I firmly believe that games of nearly all kinds can be a force for good. My own childhood is a prime example of this. I struggled with dyslexia from a young age, and that had a negative impact on my ability to enjoy books and succeed in school. Games were ultimately how I overcame my dyslexia. Simply through playing the games I enjoyed, like Dungeons and Dragons, Magic the Gathering, and text-heavy role playing video games, I was able to keep up with my peers and even excel in standardized testing. Building army lists for Warhammer reinforced my arithmetic, planning, and strategic thinking skills, and scratch-building terrain for tabletop games reinforced lessons from geometry. Very few of the games I played growing up were considered educational, but they had a profoundly positive impact on my academic performance through middle school, high school, and college.

Apart from sharpening our skills, games can also broaden our minds to new ideas, experiences, and perspectives in a way that other types of media simply can’t. Games make the player a participant in the fiction, rather than just an observer, and can impart something closer to a lived experience than books or movies often can. The player gets a taste of becoming a hero, thinking like a scientist, or even grieving like a mother through games. These experiences can open many doors, especially to young people, and expand our capacity for empathy. In that way, games have a unique ability to help us grow into wiser, happier, or even kinder people just by playing them.

Games are primarily a form of entertainment, and even omitting the positive benefits I’ve outlined already, a game’s ability to bring us joy, challenge, or novelty can make it an ally of good. They can provide us with compelling experiences, a needed escape, or a place to relax and feel safe. Games can help us blow off steam, make a canvas for us to express ourselves, or provide the positive feedback of improving at a skill. There were many points in my life when things were tough, and knowing I could go home and play a game at the end of the day helped me get through it. Games can improve our lives just by being good games, and I want to be a part of that process.

• Strength Training: Hand Weights and calisthenics
• Game Jams
• Books: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (re-read), Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson, Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
• Video Games: Beat Saber, Signalis, Inscryption, Magic the Gathering Arena, Halo Infinite, Elden Ring, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, BTS Island: In the SEOM, Deltarune Chapter 2, Final Fantasy 14, Cyberpunk 2077
• Tabletop/Board/Card Games: American Mahjong, Magic the Gathering – Commander and Limited formats, D&D 5th edition, DropMix, Brikwars

• Volunteering at a local rodent rescue
• Organizing volunteers and running events at Gen Con
• Leading a local tabletop gaming club and organizing narrative campaigns
• Distance Running
• Cooking
• Building and painting miniatures
• 3D Printing
• Books: Stormlight chronicles by Brandon Sanderson, Neruomancer trilogy by William Gibson, Malizan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson, The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir, The Grave of Empires series by Sam Sykes
• Video games: Path of Exile, Assorted Fitness Games, Pokemon (main series games), Minecraft, Bethesda RPGs (Elder Scrolls and Fallout series)
• Tabletop/Board/Card games: Necromunda, Warhammer 40k, Magic the Gathering – Various Formats, Assorted Indy Board Games, Pathfinder 1st Edition

Social Media: Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, Discord

Software: Adobe Creative Suite – Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Premier Pro; Microsoft Suite; Goldmine; Salesforce; Aseprite

Game Development: Unity 2D; Unity 3D; Godot;

Project Management: Trello

Web Development: HTML; CSS; WordPress

Programming Languages: C#, GDScript