Is D&D evil?

[peener weener]

On 28/12/2017 at 6:01 PM, SullyMcGully said:

My perspective might be a little weird on this whole deal... but my older brother recently married into a family that runs an... interesting ministry. It's all about helping people come to grips with their past and all that,  but for some reason they seem to attract a few psychos and perverts. Literally. Anyway, a lot of these people show signs of demon possession (i.e. hearing strange voices, producing unnatural sounds, doing things physically impossible for humans), which could all be faked or whatnot, but to the people themselves, it feels very real. A lot of them report various causes for their "possession", including Stephen King novels, Ouija boards, and, yes, D&D. The occult in general, really.

While I'm sure D&D is an OK game, it (like everything else tied to the occult) could cause psychological damage if participants took it too seriously. While I doubt these people are actually possessed, they have certainly suffered from serious trauma due to certain darker influences. So I think D&D is probably OK, but it could potentially wreck your life if you got too weird about it. Psychology is weird that way.

rather inoffensive post but still fairly misinformed about psychology. what you describe sounds like people with mental (and possibly neurological) conditions. no, d&d and stephen king novels will not trigger hallucinations or other symptoms of possible mental illness. i feel like that's a bit short as a refutal, but that's just... how it is. not sure there is much more to add. that's just not really how mental illness works. i'm sure your sister-in-law's family does good work, but that's not really how psychology works, and you should probably read a bit more about it before spreading pseudopsychological factoids.

Edited January 4, 2018 by fartboi

[EdinStops]

On 12/28/2017 at 3:01 PM, SullyMcGully said:

My perspective might be a little weird on this whole deal... but my older brother recently married into a family that runs an... interesting ministry. It's all about helping people come to grips with their past and all that,  but for some reason they seem to attract a few psychos and perverts. Literally. Anyway, a lot of these people show signs of demon possession (i.e. hearing strange voices, producing unnatural sounds, doing things physically impossible for humans), which could all be faked or whatnot, but to the people themselves, it feels very real. A lot of them report various causes for their "possession", including Stephen King novels, Ouija boards, and, yes, D&D. The occult in general, really.

While I'm sure D&D is an OK game, it (like everything else tied to the occult) could cause psychological damage if participants took it too seriously. While I doubt these people are actually possessed, they have certainly suffered from serious trauma due to certain darker influences. So I think D&D is probably OK, but it could potentially wreck your life if you got too weird about it. Psychology is weird that way.

Psychology is really strange, but if you judge games this way, then it turns out that any game can damage the human psyche...