Stupidity in Military Screening at the IDF, D&D players need not apply...

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have sent a clear message to would-be recruits who like playing fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons: don’t bother.

The IDF is noted for its careful vetting, through training and attention to psychological profiling based on decades of battlefield experience, and it seems that role-playing Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) players don’t make the grade in a number of ways.

A story on Israeli online news site, Ynetnews, quotes sources inside the IDF describing enthusiasts of the game as "detached from reality and susceptible to influence." According to the story, young recruits who say they play D&D are automatically given a low security clearance and excluded from sensitive military positions. According to one unnamed military official, the assessment of D&D players is taken seriously enough to have become unofficial policy.

"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," he is quoted as saying.
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http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/050311dandd/

Posted in GD Cause I wanted my own headline.

ON EDIT: Took out the bloody advertisement I forgot to screen out, GodsDamned Copy n'Paste!

i hope the u.s. adopts this; there won't be enough recruits to man a security detail!!! (especially if they extend that to PS2/xbox etc)

His entire unit would blow weekends and such playing D&D constantly.

Probability, basic stats and game theory
Thinking on my feet
Cooperation with others, especially under stressful conditions
To use my imagination
Navigation skills
Basic small party battle tactics
Negotiation abilities
Combat tactics, both armed and unarmed
And that's without really thinking about this matter. Geez, you think that the IDF would want to foster these qualities amongst its recruits. But noooooo, the game involves wizards and demons and pagan imagery:eyes:

I've been playing D&D for thirty years now, and there is always some idiot out there coming up with even more outrageous reactions to this game. You think these people would get a damn life.

active duty BILs would be clear, my foster brother would be clear....

In fact, my BIL (who is in-country right now) just got his shipment of used D&D rule books, character sheets and tokens so that he and his friends have something to do (they're in a rather primitive camp, and are bored, bored, bored.... which is good!)

Tho apparently all are jonesing for Evercrack, none the less.

Pcat

I cannot effing believe this. People who play know what I'm going to say: I have learned actual facts about small arms, group tactics, and so on, because of my roleplaying. Do they also screen out people who play Grand Theft Auto?

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3052074,00.html
Speaking of having a bad grasp on reality...

(and Israel has a surplus of PhD psychologists and psychiatrists) where a small fraction of D&D players are "detached from reality and susceptible to influence" and have committed atrocities.

The theory goes - if 1% of D&D non-players commit atrocities, and 1.1% of D&D players commit atrocities -- then we must screen out all D&D players to prevent atrocities. The usual psycho babble.

It's like the (now illegal) pre-employment Rorschach Inkblot Test. Pure bull crap -- but the shrinks sell that stuff to management level sheeple. That's how shrinks make their money.

I got a TS clearance, and I know other D&D players who did, and I've heard of others (more recently) who also did (including at least one who noted he played D&D right in the "hobbies" portion of his clearance application form).

Their "unnamed military official" is probably not one "in the know" - clearance and personal assessment criteria are highly classified, and those examiners I know wouldn't discuss them with their close firends, much less a paper.