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Dungeons & Dragons ruled a threat to prison security

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Re: Dungeons & Dragons ruled a threat to prison security

#41

Post by hugh3 »

burgerbrain wrote: post #39
jrockway wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm offended by such bad writing.

Remember, you can't give offence, you can only take it. If you are offended by something, you have nobody but yourself to blame.

That's a fairly silly attitude to take. Once can quite easily (common English idioms aside) give offence. One can't go around being gratuitously offensive to people and then blaming them for being offended. That's called "being a dick".

In this particular case, though, one would have to be extremely thin-skinned to be offended.

Re: Dungeons & Dragons ruled a threat to prison security

#42

Post by pjscott »

mobileed wrote: post #30

this is irrelevant topic, for one, and it's also irrelevant in terms of even getting a voice! Once you go to prison for what this guy did (1st degree murder with a sledge hammer) your rights are no more. And when you have no rights, you don't even have a voice on the matter. You are to rot the rest of your f cking life in a jail cell. (period)

It sucks when someone gets murdered with a hammer, to put it lightly. That's why we ostensibly put murderers in jail: to keep them from killing again, to deter others, and perhaps to rehabilitate them. But your comment shows another motive, one that I find a lot less defensible: revenge. You want the criminals to suffer, in a perpetual act of state-sponsored sadism.

I don't want that. I wish other people didn't. It just feels sick to me.

Re: Dungeons & Dragons ruled a threat to prison security

#43

Post by burgerbrain »

hugh3 wrote: post #41
burgerbrain wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember, you can't give offence, you can only take it. If you are offended by something, you have nobody but yourself to blame.

That's a fairly silly attitude to take. Once can quite easily (common English idioms aside) give offence. One can't go around being gratuitously offensive to people and then blaming them for being offended. That's called "being a dick". In this particular case, though, one would have to be extremely thin-skinned to be offended.

Nobody but you can be or should be responsible for your emotions. It is entirely up to you how you respond to somebody "being a dick", not to mention that's a completely subjective thing in the first place.

Re: Dungeons & Dragons ruled a threat to prison security

#44

Post by SoftwareMaven »

ojbyrne wrote: post #28
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #12

Personally, I think the reasoning is completely bogus, however, I'm all for not allowing people to spend their day playing D&D while I and other tax payers pay for it (and I'll expand the D&D to anything that does not fall in the restitution or rehabilitation buckets). On the other hand, I could see D&D being a good rehabilitation tool. Personal rant aside, D&D sure seems like it would be a LOT better than some thing…

You probably should rephrase "some things I've read about in prison." I don't think you meant what it expresses.

Doh! Yes, you are correct, my English is apparently very poor, even though it was my first and only language.

To be clear: things I've round about prison not about in prison. Unfortunately, too late to edit.

Re: Dungeons & Dragons ruled a threat to prison security

#45

Post by SoftwareMaven »

stcredzero wrote: post #26
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #12

Personally, I think the reasoning is completely bogus, however, I'm all for not allowing people to spend their day playing D&D while I and other tax payers pay for it (and I'll expand the D&D to anything that does not fall in the restitution or rehabilitation buckets). On the other hand, I could see D&D being a good rehabilitation tool. Personal rant aside, D&D sure seems like it would be a LOT better than some thing…

One of my bosses got a lot of his "think on your feet" chops from D&D. He was damn good. No one ever caught him flat footed without an answer and all of his answers sounded good and scored a point for his side. I asked him once where it came from, and he told me it was playing D&D.

I love D&D. Many of my best memories of my early teen-age years revolve around D&D. I think D&D could be part of a good therapeutic tool, and if it is used as one, great, seriously.

I just have a hard time with the notion of "hanging out in prison, doing whatever I want." Prison should have a rehabilative aspect to it, for sure. It should also work as a very strong disincentive.

Unfortunately, we don't seem to be doing either very well.

Re: Dungeons & Dragons ruled a threat to prison security

#46

Post by mcantor »

Predictably, I used to play Dungeons & Dragons in high school. Just as predictably, I didn’t lose my virginity until I stopped.

