Introduction

In modern society, everyone has their own hobbies. These hobbies are likely to accompany with lifetime, a person who is interested in hobbies, his life will become very interesting and colorful. That’s what I found out from the interview with Michael. Michael is currently working as a tutor in the City Collge of New York. During his spare time, he is also a Dungeons & Dragons player. In this interview, he told me about his feelings and experiences for being a Dungeons & Dragons player.

 

What is Dungeons & Dragons?

When I was asking about the rules about Dungeons & Dragons, Michael is very excited to introduce this game. In his introduction, dungeons & dragons is a tabletop role-playing game. There are usually around 5 persons and a dungeon master as a sixth person. And the dungeon comes up with a story, the dungeon is responsible for narrating the plot, playing non-player characters, such as villagers, monsters, and so on. The dungeon master is also recording the time and judging the player’s behaviors. Like what Michael said, “never argue with the dungeon master- he is god.” Others are players, playing the roles of the game. They can choose the roles or characters that fit their personalities. During the game, They can solve problems, join the battles and collect treasure and knowledge, the players can get the experience from these processes to increase their levels.

 

Expectation on Dungeons & Dragons

Michael started playing Dungeons & Dragons in high school when he is about 15 or 16 years old. Before playing this game, he had seen a lot of movies about Dungeons & Dragons and heard about that. He expected this game to be super nerdy like video games. But after he playing Dungeons & Dragons, he finds that this game is incredibly fun and the time is passed by super fast. And the content of the game is very rich, in addition to the campaign world setting, there are enough novels, games, and movies to further enrich the fantasy world. The best part he thinks in this game is that the rigorous rules give the game a very high degree of freedom, so he can literally just do anything he can think of. Dragons and dungeons can help him relieve stress and relax in his spare time.

 

“Nerdy” Dungeons & Dragons Players

Michael was a little bit of hesitated when I asked him about the characteristics of dungeons & dragons players. He thinks people in this subculture tend to be nerdy, they eat a lot of fast food, sometimes don’t shower too often, there is a high frequency of NEET(Not in Education, Employment, or Training), they reference comics and other forms of pop-culture frequently, they are usually very polite, shy, soft-spoken. Due to the time conflict, Michael and I conducted the interview via video call on the Internet. Therefore, the locations of the interviews are at our respective homes. I noticed that Michael was dressed very casually. He was wearing a grey jacket and a yellow T-shirt, and his hair was very untidy. This may fit with the way people think about nerds. But he explained, people in this subculture is not always like this, someone can be very outspoken. That’s true because when I talked to Michael, I found that Michael is such a person. He is very direct and talkative. He answered every question I asked very carefully.

 

What He Learned from Dungeons & Dragons

Michael feels that dungeons & dragons requires a high degree of judgment and decision making. In essence, it requires the player to grasp the game environment and make predictions about the following situation. It can be said that during the game, the player is actually constantly calculating the game environment and making judgments and choices, which is a very necessary ability in real life. In addition, dungeons & dragons can make more friends and enhance social skills. Because in dungeons & dragons, communication with other players and teamwork is very important. Players need to understand what other people think and how they behave. Because of dungeons and dragons, Michael has made many friends in real life and often drinks and plays together.

 

Conclusion

The interview with Michael made me feel very much the same way. Because in real life I’m also a gamer. In my own home, too, I am often untidy. Maybe in the eyes of others, we are just nerds who are addicted to daily fun, lost from life goals. But for us, gaming is more than just a hobby that allows us to relax in our free time. It’s also a way for us to enhance our social skills, decision making, and so on.