time, but they didn't just stop me on the street for being a geek, and they eventually let me go when they realized I wasn't trying to skewer anyone.