Book Snippet: Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks - Ethan Gilsdorf (2009)

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks by Ethan Gilsdorf reads like a memoir, a personal journey from a Dungeons and Dragons player to adult, but with a twist, he shuts all fantasy gaming and the such out of his life in order to be an ‘adult’. When he confronts the cooler box which contained his D&D maps, sketches, rule books and hex paper he asks himself ‘how healthy was it to have devoted so much mental energy to a world that didn’t exist? Had we checked out of real life?’ p. 20.

And so began his journey, in which he would staunchly be an observer, (‘Did I want to be a cool observer?’ p. 22), not participating in any activity. However, he lets himself be pulled into Live Action Roleplaying and with glee he gets involved seeing how people escape into a fantasy world, with context and rules.

He understands that times have changed; being a geek is seen as cool and desirable,

‘I knew that the perception of fantasy hobbies had changed since I was a card-carrying member of the D&D tribe. Today geek is no longer a four-letter word. Playing fantasy games, reading fantasy books, and watching fantasy movies are definitely more permissible now than when I was exploring dungeons…’ p. 21

We have shows like The Big Bang Theory, documentaries with cool science: Mythbusters and celeb-slash-scientists like Bill Nye, Brian Cox and Neil Degrasse Tyson. Comic books are part of everyday life, videogames are widely discussed and not banished to a subculture, it is a culture, it has earned its placed near films.

‘Fantasy subcultures have shifted from the fringe to pockets of cool, and their associated terminology and cultural references – Gandalf, levelling up, griefing – have been absorbed into the mainstream’ p. 21.

Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings are a brilliant example of fantasy multimedia and fandom. Cosplaying is not confined to one or two special events, but many events like Comic Con and Eurogamer, celebrating the fan’s dedication. And so, Ethan Gilsdorf ‘embarked on a nonlinear, non-contiguous odyssey of self-reflection, cultural analysis, and free mead’.