Gamers and fantasy fans are often maligned as freaks and geeks, but they also foster close-knit communities that support each other and are wary of outsiders. Writer Ethan Gilsdorf left the gaming community years ago, but returned to it as an adult, exploring the connections between Tolkien fans, World of Warcraft addicts, old-fashioned Dungeons & Dragons players and others in his new book, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks. Gilsdorf traveled the world, from gaming conventions to the building site of a castle in France and the filming locations for “The Lord of the Rings,” interviewing people in various subcultures and exploring his own connection to the gamer culture along the way.

He took some time to talk to Sarah Jaffe about the book and what he learned, both about our culture and himself, from the process of writing it.

Sarah Jaffe: You tell the story from a personal angle rather than a detached journalistic one. Other writers would’ve looked at gamers as strange outsiders, or been too involved. This is kind of a hybrid memoir and journalism and yet it gets inside the material the way many others wouldn’t have.

Ethan Gilsdorf: I think I’m fortunate that this idea came to me when I was reevaluating these things in my own life. People are really wondering what online gaming is about—is it gonna suck my child’s soul dry? Yet the stuff is infinitely more acceptable now than when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons back in the Reagan administration.

I do a lot of travel writing. One of my favorite models for that is to go try something new that I’ve never done before, like go hiking in the French Pyrenees. There are some good opportunities for humor and self-reflection when reporting in the first person, though in travel writing it can be abused. If I was going to do a book I wanted to do it as an outgrowth of my work as a journalist.

S: I think this story really works better with a personal guide into the subcultures you explore.

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