**UPDATE** I was chatting with Andrew Pascal, who is producing this film, and he clarified a bit about The Great Kingdom. He’d been to my house to shoot footage for Dungeons & Dragons: The Documentary, but that is a different project than The Great Kingdom. So…we weren’t left on the cutting room floor for The […]
In just a few days, Dungeons & Dragons will celebrate its 40 anniversary, which has prompted people across the Web to reflect on what the game meant to them over the years. Obviously, John and I have written a book about the impact of the game on computer game culture, which is one of the […]
The geek world is atwitter as Dungeons & Dragons is turning 40. We are too, but mainly because our book about the game’s impact on the world of computers is turning 11. Just like D&D Next, which reboots the tabletop game, Our Second Edition of Dungeons & Dreamers is more than 25% new, radically re-organized, […]
**Update**W.D Prescott just posted that he just shared the video, and that DKlarations actually compiled it. I blame the Internet for communications, and we still think W.D. is awesome for sharing it.** The video lays out one of the best (and most entertaining) explanations of the game. For years, I’ve tried to explain to people that […]
The new year is upon us, which means we’re just a few weeks away from the book nearing publication. Before we get there, though, I wanted to announce the winners of our storytelling contest. The top 3 will receive a signed, print version of the book (and an eBook), and the 4th and 5th place […]
There’s a great complexity to why Appalachia has ended up in its current economic and cultural states. Economic and political forces pushed against the region without any centralized plan for its development
“I’ve got something to send you,” said Jeremy, my old producer from Wired.com, while we were chatting on Facebook. He asked for my address, but I forgot that he’d done that. We generally reminisce about the good, old days. We don’t spend much time buying each other gifts. When the package showed up today, I […]
Lately I’ve been asking myself a simple question: “What’s next?” I go through these moments of self reflection as I near the end of a large project. In this case, I’m in the final stages of rewriting Dungeons & Dreamers after several years of on-again/off-again work with my friend and co-author John Borland. The book is […]
While So Far Appalachia uses my family, the Bakers, as the backdrop for its narrative, the story is really about the larger issues that impact how we experience life in America. The more I research the book and the more I write on the blog, the more focused that will become on the site.
“Video games, however, can ask that we experience not only empathy but agency too. You don’t just feel with characters, you feel through them. You bind yourself to them and become temporarily responsible for their life onscreen. Whatever happens, you’re in it together.” — Tevis Thompson, Half-Lives: The Walking Dead: 400 Days, Sorcery!, and Depression […]
The holidays are upon us, and I’ll be on the road a bit for the next few days so I thought it might be fun to post some fun stuff while we’re collecting your storytelling entries for our contest. (You can see Entry 1 and Entry 2 here, along with my example entries and explanation […]
As part of a contest leading up to our book launch in March, I asked you all to submit your favorite stories about playing D&D, MMORPG, computer game, or really any community game. If you’re too concerned about the rules, you’re missing the point. It’s really pretty simple: Tell us the story you tell people when you […]