Written by Ethan Gilsdorf comes a tale that should be near and dear to many of my reader’s hearts: roleplaying. It’s subtitled: “An Epic Quest for Reality Among Roleplayers, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms” and this seems a very poignant topic in today’s world. He covers a lot of ground, not just on roleplaying, but on the treatment of roleplayers, as well as what we do to ourselves.
The author first relates to us the story of his youth, and how he himself became involved in Dungeons and Dragons in his childhood, why he left it, and why he returned. It’s a story of a man discovering himself and casting off the shackles of society and discovering who he truly is as much as an accurate view into the subculture of gaming.
He first tracks down and studies Tolkien whom many attribute with at least creating the setting for modern fantasy worlds. Not only is this untrue (Gygax, the father of D&D and Many other games preferred other authors) but Tolkien spoke out against the creation of games designed from his world as much as he derided fans for becoming too involved in the fictional world he had created. He didn’t just believe it to be wrong, feared the power that such a game would give a person over another.
The book moves on to his personal rediscovery of tabletop games, both roleplaying and wargaming. It covers his surprise at the changes to his own beloved D&D becoming more akin this experiences with online games. “Remember when there was playing involved in roleplaying” he says in reference to the current trend of powergaming and creating characters for statistics instead of fun. He searches and finds more people like himself, who prefer the game to the rules, although he does find comfort in “old-school” AD&D which is describes as already stat heavy.
He goes on to cover LARPing and the SCA finding participants who vary in their describing their hobby from “just as involved as reading a book” (I personally disagree) to “D&D on crack” (much more accurate) . He discovers they are just as involved in their rules as the modern roleplayer, in some cases more so. But he respects them even if he can’t come to find his roleplaying center with them.
He then delves into the seductive belly of online games, which he never once describes as roleplaying games (he and I agree on this point). He talks to two people, one who’s life and medical career were destroyed by online gaming, and one who’s only means of contacting the outside world is through her gaming. In neither case a pretty picture.
Being a former online gaming recluse and addict myself and worried about my friends who do still spend entirely too much time in online worlds that don’t even offer the kind of niche socialization tabletop gaming provides, this books poke bounds to me. As to what it empowered me to do, I am continuing to seek local like-minded individuals who miss the “playing” part of role-playing games, and want to focus more on the problem-solving and critical thinking rather than solving everything through violence concept that MMOs have helped turn our tabletop games into.
In short, it is a witty, powerful book that I believe should be read by every gamer, former-gamer, and those who claim to love gamers too. It’s the story of a journey of a modern day man who, by virtue of the movie remake of his favorite author’s books, is reminded of who he really is and sets off to rediscover that person despite the loss of love and status in his own life. And the victory he find in camaraderie and knowing he is not alone.
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