Blog Posts

PAX East 2015 Updates

3/22/2015

Hey folks, it's with a ton of excitement that I write this blog entry. We went out to PAX East a bit over a week ago, and had some great experiences. We conducted research, met a ton of great people, and connected with some folks from the industry. We also hosted a panel on Friday night, and were wowed by the attendance and participation we experienced. It left our minds swimming with ideas for where we can take some of our work. This experience left me with the same feelings of encouragement and drive that my last visit (PAX East 2013) provided. I'll take this time to list some updates, knowing that in the coming weeks we will have many more updates as a result of our time at PAX.
Firstly, we collected around 530 more survey packets this time around. This follow up study will begin to explore deeper considerations within our Geek and Gamer culture. It will take us a few months to get through that data, but I'm glad to have the support of my colleagues to make this process much more streamlined than my previous study. Of course this is one step in a research agenda that continues to develop. So we look forward to expanding research opportunities as we go along here. We even met some folks within the industry who were interested in helping us out in this area. More on that as it continues.
Our panel was very successful, and we'll be working to bring these discussions to upcoming Cons. It becomes a question of where we can go and what it would take to get there. But expect to see an update tab on the site here that will feature our interviews and upcoming panel schedule.
We continue to explore some of the contacts we made at PAX. One result of that might show up as guest writers on our blog and especially new guests at our Gaming and Health Days. Additionally, one continuing suggestion was that we begin our own Twitch Channel. We've started this, and it can be found here: http://www.twitch.tv/geekgamercounselalliance
Check out our social media for updates on when we'll begin our broadcasts. We would love to speak with any Twitch partners out there who might be interested in doing charitable streams with/for us. Please email us at [email protected] and let us know your interest in supporting our charitable fundraising efforts.
Look for more updates in the coming weeks, as we prepare for our Spring Gaming and Health Day, kick off our Twitch Broadcasts, and begin exploring new opportunities for research and outreach as well as fundraising opportunities to further our objectives of helping folks to Level Up.
All the Best,
- Steve

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Gaming and health day winter 2015

2/22/2015

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Organization Updates

2/1/2015

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Hello there! We were sorry to have missed posting last Sunday, but we were very much involved in our work on the Walking Dead Psychology given our deadline this week. We look forward to its publication this August and gaining feedback from readers. Our other current work has involved preparing for PAX in just over a month as well as two local community events. It is an exciting time for us, but on top of our already busy schedules, the blog’s activity is likely to suffer. I do hope to resume posting regularly upon return from PAX as we will have so much to share! But for now, I will simply keep you informed about our projects and activities and thank you as always for your readership and support.

-Megan!

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New Project anncouncement

1/18/2015

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Greetings! We are so excited to announce this week our most recent projects as Steve and I are authoring a chapter in the upcoming Walking Dead Psychology book. The author of the book Batman and Psychology, Dr. Travis Langley, has commissioned chapters to members of the psychology community for this upcoming book and we could not be more excited to be a part of it. Our chapter will focus on the journey of the much loved character, Daryl Dixon.

Also, it was confirmed this past week that we will be hosting a panel at PAX East 2015! "The Unexpected Journey: Geek and Gamer Identity and Culture" has been accepted and scheduled tentatively for Friday, March 6th at 5:00pm in our Arachnid Theatre.

It has also been a week of exciting connections in our community with connections with a local community college and school district. We will post more about potential events and appearances in the upcoming weeks.

However, with all of these opportunities, I am more limited in time to blog so I will continue in last week’s tradition of sharing interesting articles and videos related to geek and gamer culture. This video is a TedTalk about 7 ways games reward the brain. Enjoy and have a great week!

http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain?language=en

-Megan

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e-Sports and our evolving culture

1/11/2015

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In lieu of a full blog post this week (as I am caught up writing for another one of our projects to soon be announced), I wanted to direct everyone to an article I stumbled upon a few months back. I thought of it again as we prepare to present at a local school technology and career fair at which we hope to present the positive aspects of gaming and technology to local children and their families. So I have been reflecting upon positive aspects of gaming already discussed such as creativity, community, problem solving, etc. but then also ways for young gamers to bring their passion into their adulthoods. E-sports was a concept unfamiliar to me until this article but I am excited to learn how it is spreading across the country. I am so glad to be a part of it of this growing an evolving culture and to say that in my own way I have been able to bring my geek passions into my work. Enjoy the article, have a good week, and please check back next Sunday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/technology/esports-colleges-breeding-grounds-professional-gaming.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

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Exploring Research Questions

1/4/2015

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Happy New Year from the Geek and Gamer Counseling Alliance. With the New Year, we are excited to continue to work on existing projects such as our appearance at PAX East 2015 and some new projects such as doing advocacy, collaboration, and psychoeducation in the community.

