I haven’t forgotten to write up Day 3 of the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence Conference – I WILL get to it (all my notes are made and I can’t wait to tell you what happened!). But, it’s coming up to Christmas and I want to share something that is
Continue readingTag: games
Things Are Good: Change the Game, Change the Climate
As a game designer who creates games about the climate crisis and what we can do about it, this recent article in the Guardian warmed my heart. The article looks at how games can help people understand the climate crisis and that there’s still hope that we can do something
Continue readingThings Are Good: Game Workers Uniting for Better Workplaces
In creative industries labour exploitation can happen because employers can get away with leaning into the passion creative workers bring to their field. The video game industry may be a young industry, but the tricks of getting free labour from workers are old ones. As a result, movements like Game
Continue readingScripturient: Musings on Computer Gaming, Storytelling, and Seniors
Every day, for an hour or two, I kill demons. Or I build houses and shopping malls. Sometimes I command armies in battle. Or fly an airplane into a foreign airport. I might manage a hospital, build a settlement on Mars, lead a band of survivors after a nuclear holocaust,
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Psychology and Therapeutic Benefits of D&D
Or, Why D&D Kicks Butt There is a mounting body of evidence and experience that shows that D&D, the original role playing strategy game (like chess, but with improv theatre, and no great powers of concentration required), has very positive psychological and therapeutic effects on children, youth and adults. The
Continue readingScripturient: Synecdoche, Universe
In the delightfully quirky, postmodern film, Synecdoche, New York, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a movie director obsessed with creating a set that realistically represents New York City for an upcoming movie. But as he tries to incorporate more and more people and bits that represent the city, the
Continue readingThings Are Good: How Early Video Games Expressed Environmentalism
It can be fun to tune out and just play some games, and that’s a good thing. There are games that are obviously educational like Math Blaster and there are games like Carmen Sandiego that celebrate fun over learning while still teaching. Indeed, there are many games being played that
Continue readingThings Are Good: Support DeepCity 2030: A City Sim About Cats And Resilient Cities
DeepCity Pitch video from DeepCITY Project on Vimeo. DeepCity 2030 is like Sim City meets Clash of Clans plus a Laser Cat and at least one Disco Jesus. The game has a hyperbolic approach to climate change and it’s up to the player to figure out what sort of city
Continue readingThings Are Good: Video Games to Help the World
A game based on the story Half the Sky puts players into a perspective usually different than their own: a young girl in the developing world. It teaches young gamers in the developed world empathy and what it’s like to be a young girl trying to make a living in
Continue readingeaves.ca: What Werewolf teaches us about Trust & Security
After sharing the idea behind this post with Bruce Schneier, I’ve been encouraged to think a little more about what Werewolf can teach us about trust, security and rational choices in communities that are, or are at risk of, being infiltrated by a threat. I’m not a security expert, but I
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: Homemade Marble Maze Ideas
One of the things I find fun is building marble mazes. There’s something kind of silly about them, but I enjoy them. We have a couple of sets of store-bought mazes. One is plastic, the other wood. They’re both fun and the kids and I use them, but that doesn’t
Continue readingopenalex: METRO MTL: The Boardgame!
Montrealer’s and transit geeks will love this. Yes, it’s a boardgame inspired by Montreal’s iconic metro. I discovered the other day at Chez Boris, a hip little Russian Coffeeshop that’s part of Montreal’s nascent ‘nouveau doughnut’ scene. The goal is simple, whoever gets to their destination and back
Continue readingopenalex: METRO MTL: The Boardgame!
Montrealer’s and transit geeks will love this. Yes, it’s a boardgame inspired by Montreal’s iconic metro. I discovered the other day at Chez Boris, a hip little Russian Coffeeshop that’s part of Montreal’s nascent ‘nouveau doughnut’ scene. The goal is simple, whoever gets to their destination and back
Continue readingopenalex: METRO MTL: The Boardgame!
Montrealer’s and transit geeks will love this. Yes, it’s a boardgame inspired by Montreal’s iconic metro. I discovered the other day at Chez Boris, a hip little Russian Coffeeshop that’s part of Montreal’s nascent ‘nouveau doughnut’ scene. …
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Dr. Tundra admits he has a problem
Once again, Dr. Tundra woke with a splitting headache, the feeling that he’d fallen asleep with a mouthful of half-masticated rat, and a pain in his lower back that could only be called apocalyptic. He opened his eyes; it felt … Continue reading →
Continue readingHerbinator: The Ultimate World War II Game
The Ultimate World War Two game does not exist, yet. The ultimate game would be a combination of three concepts: a grand strategy, tactical play, and massive multiplayer online [game] play. I envisage being able to jump into the position of command military officers of any rank, or into political
Continue readingThings Are Good: Play Tetris to Reduce Traumatic Flashbacks
Playing games is tons of fun and enterprising people are finding ways to better humanity through gameplay. I just found out that Tetris can be used to help people deal with traumatic experiences – cool! Research tells us that there is a period of up to six hours after the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Kids Should Fail
A prevailing attitude in North American schools is that students shouldn’t be able to fail, but really what better place than a school to learn from mistakes? Thankfully people are noticing that letting kids not excel at something is actually a good thing. Interestingly, it’s in the world of games
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