BBC Archive Games Workshop aired 06 Oct 1983

[bloodbeasthandler]

www.bbc.co.uk/archive/dungeons-and-dragons/z99k239



Look out for some familiar faces. 

[Per]

Steve Jackson UK with Steve Jackson US games on a shelf behind him, head explodes.

[bloodbeasthandler]

I've watched it a few times and there were a some things I picked up on. 

I notice that they chose to put a Runequest picture up when the item was meant to be about Dungeons and Dragons.
I wonder why they chose an image of a woman in bra and knickers? (And I see the bra is either spiked or it's quite cold there ...)
They knew what they were doing because they truncated the part of the illustration where 'Runequest' appeared.   



The news item does best when reporting the facts ( ie that the game is selling well, the basics of what D and D is, and that the gamebooks doing well in the book charts)

But am I developing a thin skin or was the BBC dripping in condescension towards the hobby? And had a slant or an agenda here? 
'playing a role, pretending to be someone else, as any child will tell you, a fascinating past-time' oozed the newsreader - which is an interesting take and just as applicable to actors and acting, I would have thought. 

And we then get words and phrases like 'craze', 'cult' [said twice], 'playing at being', 'gets into their minds' 'grips them', 'devotees under its spell', 'escape into real life'. 'Workers' playtime'.
It is clear that at 1:37 Steve J had been asked if he and others had been called 'cranks'. 

There is a clear attempt to goad Livingstone into saying it obsesses people in a bad way, but he leans right into that question and is proud of the absorbing nature of the game. 

Another cynical suggestion is that Jackson, having built his 'empire', is now content to be just watching 'the chips roll in'. That is not the way *I* would ask such a question. 

It fascinates me that these people who have no real idea about roleplaying should seek to take the piss or classify it as for weirdos, and are stupefied that such a game should be so popular and so lucrative. 


I don't recognise some of the people in the staff, but I spotted Albie Fiore. 
Is that Darvill-Evans playing the game with SJ and IL at the start? Who is the lady? 
I feel I know who the man in the glasses is at 2:51, too. [edit: Jon Sutherland?]

[CharlesX]

Oct 15, 2023 12:04:25 GMT bloodbeasthandler said:

But am I developing a thin skin or was the BBC dripping in condescension towards the hobby? And had a slant or an agenda here? 
'playing a role, pretending to be someone else, as any child will tell you, a fascinating past-time' oozed the newsreader - which is an interesting take and just as applicable to actors and acting, I would have thought. 

And we then get words and phrases like 'craze', 'cult' [said twice], 'playing at being', 'gets into their minds' 'grips them', 'devotees under its spell', 'escape into real life'. 'Workers' playtime'.
It is clear that at 1:37 Steve J had been asked if he and others had been called 'cranks'. 

There is a clear attempt to goad Livingstone into saying it obsesses people in a bad way, but he leans right into that question and is proud of the absorbing nature of the game. 

Another cynical suggestion is that Jackson, having built his 'empire', is now content to be just watching 'the chips roll in'. That is not the way *I* would ask such a question.

I found the BBC tone condescending when I read this www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28865399 ages ago, headlined a 'retro cult' and says Fighting Fantasy "employed [notice the past tense] (ahem) a non-linear second-person narrative with a branching style". You could say board games (ahem) require the players to roll dice, or Harry Potter is (ahem) for younger readers. What makes it worse is this was written at a much later date, when most of the world had grown out of being phobic about D&D.

   The article has a whole paragraph about some obscure "Evangelical Alliance" who hated Fighting Fantasy, which I feel is comparable to mentioning how Qanon would feel about Joe Biden (pretty much).

[Per]

A generous interpretation of the "ahem" could be that it's more akin to writing, "Harry Potter is, ahem, a thrilling school adventure sure to charm readers young and old". I was more puzzled by the claim that "to help a fair maiden" is "an invariably fatal decision in Fighting Fantasy", which is clearly incorrect (elf in Deathtrap, Alianna, etc.). What would be the best examples of actual fatality? I guess it may be true in House of Hell.

[CharlesX]

Oct 15, 2023 15:24:47 GMT Per said:

A generous interpretation of the "ahem" could be that it's more akin to writing, "Harry Potter is, ahem, a thrilling school adventure sure to charm readers young and old". I was more puzzled by the claim that "to help a fair maiden" is "an invariably fatal decision in Fighting Fantasy", which is clearly incorrect (elf in Deathtrap, Alianna, etc.). What would be the best examples of actual fatality? I guess it may be true in House of Hell.

Yes, I got the impression that line was written by someone who based their (already biased) opinion of FF on a couple of Steve Jackson books (which would be like basing one's opinion of CYOA on reading a few R. A. Montgomery). In any case, it's more likely it would just be foolhardy and the maiden would turn out to be a shapechanger, but like you and I say, sloppy article.

[evilwizard]

The BBC being condescending?!?     Surely this is something that would never happen! I am shocked and appalled!