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who taught me to cherish

an active imagination.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Gary Alan Fine for his kind advice on role-playing games of yesterday and today, Nick Montfort for taking time out for my questions about interactive fiction, Alexander Hinkley of Alex’s DBZ RPG for his insights on browser-based games, and Jeff Martin for sharing his thoughts on the creation of True Dungeon.

To the families of the wizards who made fantasy gaming what it is today— J.R.R. Tolkien, Gary Gygax, and Dave Arneson—thank you for the gift that keeps on giving. To the bards who crafted the games I love—Monte Cook, Raph Koster, Erik Mona, and Rose Estes—thank you for your inspiring work. To the paladins who fight the good fight in defending our hobby, including Stephen Colbert, Vin Diesel, Mike Stackpole, Paul Cardwell, and M. Alan Thomas II ... never give up the fight!

I also want to give a shout-out to my old gaming groups: Kevin Herriman from my very first basic Dungeons & Dragons campaign, Jason Varrone from my 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign, Bill Jellig from my 2nd edition campaign, and George Webster from my 3rd edition game. I would also like to thank Jeremy Ortiz and Robert Taylor, who participated in my Dungeons & Dragons campaigns and contributed art to this book.

My insights about MUDs came from the many years of working with the outstanding staff of RetroMUD, especially fellow administrator Mazyar Fallah. I’m also thankful for all the players of RetroMUD who taught me volumes about the power of virtual groups, and Arianna Simes and Brandon Smith in particular for sharing their thoughts about gaming in general.

There are plenty of folks whom I didn’t interview for this book but were nevertheless influential in my gaming life. Doug Schonenberg introduced me to Ultima Online. Mike Ettlemyer dragged me kicking and screaming into first-person shooters and now he can’t get rid of me. I blame Chris Bibbs for sharing my thesis with Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade, which started me on the path of writing this book.

There are also organizations and places online where I lurk that deserve mention: geezergamers.com, enworld.org, RPG.net and Yog-Sothoth.com all provided valuable input over the years on games and gamers of all stripes. ICON has been my home convention for many years. If it wasn’t for me attending the World Fantasy Convention with Fred Durbin, Nick Ozment, and Gabe Dybing this book might not have seen the light of day.

I’ve been particularly blessed by a loving family that supports and encourages my gaming hobbies. My father’s love of science fiction and my mother’s love of reading greatly influenced me as a gamer. I’ve had the amazing good fortune to game with my brother Joe who contributed art to this book, my brother-in-law Eric, and my sister-in-law Melissa.

But the person who deserves the most thanks of all, the inspiration for my master’s thesis, and my constant companion and muse, is my wife. Amber tolerated long nights of writing while keeping up with my gamer-in-training two-year-old son and pregnant with our daughter. Violet will be born by the time this book sees print. I love you!

To my family and friends: Thank you. I look forward to gaming with all of you soon.

PREFACE

When we submitted John Gabriel’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory, we were not aware that it already had proponents in centers of higher learning. Except, when they talk about it, they call it The Impact of Anonymity on Disinhibitive Behavior Through Computer-Mediated Communication. Same thing, though [Holkins 2004].

Why write yet another book about role-playing games? There are plenty of authors who have written quite a bit about fantasy gaming in a variety of mediums without having ever actually experienced their evolution firsthand. One of the reasons I chose to write this book is that I was there. I’ve certainly experienced a wider variety of gaming media than some of the developers who created the more popular massive multiplayer online