Wednesday, July 06, 2005

I wish I had known Mind Bondage when I was a kid...

I've been part of an interesting discussion about religion over on the Evil Avatar gaming boards today. There was a guy who saw a skit on Vision TV that was basically equating reading the Bible with being good and playing videogames with being evil.

That's spun into a very interesting discussion by a bunch of Christian gamers about how annoying a lot of the spin against videogames from the media and from the so-called religious folk is.

I was talking about the parallels between the vilification of videogames these days compared with the Dungeons & Dragons debacle that raged during the 1980s. Of course, that meant Jack Chick entered the conversation.

Jack Chick, for those who don't know his ouvre, is a guy who spews out some of the most ludicrous, incoherent and downright hateful bible tracts known to man. They're actually really fun to read just to see how insane this guy and his interpretation of the bible is.

Sadly, I've worked with and known far too many people who would have no problem agreeing with everything he says. Sigh.

For your reading pleasure, take a look at the classic Dark Dungeons tract. I wish my D&D campaigns had that level of passion with them. I just had to contend with my brother rolling up a nigh-indestructible paladin who slaughtered all who crossed his path and had the inventory of an Ikea store strapped to his back most of the time. (Yes, Dave. I'm talking about Fitzy.)

Suffice it to say, my next D&D campaign will be run with a little less Monty Haul and a little more, oh, control. No munchkins allowed!

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What I'm Reading: Artemis Fowl & The Opal Deception
What I'm Playing: Atelier Iris, WoW
What I'm Watching: The Inside (my favourite new show)

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