Current social issues in RPGs

[dewey]

Beyond that, however, an RPG which intelligently addresses or brings to light a social issue is useful regardless of whether the game designer is involved in other activities. Yes, it may be an empty gesture in terms of the moral or ethical worth of the game designer, and yes, it may be the sum of his or her activism, but neither of those points negate the possible positive impact said game may have. Even if it's not much, it's something, and neither censoring it nor censuring it is likely to cause the game designer to contribute any additional efforts.

Yes, yes. In my first feeble example (about the multi-millionaire donating 10 cents to a hospital) those 10 cents certainly help the hospital a little.

[Doctor Xero]

Beyond that, however, an RPG which intelligently addresses or brings to light a social issue is useful regardless of whether the game designer is involved in other activities. Yes, it may be an empty gesture in terms of the moral or ethical worth of the game designer, and yes, it may be the sum of his or her activism, but neither of those points negate the possible positive impact said game may have. Even if it's not much, it's something, and neither censoring it nor censuring it is likely to cause the game designer to contribute any additional efforts.

Yes, yes. In my first feeble example (about the multi-millionaire donating 10 cents to a hospital) those 10 cents certainly help the hospital a little.

We have benefits on two different levels here, it seems to me.  One level is the material/social benefit to the recipient.  The other level is the spiritual or ethical benefit to the altruist or activist.

When a multi-millionaire gives ten cents to a hospital or a game designer designs a game against racism while ignoring racial hate crimes she could easily prevent, the recipient (the hospital or the cause of ending racism) benefits at least a little, while the giver (the multimillionaire or the game designer) benefits spiritually or ethically not at all (due to his stinginess or her laziness).

In a forum such as The Forge, we can address issues of whether or not the game benefits or fails to benefit its target recipient.  It's not really within this forum's visions to address issues of whether or not the game benefits the designer on an ethically or spiritually.

Doctor Xero

[M. J. Young]

I'll revise my opinion:
If someone hasn't done everything in everyday life (work, family, friends, whatever) to help a current social issue, then making an RPG about that issue is just an empty gesture.

What do you people think about it now?

That's a fair question.

In relation to the aforementioned Crisis Pregnancy Center, I was involved at the time. I was then a disk jockey/announcer on a Contemporary Christian radio station, and I gave them the benefit of exposure through our programming within the limits allowed by the management. I took the counselor training program; however, it was decided after that that men would not be counselors in the program (they didn't want men alone with the girls for liability reasons, and once you added a third person to the mix you had privacy issues and other problems, so it just made the most sense for the counselors to be women), and I was out of the loop. I did assist in the work of setting up the facilities, and I taught counseling classes to a new group of counselors at a later date. In the main, though, the center didn't need or want much involvement from me after it was running, and not long after that I was no longer in broadcasting so I couldn't do much in that regard.

I'm still of the opinion that this is an important issue, and that the law has taken the wrong side of the matter. I've written a few web pages on it; I support candidates as I am able. There isn't much else I can do. I get a lot of e-mail about my web pages, but none that I recall on that issue. It's difficult to say whether my web pages are "empty gestures". There don't seem to be many opportunities for me to contribute to this cause "in everyday life".

Apart from all this, though, I helped create a role playing game scenario which, in retrospect, is very relevant. Richard Lutz came up with the idea (if anyone knows him, get him in touch with me), and ran it once; E. R. Jones expanded on it and ran it again, and dropped it in my lap to turn it into something publishable. We did publish it--The Zygote Experience in Multiverser: The First Book of Worlds. It is probably the only role playing game scenario in which the player plays an unborn child.

I can say categorically that we did not write it to address the question of abortion. It was the furthest thing from our minds, I'm sure. I don't even know the positions of my co-authors on that subject; I've never even met Mr. Lutz, and what I know of him does not suggest an answer to this. On the other hand, there is something about being handed the experience of growing from a single cell to a newborn child (and beyond) that significantly emphasizes the humanness of the unborn in the mind of the player. We didn't write it for social commentary; but it may have had that impact nonetheless.

Maybe it's a drop in the bucket; maybe it's an "empty gesture". I'd guess, though, that my Zygote Experience has had at least as much impact as anything else I've done in relation to this issue. After all, given that most voting districts pretty strongly lean to one party or the other, isn't my vote an "empty gesture", unlikely to make a real difference in the winner of an election, if I don't live in one of those places where the race is going to be close? Aren't my web pages "empty gestures", given that they probably will be read only by those who already agree with me, and are unlikely to be persuasive to anyone who already disagrees?

If a role playing game impacts the thought processes of exactly one person I would not otherwise have impacted, is it an empty gesture? No more so, I would say, than answering someone's e-mail, or posting a web page, or having a conversation with someone.

All of us have limitations on what we can do. I know a lot of people who would be completely incapable of writing a role playing game. I know one fellow whose physical problems make it difficult for him to ride a bicycle and impossible for him to drive a car; but he spreads joy to all the people he knows, encouraging everyone through his love and faith in God, even through the speech impediment his with which his degenerative disease has afflicted him.

I don't think it's unreasonable to imagine that someone who could write a role playing game that had significant impact on the ideas of a fair number of people might not be able to do anything else of greater significance than that. It's like saying that the pastor of the local Baptist church should have been a missionary, or the elderly woman whose only contribution to support the church is a weekly ten dollar donation isn't helping with the youth group. It's terribly judgmental to say that anyone isn't doing enough because you think they could do more, or you think that they could do something more effective if they weren't doing this. What they're doing might actually be the most effective thing it is possible for them to do, and (as with Erick's games) might be far more effective than you're crediting.

Even if it's only "designing a role playing game".

--M. J. Young