At a recent con, a minister friend and I were walking around late in the evening when we spied a group of twenty or so people sitting around listening to a character dressed as a vampire. The group was primarily made up of young adults and children as young as eight years old, some with their parents but most on their own. The "vampire" speaker was in his thirties and was an enigma himself with cat-eye contacts, permanently installed incisor fangs and make-up with garb to match. As we approached we could begin to make out the words of the "vampire" and this quote is burned into my memory: "Now, if you're going to get into vampire role playing games, you must be able to understand the occult numbering system." In shock, my friend and I recoiled from this gathering to discuss what we should do as here was an individual teaching occultism at a gaming con to a very eager and impressionable group.
As you may recall from the last article, the need to focus on the "darkening" of the gaming art as it relates to the increase "in random violence, sex and trappings of the darker side of humanity" requires a closer look at the threat posed to gainers, especially the young, and the departure from engaging in military strategy and history. Where we have come from is games involving trying to save the world from evil, to games with magic spell kit invoking spirits, and today a young man is charged with attempted murder because he was disturbed when his magic spell did not work. The truth is these subtle, yet mounting, trends are disturbing and have been making inroads since the introduction of role playing in the 70's.
It is a well-known fact reported by former Satan worshipers that these small steps or glimpses of the occult led them down the dark path. Yet no one stands against the companies that proliferate mutated wargames and role playing systems being advanced by those using the occult to bolster their products. Further, as most psychologists use role playing to modify the behavior of people, even this profession of liberal agnostics sees the violence as dangerous in role playing games where people act out rape, murder, pillage and the like as "not good for their heads."
Within our American culture, the increasing violence and mounting malevolence is being inspired from somewhere and fostered through venues such as in the occult in gaming. Some gaming companies had even been told by gainers to tone down their obviously antiJudeo/Christian motif and did so to a limited degree. However, these companies continue to operate through some fairly fun gaming products laced with the poison of occultism, the "beckoning edge" or "hook", if you will, to lure the unknowing into the first steps.
In this day and age of "nothing is wrong" and "how dare you point out what I'm doing as bad", everyone needs to take the responsibility to stand against the moral decay and destruction resulting from involvement with the occult and products which introduce it into our homes and gaming time. The dichotomy is that if a gaming product is good, it does not need sex, violence, profanity and so on to be popular and widely in demand. But if it is weak and of marginal quality, then the trappings of our "pop culture" and the occult are being used to prop up sales by appealing to those who are most vulnerable and are looking for a mental thrill.
As a moral, responsible gaming community, we should not allow the youth to be charmed away by dark, depraved game systems and squander their innocence on the fake offering of "having a little harmless fun that is just a game". We do this by not buying "dark" games and talking to store owners who sell those products; preventing the play of these game systems at cons as some stalwarts are now doing; and, taking the responsibility and leadership of keeping it out of our homes. Suffice it to say, if you find this diatribe farfetched and unbelievable, then just pull back the slithering veil of numbness and disbelief, and you will see the occult's ugliness in gaming too.
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© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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