Um... it's 2011. Are we really still making "nerds can't get laid" jokes? I mean, Vin Diesel plays Dungeons & Dragons. I'm not offended or anything; the author is clearly joking, but it seems pretty low-brow for the opening hook on something posted to HN.

EDIT:

It's an established fact that Dungeons & Dragons is a bigger threat to human reproduction than all the gay marriages in the world.

Oh whoops. OK... complaint retracted. I expressly condone the usage of dated nerd jokes if used to setup a punchline this hilarious.

That'll teach me to comment before reading the rest of the friendly article.

EDIT 2:

I thought this sounded familiar... this is from January, 2010! Obligatory: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/27/

Re: Dungeons & Dragons ruled a threat to prison security

#47

Post by sangaya »

jrockway wrote: post #6

I used to think that blogging couldn't hurt your career. Then I read this post. From the sidebar: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past four years. Then we have the following professional-sounding quotes: I used to play Dungeons & Dragons in hig…

"If you are going to do a legal analysis on your bullshit placement firm's blog...."

If you're going to knock a website at least take 2 seconds to look at the title before doing so.

"Above the Law: A Legal Tabloid - News, Gossip, and Colorful Commentary on Law Firms and the Legal Profession"

It's far from a "bullshit placement firm's blog", it's a tabloid focused on the legal industry. In fact, it's extremely popular in the legal world. Being light hearted in nature is a great way to entertain and grab the attention of people stuck reading legalese all day.

Re: Dungeons & Dragons ruled a threat to prison security

#48

Post by GrandMasterBirt »

mcantor wrote: post #46

Predictably, I used to play Dungeons & Dragons in high school. Just as predictably, I didn’t lose my virginity until I stopped. Um... it's 2011. Are we really still making "nerds can't get laid" jokes? I mean, Vin Diesel plays Dungeons & Dragons. I'm not offended or anything; the author is clearly joking, but it seems pretty low-brow for the opening hook on something posted to HN. EDIT: It's an established fact that…

I must upvote BUT here are some disputes to your claims:

"Its 2011 Are we really still making "nerds can't get laid" jokes?"

Honestly, from my experience try s/D&D/World of Warcraft. Yes people who play WoW get laid. Highschool kids who play WoW instead of building up real social skills don't get laid.

The thing though is the author's assertion is incorrect. Its pretty hard to not get laid as you get to college. I mean you have to be in a closet pretty much. Which is what can happen with WoW or D&D. However the only virgin I know of (and hell, people I thought would die virgins have proved me wrong) is a virgin because she just does not like most guys shes met, and is too shy to do anything about the ones she does. Nothing to do with games.

Re: Dungeons & Dragons ruled a threat to prison security

#49

Post by neworbit »

electromagnetic wrote: post #24
w1ntermute wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They got an exception because of the all the rich/famous people they have.

So the defining characteristic of a religious entity is how much that entity can extort from its followers, and because Scientology extorts from the rich rather than the poor they attained this status faster. Now where's my chapel in the Apple Store? I suppose the Genius Bar may constitute, but I'm smarter than those people so it doesn't provide me any solace.

Last I checked Catholic dogma, which has been a couple decades now, I think Steve has to actually pass away before he can become a saint.

Re: Dungeons & Dragons ruled a threat to prison security

#50

Post by uxp »

philwelch wrote: post #33
pjscott wrote: post #20

What happened to the idea that D&D led to Satanism and suicide? This was a big deal back in the 1980s. You never hear about it anymore, and yet I haven't heard any of the old scaremongers actually admitting that they were wrong. Ditto for Satanic ritual abuse, which used to scare people out of their wits.

It's called a "moral panic", and they happen all the time. There have been moral panics about rock music, comic books, teenage sex parties, fictitious drugs, and video games.

If anyone wants to waste an afternoon developing a raging headache, I highly recommend reading some of the Wikipedia articles in the Moral Panic category.
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