Archives for August 2015

We are gearing up for our presentation at Penny Arcade Expo, practicing our stories and going over our explanations, excited to use this opportunity to share the world of therapeutic gaming with a whole new audience who may need it. We’ll be sharing the story of the dwarf at the dinner party, in which we helped a young player learn about body language, as well as the tale of the two headed ettin, where we gave two players an opportunity to develop conflict resolution skills. We’ll be filming our presentation, so stay tuned.

Adam Johns and I have been avidly attending PAX Prime since we first heard it existed, and this year we were struggling to secure passes to attend because of the rising popularity of the convention. I had just about given up hope on being able to attend at all, or maybe finding someone who would let me buy their Monday pass.

See, PAX Prime is not only a place where we can find out about the latest releases of video, board, and card games, see and meet celebrity guests from the geek community, and play games with new friends. It’s also a place where we can share with the gaming community about the kind of work that we do. One of the challenges of being an organization on the frontier of therapeutic gaming/gaming therapy is the difficulty of sharing the concept with the larger community in a clear and concise way to people who have no reference point. PAX is the opposite. PAX is a place where we can say, “We offer theraputic groups to help teens build social skills using role playing games.”

And the person listening says, “AWESOME! How can I help!?”