Alarming Female

From the New York Times yesterday (via boingboing), a tribute to Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax, who died last week. The accompanying article’s discussion on how D&D informs our world is, perhaps, the most lucid explanation of geek culture I’ve ever read.

We live in Gary Gygax’s world. The most popular books on earth are fantasy novels about wizards and magic swords. The most popular movies are about characters from superhero comic books. The most popular TV shows look like elaborate role-playing games: intricate, hidden-clue-laden science fiction stories connected to impossibly mathematical games that live both online and in the real world.

The article also offers fascinating insight into how my eldest son, who happens to have autism, perceives the world through a lens ground from the very essence of what D&D represents.

We geeks might not be able to intuit the subtext of a facial expression or a casual phrase, but give us a behavioral algorithm and human interactions become a data stream. We can process what’s going on in the heads of the people around us. Through careful observation of body language and awkward silences, we can even learn to detect when we are bringing the party down with our analysis of how loop quantum gravity helps explain the time travel in that new “Terminator” TV show. I mean, so I hear.

Indeed.

The writer, Adam Rogers of Wired, then goes on to argue convincingly that Gygax’s creation is the prototype for how the Internet is populated—-by characters we call “avatars.”

Facebook and other social networks ask people to create a character — one based on the user, sure, but still a distinct entity. Your character then builds relationships by connecting to other characters. Like Dungeons & Dragons, this is not a competitive game. There’s no way to win. You just play.

Ravelry, anyone?

Even if you’re not a geek, read the article. You’ll learn, I promise you.

Props to William for teaching me so much throughout the years.