Tag: Community

The tabletop role-playing game has been around for nearly fifty years, and role-playing discourse arguably longer than that. While in recent years we’ve been blessed to see books recording RPG history from the likes of Jon Peterson, Shannon Appelcline, and Ben Riggs, histories of how the RPG player base has evolved are thinner on the ground and indeed more difficult to capture than those chronicling the evolution of game designers.

To give credit where credit is due, Jon Peterson’s books do focus on the player evolution that happened early in the hobby’s history; Playing at the World spends a lot of time discussing how the wargaming hobby birthed RPGs through Braunsteins and Chainmail, while The Elusive Shift examines the first decade or so of RPG evolution through APAs and other fan correspondence. Where things start to get really tricky is in the 1990s, thanks in large part to the stratification…

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Last week, I signed an online petition. There’s very little I could do that’s dumber than signing and online petition.

I signed it. As my comment indicates, online petitions are dumb, but it made me feel good to ask for it. I'd absolutely by those materials in physical and digital form if they were offered for sale.

— Rob Bodine, gsllc@chirp.endworld.org or @dice.camp (@GSLLC) November 17, 2022

There’s no guarantee that each signature comes from a unique individual. I alone have a seemingly infinite number of email addresses through which I could have voted. In the case of political petitions, there’s no guarantee that the signors are from the relevant jurisdiction, but that’s no relevant here. The petition at issue here is requesting that Wizards of the Coast (“WotC”) complete and release four cancelled books from the 4th Edition Dungeons…

On December 7th, the third wave of Mario Kart 8 Delux courses will be available to play. Nintendo has a total of six waves (48 courses) through the end of 2023. These DLC courses are available free for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack members. If you’re not a NSO + Expansion Pack member, these courses are $24.99 USD.

What courses can you race through this December? Check out the list (and trailer) below:

• Maple Treeway (Wii)
• Rainbow Road (3DS)
• Boo Lake (GBA)
• Berlin Byways (Tour)
• Rock Rock Mountain (3DS)
• Peach Gardens (DS)
• London Loop (Tour)
• Merry Mountain (Tour)

Start your engines! Wave 3 of the #MarioKart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass arrives 12/7! Available for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack members at no additional cost, or on its own as paid DLC. pic.twitter.com/lbhHsbpf7L

— Nintendo of America…

The video game industry has historically been a siloed one–kept separate from main stream media and award shows. People didn’t take the medium seriously, and most people definitely didn’t consider it a form of art. Even film adaptations of video games decades ago were…mediocre at best.

Once thought only made for children or nerds, video games have expanded their reach due to breathtaking storylines, beautiful music, and increased accessibility. Some argue that video games are, in fact, an art. However, when it comes to awards and recognition, they’ve still been limited to their own ceremonies like Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards or the Golden Joystick Awards. Only in 2004 did BAFTA–the British Academy of Film and Television Arts–restructure themselves to include the BAFTA Game Awards and recognize Video Games. While 2004 seems like a lifetime ago, it’s still pretty recent when you take a look at how long video games…

Nintendo is known for innovating; for creating hardware and peripherals that explore and expand gaming’s horizons.They’ve helped push handheld gaming, motion controls, and are responsible for reviving home gaming consoles in the North American market. Their big swings and odd devices continue to inspire and bring smiles to gamers, but sometimes they strike out and the risks they take don’t pay off. There’s been a number of their home systems, handhelds and add-ons that didn’t succeed. What’s Nintendo’s biggest hardware failure?

There are a number of pieces of Nintendo hardware that come to mind, and some of the clear top contenders include the Wii U and the Virtual Boy. But there are some other pieces of hardware to consider as at least honorable mentions. There’s also the question of what constitutes a failure, and whether a peripheral or add-on that wasn’t widely adopted is as big of a failure as…

Sonic the Hedgehog has entered the multiverse.

Netflix recently released a trailer for Sonic Prime, an upcoming animated children series set to debut on Dec. 15. WildBrain is the studio behind the series while Man of Action Entertainment, creators of Ben10, is showrunning and executive producing.

Sonic the Hedgehog is about to enter the Shatterverse.

SONIC PRIME is coming to Netflix on December 15th! pic.twitter.com/bZmAksgdRb

— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) November 17, 2022

The trailer highlights an interaction between Sonic and Dr. Eggman. Sonic’s friends Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, and Rouge the Bat also show up to aide the speedster. The altercation leads to Sonic getting propelled into the multiverse, or Shatterverse in this series.

Sonic arrives in a post-apocalyptic world where Eggman and his council rule. To save the day, Sonic teams up with alternate versions of his friends from other universes.

Netflix initially announced the show in…

I am addicted to snobbery. I recognize this character trait and fight against it, but it’s hard.

There was a point in my late 20’s when I completely avoided mainstream pop-culture. I didn’t own a TV. I wouldn’t read anything that was on the New York Times best seller list. It was next to impossible to get me into a chain restaurant. If it wasn’t craft, speciality, hand made, bespoke, small press, art house, independent; then I didn’t want anything to do with it.

I was convinced that a person’s preferences about food, music, and art, told me a lot about them as a person.

I was a snob.

When your taste in music, food, literature, art or anything else is a major part of your self-image, it is easy to be judgemental. How can you not be judgy when you see someone abusing themselves with a steady diet of…