Short answers, pulled from the story.
James Dallas Egbert III died by suicide due to clinical depression and family stress, not the game itself. The media linked his disappearance to Dungeons and Dragons, but private investigator William Dear found no connection between the player and the steam tunnels.
Patricia Pulling founded Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons in 1982 after her son Irving died by suicide. She filed wrongful death lawsuits against school officials and TSR Inc., claiming the game cursed her child.
William Schnoebelen wrote an article for Chick Publications in 1989 titled Straight Talk on Dungeons and Dragons describing the game as a feeding program for occultism and witchcraft. He claimed rituals in the game could conjure malevolent demons and produce real-world effects.
Wisconsin's Waupun Prison instituted a ban on Dungeons and Dragons in 2004 citing gang-related activity involving four players who formed a gang. The U.S. 7th Circuit Court upheld the ban as reasonable on the 25th of January 2010.
A study found that only 128 attempts by game players had been recorded by Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons between 1979 and 1988. This number was significantly lower than expected based on national statistics for the age demographic.