It's not as important as recognizing the difference between Isrealis and "Palentinians"!

The idf needs to get a life. I have played d & d for years and I turned out alright. If more kids played it today, there would be less time for them to get in trouble. Next time you want to do a article on something, Do your homework first. if not shut the hell up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People, games are not the cause of violence from children, or even grown men. It is the person who decides reality from unreality. If they kill someone out of playing D&D, and do it in real life, that is THEIR problem, not the game's. It is the person responsible for killing, and the killer's parents' irresponsibility as a parent for allowing this to happen. This all happens because they are weak-minded idiots.

I have been playing AD&D games for like 10 years now. Gathering around the table with friends, laughing and role-playing a virtuous knight, or a wise commander, a devoted religion man do not do anyone harm. Many saying i learned from my gaming experiences and my researches...Lead by example, cause the most good thru the least harm and many more... Instead of wasting your time looking blankly at your TV screen or computer monitor, get together with friends and play a frp game. Brainstorm to solve a well made puzzle, learn to make empathy and make strategies, improve your social interaction capability. Give a break to real life!

I'll be tossing my 2c in more out of respect to the many under-appreciated persons who were judged to be unfit of being allowed advancement to positions reflective of their true worth rather than due to any frictional regard of the IDF but I will note that the IDF is being extremely short-sighted if it believes that players of D&D are a hindrance to them. I should point out that D&D has many features that are useful. It develops a soldier's creativity both in description and utility (never to be underestimated). It also helps to develop decision-making skills, teaches the lesson that actions can have repercussions and also can help instill courage where it is to be found. Even a person who plays a 'thief' gets to think about concerns of relevance such as stealth and infiltration. One thing that the IDF might not find comfortable however is the tendency of D&D players to develop a slightly more pronounced awareness about what is right and what is wrong (as alignments are generally more pronounced than they otherwise would be). Many will smirk at this assertion but I am quite certain that the IDF would prefer that recruits have a less than pristine knowledge of the difference between 'Law' and 'Good' and that those who do would be relegated to positions where they are less likely to hinder a somewhat 'Lawful' IDF set of policies. Incidentally if the IDF sincerely believes that D&D makes inferior soldiers then why doesn't it generously distribute across the border beyond the ravaged houses? It would certainly be cheaper than a security wall.

Incidentally I agree with 'The Other Shoe' on one detail. D&D enthusiasts have rained too heavily upon the journalist. The journalist's position is mediator and 'reporter' and I sincerely believe in the old adage "Don't shoot the messenger". However I will point out to 'The Other Shoe' that a session of D&D can take several hours (ideally) and that the time spent is generally far more productive in comparison to a few hours watching TV as the game itself is a social activity with subtle long term benefits. Incidentally by your reasoning the game of chess is to be screened also as it may cause detachment (nevermind that chess players might [shock & horror] add an element of intellect and strategic soundness to the IDF). To the writer of the article. Thank you for doing a decent job of helping to inform the general public about what the IDF would typically rather that we didn't know. Peace over War

WHY DONT YOU SPEND TIME TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE OPPOSITE SEX BETTER AND MAYBE HAVING A SHAG ONCE IN A WHILE INSTEAD OF PLAYING SILLY GAMES?

Now....this is another one. Ok, so you don't know even ONE of the posters above and you thing that they are simply ugly idots who don't even know how a girl is made? Then i may say(without having the right to do it) that you are an idiot who thinks to be very intelligent and handsome, without any mental skill other that choosing the best(or most expensive?) cloths and deciding how many hours in a day to spend in the gym. Instead the only thing i can say is that you mental age is below the 16. Do you really thing that USING CAPS will make you mroe interesting? Lol, poor baby...

Now, Mr. Persona, I must say, you first of all clearly don't have the spine it takes to post a comment and let people take you up on it, or you would use your real name. Second, the mathematical statistics in this article don't matter. Why, you say? Well, its really very obvious. Statistics must be done including the whole group, meaning EVERYBODY who joined the IDF. These "statistics" don't talk about the percentage of people who play other games or engage in other activities and are sent to evaluation. That is why your comment does NOT hold up against us gamers. And to the post 2 before mine, LOL I am a female and I happen to love my games and my gaming boyfriend, and most of our friends game and have girlfriends too. And *gasp!* they don't even have that much acne or BO!!!!!

D&D requires participants to abandon reality in order to play the game. This drastically reduces their ability to filter fact from fiction, the essential from the nonessential, and the consequencial from the inconsequencial. It's like the former abuser of high doses of LSD who must attempt to discern the lasting effects the drug has on the perceptions, the flashbacks, the visual distortions. As to the player's sanity, its truly amazing how sane people who live in a world of reality compared to those living in the fantasy world of game playing and socialist utopian ideologies.

Your personal experience and prejudice aside I'd be interested to read any links you can provide that would corroborate your statements? I won't hold my breath.....

Whether there is statistical evidence indicating D&D players have weak personalities or are detached from reality was never hit upon in the article (and we all know what happens when we ASSUME). As far as the quality of responses following this article, I find them typical of sites open to general comment. More an indication of a personality that wants to talk because they can and not necessarily a true measure of the typical Role-Player. You're reading facts where none were given and making generalizations from a few score uncontrolled responents and calling it statistics.

The so-called policy is so out of touch with the reality of D&D and the vast majority of its players that I have to wonder if it's a hoax. Notice that the "security source" is unnamed. I have no doubt however that there is discrimination against players in the IDF as there is elsewhere.

There all Fools...

