What do a renowned conservative blogger, an award-winning pornstar, and a five-time NBA champion have in common?
The answer, perhaps to the surprise of many, is the legendary role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. And Michelle Malkin, Sasha Grey, and Tim Duncan aren’t the only artists/entrepreneurs who have discussed how the game impacted on their lives. They are joined by the likes of Elon Musk, Robbin Williams, Alexis Ohanian (founder of Reddit) and even Vin Diesel, who called it“a training ground for our imagination and an opportunity to explore our own identities”.
Back in its prime throughout the 1980s, Dungeons & Dragons was considered a hobby for lazy losers and nerds by a world not yet engulfed in the pop-culture phenomenon that would dominate the entertainment industry 20 years later. Players were taken into strange, magical lands by the game’s overlord – the Dungeon Master – and weren’t beyond reacting to the adventure’s twists and turns by acting as if they were their characters.
It was a lot of fun, but for all the controversy that surrounded the game, and the insults directed at its players, Dungeons & Dragons was key in inspiring creativity and management skills in some of the world’s greatest thinkers.
“I’m a very lazy person by nature. I have to be really engaged, and then I go straight from lazy to obsessive. I couldn’t study chemistry, but I could memorize all the books for Dungeons and Dragons. It was ridiculous,” recalls film director Jon Favreau.
When he questioned why that was the case, he came to a simple realisation: “The trick is to find what I like to do”. The result was great films like Christmas comedy Elf, and the Iron Man movie that launched Marvel and Disney’s juggernaut of a film franchise.
Then there’s writer Ethan Gilsorf, who credits the game for helping him “self-actualise” as a teenager. He stopped playing the game in 1984, but actually returned to it in his 40s in order to plug into an element of his creative mind that he felt had been dormant since he last rolled the dice.
Beyond the creative aspects, the game has been credited for developing management skills in its players.
Some people are born to be leaders, but those like Kickstarter CEO, Yancey Strickler, have quested with their employees to get a better understanding about how certain team members think and operate as part of a group. No one person is responsible for making the decisions; the band makes them together. Yes, it’s still about having fun, but he gains more complete knowledge of his company as a result.
Below is a list of other famous Dungeons & Dragons players whose lives were impacted by the game.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon – They grew up in the same neighbourhood, and would often play together. They both prefer magic-based characters.
Stephen Colbert – Attributes his ability to create characters to his experiences playing D&D.
Ta-Nahesi Coates – The national contributor for The Atlantic and National Book Award winner traces the forming of his imagination to D&D games with his brother. Hear him talk about one of his first experiences here.
Curt Schilling – Famous pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.
Steven Spielberg – Film director.
Joss Whedon – Pop-culture icon.
Gerard Way – Lead singer for My Chemical Romance.
Daniel H. Wilson – Bestselling author and robotics engineer.
Bruce Reyes-Chow – Teaching Elder of the Presbyterian Church.
Moby – Musician.
George R.R. Martin – Writer of the A Song of Fire and Ice novels.
David Lindsay-Abaire – Pulitzer Prize winning playwright.
There’s plenty more, and a few others beside who probably still think it’s uncool to admit it.