What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why?
Growing up I played the old favorites: Monopoly, Parcheesi, and Uno. When Chess became a big thing, I played a lot of it—and I became pretty good at it, though I seem to have lost that ability now. For awhile I enjoyed Backgammon, but never had anyone to play with.
Computer versions of games helped there; in the old days of computers, playing Backgammon, Chess, and Solitaire was a double-click away. Then games became more sophisticated and, seeing Doom for the first time, I literally felt like I entered a new world.
Bungie’s Marathon and its sequels came along on the Mac and I played that for hours. Likewise Alpha Centauri, one of those civilization games; I could play that all day, sometimes even attaining transcendence. A couple of years later, I asked a student what he was playing, and he said Guild Wars 2 and, after trying it, spent several years grinding through in different races and classes.
I did have a flirtation with World of Warcraft, but only because I’d read that it served as a good example for quest-making. Trying to get my students more interested in Intro to Theatre, I tried gamification, adding the language of gaming to the course. They’d earn experience points, level up (they’d get an email with a notice and a jpeg of a gem), and so on. It never took off, though I did get me some traction as an online journal publication: Schrum, Stephen A. “How to Win Introduction to Theatre.” Theatre Topics, vol. 27 no. 2, 2017, p. E-1-E-9. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/tt.2017.0019.
The most enduring game for me is probably Dungeons and Dragons. I discovered it in the waning days of my senior year of undergrad , and decided I wanted to be a Dungeon Master. I had some free time (post-production and pre-finals) and started researching for world-building. Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough stands out as an excellent source for Erstworld, which is what I called the location. I would not actually play until my grad school years, but I was ready with my maps.
I led seven characters through my world for about a year. We’d meet every Saturday, play for hours (which seemed to fly by), and then have pizza. It was an excellent social and creative event. Eventually we scattered through graduations, etc., and lost touch with one another, but I have vivid memories of those days—including when an irate player threw the dice across the room in frustration.
I haven’t played for years, but I did use it in another classroom experience. When I taught Arts Entrepreneurship, I had my students create their own performance company. They had to assume the roles of the company members, create the space, and plan production budgets and seasons. My first rule was: Make stuff up! This started with a demo of Dungeons and Dragons, and led them into making their character sheets for themselves. It was often a rough road, and I’d wish they’d done some D&D playing before that class.
I leave you with this classic video:
MUSOFYR 