Worth getting/reading?

[dachda]

Saw this on amazon, just wondering if anyone had read and would recommend?
The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange by Mark Barrowcliffe
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Sir Dachda McKinty,

Margrave and Knight of Portlandia
Castles & Crusades Society

[Fiffergrund]

dachda wrote:
Saw this on amazon, just wondering if anyone had read and would recommend?
The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange by Mark Barrowcliffe

Ah, a handy search reveals that I can resurrect this thread instead of creating a new one!

I just finished the book. My boss (!) got it for me.

I found it to be a good, quick, entertaining read. The author's perspective is rather interesting when read by a current gamer (such as myself).

The author got into D&D in its infancy, in an industrial UK city in the 70's. This lends quite a different take on things than someone, like me, who cut his teeth in 1983 on the Mentzer Basic set in rural New York State.

His peer group was very different than mine in almost every respect except they played D&D. However, I was able to identify with many commonalities between his experience and my own.

You can't come away from the book with the feeling that the author sees his gaming experience as anything but a negative. And, when reading some of the things he experienced, it's pretty easy to see why he would feel that way as a whole. However, as a D&D-phile, the author comes off as portraying more of a bitter nostalgia than a happy nostalgia.

In the end, he sees his D&D experience as a lot of negatives sprinkled with only a very few positives. He's ashamed of it, quite frankly, but not so ashamed he isn't willing to make a little money off gamers and other interested people via his book.

Some of the things he actually did were ridiculous, but so are many other things that are done in youth. He internalizes that shame and in the end very literally runs from it because he's scared he'll be "drawn back in."

If you go into the book with these things in mind, it's a much easier read. If you expect a funny nostalgic book with fond memories of gaming experiences, this isn't it. It's funny (British humor, which can be difficult to interpret in print) and nostalgic, but it's also quite negative.
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Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[Stainless]

I read this when it first came out and as Fiffergrund points out, it's actually a fairly negative book. From what I remember of it, it was a very, very self-indulgent moan about the author's life. Much of what he says happened to him, I'd take as artistic license or just plain made-up in order to make an 'interesting/funny' read. It was quite forgettable, so if you don't have to pay very much, you might as well read it (it will only take one or two evenings) but don't expect much.

As an aside, what we need is a more scholarly treatment of RPGs. Those outside of the UK, probably haven't seen this; "Games Brittania"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pddc6

It was a three-part documentary about games and gaming in the UK by a historian. The third episode (you can watch it online) has a bit about RPGs but quickly segweys to computer games. I think he underplays the importance of RPGs far too much and his argument that it was the prelude to computer games, I just don't buy at all.

[Fiffergrund]

Stainless wrote:
Much of what he says happened to him, I'd take as artistic license or just plain made-up in order to make an 'interesting/funny' read.

I got that impression as well. Some of the things he claims happened are really absurd. I was obsessed with D&D and fantasy as a kid, admittedly, and I did some embarassing things because of it. However, I would have NEVER biked around to someone's house just to ask for a game, especially when I haven't spoken with the person in a year.

The way he tells it, the reader gets the impression that every single conversation he ever had was either about gaming or he pulled it that way.
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Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[dachda]

Thanks for the reviews. I'll not bother with this one then.
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Sir Dachda McKinty,

Margrave and Knight of Portlandia
Castles & Crusades Society

[Fiffergrund]

It's worth a read for the 70's D&D nostalgia vibe. The author mostly name-drops, but it's kind of a nice taste of it. I'd check the library.
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Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[Lord Dynel]

I just got it for Christmas (it was on my Amazon wish list). I haven't started it yet, but it does look to be an interesting read, if only for the nostalgia. I like anything gaming, especially people's takes/stories on their old (or current) gaming days. Maybe it'd be better if you got it used/discounted. Looks to be a good read, imho.
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LD's C&C creations - the witch, a half-ogre, skill and 0-level rules

Troll Lord wrote:
Lord D: you understand where I"m coming from.

[gideon_thorne]

Its odd, I've had a largely positive experience with rpg gaming since my folks got me into it back in the 70's. Wasn't until I wandered onto the online rpg gaming forums around 2004 that I started having a mind boggling not so positive experience.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

[Fiffergrund]

gideon_thorne wrote:
Its odd, I've had a largely positive experience with rpg gaming since my folks got me into it back in the 70's. Wasn't until I wandered onto the online rpg gaming forums around 2004 that I started having a mind boggling not so positive experience.

