{"id":35137,"date":"2016-07-24T10:39:15","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T14:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=35137"},"modified":"2016-07-23T21:43:56","modified_gmt":"2016-07-24T01:43:56","slug":"should-you-be-making-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/should-you-be-making-games.html","title":{"rendered":"Should You Be Making Games?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It was interesting to have an article come across my feed, providing guidance about whether one should quit one\u2019s job and create video games<\/a> instead, at the same time that I became aware that Leigh Grossman has a Kickstarter campaign for an RPG app<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\nDo take a look, and consider either contributing or helping to spread the word.\u00a0Leigh put together the monumental volume <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2a3wrGL\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sense of Wonder<\/em><\/a>, an enormous compendium of science fiction stories and essays to which I contributed. And so he is a great example of an academic who is also a gamer and an app-maker.<\/p>\nI was reminded while I was in Italy\u00a0about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mnstate.edu\/history\/roleplayinggames.aspx\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">the Role Playing Game developed at Minnesota State University<\/a>, allowing students to reenact the Council of Nicaea. It was discussed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ancientjewreview.com\/articles\/2015\/3\/18\/re-enacting-nicaea\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Erin Walsh<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/steveawiggins.com\/2013\/06\/02\/playing-nicaea\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Steve Wiggins<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/his453heresyemily.wordpress.com\/2015\/01\/16\/council-of-nicaea\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Emily\u2019s blog about a class called \u201cHistory of Heresy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019m also bummed to be missing Gen Con this year. But I will be presenting with a couple of colleagues at Butler University about gamification in education, and one of them will report on Trade Day at Gen Con. You can be sure that I, in turn, will blog about our presentation here sometime in the Fall semester.<\/p>\nIt also looks like there is another book I should read related to this topic:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2a8ozHU\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College<\/a><\/i> by Marc Carnes.\u00a0Have any of you read it?<\/p>\nAnd for those who are wondering, I have not forgotten my idea for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/11\/making-the-canon-game.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">canon card game<\/a>. I\u2019m still thinking about it and tinkering with the concept and game play possibilities, since I want to have something fun and educational that really works well even before the alpha-testing phase. Perhaps I\u2019ll have my own Kickstarter campaign for that at some point\u2026<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B006TKOUGA\/ref=as_li_ss_il?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1&linkCode=li3&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&linkId=3d1e062999373a8563975a6a5c871319\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B006TKOUGA&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&l=li3&o=1&a=B006TKOUGA\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B00N79RDG0\/ref=as_li_ss_il?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1&linkCode=li3&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&linkId=401c26433ce46f7b1487bb68b31c79d0\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00N79RDG0&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&l=li3&o=1&a=B00N79RDG0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was interesting to have an article come across my feed, providing guidance about whether one should quit one\u2019s job and create video games instead, at the same time that I became aware that Leigh Grossman has a Kickstarter campaign for an RPG app: Do take a look, and consider either contributing or helping to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":37379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,40],"tags":[1880,2226,2238,3743,3746,4660,10520,10603,11988,13175],"class_list":["post-35137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","category-history","tag-church","tag-council-of-nicaea","tag-course","tag-games","tag-gaming","tag-history","tag-role-playing-games","tag-rpg","tag-students","tag-university"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Should You Be Making Games?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It was interesting to have an article come across my feed, providing guidance about whether one should quit one's job and create video games instead, at\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/should-you-be-making-games.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should You Be Making Games?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was interesting to have an article come across my feed, providing guidance about whether one should quit one's job and create video games instead, at\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/should-you-be-making-games.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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