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Gary Alan Fine has researched one of the thouroughest studies about gamers of fantasy role-playing games ever! Through participant observation of players of Dungeons & Dragons and other RPG he describes the role of the game master, interactional behavior within the group, and gives lots of statistic data about this leisure activity. Everything you ever wanted to know about role-players, like the natural switching between four role levels in the game (character, player, group member, friend) - nothing schizophrenic about this at all... I have read only the original version from 1983, but as I understand this is just a reprint without much alteration. Though the book describes gamers "back in the old days" of dungeon bashing adventures, long before the advent of "real" role-playing, still this is the most complete source. The book is not easy to read, it misses some "flow" and feels like a large collection of notes, in almost every paragraph something new is introduced, but once you've worked through, it's great to dispell myths like "suicidal gamers" or "dependency on game masters"! Hahah!
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