The book is wonderfully practical and conversational. It normalizes depressive symptoms including suicidal thoughts and provides the reader with detailed strategies to reduce suffering, find meaning and increase hope. Dr. Gordon talks about her initial interest in suicide research and how that evolved into writing the workbook. She describes how the tone of the book became more conversational with the reader over time and how the text has resonated with clinicians and patients since its release.
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Matt Dixon talks about his career as a freelance illustrator and his work in digital spaces leading to his work with Blizzard. He talks about starting on the World of Warcraft TCG and how he got hired again for the Goblins & Gnomes expansion in Hearthstone. He has been a contributing artist to Hearthstone since that time and talks about his creative process. He shares his influences and explores how technology has changed the way he approaches illustration. He talks about his need to bring “life” to an image and how he was drawn to computers and pixels at a young age.
He speaks about specific illustrations completed for Hearthstone and what fueled their origin. He indulges me as we discuss one of my favorite pieces of art in Hearthstone, Hecklebot, and he references his earlier work on Annoy-o-tron as when Hearthstone “clicked” for him. We conclude by talking about his recent “speed paintings” and his stunning personal work on his series, Transmissions.
Enjoy the 53rd episode of Ego Check with The Id DM!
Allison Spence joins me to talk about her early career as a journalist that resulted in her diving into a variety of difficult subject matters. She shares her views on the importance of emotional intelligence, and details how her work in journalism led her to Thompson Coburn LLP, where she is currently the Senior Marketing Communications Manager.
She discusses her work for nearly 400 lawyers at Thompson Coburn LLP, and the challenges of getting a message to “stick” in the crowded, chaotic digital landscape. She offers a variety of suggestions for individuals and organizations that are looking to market and promote themselves, and details how technology has advanced rapidly in recent years to enhance her ability to connect with an audience.
Given that so many these days are attempting to grow an audience – whether that’s the number of followers on Twitter, Instagram, You Tube or Twitch or people willing to support a Patreon or Kickstarter campaign – I think the discussion with Allison is extremely applicable to members of the roleplaying game community and beyond.
Enjoy the 48th episode of Ego Check with The Id DM! And please subscribe to the podcast at one of the links below:
I’m joined this week by Jase Nolan, also known as CinderAscendant on Twitter and Twitch. Jase talks about his style of preparing and running Dungeons & Dragons sessions. He shares how he got started casting Hearthstone matches, and how the skills learned in “Talkstone” help him narrate elements of a D&D session. He speaks to sources of potential burnout as a DM and highlights the need for DMs to know the adventure and setting they are running. He offers some of his tips and tricks for running effective sessions, and then we conclude the talk by discussing the Hearthstone community including how Jase has felt welcome as an openly queer individual.
Enjoy the 37th episode of Ego Check with The Id DM! And please subscribe to the podcast at one of the links below:
Duane has been cultivating Hammer Gaming, a community for like-minded players who wish to avoid the toxicity that is often found in online games. He speaks about consulting with other gamemasters like myself, and we talk through an example of how we collaborated to flesh out various characters in my Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
Duane then delves into his experiences as a person of color playing video- and tabletop games, and the obstacles he has encountered over the years while trying to engage with the hobby. Here is a brief segment of this discussion:
I’m a person of color and… finding groups of gamers that are diverse continues to be a challenge. It can be very difficult to find other folks who look like me. And that’s not a huge problem; I’ll play with whoever wants to pull up to the table. It would be nice to have a bit more diversity in gaming. And I’ve encountered that on both ends – both as someone who helps run a community and have new gamers come to us, and as someone who goes to conventions and wants to sit down at tables with strangers and play games with them. It doesn’t happen very often but every now and then – I’ll get a funny look. Like, “Oh, hey, don’t see people like you very much at the table.” And I just shrug and play, because I’m there to play…
The representation problem isn’t just at the tables. It’s also in the content. I have a very difficult time finding folks who look like me or who represent stories outside of the Western European norm in the content published by tabletop RPG creators… To quote Avery Brooks who played Ben Sisko on DS9, “It is very important that brown children and brown people in general can see people who look like them in contemporary mythology.” And I really hope more effort is made… In addition to being at the table, it really needs to start showing up in the content. And I think it’s not going to start showing up in the content until more creators like Quinn [Murphy] are employed by the publishers or contracted by the publishers and say, “Hey, look. We need to tell these kind of stories. Let’s go ahead and hire the people that can tell them.”
He offers advice for other players and content creators to make gaming a safer space for a wider audience. He details how Hammer Gaming came to be created, and how it has evolved from a World of Warcraft guild to a vibrant community of 40-50 friendly gamers. We close the show by talking about Destiny 2, and he tries to convince me to dive in when it releases for PC.
Enjoy the 20th episode of Ego Check with The Id DM! And please subscribe to the podcast at one of the links below:
My guest for Episode 4 of Ego Check with The Id DM is Felix Mak, software engineer for Vicious Syndicate, which provides detailed data reports on competitive play in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Mr. Mak is also a Legend-ranked Hearthstone player and we spent approximately an hour together discussing many aspects of Hearthstone. He describes his role with Vicious Syndicate and how the Data Reaper Report has developed since it’s first installment in May 2016. He speaks about myths that have been debunked about Hearthstone through the Vicious Syndicate data reports, and describes his routine as a player seeking to become a professional. Mr. Mak provides some foundational tips for Hearthstone players, we talk about the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan expansion and how it may shift the meta going forward.
Enjoy the fourth episode of Ego Check with The Id DM! And please subscribe to the podcast at one of the links below:
Take a look at my previous Hearthstone content, and please consider leaving a review on iTunes and help spread the word about the show. My plan is to release new episodes the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month. The next episode will post on December 20th, 2016.
If you are interested in coming on the show for an interview, or would like to become a sponsor, contact me to make arrangements.
As detailed in an earlier post to launch my Patreon campaign, I plan to create additional content beyond the articles that appear on the blog. One format for new content is an interview podcast series, Ego Check with The Id DM. I have been conducting interviews with members of the gaming community through email for the past five years, and I wanted to move the interviews to a podcast format. I now have equipment and software to adequately record, edit, store, and host the audio files, which is exciting. My plan to speak with guests on a range of topics while mixing in discussion about psychological elements of gaming, and to post new episodes on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month.
Now this is podcasting!
That’s right, I referenced a quote by young Anakin Skywalker.
Deal with it!
Episode 1 – Shea’s Rebellion
My first guest is Mike Shea, also known as Sly Flourish. Mike was gracious enough to sit down with me for the first episode of the podcast, and we enjoyed a sprawling conversation about mindfulness and roleplaying games. Mike shared his insights about the journey from roleplaying-game fan to freelance writer for companies such as Wizards of the Coast. He also offered tips for running more-effective RPG sessions and breaking in to the RPG industry as a writer and designer.
Enjoy the first episode of Ego Check with The Id DM! And please subscribe to the podcast at one of the links below:
Leave a (positive) review on iTunes and help spread the word about the show. My plan is to release new episodes the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month – so 24 episodes each year.
If you are interested in coming on the show for an interview, or would like to become a sponsor, contact me to make arrangements.
The Id DM 