I think the real movement is how much computers are shaping our socialization process. Where we might have gotten together with a half dozen or so friends and played D & D the way that others might have gone to football games, etc, it was a way for adolescence to socialize and build those interpersonal social skills. One way of many, of course. Now, I see everyone with crackberries, texting OMG LOL or sitting in front of their computer with 42 IM chats open with pretty much their whole peer group.

Putting the computer in between people changes things – some of it’s good, and some is different. But now I’ve really digressed…

Great find David.

Guilty as charged. I blew through my share of dungeon mapping sessions as a youngling when I should have been learning Calculus and the like. I still have my original Monster Manual and dice.

My favorite recent D&D related item was a comedian who pointed out that most of the people who used to make fun of nerds for playing D&D are now spending their time playing fantasy football.

And FYI, in fact WOW hasn’t ended D&D at all. It is still a hit with young nerdlings and an increasing number of nerdettes.

(Though I think I’ve heard a similar argument from people who use slide-rules instead of calculators.)