I got dumped due to net problems while responding to this earlier.
In short one has to remember that our current goverment is using video games as the current scapegoat of choice. While it goes cross party, they are the favorite boogieman of Democrats like Hillary Clinton. There are politicians who are basing their entire career on such things right now. Convincing people games are bad, opens the door for games to be targeted instead of actual, complicated social issues which could amount to political suicide.
Back when I was taking Criminal Justice there was some discussion about differant ways law enforcement is set up, both in differant parts of the US, and around the world. One of the big issues, which has both pros and cons, is when politicians have direct control over law enforcement by being able to appoint top positions like "Police Chief" or "Commissioner", and in some cases Mayors, Governors, and City Managers, might have to approve promotions above a certain rank. This means that politicians can use the police as tools, and indirectly give them marching orders. A policeman who finds ways to tie cases to boogiemen that the politician wants people to be scared of, and puts this into his report, can earn brownie points which can eventually result in promotion to the upper ranks. Don't get me wrong, there are upsides to doing things this way too (which I won't go into), the basic point is that one can't truely consider the police a neutral party in many places.
PnP RPGs are less common as a target today, but I have noticed that fandom in general seems to be an increasing target, you have politicians and "Watchdog groups" going after comic books and super heroes again as well as some articles here on "The Escapist" have shown.
What is going on is wrong, but I am writing this message in part as a cautionary warning (queue John Sykes song from "Legend Of Black Heaven"):
Be careful not to deny everything that is said in attack on PnP RPGs in general. There are some very bad incidents out there, and if you engage in too much blanket defending in mockery it can be counter productive if you ever have anything resembling a neutral audience.
Understand that disturbed and broken people seek escapism, usually intense escapism. Games of any sort (PnP, Video) don't break people, but it should be expected that anyone who is really messed up and socially awkward is going to seek refuge in such things.
It should also be noted that "cult type" behavior in paticular can be attributed to PnP RPGs. Simply put, especially with the target audiences involving a lot of awkward, impresisonable nerds with low senses of self worth, your dealing with a crowd ideal to be taken care of. There are cases where very charismatic and strong willed people have been involved with PnP RPGs, and then wound up using the gaming group as a springboard to do wierd things with the members like have sex with them, encourage assaults, murder, and even cases of infanticide. It's not the game itself, but the people involved. With no offense, just because something is a gaming group does not mean that no attention should be paid as to who is involved and what these people are up to, when they isolated themselves for hours.
Now before anyone freaks, I'm going to point a finger not towards D&D but one of the more prolific "problem games": White Wolf's "World OF Darkness" stuff. A game which I might add still inspires people to claim they are actually vampire or "otherkin" in real life, and create entire communities based off of it, not to mention wierd blood drinking groups (all of which can also exist without the game, but it's a regular gateway). Sites like "Something Awful" cover this, and post messages from the forums frequented by such people for laughs once in a while (and there is a ton of it in the archives from their front page if your interested).
Unless your in a period where someone is currently sensationalizing RPGs again or trying to (for talk show ratings, or whatever) it can be hard to find records of a lot of the more dramatic incidents as it seems a lot of the people involved (and the families of those involved) wind up wanting to cover it up. That said here is a link to an article about one of the most infamous incidents, even if it's not the best souce. Some of you might very well remember this incident:
http://roswell.fortunecity.com/seance/500/killers/family.html
The point here is that you have to understand that there is a grain of truth in a lot of the accusations being made. To really "win" and be taken seriously you need to accept that and debate rationally without trying to say that this stuff has never happened, or worse yet make fun of the entire idea.
