[Let's Read] Playing With Fire, Part 15: Conclusion

Conclusion ranges from pages 79 to 86, and consists of a single title page, one blank page and six content pages.

Three items of Note:
1) direct quotes from the text will be italicized,
2) my analysis of this text is not an attack on individual Christians or to paint Christians as a whole in a broad brush, and
3) the authors' ideas will be critically examined, especially when they present a Christian idea without using the same rigor that they have used on RPGs.

I've made it through.

Just six more pages to go (and I'm ignoring the 3 page bibliography at the end) and then I'm done. I won't do an overview. I'm sure you all understand that I'm going through some really hard times trying to finish this review and it's boring text.

So I might as well start.

J. Weldon and J. Bjornstad don't like RPGs. They have made wild claims throughout the whole text and have failed to back them up. They've done a bunch of crappy research and have given me, the reader, no indication that they've actually played the game or even read the game books that they reference. That's really too bad. Because I'm sure they have great imaginations. In fact, this whole book is just one big imagination that RPGs will end your life, kill off all your family and friends, and land you in jail. Except nothing they've written here has any truth to it.

I'm not going to continue quoting because I'd have to quote the whole conclusion and refute it line by line. I'm tired and really not in the mood to do so. I blame the authors, naturally.

They spend pages 81 to 84 trying to show that they're fair by outlining all the things that people say RPGs are good for. Don't be fooled. They're just trying to get you to think they are honest people. But they're not. They are liars, down to the core.

They then spend pages 84 to 86 saying how RPGs are bad, reiterating the same reasons that I've already taken apart in earlier posts. And then they say it's your choice but you shouldn't play them because it's bad. And they end with that Thessalonians quote from the Introduction. I won't repeat it here because I'm just too tired.

There. It's over.

If you find this in a used bookstore, pick it up as an artefact from the Satanic Panic and show it off to your gamer friends. The authors won't get any of your money and that's the best part. Mine cost me $2.95 and none of it went to them.

Maybe read a bit, if you'd like. Maybe read the whole thing (I doubt if you actually will, but you might). Don't worry, you won't take it seriously. 

Use it as the butt of gamer jokes. Laugh heartily as you play your RPGs and think not of J. Weldon or J. Bjornstad. Give it as a gag-gift to another gamer friend. 

Maybe in 100 years it'll be a collectors item but I doubt it.

[Let's Read] Playing With Fire, Part 14: Chapter 5 The Occult Connection

Chapter 5: The Occult Connection continues from Part 13.

Three items of Note:
1) direct quotes from the text will be italicized,
2) my analysis of this text is not an attack on individual Christians or to paint Christians as a whole in a broad brush, and
3) the authors' ideas will be critically examined, especially when they present a Christian idea without using the same rigor that they have used on RPGs.

When we last left Chapter 5, the authors were still full of crap. 

Continuing on page 69, they quote, not an actual game book but the San Diego Evening Tribune's unsupported statement from October 13, 1980 "(some games are) often accompanied by long hours of research into the cultures to be used in dungeons," (Pg 69).

Then they continue with this thought with a quote from Deities and Demigods "(t)he books listed below constitute some of the references used in compiling this work. They, as well as numerous other works, contain much more detailed accounts of the gods and their divine characteristics than can be included herein. Further research is recommended to the DM (Dungeon Master) who wishes to augment the given information." (Pg 69)

OK, we get it. Research is bad. Except when the authors do it, apparently. But of course, the authors completely cock-up their research, so perhaps we should care less about occult research and turn more of our ire on bad research jobs and the people who do them.

They keep harping on research with "(o)ne might raise the question here as to how such research differs from that of a student in an anthropology course....but there are some important differences that should be noted....(i)n Dungeons and Dragons the primary focus appears to be narrow, dealing mostly with the area of the religious or supernatural" (Pg 70).

And yet, biblical scholars do research on a narrow focus, dealing mostly with religious or supernatural issues. Hmmmmm. Could it be that these two are damning themselves in the same way?

"Second, the purpose of the research is quite different. In Dungeons and Dragons the main purpose is to obtain information that may be useful in the researcher's fantasy role playing." (Pg 70-71).

So, if we switch out some words, for example, and say "In biblical apologetics the main purpose is to obtain information that may be useful in the researcher's religious beliefs," then that's OK, but fantasy games are not? Please.

They keep complaining about this when they say "(i)f nothing else, the evidence would at least indicate that those who created the game or "those who researched and wrote the various manuals and materials ... are well-versed in the occult."" (Pg 71).

Wow, just wow. So, because a game has dragons and demons and magic spells in it, it's automatically occult. Well, that then makes the bible one of the most occult books out there because it's full of dragons, gods, demons and devils, and magic spells. (And because I have those words in this review, I, too, have great knowledge in the occult and you readers also know too much!)

Plank, eye, remove it yourself.

I've got six more pages of this drivel to go through, so I'll just give you the synopsis. Occult = bad. Except they really don't give a reason. They claim that people develop occult powers, they claim that the supernatural is real, they claim that imagining is the same as doing (more of that thoughtcrime) and they claim that it's wrong. Except they don't do anything to actually evidence these claims. So the rest of the chapter is just assertions with no evidence.

And we all know that assertions with no evidence are not to be believed.

Seriously, J. Weldon and J. Bjornstad, this is the best you can do? For the past five chapters, you've both had shoddy research, lies and damn lies, and so many huge holes in your logic that Noah could sail his Ark through.

You start with "Watch out, these games cause people to kill" and failed at showing that was even true. Then you continue with "Watch out, these games will ruin your life" and, again, fail to show that is true. And in this last chapter, you say "Watch out, these games are occult and that's bad" and, even more, fail to show that you're right. 

Instead, it's the authors who look like lunatics running down the street screaming "The DMV, the Queen and Elvis and his army of Animated Twinkies control the world!"

Six more pages for the Conclusion and I'm done. Not that I'm going to enjoy it much. But then I can put the book back on my self and laugh and laugh and laugh.