Another project to which we currently turn our attention is our upcoming research project. At PAX East 2012, Steve began his research into gamer identity, coping skills, and resiliency. We hope to present about this information at PAX East 2015. Additionally though, we want to explore this group further and answer questions about what makes up a geek and gamer?

But this then begs the questions of why is this important to us as mental health professionals? Why is this important to us as members of this cultural group?

Membership in the geek and gamer culture is a choice, a decision. So how does someone within the culture seek membership? What if anything beyond their shared interests draw them to this group? What is the difference between someone who likes games and a gamer? How do members experience the stigma? Where do we feel comfortable exposing our true selves and how do we recognize that someone would be accepting of this in us? Can someone who is not a geek or gamer truly understand us and our passions? What role do geek and gamers feel their culture plays in their level of wellness?

These and many others are questions I would love to explore. We will work in coming weeks to narrow our research focus and create our design; however, if anyone has any suggestions for research topics or questions, please comment below or contact us through the contact page. We hope to explore these topics through both survey (quantitative) and interviews (qualitative) measures to be able to collect as much information as possible. The purpose of this research is to support our work as mental health professionals and to inform our work to educate the community on the positive aspects of gaming and the inherent strengths of geeks. Our goal is to advocate for our culture and we appreciate any feedback and support from you as readers.

-Megan

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Social Stigma, Gaming, and Mental Health

12/21/2014

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This week’s blog post will touch on the stigma of gaming and how we have struggled as an organization to bridge the gap between mental health and the geek and gamer culture.

I would love to say that the era of super hero movies and the high popularity of video games have eliminated the stigma and stereotypes of our culture; however, I believe there is still much to overcome and many of the benefits of gaming is lost when the common belief is that video games are either a waste of time or even further perpetuators of aggression and violence. In looking at the literature, there is no reason to believe that video games cause aggression or lead to violent acts or crime. At the same time, though, we do lack research which can demonstrate the value of games in a person’s life.

In seeking to gain collaboration and support, we have struggled with overcoming this bias. We have reached out to organizations who have shied away from our work due to lack of understanding, preconceived notions about the connection between violence and games, or a desire to see research “proving” that games are good for us prior to committing to working with us. This has been an unfortunate trend as groups have lost the opportunity to learn with us as we hope to conduct research to explore these issues further.

Another goal of our group is advocacy. We hope to educate organizations, professionals, and families on how they can use the culture to support lovers of all things gaming. To begin this work, we go back to the research concept. We want to show that people who truly love games use it as a way to connect with others, a way to decompress after a long day of work, and a way to solve problems and interact with the world in new ways. These are all things we strive to promote in our clients and in ourselves.

Still, though, we find resistance and even disdain from other professionals and have been working on how best to overcome this and market our value and the value of games and geek culture. This struggle is akin to that which I feel gamers experience often on a daily basis. We have experience that when we do find someone who shares our ideals and passions that they are so relieved to find someone whom they can talk to about these things. We do not share our work unless we feel we are in company which would be open to hearing about it. And when we do share it, there is at least for me a certain level of anxiety about what the response will be. This is the same fear that people who identify as geek and gamers often feel when they believe they are not with like-minded company. This speaks to the value of events such as PAX or our geek and gaming days simply to bring people together to feel comfortable and safe enjoying something they love.

The stigma and stereotypes are changing but they are still very real. I hope that through our work, we can help to tear down some of those walls and expose others to the rich world of gaming.

Thank you to anyone who has read this blog over the past several weeks. I wish you all a wonderful and safe holiday season. There will be no blog post next Sunday due to the holiday, but please check back in 2015. Be well!

-Megan

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"For most people, an hour a day playing our favorite games will power up our ability to engage wholeheartedly with difficult challenges, strengthen our relationships with the people we care about most..." - jANE mCgONIGAL

12/14/2014

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In the coming New Year, the Geek and Gamer Counseling Alliance will amp up our plans for attending PAX East 2015. It will be an exciting opportunity for us to attend PAX as one of our founders, Steve Kuniak, attended two years ago and collected data for his doctoral dissertation at that time. We hope to present on a panel about Steve’s research as well as our perspectives on the evolution and the benefits of geek and gamer culture for wellness. Further, we hope to collect data to explore further who are geeks and gamers? How and why do we identify as a part of this ever growing group? What makes someone a gamer versus a person who enjoys playing games? And how do we differentiate a person who enjoys watching super hero movies from a comic book geek? One potential theory is it exists as a difference between whether or not it is a part of your self-identity. This lends to our mission as an organization and why we feel this is an important consideration and specialization for mental health therapy. One way in which appreciating the culture of geek and gamers can be beneficial is in enhancing the therapeutic relationship.

