Aug 192008

Roleplayers clearly hate former POWs

Roleplaying

Can somebody tell me what role-playing games have to do with the US presidential election? Apparently some Obama supporters have raised an issue about an event McCain claims occurred during his time in a Vietnamese prisoner camp, and the campaign responded:

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.

I don’t get it. The Boing Boing post on this has lots of great comments; my favorite:

Apparently an apology has been issued:

“If my comments caused any harm or hurt to the hard working Americans who play Dungeons & Dragons, I apologize. This campaign is committed to increasing the strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma scores of every American. ”
–Michael Goldfarb

I assume it’s authentic, though it seems a little to [sic] amusing to actually be from the McCain campaign.

Now, I don’t play D&D. My RPG choices are solidly science fiction and I avoid anything related to the fantasy genre. Regardless, this seems like an odd way to respond, criticizing a group that has nothing to do with anything remotely relevant to the issues at hand nor, really, anyone else. It’s like if the Obama campaign complained about all the ‘pro-McCain model railroaders’.

reposted from my personal blog

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Posted by Kyle Maxwell at 1531 Tagged with: ,

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