SemperJase
First Post
First let me say that I am a Christian. This post is not to say that Christians are bad. Some groups have legitimate complaints about D&D. I agree with their some of their facts (D&D related deaths not being in that category), I just disagree with their conclusions.
I know everyone has seen the articles claiming that D&D can lead to murder and suicide. These articles all list the same 12 deaths cases with the most recent being in 1988. I also know that we all disagree with the claims, but I have never seen any referenced analysis supporting our rebuttal. So here is mine.
Wizards of the Coast market research indicates 2.8 million people play roleplaying games once a month(1). The National Institute of Mental Health claims that the suicide rate (as of 1998, the most current figure) is .01% (2). I would argue that education does not effect suicide rates and introverts (as roleplayers are branded) are more likely to succeed in their attempts so perhaps this rate should probably be higher but we'll stick with it. The murder rate averages about 4 per 100,000 (1976-1999) for white males between 18-24 (the major roleplaying demographic) according to the Department of Justice.(3) That would indicate that at least 280 RPG players should committ suicide and 112 would committ a murder every year as a statistical norm. Yet, the anecdotal evidence doesn't even come close to approaching this over a decade, much less a single year. If these numbers are multiplied for a ten year period, you should be able to site thousands of D&D related deaths but that just isn't happening. The real murder rate for 18-24 year old, white, educated, quiet males would have to be almost zero to overcome the statistical variance of the liste of D&D related deaths.
So, that is my case. Anyone care to review that data (I know there must be some statistical types here) and respond?
(1) http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/br/br20010323a
(2) http://www.nimh.nih.gov/research/suifact.htm
(3) http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/tables/varstab.htm
I know everyone has seen the articles claiming that D&D can lead to murder and suicide. These articles all list the same 12 deaths cases with the most recent being in 1988. I also know that we all disagree with the claims, but I have never seen any referenced analysis supporting our rebuttal. So here is mine.
Wizards of the Coast market research indicates 2.8 million people play roleplaying games once a month(1). The National Institute of Mental Health claims that the suicide rate (as of 1998, the most current figure) is .01% (2). I would argue that education does not effect suicide rates and introverts (as roleplayers are branded) are more likely to succeed in their attempts so perhaps this rate should probably be higher but we'll stick with it. The murder rate averages about 4 per 100,000 (1976-1999) for white males between 18-24 (the major roleplaying demographic) according to the Department of Justice.(3) That would indicate that at least 280 RPG players should committ suicide and 112 would committ a murder every year as a statistical norm. Yet, the anecdotal evidence doesn't even come close to approaching this over a decade, much less a single year. If these numbers are multiplied for a ten year period, you should be able to site thousands of D&D related deaths but that just isn't happening. The real murder rate for 18-24 year old, white, educated, quiet males would have to be almost zero to overcome the statistical variance of the liste of D&D related deaths.
So, that is my case. Anyone care to review that data (I know there must be some statistical types here) and respond?
(1) http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/br/br20010323a
(2) http://www.nimh.nih.gov/research/suifact.htm
(3) http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/tables/varstab.htm