Any given environment has a set proportion of douchebags. When an environment has a small population, the odds of encountering a douchebag are relatively low. If a given 5 square mile area with 2000 people has 10% (or 200) douchebags, then the odds of actually encountering a douchebag are much lower compared to the same area with 20000 people. The more douchebags crammed into an area, the more likely we'll all have to deal with them.

The internet is a ridiculously large population, and gamers are crammed into a fairly small area. There's just no avoiding the douchebags. What's worse is that they don't have to be douchebags to anyone's face...it's all anonymous, making them more willing to be douchebags.

Now, for perspective, The Elfish Gene has an absurdly high proportion of douchebags. Me, I'll go on fantasizing that there really aren't that many gamers out there who are like that.
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Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[Stainless]

Fiffergrund wrote:
Now, for perspective, The Elfish Gene has an absurdly high proportion of douchebags. Me, I'll go on fantasizing that there really aren't that many gamers out there who are like that.

Of course the more parsimonious explanation might be that the author himself is a douchebag, and of course to douchebags, it's never them that's at fault, but everyone else. For instance, I had a student like this who was a complete social nightmare and completely independently evaluated as such by all staff who had to deal with her. She told me that everyone at the University and the local community was weird. As a scientist I tried to logic with her that it was probably unlikely that so many people, percieved by a single person, were in fact weird, and that the simpler explanation was that it was her attitude that was exceptional. Well, she looked at me as if I was weird!
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Drug of choice...coffee

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[Frost]

gideon_thorne wrote:
Its odd, I've had a largely positive experience with rpg gaming since my folks got me into it back in the 70's. Wasn't until I wandered onto the online rpg gaming forums around 2004 that I started having a mind boggling not so positive experience.

By Crom, have truer words been written?
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Lord Frost

Baron of the Pitt
Castles & Crusades Society
The Dungeoneering Dad

[Buttmonkey]

I read the book last spring and more or less wish I hadn't. About 1% of it is humorous, the rest is a painful trip down this guy's memories of his intensely awkward adolescence. If you enjoy reading 200 pages of self-loathing that coincidentally involves playing D&D back in the day, knock yourself out.

[Stainless]

On a related note, have a look at this;
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/01/wi ... ing-geeks/
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Drug of choice...coffee

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[gideon_thorne]

Stainless wrote:
On a related note, have a look at this;
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/01/wi ... ing-geeks/

Ya. The author hangs out here
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

[Stainless]

Well would you adam and eve it?!
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Drug of choice...coffee

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[gideon_thorne]

Stainless wrote:
Well would you adam and eve it?!

Scuse prease? Engrish slang understanding mangrled by living in the colonies too long.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

[Fiffergrund]

Stainless wrote:
Of course the more parsimonious explanation might be that the author himself is a douchebag, and of course to douchebags, it's never them that's at fault, but everyone else. For instance, I had a student like this who was a complete social nightmare and completely independently evaluated as such by all staff who had to deal with her. She told me that everyone at the University and the local community was weird. As a scientist I tried to logic with her that it was probably unlikely that so many people, percieved by a single person, were in fact weird, and that the simpler explanation was that it was her attitude that was exceptional. Well, she looked at me as if I was weird!

Excellent point. Viewed through the lens of his own douchebaggery, the author naturally sees everyone else that way.

I think this rings of truth.
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Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[Fiffergrund]

Buttmonkey wrote:
I read the book last spring and more or less wish I hadn't. About 1% of it is humorous, the rest is a painful trip down this guy's memories of his intensely awkward adolescence. If you enjoy reading 200 pages of self-loathing that coincidentally involves playing D&D back in the day, knock yourself out.

Yeah, I can't quite get over the author literally running from gaming at the end.

The more I think about it, the more I think this guy's entire life revolves around being an elitist. Gaming, to him, was a way of trying to be an elitist even when he was too socially awkward to do it.

However, something eventually clicked and he discovered he could be an elitist by looking down at the poor rubes that actually got something positive out of RPGs.
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Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back