Nice article.. this seems like the kind of thing t...

2008-12-26T21:00:00.000+13:00

Nice article.. this seems like the kind of thing that could run as a human interest piece in Edge magazine.

How do you KNOW all this Duncan?

2008-12-25T23:37:00.000+13:00

How do you KNOW all this Duncan?

I really enjoyed this. It was great to read about ...

2008-12-25T11:55:00.000+13:00

I really enjoyed this. It was great to read about Abbott in action and hear how the courses have been going.

There was also one other professor at Wabash, Step...

2008-12-24T13:23:00.000+13:00

There was also one other professor at Wabash, Stephen Morillo, who taught a Freshman tutorial on Swords and Sorcery, taking a look at the fantasy genre, my freshman year there (instead, I took a class on Russian Literature and Film 1850-1950). He managed to sneak in some games such as Diablo II to further examine the subject matter and how the genre was expanding, but this was generally seen as okay because it was merely a sidenote to the course.

Unfortunately, this course was offered far later than I could take the class, so I merely heard about it. With Abbott's symposiums and freshmen tutorials, there was definitely an opportunity to talk about games--especially as the campus by and large plays them. Whether its sports titles, RPGs, or what have you, an all-male campus has gaming consoles everywhere.

As one of the founders of Dork Club (we really took the defunct 'Anime Club' and altered it for our purposes), we faced much the same campus resistance at the time. Because Student Senate determined our funds, not the college, we entered into battles with some opinion writers in The Bachelor, our newspaper, about why gaming was important. Suddenly this was seen as frivolous spending, and the founders merely people who were wasting time they could be using to study.

The Dork Club managed to push on and with the aid of professors such as Abbott, Morillo, and the Warhammer fan in the science building, we hosted our own Dorkapalooza and Dorkstock where we also hosted speakers on games as a medium.

Of course, I have no idea how the gaming cultures at other colleges work, but I look fondly back on this one--especially as these courses brought people like Tom Elliott and Nelson Barre to the theater, where I became fast friends with them.

Terrific article. It definitely got me thinking and reminiscing.

Comments on Hit Self-Destruct: In The Future We Will Play, Part I: Indiana

Nice article.. this seems like the kind of thing t...

How do you KNOW all this Duncan?

I really enjoyed this. It was great to read about ...

There was also one other professor at Wabash, Step...