I was recently asked to write a game bio about myself for Westercon’s website the following is what I came up with.
Earl C, Hedges Jr brings over 30 years of gaming experience, as he has volunteered to run games at local conventions, stores, and other venues for only a couple of years, he brings a vast knowledge and experience about the gaming industry. He grew up with his family during the 70’s playing games together. During the 80’s he continued that trend and in the 90’s started playing at local game stores all over the country. As both a Game Master, Narrator etc.
As a player he has played just about at one time or another just about every type of game known to man or beast. During the 90's he played mostly Games Workshop products and now he mostly plays an assortment of Table Top RPGs. (you can see his Gaming and Hobbie corner page to the right for more info on games he currently runs and plays. As well as those he has played in the past).
So in writing out this bio, I am basically, reflecting on the important roles games have played in my life. This is an interesting challenge for me although no one else might be interested in my story.
I grew up in Flagstaff a small town in Upstate Arizona. During the 1970s most families had only one TV set and it received only three channels and children were shooed outside to play. I was fortunate in that I lived in town and there were a dozen kids my age within blocks of my home. We roamed in packs – sometimes coming together to play sandlot softball or kick the can or spotlight (flashlight tag). Games were an important part of my family life as well. Among my earliest memories is playing Chinese checkers with my mom and Regular checkers against my great-grandfather who possessed an actual wooden table with the board built in and tiny drawers to keep the markers. I wonder what happened to that table…then remembered it was lost with the house. During the long winters, my family of 3 which could grow to 6 when Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, cousins, or friends dropped by for a visit. We played board games and as we grew older we included friends and neighbors as well. We were among the first families to acquire electronic games. With an original tv game that prequel all of the Nintendo games. It was Atari’s missile command I can still remember how excited we were about other Atari Games coming out and how quickly we abandoned it for more exciting systems featuring games such as Donkey Kong and Frogger. Growing up in a small town also meant that sports played an important role in our community. However, for me I was not that much on playing sports I was a geek a musician who learned to play the saxophone so I was involved in the school band stuff, and of course football was the dominant sport for our town and fans cheered on. Friday nights were spent at the NAU Sky doom in the bleachers and the Coconino High School marching band would be performing at half time.
Earl C, Hedges Jr brings over 30 years of gaming experience, as he has volunteered to run games at local conventions, stores, and other venues for only a couple of years, he brings a vast knowledge and experience about the gaming industry. He grew up with his family during the 70’s playing games together. During the 80’s he continued that trend and in the 90’s started playing at local game stores all over the country. As both a Game Master, Narrator etc.
As a player he has played just about at one time or another just about every type of game known to man or beast. During the 90's he played mostly Games Workshop products and now he mostly plays an assortment of Table Top RPGs. (you can see his Gaming and Hobbie corner page to the right for more info on games he currently runs and plays. As well as those he has played in the past).
So in writing out this bio, I am basically, reflecting on the important roles games have played in my life. This is an interesting challenge for me although no one else might be interested in my story.
I grew up in Flagstaff a small town in Upstate Arizona. During the 1970s most families had only one TV set and it received only three channels and children were shooed outside to play. I was fortunate in that I lived in town and there were a dozen kids my age within blocks of my home. We roamed in packs – sometimes coming together to play sandlot softball or kick the can or spotlight (flashlight tag). Games were an important part of my family life as well. Among my earliest memories is playing Chinese checkers with my mom and Regular checkers against my great-grandfather who possessed an actual wooden table with the board built in and tiny drawers to keep the markers. I wonder what happened to that table…then remembered it was lost with the house. During the long winters, my family of 3 which could grow to 6 when Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, cousins, or friends dropped by for a visit. We played board games and as we grew older we included friends and neighbors as well. We were among the first families to acquire electronic games. With an original tv game that prequel all of the Nintendo games. It was Atari’s missile command I can still remember how excited we were about other Atari Games coming out and how quickly we abandoned it for more exciting systems featuring games such as Donkey Kong and Frogger. Growing up in a small town also meant that sports played an important role in our community. However, for me I was not that much on playing sports I was a geek a musician who learned to play the saxophone so I was involved in the school band stuff, and of course football was the dominant sport for our town and fans cheered on. Friday nights were spent at the NAU Sky doom in the bleachers and the Coconino High School marching band would be performing at half time.
