...life, beyond technology.

2020 brought an end to countless things, including my already barely existent blogging presence. 

There are plenty of reasons I wish the tragedies and horrors we faced in 2020 could have been prevented from happening, but whatever you believe; whatever the reason; whatever the climate; COVID-19 was a freight train too fast on the tracks. 

No one, and nothing was going to stop it.

I attempted to utilize my time during the early days of The Lockdown industriously, but failed spectacularly as the days wore on. What I wanted to do was return to work, to live my life, game with my gaming group once a week and enjoy the company of my then girlfriend (and now wife) and my kids. Some of that, I got to do. The rest of it, because of COVID-19, and the local shutdowns, I did not.

In fact, I couldn't have a gaming  group once a week now, because most of us were unwilling to risk contracting a virus that none of us really understood, and those who were willing to brave the wilds of the uncharted social territory, were not enough to run a game.

I spent way more time playing video games and spending  time on social media than I should have, but I also spent a lot of time studying table top roleplaying games, the history of these games, and how they could close the somehow enormous gap that was born when we stopped interacting socially, in person, and began using social media as a substitute.

• Tabletop Roleplaying breeds Self-Awareness

    How much time do you spend in front of the computer and the television? If you’re like most people these days, your answer will be quite a lot! Tabletop roleplaying offers an experience unlike anything else in gaming: infinite replay. The deep and immersive storytelling, and social interaction between players and game masters alike are just some of the reasons that tabletop roleplaying games (such as Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder just for starters) offer such an incredible experience to players around the world.

• Social interaction VS. Social Media

There are many ways to interact with friends or family that don’t involve spending time around them. A lot of people seem to prefer social media, perhaps because they think it’s easier. But most people would probably agree that they prefer interacting in person more than through media, if given a choice. That’s because social media tends to be one-way communication, whereas interactive conversations are two-way. There are some great forums on role playing games out there about how one can never have too many dice, but ultimately tabletop gaming is just another way to spend time with friends face-to-face instead of staring at our phones or computers all day long.

• How table top roleplaying games encourage social interaction

If you’re anything like me, then your social interaction has been taking place primarily on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media outlets. I have a lot of fun online and it’s good to get my thoughts out there. But there’s a problem with staying online all day—we never seem to go out and meet people in person anymore. The table top role playing community can help us solve that problem. Table top roleplaying games have been around for decades but recently their re-emergence and popularity has exploded onto an international level.

• Why face-to-face is better

Roleplaying games encourages players to get comfortable with three of life’s most elusive but essential currencies: time, attention and social interaction. The only way you get good at them is by practice - lots of it - which means giving up your precious hours, devoting your undivided attention (or multi-tasking on something more interesting) and sacrificing social interactions that could be spent with friends or family, improving yourself in ways that aren’t immediately measurable (unless you consider meaningful human connection to be its own reward).