Dungeons and Dragons, a role playing game that was release for the first time in 1974 and

is still

played by millions of people even to this day. Over the years DnD has increased in popularity

and with its popularity some issues have emerged like how it is mostly male dominated and very

Eurocentric but even with those issues it has the ability to bring anyone together to have fun, it

has the potential to help people socialize better and even liberate people in ways that aren’t

physical. While DnD has a lot of potential for good and can be used in a way that can help

people in a variety of unique ways that other forms of media can not but inversely Dungeons and

Dragons can be used/play by not so good people that can do not so good stuff (but do not worry

no devil worshipper stuff, that was a stupid stereotype made by stupid people who did not know

what DnD actually was).

One of the more goofy criticisms of Dungeons and Dragons that was frequent a while ago was

that people who play it are actually worshipping the devil and are agents of evil hell bent on

destroying all that is good and right in the world. That particular myth has mostly ​died down as

time has progressed as more and more people have started to play the game so people learned

that the game did not involve worshipping the devil or being evil (unless of course the character

a player was playing was indeed evil (but most of the time the characters are at least neutral and

not evil)). There are of course ​some people think that DnD is anti christian and shouldn’t be

played but most rational people realize that it is just a game and isn’t trying to convert the youths

to atheism or satanism (not to discount their worries DnD does involve gods plural and magic but

once again it is a game).

While DnD is a game that almost everyone can play the main demographic of the game is

usually males, it’s not strictly made for males but they are the majority in terms of gender who

play. Playing a game of DnD with a group that is only (or at least mostly) male can have a

different feel to it than a group that has an even number of male and female, for instance if a

group is mostly male most of the things can and will be male oriented, that in itself isn’t a

problem the problem only emerges when the players and dungeonmaster's think that because

there are no/little females in a group that its ok to joke around about touchy subjects like rape or

to make those topics play a heavy role in a campaign (like villains or bad guys excessively

raping women just to show that they are evil) which likewise can ​desensitize the people playing

to the real life thing if it's just thrown around willy nilly like it’s not a big deal. By no means

does every male oriented campaign do this but it is possible for the fantasy in DnD to take a

darker turn (this also doesn’t mean that rape should never be used it just shouldn’t be thrown

around in excess for no reason).

Dungeons and Dragons can be played by anyone and that is true but some people may feel like

they can’t play it for some reasons that can seem exclusionary to some. Eurocentric is one word

that can describe a vast majority of DnD, since most of the games stories (that are written by

wizards of the coast (the people who publish the DnD books)) are based of medieval times the

stories take on a very european point of view. There was an attempt fairly ​recently where

Wizards of the coast tried to make a more “African” styled campaign setting but they were

criticized for the african “stereotypes” like everything being in a huge forest and the natives of
the land being technologically stunted like that were a heavy component of the setting as well

as the less detailed “ lazy” writing when compared the vast detailed settings they have made

before in previous campaigns. One Thing that the writer of the article mentions is that there were

no people of color in the writing process of the expansion and it seems like a lot of the problems

with that expansion would be somewhat remedied if the writers room had more than just a

couple white guys and actually had people of color in the writing room.

Despite some of the problems in DnD it is still a great game that can allow people to be

immersed into a fantasy world where people can do what they may otherwise may be unable to

do in the real world, a person in a wheelchair can be a huge orc barbarian or even someone who

is blind can play because everything (unless people are playing with the board and figures) has to

do with an imagination. The only real limit to the people who can and can not play is if the

person playing has an imagination, and there’s even a way to get past that sort of with the

previously mentioned board and figures and that’s what is so great about it because even if they

don’t do the best job at showing that it is for everyone it can in fact be for everyone.