I don't think it is the games you play (D and D or video games) but how obsessed you are with it. The japanese have a term for the uber obsessed it is Otaku. A Otaku basically waste their whole time looking for information and anything they can get on a paticular subject. In japan it is okay to play games or even dress up as characters form anime or video games. However when you start obsessing about it and can't think of anything else then it isn't okay. You can be a otaku of anything, they seem to have a disgust for a person uber obsessed with something rather then what they are obsessed about. When you become an otaku then you lose functionality because you can't concentrate on your job. I don't know if this adds anything new to this little discussion you guys are having but maybe.

And at least 3 pages on here! :)

I have now written 38 pages worth of papers and one short story in fourteen days.

That's funny - I read an interview with a D&D gamer durning my research who said that he and his buddies (all male) would have some female characters in the group so they could role-play having sex. There's definately a link between role-playing games and sex.

I don't like the war games - I'm a terrible strategist (sp?).

No... I haven't played any roleplaying games in a couple years now. I got into war-games and then even ran out of time for stuff like that.

We had a lecture about ScriptEase in Cmput301... my project group and I were joking around calling it scrip-Tease ... since all of the profs characaters that he was demo-ing with were scantily clad chicks.

Are you playing with anyone right now Ed?

So can I quote you again?

Roleplaying games are definitely social. That was every saturday for me during high school... we had about a group of 6 to 8 people sometimes. Communities of gamers can be pretty tight knit, and can be a lot of fun. I would agree and say that computer games, and especially things like online MUDs should fit the stereo-typing more appropriately...

That's funny, because one of the ideas that's being worked on right now in my lab is ScriptEase, which is a tool that lets you write stories (essentially) for NeverWinterNights, the Bioware video game adaptation of D&D. I don't know if that helps, but it's a twist on the 'safety' of video games.