Psg-3 12
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Friday, March C, 1C
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Debate continues
Ctctlca
5f en d k cr friends play
a gams called Dark Dungeons,
which is presided ova 3y the
sinister 'liss Frost, De.rk
Dungeons (referred to as DslD)
is a rote-playing garza where
Cw players tz!:s on the identi
ties of wizards and thieves
end haitls trusters.
One day af.tr the gams, Miss
Frost tells Del thai hsec"is!
(if her prepress in, DSD shs is
ready far "fhs real power, n
Del I is is inducted into a
witches 'coven, and som she if
alls to cast real spells thzt
cams her father to spsr.d
hundreds cf dollars to Ivy her
DM) cquipvmiL
Debbis bamies dis&irbed,
however, whin her fri&zd
I'zrcis cgkit&Us suicids be
causa her D&D ckart&clsr was
killed during a gams. B&Me
turns to Christianity end
burns all hsrD&D vsrkds.
This is the stey fcur.i ca "Dsik
Dungeons, a cartecn tract
Eshed by fcu&sjciiklls cartoerist
J.D. Chick. A fictiendlzsd eununsry
cf the objections nsay pespls today
have toward role-playing ms, -
Role-playing games, cr EPGs, era
somewhat of a modern phenomenon,
In eh F.FG the players create a
"character," usntUy some sort of
heroic, flairs. The players do net
compete agdnet etch ether, instead
they work together to act oat &
complex plot crest 3d and organized
by a game master, or Gil. Dzmgmis
and Dragons was the first EPG. In
DID the players teccne herccs (or
villains) in a Medieval fcr.toywcilX
As the oldest and r.cjt pcpalar
- y ycL V- j ; -
' csus3 he said they clouded his Kind
for the crse.
Jan Evans, a senior r.icr
C0
major, te!l3 cf a friend who cr.- j
several hundred dollars worth of
DID material. One week he l:."t hi 3
DD tcck3 it homo while he went,
3 usual, to school. During the week
his mother crr.e into contact Tilth
sons of the gares criticisms, md
without her sn.i'3 pcnnlision, burned
all his DID matcri&is. "I wonder
who's obsessed?" Evsns said.
Dr. Tcr.i Szntaira is the ehdr
wcntaK cf the ML departed of
eductior.al psyehdear, and a gp&-
dslist in adokscent
She sild the think3 DID docs net
causa teeni aaicids. Ssntsilrs dd
thit if m eidesccrit beccESS un-
tha prcbhia b prtbslly with the
Ssntsire scys tfea psas csa be a
Net cdy ty pr?vidir.ig csthrciscr
aEgcr lt.3 Bxtrstion, tit o-o ty
ht!pinj tsens to dreltp thiniinj
skiUs. Sho ssid DID is exclcr
. E?0, DID cemss under fee raest
direct Crs from the genre's cdties.
Mif.y critics cf DID believe the
-!3 is a cssse of teen-se S'iicide,'
Like Marcie in Dark Dimgecr. )r.
Thosaas Eadecki, the chairman cf
the Nations! Coalition onTelevisio!i
Violence, cites 27 cases of murder or
suicide related to DID. A pdr of
speciCe examples ?re a 17-ycsr-cld
in Linwoed, Wask, who shot himself
in fee head. Shortly before the sui
cide, he wss heard by Ms parents
summoning D&D demons into 'his
in (festieznent, Cola, a bey who
killed l&sself by carbon racnoxide
psisordnj nenticned D5.D in the
sdcide note as ' a reason for his
actions. ,(
Kodecki said the violent nature
of the gr,rs3 is a cause cf violence in
its p'ayers, citing studies that show
college students exposed to violent
eniertdnment are mere tolerant of
violent actions.
He said he supports labeling the
game with warning that the con
tents issy be psychoScsicdly harm
M. Ha said the ,f-r.e niy actually
czv.22 a menteiiy hedthy person to
become mentally distsrbed. Qss&m
don't adrJt that their games are
violent or unhedthy, but neither
did the N&ds, Radecki said.
