Don't play with me

The reviews are in

DnD can be a cruel mistress . She can giveth, and she can taketh away. Some days you're having an amazing run where you're slaying dragons left and right, getting good dice rolls, and working perfectly with your team. On other days, though, the puzzles seem impossible, you're bickering with your teammates, and you can't seem to roll anything worth writing home about. This is the nature of any hobby . You go through periods where it feeds you creatively and you feel good at it, and other times y…

Playing a new game is like making a new friend . You might be a little unsure at first, unaware of the rules and the boundaries. You suss them out, figuring out what makes them tick, what grinds their gears, and how to progress. Then, you have your first moment of true bonding. With a new friend, it might be when you make a joke that they yes-and until you're both squealing with laughter. With a new game, it might be that first little accomplishment or moment of gameplay when you realize you're…

Roll-playing

Gaming can be a great method of distraction . It can take your consciousness and chuck it far away, somewhere more fun, more palatable. Why spend all day in the human realm when you could spend all day in the Sims realm, where Bella Goth is your neighbor, you're really good at the guitar, and your house has 3 pools and no bathrooms? Why spend your time frittering away on Earth when you could be riding down Rainbow Road, drag racing your good friends Donkey Kong and Shy Guy? Why work all day at…

The dice have spoken

It's almost Halloween, which means a great opportunity to whip up some of your favorite gaming inspired costumes. We've all seen the Lara Crofts and the Marios (Goodness gracious, make the Marios stop), but what would happen if I dressed up as Baby from Super Monkey Ball? What would happen then? Or if I dressed up as a car from Grand Theft Auto? A little too obscure? Fine, I'll dress up as an arrow in homage to the arrow to the knee from that one NPC in Skyrim. People are too expected with thei…

Rolling for a meme check

Gamer mode locked

Meme check

Gamers have a community unlike any other. They rule such large swaths of the internet that they've changed the way we speak on there. Without gamers, we wouldn't know about “noobs," we wouldn't have the “took an arrow to the knee” meme and we wouldn't call every scandal [blank]gate (I know that comes from the Watergate scandal but it didn't take off as an internet term until #gamergate). Gamer YouTubers rule the charts, streaming as a concept grew up around gamers, and memes are ruled by the wo…

A meme crosses your path

Gamer mode activated

DnD is not all just fun and games . Oh wait, it is. That's the whole point. There aren't enough things in life that we do purely for fun. Eating cookies, sure. Watching the Great British Bake Off? Also that. But so often we do things because we think they're good for us, or because we have some responsibility to do them. Like going to the gym or brushing our teeth. But it's important to build things into your schedule that you just do in order to let loose and get in touch with yourself and you…

Then I took an arrow to the knee