Rumour: Italy bans RPGs (F)

From: Paolo Guccione <teigupa_at_tss.tei.ericsson.se>
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 17:46:41 +0100

F.J. Moulin stumbled upon the last flames of a sad story about RPGs in Italy. Months ago there was a young boy who committed suicide in a town near Venice, probably because of bad school results, but since the unhappy fellow is dead, we will never know. After the local authorites started investigating, it turned out that the boy had an interest in RPG, which he shared with other teens attending his school (forgive me if I misquote but I no longer have copies of the newspapers). The police stopped investigating about RPGs almost immediately, since there was no evidence of anything. But the newspapers did not stop, and published some "masterpieces" about RPGs and their connections to satanic cults
(another favourite subject in Italian press nowadays). F.J. Moulin
stumbled upon the last flames of a sad story about RPG and Italy. Months ago there was a young boy who committed suicide in a town near Venice, probably because of bad school results, but since the unhappy fellow is dead, we will never know. After the local authorites started investigating, it turned out that the boy had an interest in RPG, which he shared with other teens attending his school (forgive me if I misquote but I no longer have copies of the newspapers). The police stopped investigating about RPG almost immediately, since there was no evidence of anything. But the newspapers did not stop, and published some "masterpieces" about RPGs and their connections to satanic cults
(another favourite subject in Italian press nowadays). American readers
should be used to theis sort of silly attacks on the part of the press.

For digest readers who are in the press job: I am speaking against those of you who write disinformation about subjects they do not know at all, not against all journalists. And believe me, some papers published total rubbish about RPGs.

"Worried parents" associations wrote some more attacks agains RPGs, the gaming associations replied "Stop nonsense", etc. All in the norm, it is just the sort of thing that happens when well-thinking parents come in contact with something they do not understand. Please note that the suicide boy's family DID NOT speak against RPGs at all. And this is the only opinion of note. For theose of you who can read Italian, follow the link marked "web master" from my home page at <http://www.geco.it/~guccione>. The web master is the headman of the Italian LARP society, the Guild of Anachronists, and has collected a lot of info about what happened.

So Fredeeric and others, stop worrying about anti-RPG crusades. Italians are not more stupid than other people, and this sort of things gets the attention it deserves in our country.

                        http://www.geco.it/~guccione

For digest readers who are in the press job: I am speaking against those of you who write disinformation about subjects they do not know at all, not against all journalists. And believe me, some papers published total rubbish about RPGs.

"Worried parents" associations wrote some more attacks agains RPGs, the gaming associations replied "Stop nonsense", etc. All in the norm, it is just the sort of thing that happens when well-thinking parents come in contact with something they do not understand. Please note that the suicide boy's family DID NOT speak against RPGs at all. And this is the only opinion of note. For theose of you who can read Italian, follow the link marked "web master" from my home page at <http://www.geco.it/~guccione>. The web master is the headman of the Italian LARP society, the Guild of Anachronists, and has collected a lot of info about what happened.

So Frederic and others, stop worrying about anti-RPG crusades. Italians are not more stupid than other people, and this sort of things gets the attention it deserves in our countrry.

                        http://www.geco.it/~guccione

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