Posted on 02/16/2010 4:53:17 PM PST by ruralvoter
Accused campus killer Amy Bishop was a devotee of Dungeons & Dragons - just like Michael “Mucko” McDermott, the lone gunman behind the devastating workplace killings at Edgewater Technology in Wakefield in 2000.
Bishop, now a University of Alabama professor, and her husband James Anderson met and fell in love in a Dungeons & Dragons club while biology students at Northeastern University in the early 1980s, and were heavily into the fantasy role-playing board game, a source told the Herald.
“They even acted this crap out,” the source said.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
The media,of course, is sloughing off and barely mentioning the fact that she was a lefty loon and obsessive admirer of 0bama.
If she was a rightward admirer of George Bush or Sarah Palin, it would be second coming headlines with 3 hour TV specials about it.
Zing.
No way! Who would have ever thought that?
I’m not defensive... I was just trying to be funny. It’s a variation of a common meme around here. Well, I guess it wasn’t funny or I’ve been here too long. ;-)
Bet she listened to Ozzy Osbourne too. Did she play Halo?
>> I thought that she was an acolyte of Obama.
That points to her REAL issue: she’s crazy. And delusional. Bad combo.
My brother (tenured university professor, soon to be chair) and myself (fourteen published novels) both played AD&D almost every weekend. We probably still would if we had the time. Nowadays maybe we can find a couple hours to play a video game.
I’m good friends with an editor, his wife (MD, child psychiatrist) and another guy (engineer) who still find the time. Another gentleman I know, a publisher who also owns a software company, plays with his three kids.
There’s no way to be sure, but certainly the total number of players is in the millions. Some are bound to commit crimes, even murder. I go to conventions and see players of all ages gathered round the tables, laughing, rolling dice and eating Doritos. Some things never change, including journalists trying to link it to crime.
A family source said Bishop, a mother of four children - the youngest a third-grade boy - was a far-left political extremist who was “obsessed” with President Obama to the point of being off-putting.
I knew quite a few people who were into this in college, and they seemed to represent the full range from perfectly normal sensible people to those who clearly had trouble dealing with reality and distinguishing reality from fantasy. But as far as I can tell, anyone who’s still involved in it more than a couple years after finishing college (or grad school if they go on to grad school) has some serious head problems. However, nothing in this article indicates that either Bishop or her husband had continued with D&D beyond their undergraduate days.
I don’t think there’s anything particularly sinister about D&D, and it’s perfectly normal for college kids to get heavily into some weird or goofy activities. It’s sort of like Star Trek and Sci-Fi conventions. Nothing worrisome about college kids dressing up as characters from Star Trek or or other Sci-Fi flicks, and excitedly heading off to these conventions for a weekend. But when you see somebody in their late 20s, 30s, 40s, still heavily into this, planning their costumes months in advance, etc, it’s a clear sign that they haven’t developed a sense of belonging in the real world. And it’s almost always correlated with a lack of a well-paying, steady job and accompanying financial security.
But Bishop and her husband seemed to be functioning quite well in the real world. There was the tenure issue, but they still had their biotech invention going for them, and Bishop certainly wouldn’t have had any trouble landing another teaching job at a similar salary. The student comments on RateMyProfessors were perfectly normal, and indicated that she was more popular with students than the average science professor. Nobody mentioned anything about her seeming strange or being difficult to get along with. My guess is that her husband was as shocked by this as anyone, and that he may not have known much
(if anything) about her fatal shooting of her brother. I’d be very surprised if he knew about her attempt immediately afterwards to get a car from a dealership by holding two employees at gunpoint. How they heck she ever got away with all that is beyond me.
Hmmmm...never heard of using pistols in a D&D adventure.
That’s becuase you use pistols in the “Boot Hill” Role Playing Game. Duh!
;-)
Well then we have a problem. One of the guys I played with flies F-16 or 18 (never can remember) out of England for the Air Force. Another is an Army Ranger.
Oh yeah! I forgot all about Boot Hill! We played Mechwarrior and Twilight 2000 as well. ;)
Actually, my old buddies and I regularly played D&D throughout high school and college too, and the game is what you make of it. For us, we did a tremendous amount of research into Tolkien literature, medieval history, and mythology, and I think it was a great self-teaching tool, as long as no one got carried away (like some fools do).
So, is Laurel J. Sweet a pen name for Jack Chick, or Tipper Gore?
/only somewhat sarcastic.
What happened in this case is not the fault of a game, or rock music, or high fructose corn syrup. It happened because the perp is a friggin’ sociopath who should have been locked up long ago.
I think it is if someone's really wrapped up in it, or still taking it seriously beyond college age. Otherwise I don't think it's any more of a trouble sign than being a major fan of Harry Potter or Twilight. Fantasy games/movies/books are popular with many perfectly normal people. It's when you see them attempting to make the fantasy world their reality, that it's a sign of serious psychological problems.
The people I knew in college who were headed in that direction were often going by names that were not their real names, but rather the name of their D&D character, often dressed in a way consistent with their D&D character even on days when no game was scheduled, and had relationships with fellow D&D players that seemed based on their relationships to each other in the game. Everything about them screamed "I can't handle the real world!" But these people were a small minority of the students who had some regular involvement in D&D, most of whom limited their involvement to a once-a-week game.
Oh and I forgot one guy was a Marine gunny who got out with medical problems after the first Gulf War and his wife a former member of the 82nd.
I read it somewhere.
Army frowns on Dungeons and Dragons IDF says players are detached from reality and automatically given a low security clearance By Hanan Greenberg Published: 02.28.05, 14:17 / Israel News Does the Israel Defense Forces believe incoming recruits and soldiers who play Dungeons and Dragons are unfit for elite units? Ynet has learned that 18-year-olds who tell recruiters they play the popular fantasy game are automatically given low security clearance. “They're detached from reality and suscepitble to influence,” the army says. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3052074,00.html
Oh I believe it I just think it’s nuts. My dad taught me to play, AFTER his 3 years in an Army Nuclear Missile unit (Pershing) in Germany where he had a couple of different clearances.
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