While I earn my living coaching chess and teaching role playing games social skill, my true passion lies in exploring stories and sharing them with others. At times this has taken the form of writing novels and short stories usually in the realms of adventure, sci-fi, and surrealism. It’s also manifested in my love of running open world and one-shot-horror roleplaying games for friends and family, some of which I have self published over the years.
Now, I’m launching a new endeavor: Sharing my love for narrative games in the form of video essays and podcasts.
The Role of Games in Life
As a naturally shy person, I’ve found many of my most meaningful friendships and social connections through roleplaying and other tabletop games. It would be easy to put that down to mere personal experience, but across time and space people have created (or rediscovered) the tools and situations which allow them to socialize through gameplay. From soldiers playing dice games in ancient times, to card and tile placement games being invented across the world, to a bunch of war-simulation nerds in middle America deciding it might be fun to mix a bit of their favorite fantasy novels with their simulations of napoleonic battles, the playing of games has been a documented part of human nature for as long as we have been taking time to tell stories and share company with others.
Video Games as Literature
I’ve been playing, thinking about, and occasionally building video games for nearly as long as I’ve been reading, watching films, or listening to music. In my lifetime, gaming has gone from a hobby of kids and nerdy adults to a major industry which generates more revenue and captures more audience time than films.
I believe that video games have a unique power to capture the imagination and deliver deep narratives in a way which few other mediums can rival, which is why my focus is primarily on exploring the way that games deliver stories. Whether it’s the deep lore of collectable documents and item descriptions, the cinematic stylings of games which employ the language of film and comics, or the implied narratives of puzzles, games have a wide palette to choose from in their goal of pulling us into their world.
Subscribe on your favorite platform
Explore the episodes
Podcast