Brainstorming: Gaming Panels

[jducoeur]

I've just found myself as the Gaming Track Manager for next year's Arisia, which means I need to assemble a roster of panels, right quick. I have a moderate pile of suggestions so far, but they're of varying quality, and a bit "clumpy" in terms of subjects, so I'd like more ideas for the mix.

My friends have lots of knowledge of the subject, so: here's a request for a little quick brainstorming of suggestions for panels on the subject of Games, broadly defined -- this includes Board/Card Games, Videogames, Tabletop and Live-Action RPG, Game Culture, etc.

Please focus on topics you would like to attend or talk about, not just notions for their own sake. Not all suggestions will be used, but all are welcomed. "Yes, and" comments about other peoples' suggestions are okay, but please don't shoot down other peoples' ideas. Diversity of viewpoints highly encouraged. Feel free to email or direct-message me if you would prefer to make a suggestion privately.

Thanks!

Comments

[writerkit]

"Here is how you get started in LARPing" on a practical level. I'd really love to see Arisia offer a step-by-step "these are the organizations doing LARP around here, this is what you likely will encounter at your first one, these are common etiquette rules, these are common pitfalls, this is how casting works, here's how you tell if it's good for beginners..." Most beginner classes and panels I see err on assuming basic knowledge because the teachers have been doing it so long that it really is basic knowledge to them. I'd like to see someone skip that and get down to explaining all the tiny little details that make me so nervous about actually going to or signing up for a LARP.

I'm sure someone's already suggested the "sexism/racism in game culture" panel, and you could break that down several ways since the different areas of Game Culture are sexist and racist in different ways, but I'd certainly attend whatever version of it you ran. For that matter, I'd like to see one that branched out from "Gamergate! Internet trolls!", assumed the audience already knows that Game Culture is indeed frequently racist and sexist, and got into the more subtle variations that people are more likely to encounter in their real lives.

[laurion]

Here's a quick list of thoughts. These are panels I would attend, presuming I go back to Arisia.

Intellectual Property in board games (e.g. Marvel card game, Simpsons Monopoly)
Favorite Indie RPGs
Self Publishing (of any of these things)
Children and gaming
Gaming as a way of exploring identity
Games in education

[aishabintjamil]

You might get more practical stuff out of the experienced gamers by casting the how to get started panel as something like "10 things I wish I'd known before my first LARP". That might get them to home in on the things that were missed in the introductory explanations.

[aishabintjamil]

Lately I'm seeing a new subgenre called LitRPGs, about people who get stuck and/or physically immersed in on-line RPGs somehow. It strikes me as a kind of odd concept, but I've stumbled across enough examples that it's apparently a semi-popular thing. That might be an area to poke at.

Should your favorite book be a game? Should you write books based on your favorite game? Why? Why not?

Maybe something on gaming and technology. Is it really role-playing if you only interact via a keyboard and a screen? How about games where everything is done over Skype or a Google Hangout? How does technology change the classic RPG experience?

[jducoeur]

"Here is how you get started in LARPing" on a practical level.

Interesting -- LARP 101 is a perennial topic, but this is a useful spin on it. (As is aishabintjamil's suggested tweak.) I like it.

assumed the audience already knows that Game Culture is indeed frequently racist and sexist, and got into the more subtle variations that people are more likely to encounter in their real lives.

Hmm -- yeah, this might actually be more useful than the more common focus on the really egregious offences.

Thanks!

[jducoeur]

All interesting -- I'll likely use a couple of these. Thanks!

[jducoeur]

Lately I'm seeing a new subgenre called LitRPGs, about people who get stuck and/or physically immersed in on-line RPGs somehow.

Intriguing, although I don't think I know enough about it to write a blurb for it. If anybody knowledgeable about the format wants to pipe up, I'd welcome more information.

Should your favorite book be a game? Should you write books based on your favorite game? Why? Why not?

A nice twist on the "games and IP" topic.

How does technology change the classic RPG experience?

Oooh, I like this one a lot. I think I know just enough to write a blurb and ask questions, and I suspect there are plenty of people around who have enough knowledge to talk about it intelligently...

[fenicedautun]

How do I find game nights that play my sort of games?

What I'm thinking about here is that I hear about game days/nights but I'm never sure what type of game they're thinking about playing, and I'm not sure of the vocabulary to say "here are the types of games I enjoy, do you play those?" (or vice versa, "here's the types of games we play, do you enjoy those?")

Also might be useful to talk about gaming styles (quick vs slow, chatty vs silent, aggressive vs cooperative) and how to interact with different styles or express what styles are acceptable.

[jducoeur]

Huh. That's a nice angle, and of more general interest than many ideas. Thanks!

[cellio]

"People who like X also like..." -- not sure how you would structure this, maybe mostly driven by questions from the audience, but helping people discover games that are similar in some important way to ones they already like, but aren't just the next game from that publisher or whatever, sounds like it could lead to really interesting discussions. Half the work at least would be analyzing what those important factors are -- what can you infer about somebody who like Pandemic, Splendor, and Agricola? I'm imagining a scenario where the person posing the question has to name three games from dissimilar sets as a starting point and the panelists take it from there.

(I don't know if I've ever been to a gaming panel, so apply correction factors as needed.)

[jducoeur]

Interesting notion, and again good for the non-hardcore. Thanks!

[tpau]

larp 101 generally gets less attendees then moderators so....