When we begin our work with a client, we seek to understand them and communicate to them that we appreciate them as unique individuals. Consider the example that once during my first session with a client, he made a reference in passing reference to Blackgate (a penitentiary in the DC comic book universe). I understood this and when I made a related reference back to him, his demeanor, which had been cautious as this was our first meeting, instantly changed as he realized I was “like” him and that I could maybe really understand him. This demonstrates the value of using shared culture in creating that relationship and connection with a client. However, what can you do as a therapist if you do not share these same interests and knowledge bases? This is where you begin your homework. Just as you would if you had a client who was of a religion you were not familiar with, you would seek to learn about it. Even simply showing interest and a willingness to learn about this group is extremely valuable. In my experience, geeks and gamers love to share about their passions and this can lead to a stronger therapeutic relationship as they know you truly are interested and listening to what they have to say.

Even as a geek and a gamer, I want to continue my homework. I want to continue to ask questions and learn about this community and their identity so that I can better serve them. Our hope at PAX 2015 is to gather information, engage with the community, and then share this with the public and mental health professionals to support geek and gamer wellness.

Any thoughts about the value of understanding the geek and gamer culture or ideas on specific areas we should focus on in our research? Please comment below and check back to the blog for more information about our upcoming PAX appearance.

Full quote from Jane McGonigal referenced in today's blog title:
"For most people, an hour a day playing our favorite games will power up our ability to engage whole-heartedly with difficult challenges, strengthen our relationships with the people we care about most - while still letting us notice when it's time to stop playing in virtual worlds and bring our gamer strengths back to real life."

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"The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group, cooperative experience." - Gary GyGAX

12/7/2014

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For this week’s blog entry, I wanted to briefly introduce one of the projects we are currently working on. Gaming, specifically role-playing games, allow players to enter and explore worlds that are full of adventure and wonder. But in truth, these worlds often mirror our own more than we know. Specifically, the inter- and intrapersonal struggles are ones we experience in our daily lives just in less romanticized way. But in a game, these conflicts or crises are seen as a challenge, a puzzle to dissect and are “safer” to approach than those solely housed in reality. This brings us to the power of games and to the opportunity they present.

Following this thought, I began to develop a game using a mix of mechanics from my favorite table top and role playing games. This game will be created in order to help guide play towards topics that clients in my practice often struggle with as well as towards developing resiliency and problem solving/coping skills to address these common issues. For example, a “dungeon” created to navigate the major tasks of grief and to support the client in identifying supports and skills which will help them work through and understand their experience. The game is also being designed to help players better understand themselves as a whole in regards to their perceived strengths and weaknesses and supports. The game will be played in small groups to also support the user to understand themselves in the context of others, to learn how to ask for help, and to learn from one another’s experiences. In the end, the purpose was to create a game which can be played in groups and then processed in either group or individual therapy. And now, the hope is to develop a game which can be used in treatment, in self-exploration, and in casual gaming.

The game is still in the early development stage and the hope is to have it on Kickstarter by spring of 2015. If you are interested in contributing or have any feedback for us regarding the game or its development, please contact us through the contact page. We will post more in the new year about game dungeon topics and fostering resiliency of gamers.

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"I will Catch Them" - DraX

11/30/2014

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I have spent the past few weeks on the blog discussing perspectives on characters from geek culture, but the purpose of this blog is more than that. The commentary on characters is useful to me and I hope to others in that these characters provide us a means to understand ourselves and others in a “safe” way. Specifically, these characters and their struggles mirror our own not always in their day to day activities (I have yet to fight zombies with a crossbow) but I have felt pain, loss, and loneliness as Daryl Dixon has.

In my work, I find that I can use these characters as a metaphor for clients. I can discuss with a client that his anxiety is akin to an overactive “Spidey sense” of his favorite character Spider-man or I can discuss the loss of a loved one through the graphic novel “I Kill Giants.” I can challenge black and white thinking through comics such as “Irredeemable” or “Incorruptible.” And I can discuss the importance of teamwork and social skills through the Avengers and each character’s unique personality traits.

Therefore, the purpose of the commentaries are to introduce the reader to characters and how their struggles may relate to their own or to that of someone they know. I will always begin to offer specific suggestions for how I and my colleagues use metaphors and themes of geek and also gamer culture in our work and in our lives.

To close this post, I would like to note that I am hopeful to soon see comments from anyone reading especially early on in this blogging adventure. Please let me know what you think or what you would like to hear more about. Be well.

-Megan

“Metaphors are going to go over his head” – Rocket

“Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast. I will catch them” – Drax

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PAX East 2015 Updates

Gaming and health day winter 2015

Organization Updates

New Project anncouncement

e-Sports and our evolving culture

Exploring Research Questions

Social Stigma, Gaming, and Mental Health

"For most people, an hour a day playing our favorite games will power up our ability to engage wholeheartedly with difficult challenges, strengthen our relationships with the people we care about most..." - jANE mCgONIGAL

"The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group, cooperative experience." - Gary GyGAX

"I will Catch Them" - DraX

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