"The impact of Dungeons & Dragons on the fantasy genre, however, was felt less in these details than in its formal structure. Dungeons & Dragons conferred to the genre something that mere stories could not deliver: a way for fans to involve themselves personally in fantastic adventures. Where previously, the fantasy genre could only tantalize readers with the visitation theme, [e.g., A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, John Carter of Mars] allowing them to experience second-hand what it would be like to enter a fantastic world, Dungeons & Dragons offered its players the ability to direct the action in that world, the responsibility for the triumph or shame of the hero and the watching over an author's shoulder as the protagonist's fate unfolds. Naturally, authors of fantasy genre fiction quickly incorporated Dungeons & Dragons into their visitation stories [] to appeal to the tastes of this new audience, but those narratives still lacked that critical interactivity with fans, that ability to transcend the static page and improvise, to truly explore a fantastic world. Once Dungeons & Dragons entered the equation, the possibility existed that the fantasy genre would one day be defined more so by games than by stories."
--Jon Peterson, Playing At The World
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