December 6, 2006 -
Could your role-playing habit keep you from getting a government job with a security clearance?If you live in Israel, it just might.
YNet reports that 18-year-old Israeli Defense Force (IDF) recruits who mention playing Dungeons & Dragons are automatically assigned a low security clearance. The reason? According to the Israeli army:
We have discovered that some of them are simply detached from reality... They're detached from reality and susceptible to influence.
D&D is apparently quite popular in Israel. Fans of the game are said to be aware of the negative stereotype and often attempt to keep their hobby secret.
Gamer shame, anyone?
With military service mandatory in Israel, most teens are recruited when they graduate high school. Matan, a young Israeli soldier, is a fan of "live action role-playing" (LARP) in which fans dress in costume and act out their adventures. He told YNet:
It's not a game of winners and losers, but rather entry into another world with stories and plot changes.
However an IDF official explained the official position:
One of the tests we do, either by asking soldiers directly or through information provided us, is to ask whether they take part in the game. If a soldier answers in the affirmative, he is sent to a professional for an evaluation, usually a psychologist.
These people have a tendency to be influenced by external factors which could cloud their judgment. They may be detached from reality or have a weak personality - elements which lower a person's security clearance, allowing them to serve in the army, but not in sensitive positions.
Another gamer, David, objected to the negative stereotyping:
Many people who play served in the most classified units. They are intelligent and any attempt to label them as 'weird' is incorrect and unfair.
It's unclear whether the IDF policy translates to PC or console RPGs such as World of Warcraft or Everquest II.
GP: This is not a new story. The YNet article cited originally appeared in early 2005. We just came upon it, however, and found it worthy of our readers' consideration.
Comments
Guy1: soldier reporting for duity sir!
Guy2: soldier reporting for duity sir!
Guy3: Level 12 palidin reporting for duity sir! ...Whats every one laffing at? I swear on the next roll i'm gona smite you guys.
You know we should just fight our wars with larping. I would join the army in that case.
I'm really not that surprised about this. I had some jewish friends go over their to visit family and on the way back home at the airport the questions where all like this, "Are you Jewish?" followed by "Do you speak hebrew? Why not?" "Come here to live or Visit? Why arn't you living here?" Really had nothing to do with security they just wanted you to feel like a tool for not living there if you where jewish.
@Muetank,
I'm sure they'd find similar results for "absent minded" people who don't play D&D if they looked. I know plenty of D&D players (even if i didn't play I got hooked into D&D video games before I learned about the pen and paper version whoops.....) and few if any are really absent minded.
What I do find interesting is that they send them to a psychologist. I wonder if the recruit can refuse to go. Best thing about it though looks like an easy way out of the military in isreal. lol. Run around the base dressed as a wizard playing acting by throwing lightning bolts then refuse to go to a shrink. =P
I thought since then the IDF adopted a "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Really though, these rules are just silly. I'm suprised they haven't started bumping down clearance levels because folks play video games or chat online or something, with that sort of thinking.
Maybe the top brass just watched too much "Monsters & Mazes" one weekend. Oy, what a horrible movie that was.
N1/VJa: "Let me in to the briefing room"
Player: "I refuse him"
GM: "You need to roll a nineteen"
Player: (rolls).... @#$%! a six!
GM: "You allow him access into the briefing room, upon entering he blows a dart into the prime ministers neck before slicing the general into quarters with his katana"
Player: "Why did you put a ninja in isreal?..."
GM: "R0fl, stfu noob.. lrn2GM."
I'm kidding. Please don't roll a twenty on me.
Then again, I suppose if you're going to be weeding people out of important positions, things like hobbies and not silly measurements like psych-profiles or test scores are the best way to ensure you've got a group of highly trained individuals.
I can just see this in action...
Recruiter: So, what are your hobbies?
Soldier 1: Well, I like to program computers and brush up on physics equations. Oh, and I play the occasional game of D&D.
Recruiter: Alright, we've got an excellent opening in Cannon Fodder division. Enjoy your two week stay!
Soldier 1: Isn't my term supposed to be longer?
Recruiter: Only if you live. Next recruit? Ah yes, and what are YOUR hobbies?
Soldier 2: I pokes the dead bodies with a stick. Sometimes I use rock and chain to beat them.
