Wizardry of the Table Top with Jody - Childish Things

I’ve often joked that the difference between men and boys boils down to body hair, bills, and the cost of his toys. I’m not sure that the truth is so far from that, to be honest.

If you’re in your mid 30’s or older, think back to your childhood and remember what your father was like. Did he play video games? He likely played the odd time in order to play with you, but the odds of you finding him up at 2 in the morning sitting in front of the TV with a joystick in hand were slim to none. Playing was the realm of children. There’s even a biblical quote, 1st Corinthians 13:11 that states: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”. While that can be interpreted a number of ways, the fact is that until Generation X, grown adults didn’t engage in play like we do now.

Much of this ‘play’ is simply a result of not letting go of the things we grew up with that brought us enjoyment. For some of us it’s video games. For others it’s Roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. For others it’s tabletop games like Warhammer 40,000. The stigma of being an adult who plays games seems to be gone. I can’t fathom my father having his friends over to sit around a table and play Dungeons and Dragons, or to set up their armies on a table and pull out all of their painted miniatures to engage in battle. The thought of it is laughable, and that was the problem.

Life is short. Too short to avoid doing things that bring you joy, especially if the only reason for abstaining is stigma. Yes, being an adult is important. We need to pay our bills, be good parents, nurture our relationships with significant others, friends, and family, plan for retirement, etc. While doing that, though, we can pick up a controller (joysticks are so passé) and immerse ourselves in a video game, we can get together with a group of friends and explore dungeons as our favourite character, and we can set up a bunch of terrain on the dining room table and spread our painted miniatures out as we try to destroy our friend’s armies. It’s a great time to be an adult!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wizardry of the Table Top - D&D For All

Dungeons and Dragons. Those three words conjure up so many images, depending on who you are. For those of us who play it could be decades worth of fun and enjoyment with good friends. For those who used to play, perhaps some nostalgia and even regret at no longer playing. For those that have never played, I’m fairly certain images of nerds wearing hooded robes while sitting around a table by candlelight in some thirty year old’s parent’s basement comes to mind. I started playing D&D at the ripe age of 8 (gods, has it really been 40 years now?) in 1977. The game wasn’t that old, but there were plenty of people playing it. I had a (female) friend who lived roughly 10 minutes by foot from my house. She had a pool table, and great stereo, so I’d often hang out with her. One day, her older brother had a couple of friends over, and they seemed very excited about something. The brother approached me and asked if I’d like to play Dungeons and Dragons with them. I had no idea, but c’mo...
Read more

Behind The Magician's Curtain - Dan America takes you behind the ring apron

I have had the privilege of meeting a handful of WWE Superstars, not at “Meet & Greets” but through chance meetings or it’s work related but for some reason I always have bad luck. The two times that I thought that the meeting went well, something bad happened. Spoiler, Accidentally on Purpose. I have been a Pro Wrestling fan for as long as I can remember, I am not sure why but lately I have convinced myself that it’s because I was a fat kid. I can’t explain why chubby kids love Pro Wrestling, I think it’s because it helps their self esteem, especially during the Golden Era of the WWE when overweight men were glorified. In 1992, when I was 11 years old the WWE Royal Rumble was held at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, NY which is a twenty minute drive from my home town. My mother could not afford tickets to the event for me but that did not stop her from making sure I caught a glimpse of my heroes, so she drove me down to the Arena so I could look through the glass doors and...
Read more

The Magic Moving Game Box - Battlechasers Nightwar & WWE2K18

So for our first blog I'm going to review two very different games this time. One is a turn based role playing game based on a long forgotten comic property and the other is the newest yearly  installment of men in tights fighting over belts. First up is Battlechasers Nightwar. This game is based on the comic from Joe Madureira. This is an all new story so you do not to have to have read the comic to enjoy this game. The combat is turn based and offers each a wide variety of moves and abilities for all of the five characters that you can play as. The one downside to the game is the grind of having to level up your characters with battling repeative enemies before starting the next dungeon. Overall I give the game a seven out of ten. Next up is WWE2K18. The game boasts the largest roster ever of any Wwe game. In fact the roster is so large it is almost overwhelming. The roster is a nice mix of current WWE and NXT superstars and WWE legends. The game has had a nice upgrade to th...
Read more