A Case for Roleplaying

Editorial by Donny Simpson

As a middle-of-the-road gamer, my stance on the topic of videogames reflects an open mind with strong convictions. I feel that role-playing is like any other method of story writing or play production. RPG¡¦s are one genre of gaming, but what the genre offers is a more interactive experience that puts the audience on the spot for decision making. They decide the outcome of the story, and I feel this can be a powerful tool for sharing experience or putting across points. It¡¦s very similar to storytelling. Storytelling has been a tool in society for as long as role-playing has been around.

Additionally, I have always felt that any activity to excess is not good, and variety is truly a positive thing because it broadens horizons and exposes the mind to new perspectives and ideas. I don¡¦t have to agree with every RPG in the world, and I don¡¦t agree with every movie made or TV show on the air. I don¡¦t like sex and gore in the media, but that doesn¡¦t mean I want motion pictures banned. It also doesn¡¦t mean that I think censorship is an appropriate solution to what I view as a problem. There are some matters in the real world that we can¡¦t simply ban or eliminate. They serve their role in answering some questions that I think are central to our modernized society. It¡¦s been a half a century since we dealt with a worldwide attack on our lives, and it¡¦s been more than a decade since world destruction was something we knew could happen tomorrow.

Because I know there will always be fanatics and junkies in the world, there are going to be people who want to play games for days without so much as a thirty-minute break. There are people who will read books and believe in them with a religious passion. What I see with the media, actually, is a seesaw that can be used for good and bad. I feel gamers are given a bit more of a role in role-playing games, and it¡¦s important to find one¡¦s self in relation to the stories he or she is experiencing. An RPG can have a very positive impact on a person¡¦s perspective of the world. For some people, this is their only way to interact with others on a level they may not be able to achieve out in public. It¡¦s similar to how some actors use acting as an outlet to escape from their anti-social shells. To summarize my feelings on the issue of role-playing games, there are problems with the genre, but they¡¦re not limited to this specific genre. And like all forms of media they can be very beneficial. As a storytelling tool, the RPG is very powerful. If any RPG is bad, it¡¦s because of what man has put in it.

The problems arise from people who take games too seriously. There is nothing mystical or magical about a videogame. The game can¡¦t curse a person. Furthermore, games are like all other inanimate objects; it takes man or woman to make them bad. If curses, for instance, really do exist, they will be placed on a person from a higher source of power.

The problems we hear about in association with RPG¡¦s are often cases where someone took gaming to an extreme. What can happen as a result of gaming is bad, but it¡¦s important to remember that humans are a main part of the problem. It¡¦s easy to get addicted to something, and addictions are rarely good. Like the case of the guy who let his baby die because he was too busy playing an RPG to feed it, he obviously had a problem. He is the one responsible for what happened. There are people who can¡¦t miss an episode of a soap opera to save their lives. There are people who can¡¦t miss a baseball game if their team is playing, and if they do it makes the rest of their day bad. These are issues that people have to overcome. In all gaming-related issues where a crime is committed, it¡¦s important to not shift the blame from the people committing the crime.

However, this is not to say that RPG¡¦s or videogames don¡¦t have issues worth discussing. To shed light on one of the more actual problems with RPG¡¦s, the content and detail can go too far. Like any type of media, the problems surrounding today¡¦s games are with the level of graphical and violent content produced in them. It¡¦s true that some of what is produced in today¡¦s games is borderline wrong, but that begs the question of what is acceptable. It¡¦s up to the individual. Parents are advised to monitor what their children are being exposed to, and anyone with a particular distaste for sci-fi, fantasy, and role-playing shouldn¡¦t play an RPG. For those who feel compelled to spend their time out in the real world, videogames were never intended for you.

Article by Donny Simpson