Random Dialogue

Published by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Written by Brad King and John Borland
273 pages; $24.99; black and white pages with hardbound cover

There have been several books written in the last few years detailing geek culture from a few different angles. Books like “Masters of Doom” or Jon Katz’ “Geeks” have given geek culture a mirror to examine itself, and other folks a chance to understand that your average gamer and dork is just a normal person with odd predelictions. Dungeons and Dreamers explores the history of online gaming for the most part by following the life of Richard Garriot, the creator of the Ultima series. His life is something of a microcosm for the gaming industry at large, and his interactions with emise graces of the gaming world like Steve Jackson or Will Wright allows for the writers to very naturally explore all avenues of online gaming.

Besides Garriot’s work with the Ultima series (online and off), the FPS genre’s travels from Wolfenstein 3D to the world of hundreds of Quake clans is examined with some detail. The sudden and explosive growth of First Person Shooters as a phenomenon is truly shocking, and is a good yardstick for how far geek culture has come in a short, short time.

If you’re even tangentially interested in the history of online gaming, Dungeons and Dreamers is an exhaustive survey of the work. Something that I found especially enjoyable about the book was the unassuming tone it took in describing the realities of geekery past. Much discussion of geek history has this put-upon angst that is pretty off-putting. This book is very assertive about the past and about the realities of the profitability of gaming. This book isn’t about poor little misguided, socially maligned kids. It details the history of a proud industry that in many ways is still in it’s infancy. I had a great time reading it.