In which, Andrew, Tracy, and Kurt discuss the history and development of role playing games (RPGs) just in time for the release of Final Fantasy XV. The boys discover a similar personal history in their shared love of the genre.
Tag Archives: Dungeons & Dragons
Therefore I Geek Podcast, Episode 91 Roleplaying Games
Filed under Andrew Hales, Gaming, Kurt Klein, Podcast, Tracy Gronewold
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
Guest Blog | In Defense of Games in the Modern Age
I have had the fortune of growing up alongside the gaming industry. I have seen games advance from board games, to Pong, to Warhammer 40k and The Last of Us. What I never overlooked was that the games I played were compelling and full of possibility. During this relatively short history, games have been relegated to the domain of children, which is understandable. However, I champion the idea that games can be a valid tool for expanding a person’s worldview by exposing him to foreign ideas and culture. Books have long been lauded as the escape and education medium of choice, and rightly so. The nuance of word choice and the tone and meter of the author combine with the reader’s imagination to create compelling worlds to which he can escape and characters to which he can escape. However, video games can offer a similar experience, while allowing the player to feel in control of the story, at least to a degree. More than that, video games can expand players’ understanding of the world, cultures, and even themselves. Human history is told in stories. What more is a video game than an interactive story? Continue reading
Filed under Gaming, Geek Life, Guest Blog, Kurt Klein
Therefore I Geek 