But gamers also have stories to
suppcrt their viewpoints. Greg
Wtsitsner, a freshman computer
science mrjcr at UNL, tells about a
high school Mend who took dru-s.
When Greg's friend started playing
D-iD, he stepped using drugs, be--
She sdd the gaae mqr 7?sie
.the problems cf eJreaiy di
3 cut in a ccntrclied, focid
cnwcisient, rather than aliasdr.
the preb!ess to grow silently until
they result in trigsr. She sdd par
ents and teschers should ohssrvo
younger players cf D5D, looking kr
signs of bidden problems. ' ' ' .
Santmirs cdls DS-D criticism &
"witch hunt " She points out that
suicide is the second largest killer
of teenagers today, and the causes
of suicide are internal, not exterasi'
Eantmire sap DID cannot cause
suicide, but it might show us the
symptoms in time.
l 0(MW WjQjUQ
LlC
s on cc
wimmses
Before TV and radio, people had
several ways ' to kill the boredsm.
People could talk, read, sing cr p!-y
games tcgetber. These dsg3 people '
may not talk, read or sing as much
as they should, but more and mors
people are going back to pfeying
gaaesi
. Merlin Hayes, owner of Hobby
Town, ISO N. 15th Si, .:ys fee bst
selling games among college itu
dents today are Dungeons and
Dragons, games based on the Star
Trek TV show, Caiwars a game of
automotive corahs a la The Herd
Warrior, 8,nd Illtuninati, a card game
thst takes a less serious lock at
. psrsaoit and censpireey theories.
.Although the TrMal Pursuit fad
Is'Etsrtiag to' fade, Eayss add, the
game still sells well, He add the
spinoff, Sexual TrMa, is psiticu
krpukrasicRgcsacgestadents. ' John Evans, a seder microbiol
ogy m?or, 89 that when he has
some time arsy from this studies he
likes to play games. Evans says- he
started playing Dungeons and
Dragons about four years Q. lie
Four schools participate
isp bis current fsrsdtes are Villi-
sns ma vipiantes, a game simulat
ing Super Hero ccmicbocks and the
Btsi Trek gastes Star Trek and
Star Hast Esttles.
Evans says he enjoys games
becsnse they stimihte his imagj
caticn and his tetelligsnce. Evsns'
.sai'S the imaginative element in
many grass today is important.
Students need an escape fecm school,
he said, '-and games tie less o
isscape from reality then an escape
from conformity. '
Ine. ntlm Dcngeons And
Dragons, tad ether pepolsr games,
Dieter Sturm, the public relations
director at TES, esys Ms company's
yfffm ffi--rm&n pjftS Mti
aw- UAwJI I.AaV' lUtsVIa VVJUC'J
students are D & D, the Marvel
Supsrlleres rds-pkying game and
the Indiana loses game, based on
the Steven Spielberg movies. Strum
in a Rcn-ccsspetitfee end 'eoepera-tiveway.
e3 gimcs are popular when they're .
fan and challenging, ' stimulating
the reassn, imagination and creativ
ity. . Strum says role-playing games
ere popular because they're non
trs&ttel, allomda pegple to play
Strum sap lis csmpanv
the mcst popular s:rts cf csmej in
the fctsre to be rda-pliiig gsncs
with a fantasy or contemporary ad
wentura setting He said thst, 1st
gdy because cftrMd Pursuit, board
games "are reasserting their popu
larity. He said Ms company h&3 high
hopes that-a soon-to-be-reieased
board game based on the soap opera
'All My Children will sell well to
college students. .
1 -.(TbTlTi
Student composers will hsm the rgre oppcr
tunity to bear theirwrk3pe:lrmedthb weekend
when the UNL School cf&isds will be host of the
Dig Eight Composer's Conference.