As a Dungon Master of 10 PLUS YEARS, I condemn this policy and those who support it. The skills and creativity in even an average gamer could be used as an asset in ANY elite military branch or Special Forces unit! I am very dissappointed in this close minded branding of gamers and LARP players. Disappointed is not quite the word for it... more like DISGUSTED.

To the IDF "player haters"... I am writing a book based on one of my adventures!

First of all, I agree that if this were true, the IDF would be close-minded and guilty of stereotyping. I am a married man, a father, a responsible member of my community and my church. I still play the game because it's fun and a chance to spend time with good friends. Having said all of that, this article is nothing but sensationalist crap. I work with a woman from Tel Aviv who was a member of the IDF and served as an Incoming Recruit Psychological Examiner and assigned the security grades to the recruits based on her interviews with them. She indicates that there are several "Red Flags" that cause the examiners to pursue specific lines of questioning, but none of them are automatic. She said that although D&D is thought to be an unusual hobby, the further questioning they do determines if the recruits are "simply detached from reality" or normal and intelligent people that just have an unusual hobby. Yes, even a LARPer can get normal clearance as long as they don't exhibit signs that they can't discern reality from fantasy. Peace! Brian

Obviously those in control of the IDF did not grow up with D&D, and so don't understand it, and so fear it, or at least classify it as something stupid. They probably have the same thoughts about techno music. But if they had bothered to learn of the origins of D&D they might have had a little more respect. I'm sure that the IDF openly practise war-gamming. Well, D&D grew out of a set of medieval minatures rules. I think they were called Chainmail. The original D&D rules were simply concerned with reducing the scale of the rules where each figure represents a unit of men, to where each figure represented a single man. Suplimentary rules introduced the fantasy elements obviously influenced by the fantasy literature of the time, such as Tolkein. Obviously role playing attracks a small number of nuts, just like the army does ("I wanna kill, kill, kill). Just as one would hope the IDF would weed out it's own nuts, most D&D players do the same.

I am female and I play D&D. I am also married to a D&D player. Most of my friends who play D&D are ALSO married or are in long term relationships. Coming from someone who does not even have the balls to put his name up on his "talk back" I take your insult to other gamers lightly. Your most likily a sixteen year old child who gets off on the half nude pictures on your buddies myspace. The IDF frowns on Larping and RPing mainly because RPers tend to be free thinkers, willing to take in the intire situation rather then just simply listening to commands as if it were gospel. We tend to think outside the box which makes us dangerous and hard to brain wash. So, I say, be proud to be a gamer! Let everyone know who you are! Gamer is the new cool. Hard core jocks, beng drinking frat boys, and shoe obsessive women are becoming the new trash. Don't be ashamed to have a brain!

Jay and riverotter: you two seem a bit outnumbered. I like your courage, and I agree that D&D is not a good influence. I think the question is whether or not the game IS an influence. If someone can be influenced by it--a game--then of course they do not need high security clearance anywhere. The IDF sent the recruits to be examined before denying them clearance, so they had a chance to proove themselves sane. It seems they didn't appear sane to the psychologists.

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Nice way to assume that all D&D players act that way. Not sure your even worth the comebacks I have.

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I have been a life long supporter of Israel, though disagree with your policies in the West Bank and Gaza. The difficulty that the IDF has with an innocent and very imaginative game like "Dungeons and Dragons" reinforces the image of a brutal and stupid leadership in the country. To shortcut a qualified leader's career because of participating in a game is equal to doing the same due to alcoholism, drug addiction and sex crimes. You would think the Israeli public would complain, wouldn't you? They complain about everything else. FOR SHAME!

“They're detached from reality and suscepitble to influence” - isn't that exactly what any army would want?

The problem behind this story is the IDF is taking the stance that people who play D&D are open to suggestion. They are detached from reality. I say appeasing terror is a far more dangerous undertaking. After all at the end of the day D&D is harmless while appeasing terror is suicide. I think they are afraid of D&D players because they see through the BS.

Let me tell you that playing D&D is widespread in all of the United States' armed services. I held a high security clearance for eight years of service, all the while playing D&D and patricipating in living history groups like the Society for Creative Anachronism. I have a firm idea of what is fantasy and what is reality. It would be laughable for the US Army to discriminate against players of this game. Security checks are more concerned with real problems like drug use, association with radical groups, and sexual perversions. Perhaps concern over this sort of psychological twaddle in the IDF is why they have performed so poorly in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip compared to the more rough-and-ready IDF of the Six Day War and Yom Kippur War. Is the sort of rubbish the IDF Chief-of-Staff, who sold his stock portfolio just before sending troops into Lebanon and then checked himself into a military hospital for a tummy ache, concerns himself with?

These people are nuts - some of the people in the USA with the highest clearances are avid D&Ders. They are not detached from reality - they have very strong personalities. The IDF decision maker must have been smoking hash. Zed

No D&D player would recognize the photo of the guys "play acting" as real D&D -- they'd wonder what kind of game those people were playing. The other photos are from the DragonLance novels, not D&D books. Now, will they also start discriminating against video game players? Bookworms? Internet addicts? Oops, wait... it's only D&D players who qualify (in their opinion) as "out of touch with reality."

no roleplaying does NOT strengthen character. The army is not trying to say they are BAD, but roleplayers, by the very nature of roleplaying have dulled their sense of reality. The way you game, should NOT be the way you fight in a war. Hey, maybe they are learning from what's going on with the U.S. why do you think our troops are so fucked up? Because they grew up on video games! Roleplaying is alot better, and it might produce good people in other fields, like artists and writers and maybe even business, but NOT the military!!