Dungeons and Dragons


    While having dinner the other night my eight year old told me that his 9 year old cousin was talking about playing Dungeons and Dragons...for those unfamiliar with the game it is a role playing / fantasy game produced by TSR. Players get to create characters and take them through all sorts of adventures, it is text based and the players fortunes are dependant solely on the roll of special dice and the individuals decision making abilities...in this day of electronic games it still has a loyal following judging by the number of sites here on the internet.

    Back in my younger days I was an avid player of the game, I enjoyed the intellectual challenge the game offered and the company of friends. Then as now, there are those people who would scream that the game is the work of the devil...HUH?? Its a game, plain and simple.

    I remember stories of people playing D&D and then going home and murdering their families...my friends and I made a rule to this effect...if you played D&D with us then went home and killed your loved ones, you wouldn't be able to play with us anymore. This seemed to do the trick...no-one ever murdered a family member over the many years that we enjoyed playing the game.

    I should point out now that I have never been a satan worshipper or sacrificed virgins for any diabolical cause... they are so few in number as it is...

    There have always been those people who take things to the extreme and in some cases I am sure that a few of these souls have replaced reality with the fantasy and escape the game offers...hell...by day you could be pumping gas for minimum wage, but at night, you could be a valiant hero...striking down the forces of evil. For me it always beat hanging out in the bar...yeah...I know I should have been spending that time at bible study but I made time for that too. I remember the looks my church friends would give me when I told them that I played D&D...when I asked them if they knew anything about it all they could say was that it was "bad".

    Back to the children...at their present age my kids aren't ready to play a game like D&D...I don't even let them play violent video games...they have trouble separating themselves from their games, they "become" the characters and forget about everything else. That and the fact that the game itself is hard enough for intellectually "gifted" adults...a little kid wouldn't enjoy it.

    Now...for those of you who are reading this and saying to yourselves..."its the work of the devil". You are sitting in front of your computer reading this...how long has it taken you? Couldn't you be doing something else like attending bible study? I believe that anything, be it playing D&D or spending hours in front of your computer, taken to excess, cannot be good for you or the people around you.

    Now...to see if you've been spending too much time online...click HERE


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