[1]Recently, I was invited to be one of the featured presenters at a regional conference for the Midwest Pop Culture Association And American Culture Association [2]. It’s a conference for academics who study popular culture and how it relates to the world, and for some reason they asked me to come give a talk on gaming. Since they agreed to my request to wear a kilt, I said yes and put together a presentation about how the essence of collaboration that is inherent in role-playing games changes the nature of them. To demonstrate and get the academics hands-on with the topic, I ran a game for the entire audience, illustrating points from the presentation with scenarios using a simple game system. It went pretty well and they let me set up a camera in the back of the room to get it on video. So here is part one of the presentation for your enjoyment.
Don’t worry, it won’t be too high-brow at all. It uses clips from the Gamers and Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising, and one of the very first things the academics did in the scenario was to mutiny against the NPC captain. Ahhhh gaming….
Update: Here is a link to part 2 of the video. [3]
If you aren’t able or don’t have time to view the video, here is a link to the presentation online, as well as the materials for the simple RPG I ran.
Web Version of The Presentation [4]
Powerpoint Version of The Presentation [5]
- Barbarian [6]
- Swashbuckler [7]
- Thief [8]
- Paladin [9]
- Mage [10]
3 Comments To "Collaboration In Gaming At The MPCAACA"
#1 Comment By Tsenn On October 23, 2012 @ 7:47 am
Very well done! I read the presentation, may watch the video later.
#2 Comment By John Arcadian On October 23, 2012 @ 1:13 pm
Thanks. The presentation was fun to give and I met a couple of academics who study role-playing as their main focus. It was nifty to talk to them and get some different perspectives on gaming. Plus, the people who played in the game seemed to have a good time and have a lot of insightful questions and comments at the end. It made me consider pursuing an independent scholarship of gaming for the conference.
#3 Comment By SeeleyOne On October 23, 2012 @ 11:34 pm
There are several scholar types in the RPG Advocacy group on Facebook [11]