However, as I examined the items on the shelf, I noticed that on the back of the Basic Game kit’s box there was a photo of a group of twelve- to thirteen-year-olds playing the game. Obviously, there is nothing out of the ordinary about the idea that teenagers might play D&D.
But, then again, why wasn’t it an image of a family gathered around a brightly lit table with windows and ferns in the background as one might find on the back of a box that contains Yahtzee. To be fair, the children looked well adjusted and there were no half-eaten Ding Dongs, empty bags of Cheetos, or slightly crushed cans of Mountain Dew in the photograph, so I might be able to cut Wizards of the Coast a little slack, I suppose.Putting the image out of my mind because, after all, it wasn’t printed on the box that I was about to purchase, I took the game box to the counter. When I approached the cashier, she scanned the item and before printing the receipt asked me, “Would you like a gift receipt with that?” Obviously, to her, there was no way that the thirty something man in front of her was buying this for himself. I glanced at Amy and we both laughed as I told the cashier that we wouldn’t need a gift receipt.
Of course, the cashier's innocuous question charged me with considering why Dungeons and Dragons is assumed to be a children's game while Yahtzee or Cranium get pulled out at parties when everyone is left staring at one another. I considered two possibilites. First, the rules for Yahtzee can be explained in five minutes, usually while the game is being played, because they're even printed on the scoresheets while Dungeons and Dragons is a complex set of rules that use simple arithmetic functions to govern everything from unlocking doors to attacking an enemy. Even as an adult, using the total ruleset can seem like a daunting task. Therefore, some amount of effort outside of the game must be made to familiarize oneself with the rules. Dungeons and Dragons, therefore, cannot be taught to newcomers quickly enough for them to begin playing the game immediately. It requires at least a little preperation, which could be interpreted as study, which would most certainly be a roadblock for casual adult players.
The second possibility I considered was much more speculative than my initial thoughts on the complexity of rules: perhaps role-playing carries a stigma that naturally associates itself with children, especially in terms of what this study refers to as intersubjectivity or, "...having a shared understanding with another in a common activity." I'm sure that an expert could show me examples of adult forms of intersubjectivity, but perhaps there are not as many explicit references to the thorough kind that manifests itself in childhood role-playing. Realistically, I can't imagine many adults in the parking lot of a football stadium playing the game, each person playing as their favorite player, and especially not supporting one another's fantasy role. But I can certainly imagine them playing a simple game while perhaps secretly imagining themselves as a particular player at discreet moments.
So, my first point is rather pragmatic in nature, but as for my second point of consideration, I can only speculate that adults as well as children
participate in a variety of forms of role-playing activities. However, going forward with that line of thought, I would also hypothesize that the context of those role-playing activities becomes more significant in adulthood. For unknown reasons, as we age it seems that we segregate our acceptable role-playing away from heroes, heroines, and fantastic settings and closer to more mundane subjects such as sports team management. Some of my coworkers hold stereotypical opinions of Dungeons and Dragons yet have no qualms about assuming the role of a baseball team's general manager.
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