The conference, the first cf its kind at UNL,
will feature the Unfcersity Orchestra and smaller
chamber music groups performing compositions
from UNL, the Uaf rerdty cf Ssnsas, Esssas State
and Iowa State Unlverdty. All pexforntsnces are
the type of ensemble required. Still, Eeade!! and
CKL cespssltin prefsseor femdy Snyder ssld
the musia selected sigaLles the tpe cf music
being ccssposed at colleges troand the llldrest
"It's a. good repiesentstlon of what we have
here,H Snyder add. '
b:erj:e cf a hessy concert schedds.
UM,'5
citu iuen was uriqus this year because the ffm
wasn't committed to psrfism in the sprkg cpera.
to
free and the public is esc
"We'd like people to know about it, that
they're welcome to come," sdd Ksbert Beadell,
professor cf composition and theory at UNL and
coordinator cf the event
In choosing the muds fer.the two-d.7 confer
ence, faculty members fe?m the schools screened
their students works and submitted selected
cempesitiens to UNL faculty members for find
A few cospedtiors were itifded becssse cf
Thiee cf the 11 composers represented are
UNL stsdents. John Oak's "Mudc lb? Clarinet '
Solo will be played at a 3 pxt chamber mude
jperfcmance Saturdiy. Marty Shrader's 'Tlatte
Etudes" will be perXsmed Ssterday at 8 p.m.,
and David EurkusVs "Jonah" and John link's
"Concerto for Orchestra" will be premiered' by
the University Orchestra Sunday;at 3 p.m.
Facility members Harold Levin, William Ed
lengsr and Snyder will direct the chamber
Cr-- "i
The crchestra's willingness to perform a con
cert cf new student music was a big drawing c?rd
colleges can allow their orchestra to be csed
"To get a student 'work performed by an
orchestra is very difledt'io do tcdir Headell
add. "This kind cfeppertsaitywith the crekes-
tra pm us a chsnco to do semething nante a
' Deaddl has bad the ideafersuch a conference
f :r a 1 -e : ti- e, I v.t th ::e v. :re c; : d e w;; he
wanted it to tea dene,
' G.TdcT.c;3 u:idl7 fedure a big nam? c:m
r cs:r ar i cpedtlrns 1? the fccty end st:i
dmts, F.:d: 1 edi He sdj ha dMi't want to
"1 d. v:d:d it tD be ctud:r.t-car--:;J so
th"t ir - p d.d ; i to e : etrdirt c:.d net to
? e Ld: 3 E-ad II
d.:rj:-:d-g 1 :t -.U C;i cd ::tra
ria a l:o ccr.:crt t: fj-.zj, rIc'l ar.d
3 ac. : a 3 ana i;d-s:-i i.-.dvj-
i2 r rt.cz.j c;
expenses, they decided to invite only few sur
rounding schools for whom it would net be a
large finsadd burden.
"It's a starting pdnt," Eeaddl said. .'
Doth Eeadeil and SnydeT sdd they wasted to
stress the ncn-ccmpetitife attitude cf the etent.
"We're not trying to sell the imlfersity."
Eesidcs hsvirg the cltez, to hre thdrwed
performed and t;;es mrde cf the p.::r.:r:":r.ccs,
student compears ten Zt t:n d-.irg ILzi
with cr.o anethc, Fcaidl sdd. And the pcil:rm
ingUNLmudo ctudtnts and Leuliy gdn as wdL
"It's new nude ar.i it's ecr c thir thd I c'::vt
get to do everjdey,n sdd Esxen Well; a sasa
phene major performing in one cf the chamber
music groups.' "it's a chance to plsy with stu
dents of my own cdlber."
Four groups will perform at each cf the
chamber mudc concert, and the erchestrawiil
premiere five works.
fc-L W . i. .
All nerformanffM r? in wihn itn ins
I tr.:sl and R streets.
