- A “moral panic,” as cultural critics labeled it, set in. It was not unlike 1950s fears over gory comic books and 1980s worries over sex-laced rock music. But researchers, including those with the Centers for Disease Control, established no causal link between the game and violence. Much of the finger-pointing seemed rooted in a classic fallacy in logic: Mr. Adcox and Mr. Molitor played D&D. Mr. Adcox and Mr. Molitor became killers. People who play D&D become killers.
I actually remember this and the news media reports at the time. I was a young kid, and glimpsing the controversy made me want to find my way to my buddy's house (he had the set of books and dice) to play all the more badly :)
I play D&D a lot when I was I kid. I also attended a Lutheran school as a child. We had a school assembly about the evils of D&D. I remember the example they gave of players putting orc babies in catapults and splatting them against walls. Me and my friends sat in the gymnasium feeling very persecuted. Letters were sent to parents and I had to explain to my parents that we played good guys. Ahhh... to be part of history!
Watched this the other day, my dad sent it to me. I think it's interesting when you look at how more modern news stories draw the same sort of connection between violent video games and violence that news media at the time drew between D and D and subversive religious practices, or what have you.