Recruiter: Excellent! Welcome to the intelligence division!
Thankfully I never played D&D with him and the real people I played with are smart. Just because people play D&D does not mean their stupid, dumb, or slow. This is simply a misunderstanding of the game coming from people who have never played the game. I see a coincedence.
I wish our politics would play video games before they talk about how terrible they are... I bet they would even get addicted to some of the video games.
Odd.... that looks more like a definition of a bigot who blindly follows stereotypes about groups of individuals.
Maybe they should do the smart thing and weed out bigots instead. I know the US military could use that type of rule. Then again, the US military might only be left with a handfull of soldiers to defend the US and no one high up in the ranks.
Of course, it might also leave us without a President too.
Hmmm.....
nightwng2000
NW2K Software
D&Dsoldier#1:crap gotta roll a saving throw
D&Dsoldier#2:ir cast stoneskin
D&Dsoldier#3:ill back up and get ready to rez you n00bs
*genade explodes*
*soldier 1 saving throw fail*
*soldier 2 casting failure*
D&Dsoldier 1&2:rez plz!
D&Dsoldier 3:cant ir needz limted wish to reassemble mangled body parts el oh el
D&D soldier 1:omgwtf...bbq?
D&D soldier 2:damn n00b priest
D&D soldier 3:screw joo guys imma go solo the lunch instance.
The IDF is silly >.>
Yeah, I was wondering why the Isreali military would be listening to a christian whacko.
Though psyche evaluations for all people entering the military is a good idea. (not that I think they're all crazy, but it's probably better to make sure you aren't giving a gun and combat education to a borderline psychotic)
Could be worse, atleast no one's trying to recruit D&D players for suicide bombing jobs because of their detached sense of reality. Then I would be mad.
...Strangely enough I remember when this was an issue at my house when I was like 10, because for some reason my parents felt that Emotional Disorder + D&D = School Shooting. Luckily that never happened, because I took up Shadowrun instead. zing!
On the one hand, I can understand the sort of negative stereotype D&D can carry. I understand that this fine hobby is, at times, misunderstood by certain people even without the misinformation which has been spread by detractors such as Jack Chick or Patricia Pulling.
It's just hard not to mock it when someone with a shelf full of Shadowrun, White Wolf and Rifts (screw you, Registered Trademark symbol, you have no place there!) books could scrape by this test honestly just by answering the question without elaborating with "but I play other games LIKE D&D."
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israeli raid leader: Keep it up!
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10 to 1 I bet they will change thier minds if they need troops.....
But it still stinks of bad over generalising. It's like basing gender on height. You can get pretty good accuracy if you assume that anyone who's over 5'11" is male, but it's not a good way of filtering. It will have a lot of false negatives and false positives. Likewise, only requiring gamers to go for psych profile eliminates the non-gamers who may be detached from reality.
There is no logic to this. There happens to be a few results, but very likely they're no more accurate than snagging random samplings.
Gamers have suffered under a lot of false stereotypes which just don't prove true. Of course there are going to be exceptions, but these are just that: exceptions. Walk into the average RPG-dedicated store and you won't find a bunch of socially-inept people, cowering from the light. You'll find people you'd be hard-pressed to pick out of a crowd.
Sure, there's going to be some cases where the screening proves accurate and a gamer does have issues seperating fantasy from reality... but I'm willing to bet it's any other hobby which even remotely involves the imagination.
There is a world of difference between laughing at poor decisions made by a small body of ignorant politicos, but many of these comments are crossing the line by making light of the people affected by those politicos, people, in this case, that are fighting a war and dying.
What gaming stores do you shop at, all mine have those socially-inept people cowering from the light (that might be why I shop there, I identify with em).
Well, their loss at the end of the day, there's people who strive towards working together as a team, using each others strengths and weaknesses and assessing their resources to apply it towards a given situation. Of course they'll be no use to the army....
Apparently you've never spent any time at /b/ or you would realize our comments are as nice as it gets on the intarwebs.
You're likely correct, but there are still lines of decency that should be considered, no?
No so much as detach as get used to it while one can get used to how sad life s one is not going to blow ones brain out from it same can be said with Porn.
Never a good trait in a bloodthirsty murderer - errr, I mean, soldier.
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