Car News

A lot has happened in the past 6+ months related to this topic, so I thought I
would take a few minutes to share with everyone where things are currently...

http://rpgresearch.com/blog/rpg-research-status-update

Full text below for those that prefer reading email instead of web pages...

A lot has happened over the past several months, and there is actually a
backlog developing, so I thought I would take a minutes to organize the
backlog, update folks on what has been completed, and look ahead to what is
coming down the pipe. If there is anything I forgot to include, please let me
know so I can integrate it into this article. Many of the items in the queue
might unfortunately be stuck until the summer holiday from university.
Consider this also my public TODO list...


This past 6 months has been extremely eventful in the efforts of researching
the use of role-playing gaming for therapeutic and educational effects.

I hope everyone listed here is fine with my listing their names, I'm not aware
of any NDA-style issues with the summaries I posted here. If I am mistaken,
please let me know, and I will immediately adjust the information accordingly.
The reason I listed this information publicly is to help everyone else realize
how many others are working in different "vacuums" on their own, and to
hopefully encourage using RPG Research increasingly as a hub to share research
information on the use of RPGs for many different uses, and to help those
considering different possibilities.

This is the second (going to be third soon?) year that the Israeli group
Romach is implementing their use of Warhammer FRP Social rules for those young
adults in their equivalent of the juvenile system, using role-playing games
under the supervision of a licensed therapist, to address social skills, group
problem solving, and other issues specific to each individual's needs in a
cooperative play setting.

Timothe Loya was slowly chiseling away at attempting to get role-playing games
approved by the Seattle-Bellevue VA system for the treatment of returning
veterans diagnosed with PTSD.

The Bhodana Group (a la Jack Berkenstock) had their podcast announcing the
plans for trying to use role-playing games for helping not only the victims of
sexual abuse, but an even more controversial approach as a potential treatment
of sexual abuse perpetrators as well.

I have an email interview of Jack in my queue that I really want to get
assembled (and signed off by Jack) as soon as I can (it is unfortunately many
months old).

Andrew Malinow contacted me months ago regarding the potential use of RPG for
teaching math to middle-school students. It was a great conversation. I hope
to hear more about his progress in that effort in coming months/years.

Alexi Vandenberg of Rapidfanboy.com, had contacted me mid-way last year to try
to get an RPG Defense Fund organization in place. Unfortunately multiple
attempts to schedule conference calls with various potential board members
fizzle out. Hopefully this will gain traction in the future. He also contacted
me recently asking to interview me for some magazine, but his wife just had a
baby, so they are experiencing the "joys" of sleeplessness, so it might be a
little bit before he can follow up. Congratulations to them!

Neil Lundberg, Ph.D., CTRS contacted me regarding the impact of MMORPG on
marital status, and was kind enough to share the research paper. He is yet
another person I need to follow up with from my stack of backlog.

Sarah Brescia contacted me regarding the media's representation of tabletop
RPG. Unfortunately I wasn't able to reply at the time, and I suspect my
delayed reply misses her deadline needs, but I still hope to follow up with
her as the backlog clears.

Kirk Baldwin contacted me regarding their game-centric website,
http://www.kingdomintheswamp.com asking permission to share RPG Research
papers on their site, as well as their development of their own RPG system. I
still need to follow up with them as well.

Aharon Varady contacted me regarding his work on developmental issues in role-
playing for children and young adolescents in Jewish Education, hoping to be
part of a community of scholars thinking about role-playing as praxis (putting
theories into action).

My research report (but in a journalism format due to not having gone through
an IRB), Research Questionnaire on Gender Bias in the Gaming Community &
Industry (164 respondents), is still waiting in the queue as well. Dr. Bowman
kindly still has left the door open for me to submit it to their WyrdCon
magazine on the journalism side, as soon as I can. Many apologies to everyone
for the ongoing delay in releasing the interesting information.

