ODDBALL: First they Came for the DnD Players and I said Nothing…
You will want to read this. Its not directly wargames related, but you can see where its headed…
“A man serving life in prison for first-degree intentional homicide lost his legal battle Monday to play Dungeons & Dragons behind bars…”
Prison officials instigated the Dungeons & Dragons ban among concerns that playing the game promoted gang-related activity and was a threat to security. Singer challenged the ban but the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld it as a reasonable policy…
…Singer was told by prison officials that he could not keep the materials because Dungeons & Dragons ”promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling,” according to the ruling. The prison later developed a more comprehensive policy against all types of fantasy games, the court said.
Read the whole article here (NY Times).
~Lots of these types of stereotypes of gaming are floating around out there (who remembers the role-playing game-satanic cult witchhunts from the 1980s), but rarely do you see them codified into US Circuit Court decisions and formal policies.
