Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms
Language: English
Published by Lyons Press, 2009
- Hardcover
- New

Seller: BennettBooksLtd, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.BennettBooksLtd
AbeBooks seller since April 17, 2008
Condition: New
£ 78.75
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Seller Inventory # Q-1599214806
- Title
- Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms
- Author
- Gilsdorf, Ethan
- Publisher
- Lyons Press
- Publication year
- 2009
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1599214806
- ISBN 13
- 9781599214801
- Item weight
- 22 ounces
- Dimensions
- 9x6x1
Fantasy. Science fiction. Role-playing games. People around the globe turn away from the real world to inhabit others. Movie fan-freaks design costumes and collect Lord of the Rings action figures. Some attend comic book conventions and Renaissance fairs, others play live-action role-playing games (LARPs). The online game World of Warcraft (WoW) has lured twelve million users worldwide. Even old-school role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) are still wildly popular.
What could one man find if he embarked on a journey through fantasy world after fantasy world?
In an enthralling blend of travelogue, pop culture analysis, and memoir, forty- year-old former D&D addict Ethan Gilsdorf crisscrosses America, the world, and other worldsfrom Boston to New Zealand, and Planet Earth to the realm of Aggramar. On a quest that begins in his own geeky teenage past and ends in our online gaming future, he asks gaming and fantasy geeks how they balance their escapist urges with the kingdom of adulthood. He speaks to grown men who build hobbit holes, and to grown women who play massively multiplayer online games. He seeks out those who dream of elves, long swords, and heroic deeds, and mentally inhabit faraway magical lands. What lures themold, young, male, female, able-bodied, and disabledinto fantasy worlds, and for what reasons, whether healthy, unhealthy, or in between?
Our noble hero battles online goblins, trolls, and sorcerers for weeks on end. He travels to pilgrimage sites: Tolkiens hometown, movie locations, and castles. He hangs out with Harry Potter tribute bands. He LARPs. He goes to fan conventions and gaming tournaments. He camps with medieval re-enactors12,000 of them. He becomes Ethor, Ethorian, and Ethor-An3. He sews his own tunic. He even plays D&D. What he discovers is funny, poignant, and enlightening.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Ethan Gilsdorf is a journalist, poet, critic, editor, and teacher whose writings have appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, USA Today, and National Geographic Traveler. He has been a guest on talk radio as a fantasy and escapism expert.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
BennettBooksLtd
Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since April 17, 2008
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