9781422272664

reality because of playing role-playing games. One of those novels, Mazes and Monsters (1981), was later turned into a TV movie that starred a young Tom Hanks as an obsessive game player who goes nuts on the streets of New York City. Another novel, Hobgoblin (1981), ended with the game player involved in a bloody slaughter. Those books and others facilitated the urban myth about role-playing gamers becoming dangerously detached from reality. The controversy over Dungeons & Dragons continued into the 1990s, with accusations that the game encouraged rape, suicide, and satanic worship. However, independent investigations found no real-life examples of those behaviors. In fact, some studies found that young people who played Dungeons & Dragons were less likely to experience suicidal tendencies or thoughts than those who did not.

“Congress should fund research on the effects that violent video games have on young minds.” 2 —Barack Obama, former US president

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Contemporary Issues: Entertainment and Video Games