Author Archives: Andrew Hales

Guest Blog | How is Model UN like D&D?

That’s not the beginning of a joke, it’s the premise of today’s post by first time guest writer Ani Sinani, who participated in an Ad-Hoc Model UN committee this spring and was struck by its similarities to table-top and role-playing games.

Earlier this year, I participated in a Model United Nations (MUN) conference in Chicago. For those of you who don’t know, MUN is a competition in which students assume roles as the ambassadors of world nations and simulate UN committees. The same structure is used for non-traditional committees, where students usually assume the roles of high officials to simulate business committees, wars, presidential elections, and so on. So yes, you can definitely say that MUN is glorified role-playing. In Chicago, I participated in the Ad-Hoc committee, which is usually composed of the top student delegates in the country. The topic of the committee was not disclosed prior to the conference and no one knew what character they would be representing. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, Geek Life, Guest

Editorial | Holiday Recipes for the Festive Geek

How does one show off one’s geeky side during the holidays in a tasteful manner?  It’s a problem as old as time.  Fortunately, my friends, I have the answer, and it is a brilliantly simple one: baked goods.  Obviously.  What else are your friends and family quite as happy to receive, after all?  In order to make your holiday season as festively geeky as possible, I’ve compiled some really cool recipes that reference fun fandoms. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Editorial, Geek Life, Tracy Gronewold

Saturday Review: Black Knight #2

black knight 1

Black Knight (Marvel)
Writer: Frank Tieri
Artists: Luca Pizzari and Kev Walker

 

To say that Marvel has released a storm of number one issues is an understatement. It’s more of a Category 5 hurricane and even that may be selling things short. Like every major reboot, there are the truly mainstream titles such as the various Avengers and X-Men titles, then the slightly more off beat books, like Guardians of the Galaxy, and then there are the outliers. Black Knight is one such outlier. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Andrew Hales, Comic Reviews, Comics, Saturday Reviews

Staff Writer | Please Do Them Right, Pt 1: Video Games That Should be Movies

Movie adaptations from books, comic books, and plays are common and have had a wide range of successes. However, making a movie based on a video game is a different monster altogether. It’s like invading Afghanistan, no one can do it right. While at times they can make some money at the box office, these movies have never been a hit with critics and rarely please fans. The mostly critically acclaimed one, and I use the phrase loosely, was Final Fantasy and the best performing one at the box office was Mortal Kombat. That being said, here are some games that I’d like to see get made it to movies even if they have already been screwed up already and will most likely be screwed up again. Just maybe, if done right, these could be great (ok, maybe enjoyable) films. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, Joseph De Paul, Movies