Speaking of Dr Sarah Lynne Bowman, I finally managed to meet her online via
Google+ Hangout (After many months of just email and Facebook contact), when
we were both part of a panel on The therapeutic use of Live-Action Role-
Playing (LARP) hosted by Kristin Brumley. I was honored to be asked to join in
the discussion, and very much enjoyed hearing Dr. Bowman's insights, as well
as the experiences of the others. See the blog on the RPG Research website for
links to the archived video (over 2 hours of interesting discussion!). Sarah
has been an invaluable resource, and kind enough to help guide me through
various hurdles as I try to navigate various approaches to research and
publication.

Today I was contacted by someone working in the Georgia, USA penitentiary
system. While many states ban inmates from activities such as RPG, apparently
Georgia does not, and this individual is hoping to propose the development and
implementation of a structured group activity for inmates using non-violent
RPG for potential benefits to inmates.

About 2 months ago, as part of my classes at Eastern Washington University
(EWU), Therapeutic Recreation Program Planning, I was able to design a
complete program plan and activity using an adapted LARP for the benefit of
toddler-age Autism-spectrum and neurologically normal peers. I still have to
"sterilize" the information in the program design papers, and then submit for
approval by the university for me to be able to publish the papers and
experience, but hopefully that will be ready by this summer.

This quarter I am in both another recreation therapy course (Processes &
Techniques in Therapeutic Recreation), as well as an introduction to Play
Therapy through the psychology department. In the TR class, I am submitting
(tomorrow) a complete role-playing game for Autism Spectrum adults (and other
populations) as part of a class assignment. If this passes muster, it may be
possible that I may get to implement this RPG adaptation with an actual ASD
adult population on the west side of the state!

I modified my Ea RPG Basic rules, to create Hawke's Simple RPG (single d6), and
this particular activity is to implement Recreation Education Content Model
requirements through a tabletop game. I was partnered with another classmate,
and we settled on a 1940s era Chicago sleuth detective mystery setting. I look
forward to sharing more information about this as soon as I can.

All of the items in the backlog, keep getting compounded due to the challenges
of parenting and school. I keep having other papers (at the university) that I
have to get done first, so unfortunately the delay continues, but absolutely at
the end of this Spring quarter, as summer holiday begins, I will at the latest
catch up on the back log.

I am almost certain I have forgotten at least 2 or 3 other items, and when I
come across them, or recall what they are, I will add them here (with an
asterisk indicating they were added after the initial posting of this
article). What is important for everyone to note is that as you can see, a lot
is going on in the world (and this is just my own little sphere as an
undergraduate student) related to the potential therapeutic and educational
uses of role-playing games.

I hope everyone finds this update useful and encouraging to realize that you
are not alone in seeing the great potential of this activity to help other
heal and grow.

Many thanks to everyone that has kindly contacted me and/or involved me in
their efforts. It is greatly encouraging. I apologize for the delays following
up with everyone, but very much appreciate everyone's generosity in keeping me
in the loop, and patience in follow up.

Happy Gaming!
--
-Hawke Robinson

The RPG Research Project
http://www.rpgresearch.com
Office: (509) 252-0800
Cell: (509) 481-5437 (text okay)
Office and Postal Address
1312 N. Monroe Suite #114
Spokane, WA, USA
99218

Role-playing gamer since 1979.
Working on interdisciplinary degrees in recreation therapy, music therapy,
neuroscience, and clinical & experimental psychology, at Eastern Washington
University.
WSTRA (Washington State Therapeutic Recreation Association) member.
ATRA (American Therapeutic Association) member.
Retired computer scientist, AS/CS, SANS GIAC GCIH, MCSE, MCP+I, SCSAp1, CNA.

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MISSION

1) To clearly establish, through rigorous scientific testing, the therapeutic
and educational effects of role-playing gaming on participants. While
considering the potential relevance of correlated factors, the primary focus
will be contributing to the body of causal research information.

2) Based on established research, using relevant evidence-based and theory-
based approaches to intervention design built on best practices for
facilitation techniques, develop and implement intervention programs using
various forms of role-playing games (tabletop, live-action (LARP), and
computer-based) as a therapeutic and/or educational modality.

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