M. J. Young wrote: I'd ask Paul Cardwell. I know CARPGa is doing something in terms of using role playing games in education, and he'd know what they've got.

That was part of my plan, too. I'm not sure what articles we have in the archives - but I'm really just trying to get the best general coverage. Anything I find will get added to those archives as well.

Thanks for the tip.

- Bill

Mike Holmes wrote: Paul Cardwell, MJ Young, and Bill Walton, the unholy trinity of Game Advocacy. You guys have to stop refering each other to each other, or you're going to cause some massive feedback loop that'll destroy the universe.

Um, what I mean to say is that you guys need to recruit for help. You seem to be doing this all alone. Is there some way, other than regular reading of The Escapist, that someone can get involved? I don't want to derail the thread, but I think that unless you get some more people on board, you're sorta doomed to this sort of circular problem when looking for help.

Well, there are others involved. I think we're probably the most visible, even to each other.

For example, the Christian Gamers Guild pushed forward an idea to do an FAQ of sorts, Frequently Asked Questions by Christians about Role Playing Games, and Paul Cardwell and I both worked on it, but a great deal of the burden of its creation, its initial draft, and a wealth of its contained information were the work of Lynette R.F. Cowper (works with SJGames, her first solo credit is the recent GURPS Rogues). Others in the group contributed significantly to it. I could probably tell you who most of them were, but Paul probably couldn't, because he didn't have much contact with them. Similarly, I'm sure Bill has a lot of people working with him--I've got a link to a column on his site by someone named Jenny Hein (fancy me remembering that) because it's particularly relevant to the question of whether there is a real conflict between Christianity and gaming. Paul is the chairman of CARPGa, and I know he's got a lot of people working with him, mostly offline--really, Bill and I are his primary interface with the cyberworld (last contact I had with him, he was using the computer at the local library to handle his e-mail), but he's got a lot of real-world contacts all over the continent.

It's also clear that there are others out there. I keep up a resources page at the Christian Gamers Guild site (currently at http://www.geocities.com/christian_gamers_guild/chaplain/index.html) on which are links to articles to a lot of people I've never met (some of whom have never acknowledged that we linked them, although I do try to e-mail people when I'm adding them). Some of them choose to get involved with one of us, and some don't.

So I suppose that there are a couple ways you can help.

• As Mike suggests, you can get involved in one of the groups that are doing this kind of thing--get hold of Paul Cardwell for the CARPGa, Bill Walton for The Escapist, me for the Christian Gamers Guild, and we'll gladly discuss what we need versus what you can do. I write a ton of articles on point, at least one a month on the CGG site; Bill writes quite a bit as well. I don't think he'd object to me saying that he'd be as happy to have good articles contributed within his mission concept as I would. I'd bet there are other things people could do to help him, just as there are at my end. Right now there are some people in the CGG trying to organize a companion document to that FAQ--this time, Frequently Asked Questions by Gamers about Christianity, to try to build the bridge from the other direction--and I'm sure the people trying to spearhead this would be pleased for your help. The CGG is also trying to create a detailed response to the Trophy List; we've gotten some information from CARPGa on this, but one of the problems with the game critics is that they rely heavily on each other for information, and we'd like to avoid that as much as possible by finding solid primary sources for our statements. The Trophy List is a collection of alledged role playing related acts of violence; the response attempts to examine each of the listed crimes and determine what truth, if any, they have. We've also got a list of Christians in the game industry, including designers, artists, administrators, and others, posted on the web as a declaration to others that you can be a Christian and a gamer, and that there are Christians working on these games. If you know Christians who are designing games or working in the industry, get them in touch with me if they'd be willing to be included on such a list.
• You can set up your own web pages defending games against attacks and answering the criticisms; you can do so in many ways, writing about how your game experiences have made your life better, answering directly the criticisms you've heard or read, or in other creative ways. I recall that pVp Online comic creator Scott Kurtz has a page, 5 Reasons Your Kids Should Play Dungeons and Dragons, which we've got linked from the CGG site. I've always got my radar up for pages like this, to add to our resources.
• You can create good websites that draw people, and include on them links to these central sites (The Escapist and The Christian Gamers Guild) and to any resources you find there or elsewhere which say what you wish you'd said as well. I frequently hear from people that they started with a Yahoo or Google search for Dungeons & Dragons and Christian, read my article Confessions of a Dungeons & Dragons& Addict, and followed the link from there to the Christian Gamers Guild, which got them involved in what the CGG was doing and encouraged them to continue to believe that role playing games were not some unchristian activity. The Web works because people link, and people follow links. If every page that talked about role playing games had links to sites like ours, more people would get the message, and more people would help.


I'm sure there are other ways to help; I'm not the only creative mind here, obviously. These are good starting points.

--M. J. Young