Back at Yale University (between 1989 and 1994, during which period (including my LOA) I studied as an undergraduate there), whereas most professors in the Department of Computer Science were singularly interested in their research, there was one unusual associate professor there, Richard Beigel, who played a certain text-based roguelike video game, entitled "NetHack."

In "NetHack," the player's objective is to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor in a randomly generated dungeon consisting of a randomly generated series of floors.

This game was notoriously difficult: While I played this title many times, I was never able to acquire the Amulet of Yendor, and usually died either by starvation or by getting killed by some monster.

However, Professor Beigel told students once in his office that his handle in the game was "Kingnerd."

When I looked up the name in the high score list in the "Zoo" computer laboratory, his name was at the top of the list!

While Professor Beigel and I never got along (he initially sent me an e-mail message stating, "You are to be commended for your advance preparation [for "Computer Science 365a: Design and Analysis of Algorithms."]; however, he completely changed his attitude toward me when he discovered that I didn't seem to be "cut-out" for the subject, and even refused to add my name to the list of contributors for his textbook, The Language of Machines, even though I had submitted a bug report to it, stating that he only listed those who had reported "bugs in content, as opposed to typos"), he and I did have the common attribute of both being people in the department who were interested in both computer science and games.

His example demonstrates that it is possible to be interested in both computer science and games without being an idiot.

While I do play certain titles, I dislike people who cannot appreciate scholarly studies. The problem with most gamers is not that they play games, but that they ignore their studies. I consider myself a hybrid scholar/poet/game-otaku, and consider Professor Beigel (despite the fact that he apparently treated me with disdain for not being "cut-out" for algorithms) to be a type of role-model.