The legends had risen due to newspaper reports concerning the disappearance of a Michigan State University student named James Dallas Egbert III.

[3] Like the contemporary Hobgoblin, this is a species of social problem novel (although not aimed at young adult readers), by an established writer, which treats the playing of role-playing games as indicative of deep neurotic needs.

[4][5] Sales of the book may have benefited in the early 1980s from other negative media reports regarding D&D and similar games, such as those promulgated by Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons, an anti-RPG advocacy group.

This negative media climate, combined with the dramatic fictional events portrayed in Jaffe's book, led CBS to contract for the television rights to the novel.

The movie adaptation premiered on the network in 1982, and starred 26-year-old Tom Hanks as a gamer whose obsession prevents him from being able to tell what is real and what is fantasy.