We’re neither Fantasy Freaks
nor Gaming Geeks
So once in a while I read a
book that’s not fiction, as life gets busier, it tends to be once in a great
while more than once in a while, but sometimes a book title will get my
attention.
This one got my attention…
Entitled Fantasy Freaks and
Gaming Geeks, it charts the journey undertaken by Ethan Gilsdorf, a
professional writer who found himself wondering why he’d found himself suddenly
drawn back into the worlds of fantasy and gaming, and was unable to reconcile
why he was heading back to the things that he did when he was a child.
In order to find what he was
drawn to, he undertook a series of journeys, to countries both foreign and
domestic, to examine different parts of the culture and see what part of it he
was drawn to. He went to GaryCon and
there had a game with Frank Mentzer, he went to New Zealand to visit the places
where they shot Lord of the Rings. He came to England to speak to the Tolkien
society and he interviewed those who treat World of Warcraft as a life. He went
to LARP gatherings and went venturing with the Society for Creative
Anachronism. He didn’t leave a stone
unturned in his quest to see what it was all about…
But he didn’t get involved…
If there’s one constant
through the entire book, it’s that he’s continually on the fringe of it, even
when he’s surrounded by loads of people all being friendly and open towards
him, he’s still sat at the back, keeping the strange at a distance. He doesn’t present anyone in a completely bad light, he doesn’t make
any immediate judgement calls on
those he goes to see, but he doesn’t really get into it with them, he doesn’t
throw himself into it, he sits back and looks at it in the manner of a Martian
studying humanity from across the gulf of space, and it’s in that that I have
the problem.
The language used throughout
the book is strong, frequently we hear Obsession, Freaks, Warped, Regression,
Escapism, Misfits, all words that I’ve heard on many an occasion and in many
cases, had thrown at me, but the manner in which they’re used here suggests
that he’s keeping the mainstream view even as he tries to find out more of
those he’s talking to, it’s written so as to appeal to the people who aren’t in
these hobbies, so that they can understand those who are different to them.
In the manner of children poking
monkeys at the zoo…
I realise that the way I’m
writing this may suggest that I have an issue with this, and to be fair…
I do...
If you’re going to make a
clinical study of something, make a clinical study of it, don’t pretend to be
its friend and then poke it. If you’re
going to join in, join in, get in there, try and figure out what it is that
interests you about it. Don’t get close
and then poke it, and if you’re going to poke it, don’t then try and backtrack
and pretend you weren’t poking…
I found a lot of the books
narrative contradictory, he’ll be talking about going to a convention to see
what people find interesting about it and then confess that he’s actually gone
to try and (and I quote) bed his lady
geek, he sees how online gaming has helped to bring some people out of
their shell and then ponders if they’re going to fall over instantly if their crutch is removed. It’s almost as if he was using the idea of
exploring his inner child to be
childish.
I’m writing this off the
back of just finishing the book, and I know that it’s often better to consider
things and then write what you think on reflection, but to be honest, I’ve just
read through a few hundred pages of confusion, with no clearly defined
conclusion other than “I’m not one of them, I’ve just buried all my LOTR
figures in the village where they filmed it, I’m going to go be a grown up
now…” and if that’s the conclusion he reached at the end of his journey, fine,
be happy with it, wish you well and long to live with it.
But for anyone else looking
to write a book on gamer culture, please, actually get in the boat with us, rather than watching it from the lighthouse
where all you get are isolated glimpses that don’t reflect anything but waves
being made.
