Car News

The Escapist will be hitting the big one-five in just a few weeks, and
I've whipped up a press release to help get the word out. Feel free to
post it to your favorite roleplaying blogs, magazines, websites,
forums, podcasts, YouTube channels, billboards, bus shelter signs, and
those planes that pull those little banners around.

But that's not all! If you happen to be a roleplaying blogger,
podcaster, or what have you, and would like an interview with the
proprietor of the internet's premier roleplaying advocacy website,
drop me an email at RPGadvocate@gmail.com to arrange one, absolutely
free of charge!

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Roleplaying advocacy website celebrates fifteen years of operation

November 15, 2010, Felton Delaware

The Escapist, a roleplaying advocacy website based in Felton,
Delaware, celebrates fifteen years of operation in December of 2010.

For fifteen years, the site has worked to improve the public image of
the roleplaying hobby, and outline the social and cognitive benefits
it can provide.

"Tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and others
are the modern equivalent of the ancient tradition of storytelling"
said William J. Walton, author of The Escapist. "Likewise, live action
roleplaying games are an entertaining form of improvisational theatre.
Both forms of roleplaying encourage creativity, problem solving,
spatial reasoning, teamwork, and social interaction. Not only that,
but roleplaying games can help develop math and language skills and
foster interest in history, science, art, world cultures, and more.

The roleplaying hobby has not always recieved positive coverage in the
media. During the early 1980s, two isolated events led many to connect
D&D with suicide. The same happened in the 1990s when a handful of
events, including the Columbine school shooting, were believed to be
connected to the Vampire: The Masquerade roleplaying game.

"The Escapist began as an online resource to combat the myths and
misconceptions about the hobby," said Walton."Many negative and false
claims were made that didn't stand up to scrutiny - claims that the
game could lead players to suicide, crime, insanity, demonic
possession, and devil worship."

Over time, more people became aware of the roleplaying hobby and what
really happens during a game, and the myths began to fade, Walton
said. More help came from celebrities who professed their interest in
roleplaying games, including Stephen Colbert, Vin Diesel, James
Franco, Matthew Lillard, Wil Wheaton, and the members of Weezer and My
Chemical Romance, to name a few.

As the negative press began to decline, the site expanded to cover
other facets of roleplaying advocacy - bringing new players to the
hobby, encouraging gamers and game companies to get involved in
philanthropy, and promoting roleplaying with kids, and in library
programs and schools.

In early 2010, the site announced a new project, "Read an RPG Book in
Public Week," a thrice-yearly event that encourages roleplaying
enthusiasts to take their rulebooks with them when they leave the
house and "get caught" reading them in public. The goal of the event
is to make the hobby more visible, inspire questions and conversation,
and possibly even attract new players or bring back lapsed ones.

Over the years, Walton and the site have been featured in numerous
news stories and interviews, two documentaries on roleplaying, and in
two books - Steve Racer's "God Loves the Freaks" and Ethan Gilsdorf's
"Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks."

For the fifteenth anniversary, Walton plans to feature a retrospective
of the site's many changes over the years.

For more information, visit www.theescapist.com, and contact WJ Walton
at rpgadvocate@gmail.com

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