Here’s a bit of nonsense we wish were fantasy . . . army frowns on Dungeons and Dragons . . . unfortunately it’s true.  Evidently, Israel’s military has a standing policy that when a recruit comes in they ask if he plays D&D.  If he says he does, then he is immediately disqualified from holding a position in any of the elite forces and is given low-security status right away.  He is also sent in for psychological evaluation.

This policy flies in the face of what is statistically and quantitatively known about roleplaying games in terms of psychological, sociological, and educational studies.  It’s an arbitrary policy that is prejudicial in nature.

The IDF is falling prey to some very weak-linked thinking and following along with some anti-roleplaying propaganda set out by the religious right long ago and demonstrated to be false in a number of psychological, sociological, and educational studies. Rather than weaken character as it purported by the IDF spokesperson, it actually helps troubled folks deal with conflict resolution and other issues. See CARARPG’s study database for some very clear studies on this. There are NO studies that support the contention that RPGs have general longterm negative effect (even the cases used by groups like BADD have been demonstrated to have been individuals with drug or family social problems or previous psychological problems that had nothing to do with their involvement with DnD or similar RPGs). The IDF purports that whenever they find out young people play RPGs, they send them in for psychological testing which then disqualifies a number of them for restricted level duties. However, this is a pretainted sample as they don’t send everyone to the psychologist, only the roleplayers. It is highly likely, based upon studies already done of this type, that if they sent a random sample of recruits who were not roleplayers to the psychologists but with the proscription that these kids were roleplayers and needed to be checked then as high or higher a number would also test as unqualified (from som previous studies, it is likely to be higher among the non-playing populace). The IDF is not basing their decisions upon hard science but upon prejudice then they are parsing data to back that prejudice up. Yes, some kids who play roleplaying games are screwed up . . . just as some kids who don’t are screwed up. Everyone has a friend who seems a bit more than a little obsessed with their hobby or avocation, it’s not the hobby that is at cause, it is a pre-existing psychological weakness that has nothing to do with hobbies. Kids who play roleplaying games tend to be more intelligent (tend to, not always) and most have a very firm grasp on what is real and what is not. Many are indeed fantasy prone individuals but this is a bonus for creative thinking rather than a disadvantage. Many of the traditional roleplayers have moved on to computer gaming where the identification and fantasy features have become even easier, I don’t see the IDF dropping kids from consideration if they play PS2 or X-Box and they should not (neither should they be prejudiced against those who play the more intellectually challenging forms that actually cultivate social conflict resolution and creative problem solving).  Actually, there are more studies showing problems in psychological makeup with excessive videogaming than with traditional tabletop or live action gaming but even these are not enough to condemn an entire subset of gamers.  I would suggest that the IDF drop the 1970’s stereotypes and join the rest of us in the twenty-first century where the future is a bit brighter and much more optimistic regarding gaming and positive advantages.

By the way, a number of the commentators on the article were upset about the Live Action Role Play photos with the article as they don’t reflect how DnD is actually played.  LARPS and Interactive Dramas grew out of tabletop RPGs and there are a number of crossover traits. The article does specifically mention the live action variants as variations so. I would suspect that the folks at the IDF who are prejudiced against DnD probably don’t know the difference either (some probably assume the DnD players are all into the occult and sacrifice puppies as well as their stance has a lot in common with the ultraconservative religious right rather than with any informed or educated stance).