I remember this well LOL!!
Personally I never did see the point in getting worked up about RPGs like this, and from personal experience I think T2K gave me help with my math, creative skills, writing, and probably most of all; geography and politics. I just laugh at stuff like this anymore.
...and Paul is right, though I think we can go a step further. It isnt just parents who are clueless, it could also be drug use, social situations at school, or other reasons like mental instability, which I think is the most misunderstood.....
.....actually ignored health problem in the United States.
Heres an example. Anyone play Vampire or Werewolf? Wow. Pretty serious background study involved in the game, but pretty dedicated players too. In fact I was part of some astoundingly large live action games, one in Carlsbad CA where the GMs needed portable radios and we used several blocks of public streets for play area. Players much more into the game than me even dressed up, and Im not talking about just a cheap cape, I mean pretty serious make-up and SFX you would expect to find in hollywood. Carlsbad PD knew about the game and was actually pretty supportive.
Now cut to a few years later when Im yakking with some Vampire players who were doing the same thing in Boulder CO. Turns out on of the players was a meth-head who had dropped some acid, and had climbed up in one of the decorative trees on the Pearl St Mall as an ambush position. Never mind that LARPs have serious rules about actual physical contact, this dude was going to get one of the other players. Unfortunately the person he ambushed and jumped down on was a Boulder PD Officer, who promptly pounded him like a tent peg and yanked him downtown. During booking the officers found all the gaming stuff for his player and decided to shut down the LARP in boulder.
Point being is I think that RPGs are sometimes used as an excuse to point the finger towards something that people dont understand, but more importantly away from something that is obviously the problem but there is no easy answer for.
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