Reflecting on the role of games in my childhood I’m struck by the importance of games. As James Paul Gee notes, games introduce us to the concept of learning through and from failure. This is why I’m so drawn to gamification as a pedagogical tool, but I think it is an essential experience for children. It is just a shame that so many adults lose their fascination and love for games. I’m hopeful (although skeptical) that many adults today may hang onto this essential experience as gaming for all ages is more acceptable. I think game playing teaches us the benefits and drawbacks of risk taking and how to calculate the odds of both. Gee also notes that games help us learn about others and other worlds, and I believe this is true, but I also think games help us learn more about ourselves as well as our playmates. Hours of playing sandlot softball and kick the can with the same kid’s day after day, week after week, taught me a lot about those kids as well as myself. These are important life skills.
I know some people worry about kids who hole up in their bedroom playing video games for hours, but the truth is that both board games and video games are highly interactive and collaborative activities. It is a different experience than when I was a kid and we were the only family with a video game system so all the kids were sitting on our living room rug, but now headsets and chat apps as well as online discussion boards make gaming equally interactive just in different ways.
I think we lost something when we handed games off to children. My great-grandparents and grandparents would play checkers, dominoes, chess, and cards. They would play at home with family, have regularly scheduled games with friends that were a part of their social calendar, and tables were always set up at any party or gathering. Today my family continues to play euchre at family gatherings, but that is the only game that has managed to travel forward through time which I still hold onto my box of dominoes waiting for a revival. However, I found recently the chinse checker set me and my mom use to play on.
I remember my very first Roleplaying game it was FASA’s Star Trek First and then Second edition when Dungeons and Dragons came out my parents for baud me to play it at all and gave me Star Trek RPG to play with my friends. I was the Narrator for this game and have hung to it all these years, I still occasionally play it by myself when I am board and have nothing else to do. It has an awesome solo mechanic that I use to vacillate me as the captain of my own ship. In many ways Star Trek holds a special place in my heart, because I grew up believing we could always strife to better ourselves and those of us from around us.
However, I think now my peers are playing games more than ever and many of those games are highly social thanks to the many online forums that allow us to support and compete with our friends across time and space. As well as local game stores and conventions where we can gather socially. I don’t like to see my Facebook feed fill with gaming notifications (thank goodness that has been largely eliminated) but I am happy to give my friends magic potions or pigs or wooden nickels as they require them. It is a little moment of pleasure to give. But largely to my game playing today falls into two categories. I love Table Top Gaming at which can be done at local game stores and conventions. My weekly game seems to be Dungeons and Dragons every Wednesday night I have a full table, and this happens to be my new game of choice these days. I often wonder what my parents would say about this, remembering back to the times they said it was linked to the Occult and Devil worship. In life, we all make choices weather good or bad anything can be used for good or evil to me it is just a fantasy game to have fun with my friends to others it is the unholy grail of blasphemy, or the Holy Grail of Hell enough said. The second type which I found recently was a new diffract type of computer gaming as well but not by myself nope now I do what is called LAN parties and Virtual reality with other people which is very fun.
As a Dungeon master, Game master, Narrator Etc. I can plan and execute and win in ways that life does not allow me to do. I can get rich, be the biggest landholder in the city, and stay on top of the world. Mean while in life I am broke, homeless, and down on my luck bum. I think that games link us over time and space and generations in ways that I do not fully understand, but I recognize their power and importance. Games are important life laboratories and they provide connections between and among people and ideas in ways that I do not fully understand and that’s OK with me.
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