Mass Hysteria, part one

When I was a teen, I played a harmless game with my friends. The game was unfamiliar to most people, and rising in popularity among youth, which made many people suspicious of it. But the suspicion level rose high due to a certain incident which badly hurt my hobby. The game was Dungeons and Dragons, and the incident was "the kid who disappeared while playing Dungeons and Dragons in real tunnels, and he died."

I resented the damage done to the reputation of my hobby. People unfamiliar with the hobby now had ludicrous misunderstandings of it.

It turns out that a detective concerned with the reputations of two kids connected to his investigation decided that it was best to risk the reputations of tens of thousands of kids he didn't know and, in effect, he spread lies about the game.

The origin of Hysteria against Dungeons and Dragons

It isn't the first time lies ruined a reputation. Consider Wertham's post hoc ergo propter hoc testimony to the U.S. Congress against comic books. The U.S. comic industry never recovered, and it was surpassed by the Japanese comics industry. It won't be the last time a reputation is damaged by lies.

David