Arrrgh!
If these had been protestant knitting fans, their hobbies and religion would NEVER have been mentioned, nevermind in para 3!!!
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/16/armored.car.company.ap/index.html?iref=new ssearch
I’ve had this exact discussion with my wife. If commit a crime or simply stand accused, the media will use your background to make you sound like a deviant.
Do something not quite mainstream, well of course you committed those crimes, look what a freak you were! The Horror. THE HORROR.
Sounds like they were good people who got desperate for money, honestly.
I do think that if they were protestant knitting circle enthusiasts, it would be mentioned. But maybe that's because the media associates "knitting circle" with "backwoods militia". I've made the same mistake...with tragic consequences.
I’ve had this exact discussion with my wife. If commit a crime or simply stand accused, the media will use your background to make you sound like a deviant.
Do something not quite mainstream, well of course you committed those crimes, look what a freak you were! The Horror. THE HORROR.
Sounds like they were good people who got desperate for money, honestly.
I agree. The media seems to have a penchant to exaggerate.
I don't think it's quite that bad. D&D and Wicca is mentioned with about the same degree of interest as the house they lived in. The bulk of the story is establishing that they weren't hardened criminals; they were people with debts that wanted to take the easy way out.
Seriously....
I have long thought CNN and a great deal of other news organizations were completely idiotic, but that actually is a new low.
While I am fully cognizant of the general (i.e. Boring) population's attitude towards gamers, they really need to shut their mouths. Considering the way the trend is going in this country, Gamers are going to far outnumber the others sometime in my life. Granted these will be video-gamers, not PnPer's but still. Something is better than nothing, right?
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Pretty ridiculous. They just added the Halo and D&D reference just to make them more 'freakish'. Neither one had anything to do with the rest of the story.
I hate how people have to have something to blame besides human nature. These people obviously needed money and they had access to A LOT of money so they made a choice. Being gamers didn't have anything to do with the decision they made. Millions of people are gamers and about half of them probably don't even now they fall in the category and they don't kill people or rob banks. That would be like if some guy beats his wife to death and they find out that he played Mario Bothers when he was six, how many kids played that game in the 80's and didn't kill someone. When Columbine happened one of the first things they tried to blame it on was the fact that they played DOOM. Three out of how many million, come on.
Does the media jump all over that fact that some guy played football in high school or collage and then rapes some girl, no because that is absurd, but if he played D&D that would be the reason.
Ok rant over... I have always hated this type of crap.
I play Dungeons and Dragons, I wanna go rob a bank!
SAMMICH!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I play Dungeons and Dragons, I wanna go worship Satan!
SAMMICH!!!!!!!!!!!1
I play Dungeons and Dragons, I wanna go kill my loved ones!
SAMMICH!!!!!!!!!!!1
I play Dungeon and Dragons, I wanna go eat some babies!
SAMMICH!!!!!!!!!!1
I play Dungeon and Dragons, I wanna go eat some babies!
SAMMICH!!!!!!!!!!1
Ah, yes, the ol' California Club Sammich!
I bet they did it for D&D miniatures...
I bet they did it for D&D miniatures...
Nah, they were trying to get in on the Green Ronin sale.
Well, media look for any details that make an otherwise everyday crime news item more exciting by adding some details, preferably details that show the criminal to be outside the norm. This is perhaps an attempt to reassure the "average" citizen of his "normal" values in life and serves as safety distance to the perpetrators. If these were just everyday folks with mainstream hobbies and religions, the distance to other everyday folks would dwindle uncomfortably, perhaps implying that just everybody might become a criminal - which is an rather disturbing insight into human nature.
Stefan
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Well, of course they blame D&D. You wouldn't expect a large corporation to ask questions like why jobs are scarce in the rust belt, how a young couple wracked up $67,000 in credit card debts, about the modelling industry etc, would you?
Nope. Simple answers keep people from asking complex questions.
Well, of course they blame D&D. You wouldn't expect a large corporation to ask questions like why jobs are scarce in the rust belt, how a young couple wracked up $67,000 in credit card debts, about the modelling industry etc, would you?
Nope. Simple answers keep people from asking complex questions.
Good point. And what´s more, if you existence is so wretched that you hang onto every straw (like this modeling stuff), it might be understandable that you try and look for alternatives to mainstream lifestyle, like playing "escapist" games and adhering to an alternative religion. This in turn might engender sympathies for the perpetrators - and this is nothing mainstream media want to do. (And what´s more, are these credit card companies just crazy to let folks rack up debts they never can pay back? Don´t they have any alarm systems if the payback does not come in time?)
Stefan
If these were just everyday folks with mainstream hobbies and religions, the distance to other everyday folks would dwindle uncomfortably, perhaps implying that just everybody might become a criminal - which is an rather disturbing insight into human nature.
I’ve often theorized if I became homeless due to circumstances outside my sphere of influence, I’d simply throw a chair through a window and wait calmly for the police to arrive, then plead guilty. Beats freezing to death on the streets of Detroit.
I thought that if you stand for too long in one place in Detroit someone will shoot you. Maybe it is Philadelphia that I am thinking of.
My wife is nodding assent from downstairs. From below I hear, "Probably a cop."
Racial and hobby choice profiling works!
Now they're accused of a plot as far outside the realm of their ordinary lives as that fantasy role-playing game! Melodrama! Melodrama! Sheesh, this is a news story, not a CSI episode trailer.
The references, in my opinion, were innocuous enough (though the Halo thing was ackwardly placed and useless). Gamers, I think, are so used to being framed for crap that when it is casually mentioned we jump all over it. If it had said that the robbers were black or latino or something the same thing would happen, but with that ethinic group. And it would be nothing, just a detail.
Sheesh, this is a news story, not a CSI episode trailer.
Just wait, it'll be both.