Why I Game: Elder Scrolls Online Makes My Small World Bigger

Why I Game: Elder Scrolls Online Makes My Small World Bigger

This winter, while my peers managed their seasonal sadness and pandemic isolation by taking up hobbies like baking or origami, I doubled down on questing and grinding in the vast digital sandbox of Elder Scrolls Online. (more…)

Why I Game: Gaming Helps Me Tell Stories

Why I Game: Gaming Helps Me Tell Stories

2017 was a long, brutal year. On top of political strife, industry shenanigans, and personal/professional chaos, it was also the first full calendar year I spent out of school and thus removed from automatic contact with a big group of my friends. But in the last few months, games not only gave me an explicit reason to reach out and connect with a group of people whose company I cherish, but also an outlet to explore stories I would never otherwise have told.

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Why I Game: The Witcher 3 Taught Me to Enjoy Video Games and My Free Time

I grew up video-game-adjacent. As a child and teen, I remember watching rather than actively participating, picking up games so infrequently that I considered myself less than a casual gamer. Puzzling through the HER Interactive Nancy Drew games with my mom and best friend is my most prominent gaming memory from childhood, mainly because I was a mystery-obsessed tween who read way too much Agatha Christie.

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Why I Game: Gaming Helps Me Manage My Mental Illness

Why I Game: Gaming Helps Me Manage My Mental Illness

When I finished playing Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, I began considering why I game so much. My gaming has especially picked up since I left my PhD program to write and moved across the country to where my husband is doing his graduate work. I’ve dedicated over 150 hours into Breath of the Wild. I’ve played the first 13 chapters of Path of Radiance at least four times. I’ve beaten New Super Mario Bros. U, played through most of the first Pikmin and Pokemon Sun, upgraded my house fully in Animal Crossing, played all the levels in Pokemon Snap, and seen the betrayal in Tales From The Borderlands. Among other games, of course, and not even counting all the board games and phone games I’ve been playing. (Check out my new favorite phone game if you haven’t already!) I’ve gamed more in the past few months than I have in years.

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Why I Game: Trying to Try

Why I Game: Trying to Try

I’m not a gamer. I don’t think I could check the “gamer” box if asked to fill out some sort of imaginary label survey for my life. I play games, mostly the tabletop and board variety, but I wouldn’t call myself a gamer. Maybe it’s an unfair assumption or stereotype that I have and that I need to get over, but I don’t think I have the knowledge and experience, and let’s face it, hours of game play logged to call myself a gamer. But I love to play games even though it wasn’t always that way. (more…)