Comments on the recent comments by Pat Robertson on the 700 Club regarding his claims about the supposed harm cause by Dungeons & Dragons (completely disproved by 30+ years of research)...
I recently received an email asking about any current Role-playing game market information I might have...
I am currently in a course titled "The Psychology of Women" and we are covering various gender-bias topics. Recently on the CAR-PGa email list a link was sent related to gender-bias in gaming. Have you seen/experienced gender-bias related to gaming?
By Hanan Greenberg - Published: 02.28.05, 14:17 / Israel News - IDF says “They're detached from reality and suscepitble to influence,” regarding role-playing gamers and so D&D players are automatically given a low security clearance... PLEASE NOTE THERE MAY BE SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS WITH THE VALIDITY OF THIS ARTICLE.
I was recently performing some general searching for any other research related to role-playing games that I might have previously missed, and found a few odds and ends. I'm posting links to what I found here. I will later go over them in more depth, analyze, and comment accordingly. Of course, the much larger list is here: http://rpgr.org/documents/list-of-other-rpg-research-projects
Another variable to consider when researching different RPG medium participants (LARP, Computer-based, Tabletop) is the physical health and conditioning of role-playing gamers...
Do different role-playing game mediums have either different correlative data or causal results?
If there are indicators that role-playing games have a causal impact on participants, attempt to determine if there are any differentiations in impact on test subjects between "heroic" and "evil" game campaign settings.
Tabletop role-playing games are generally speaking a cooperative play situation (of course there are exceptions). LARP and video-game-based "RPG" are generally competitive. Does changing tabletop RPGs to more competitive approaches impact any of the potential therapeutic value compared to "normal" cooperative role-playing gaming?
I need 2 more panelists to join me on the educational and/or therapeutic benefits of RPGs at ZoeCon next month. Anyone available?
Originally written in 2004, and periodically tweaked over the years. After decades of using RPGs in educational settings, this was the paper that started the therapeutic focus and building of the RPG Research website. There are very few social table-top recreation activities available that are cooperative rather than competitive in nature. Role playing gaming is by design a cooperative past time, which in and of itself may have significant benefits in the world where everything is becoming competitive at all ages and levels of society...
Determine through controlled experiments if there are any repeatable causal influences on those who participate regularly in role playing gaming recreational activities.
Goal 4, determine/validate if there are any correlative demographic idiosyncrasies in variables found between intensely dedicated role-playing gamers, more casual but experienced role playing gamers, and the general population.
Determine if the correlative tests indicating significant differences in role-playing gamers from the general populace, are a causal result of their participation in role-playing games? ...
Attempt to differentiate between correlative and causal data related to role-playing gamers. When possible, use blind, double blind, and triple blind study methodologies.
Though the ultimate goal is to establish causality, there are some correlative aspects that should be checkedinto. Attempt to verify or invalidate existing correlative and meta-research results. Much of the existing research is dated from the 1980's and 1990's. Attempt to bring the research up to date, and verify if there are any statistically significant differences found between role-playing gamers and the general populace, at difference age and other demographic levels...
Recently updated the main page's list of goals. Over the next few weeks, I will elaborate on the details of each of those goals. Here is the overview list:
Last week the PBS Idea Channel ran a piece on Dungeons & Dragons benefits. Today they responded to comments from last weeks video, and mentioned in the comments section of their video (towards the end of the video on Justin Bieber), mentioned RPG Research and suggested people should check out the website.
I'm getting ready to get a couple of new groups together, and was thinking about how to setup the seating and such. Here are some thoughts (additional thoughts from others are welcome)...
I guess I should have staged the polls more slowly. Clearly too much attention was drawn by posting too many new polls too closely together. RPG.net just moved ALL the polls effectively to their bit-bucket the Ads/Open Promo Classifieds section, basically spelling the death of those polls. :-(
