What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds
Paperback, 368 pages
Published Feb. 12, 2015 by University of California Press.
In terms of intersections of my interests, I feel like this book was written for me. Great analysis of not just the history of the moral panic over RPGs but the role of imaginative play in our lives.
I was first alerted to this book through an episode of Geek's Guide to the Galaxy, and from that discussion I knew this book would be a fairly detailed look at the history of the moral panic and outrage directed at Dungeons & Dragons in the late 20th century. In that regard, I was not disappointed - Laycock lays out an exhaustive history of the panic, to the point where his investigation stretches back well before the creation of D&D in some aspects, and follows the panic all the way do its dwindling, quiet conclusion at the turn of the millennium.
What I wasn't expecting was the detailed and thoroughly academic look at the intersections of religion, fantasy, play, and human meaning. While the author's focus remains mostly fixed on tabletop fantasy role-playing games, his unpacking of the fraught relationship between religious and cultural hegemony on the one hand and …
I was first alerted to this book through an episode of Geek's Guide to the Galaxy, and from that discussion I knew this book would be a fairly detailed look at the history of the moral panic and outrage directed at Dungeons & Dragons in the late 20th century. In that regard, I was not disappointed - Laycock lays out an exhaustive history of the panic, to the point where his investigation stretches back well before the creation of D&D in some aspects, and follows the panic all the way do its dwindling, quiet conclusion at the turn of the millennium.
What I wasn't expecting was the detailed and thoroughly academic look at the intersections of religion, fantasy, play, and human meaning. While the author's focus remains mostly fixed on tabletop fantasy role-playing games, his unpacking of the fraught relationship between religious and cultural hegemony on the one hand and fantasy and imagination on the other is rooted in an articulation of the nature and purpose of fantasy itself as a genre. Some of the lessons and insights here could be expanded to understand other cultural flashpoints, and through clear discussion and reinforcement Laycock makes his perspective on these issues clearly understandable and appreciable.
There were a few instances here and there were I found myself wondering if he wasn't opening himself up to attack by purveyors of moral outrage with particularly unexpected or subtle logical transitions that weren't as well-explained as they could have been, or where I think some of his core concepts, such as "corrupted play", could have used more clarification or exploration than they got. But as a starting point for thinking more carefully about moral panics around games and general antagonism to fantasy and imagination, I think Dangerous Games is a great book well worth reading.
