John McCain Hates Dungeons & Dragons?
A series of posts on the website for Republican presidential candidate John McCain has gamers up in arms, and has earned attention from some high-profile media outlets for the strange decision to target Dungeons & Dragons players, of all things.
In an August 1 post on the official McCain campaign website, spokesperson Michael Goldfarb said of a recent New York Times blog post:
… in their new role as bloggers, the paper’s editors seem to have all the intelligence and reason of the average Daily Kos diarist sitting at home in his mother’s basement and ranting into the ether between games of dungeons and dragons.
While this mention didn’t generate much commotion at the time, it was Goldfarb’s decision to negatively namecheck D&D a second time just a few weeks later — a day after the end of the popular gaming convention Gen Con — that had everyone (including online culture blog BoingBoing) wondering whether the McCain staffer has some longstanding issues with the popular role-playing game and its fans.
It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.
It sounds to me like someone could never find enough friends to form a party… or maybe he was never allowed to be Dungeon Master. Either way, I can’t help but raise an eyebrow at the decision to make an anti-D&D stance a theme in McCain’s presidential campaign.
I really enjoyed previous Marvel Knights projects Spider-Man: Reign and Silver Surfer: Requiem, as the pairing of writers, artists and subject matter of each miniseries seemed to really catch lightning in a bottle. I’m not sure that these series fit in with past titles falling under the "Marvel Knights" banner, but I know that they felt like a fresh look at both characters — and that’s saying a lot, given the saturation of Spider-Man and Silver Surfer stories the past few years. 
Variety reported earlier this week
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