Dungeons & Dragons gives you a weak mind

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[Bronson]

ARTICLE (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3052074,00.html)

What say our military friends on AikiWeb?

Bronson

[pezalinski]

I'm not a mil-spec unit, but I'd say they are conter-programming against having a soldier with a good imagination and a functioning creative mind. Are all role-playing gamers suspect, or only D&D? There are hundreds of RPG's out there, and probably a billion RPG players. Sounds like a knee-jerk test that proves nothing

[Bronson]

Agreed. I figure for them having a "weak personality" equates to having the ability to see something from somebody elses point of view. At least that's what I'm going to tell myself :D

Bronson

[Yann Golanski]

A while back (Columbine shoot times...) there was a list done by the FBI of dangerous singes. Myself and all my friends looked at it and laughed. We were all way up there inside the "dangerous psychopaths with Spider Jerusalem tendencies...."

I've yet to see a decent study done on role playing, especially from the mathematical game theory point of view. Then again, maybe I should do it myself now that I have no job...

[Michael Meister]

There have been some psychological studies around the net. I can't say anything about the quality of those, but the general conclusion was, that role players are not different from other people, except that there is a tendency that they tend to have slightly above average stable personality and tend to have better social abilities.
Of course, if you already have an instable personality, the effects of LARP and RPGs can be dangerous. It is a form of flight from reality, as is reading a book, wantching a film, going to the opera etc. But the latter are not interactive, in contrast to RPG and especially LARP.

[Kevin Leavitt]

U.S. has a comprehensive screening process for elite units that takes many things into account. While I don't think anyone is after D&D players, On average that your average Special Operations operater would tend to be someone who played team sports in high school than D&D. I have played before, but never got into it...too involved to hold my imagination, then again I like to jump out of perfectly good airplanes so where's the sanity in that.

[Huker]

I can't see a problem for the military as long as the soldiers who do play don't start trying to cast level 10 magic missile at enemy troops during an attack. :eek:

The article sounds pretty closed-minded to me. Sure, a military wants some nice killbots who can only take orders, but where's the harm in being able to think your way out of a problem? Or is it the thinking part that bothers them?

I know a lot of people who play and none of them are Israeli soldiers...is there some kind of correlation there? :D

[Charlie]

JEEEZ, I see RPG written in the posts and my Marine Corps training had me looking for Rocket Propelled Granades....TAKE COVER!

[Yann Golanski]

Tanner, a level 10 magic missile is called a law. It's quiet effective. *grins evilly*

Meanwhile, I'll take my fireball throwing staff (read: grenade launcher) and continue to pepper the orcs (read: enemies).

What are those two men doing in my house? Why are they carrying a long sleeved shirt?...

[Michael Meister]

Tanner, a level 10 magic missile is called a law. It's quiet effective. *grins evilly*

Meanwhile, I'll take my fireball throwing staff (read: grenade launcher) and continue to pepper the orcs (read: enemies).

What are those two men doing in my house? Why are they carrying a long sleeved shirt?...

Magic missiles are ok, but fireballs... no, to much collateral damage... I prefer surgical combat magic

[Amir Krause]

Having read the article in Hebrew, It seems something is missing in the translation. The Israeli army stated it has a problem only with RD&D, those who go out and play. And even then, they send them to psychologists before making a decision.

As one could expect, this article got lots of negative responses once published, and I do hope the army will think about this once again.


Amir

[dan guthrie]

Having read the article in Hebrew, It seems something is missing in the translation. The Israeli army stated it has a problem only with RD&D, those who go out and play. And even then, they send them to psychologists before making a decision.

As one could expect, this article got lots of negative responses once published, and I do hope the army will think about this once again.


Amir

Joke coming, just a joke


Have you ever heard of an RPG that used a dreidl to assign damage?

"Come on, gimmel!!"

Joke over and excuse the spelling.