Heart of Dorkness: D&D at 30

Even CNN lowers itself to cover the anniversary:

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Dungeons & Dragons players gathered in game stores around the country Saturday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the grandfather of fantasy role-playing games -- a pop culture phenomenon that has influenced myriad video games, books and movies.

An estimated 25,000 fans in 1,200 stores celebrated the anniversary Saturday, said Charles Ryan, brand manager for role-playing games at Wizards of the Coast, a Renton, Washington, company that owns Dungeons & Dragons.

...

Dungeons & Dragons went on to become one of the best-selling games of all time, inspiring fan devotion so great that some travel thousands of miles to play in tournaments.

There have been Dungeons & Dragons books, movies, puzzles, even a Saturday-morning cartoon show.

All quality entertainments, too.

The game peaked in the 1980s, but there are plenty of fans left. Some 4 million people play D&D regularly. Many of them laugh at a common suggestion that fantasy gamers are geeks: Of course they are, they say.

"I think a lot of people who get drawn to this game are loners, but here's a real opportunity to come out of that shell and feel safe about it," said fan Mitch Hamburger, 32.

Yes. There's something empowering about having a nicely-statted character sheet and smiting a couple of kobolds.

Look at me! I just rolled the shit out of that d4! Man, I'm fuckin' cool!

Related Dorkiness: Just on the phone with Son of Nixon.

Me: "I went to a blog party last month."

SoN (perfectly serious): "You mean like physically at a party, or just 'partying' in a chatroom?"

Me: "Give me some credit, for crying out loud."

Blog-party.

Me and bunch of dudes sitting around in a chatroom, telling each other how "freakin' wasted" we are.

That's me. Such a fucking dork that even a "friend" thinks that I'm "partying" on-line-- and then bragging about it.

posted by Ace at 07:50 PM

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