Dragons, Dungeons, and Satan Oh my!
Who would have thought, considering where we are in society today, that dungeons and dragons would have garnered media scrutiny. Parents would have had major concerns over a game that consisted of Dice, Pawn pieces, strategy and imaginations could harness into the dark arts of magic and summon the evil of all evils...Satan. The reason this brought up such a media frenzy is because of a 15 year old who went missing back in 1980, James Dallas Egbert. This news of speculation created so much frenzy; they wanted something to pin on his mysterious absence. Enter Bill Dear, who was sent by the young child’s parents to find out where he had gone. Because of his imagination, he uses the game as his precise excuse as to why he went missing. Sighting that the game was demonic and created unhealthy imaginations leading children to drugs and satanic ideals. I mean after all look at all the crazy demonic symbols the game associated with? How could he possibly be wrong right? This is how he created this Media Panic.
But because of his actions that created a huge interest in D & D. Sales went up and more and more people started playing this game, and kids were still just as normal as ever. There was no take over of teens who were possessed by this game and gave their souls up to Satan. After all this is what people were afraid of. This is what made people scared into thinking this game wasn’t safe for their own children. The best way to set more fear into the public was of course to report it on the news! After all back then there wasn’t anything reported as fake news so this had to be true. Christians started putting in their two cents as well setting a more hard foundation to the media. Which they were wanting to place the blame to the creators of the game to the missing teens on the game because those who went missing actually played it. But that wasn’t the case. The build up, the media, the parents needed to find something for the excuses of what was going on. In all aspects D & D had nothing to do with any cases of missing children. Eventually all of this hype dissipated, the hype died down and people are still playing this game to this day. In my opinion there will always be something out of the norm that will scare people or feel unnatural to people due to the media. It still continues on different aspects today. Violent games kill, they put guns into our children’s hands and makes them shoot up their peers in schools. In reality none of that is the cause. As a society we look down on Mental health and this is more of a reason to look into that than into a harmless game
But because of his actions that created a huge interest in D & D. Sales went up and more and more people started playing this game, and kids were still just as normal as ever. There was no take over of teens who were possessed by this game and gave their souls up to Satan. After all this is what people were afraid of. This is what made people scared into thinking this game wasn’t safe for their own children. The best way to set more fear into the public was of course to report it on the news! After all back then there wasn’t anything reported as fake news so this had to be true. Christians started putting in their two cents as well setting a more hard foundation to the media. Which they were wanting to place the blame to the creators of the game to the missing teens on the game because those who went missing actually played it. But that wasn’t the case. The build up, the media, the parents needed to find something for the excuses of what was going on. In all aspects D & D had nothing to do with any cases of missing children. Eventually all of this hype dissipated, the hype died down and people are still playing this game to this day. In my opinion there will always be something out of the norm that will scare people or feel unnatural to people due to the media. It still continues on different aspects today. Violent games kill, they put guns into our children’s hands and makes them shoot up their peers in schools. In reality none of that is the cause. As a society we look down on Mental health and this is more of a reason to look into that than into a harmless game
I like how you mentioned how " Back then there wasn't any fake news". I think that is a good point. Although the investigator and news should have looked into it more before putting those headlines up, it is true how people back then would act so fast to believe it.
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