To whom it may concern,

Most people have opinions. That’s how it works. You’re a person? Congratulations! You get the right to believe whatever it is you want to believe, no matter how incredibly wrong or right it may be (which is obviously judged by me, a college kid sitting in his room eating cereal at 10 p.m.). Now, while you have the freedom in America to also voice your opinions, you don’t necessarily have freedom from the consequences that come with voicing them.

For instance, if you believe that the live action "Avatar: The Last Airbender" movie was better than the series of the same name, you have the right to believe that, however you do not have freedom from the inevitable verbal retaliation that will be coming from my direction should you voice such an opinion in my presence.

Good, now that we all understand how it is that having opinions works, let’s get to the reason I’ve called you to this little corner of the internet that is filled with opinions and geekery. Gaming. The term has experienced a kind of facelift in the past couple of decades, and being a gamer used to be something to scoff at. However, now that we have truly entered the age of the geek and comic book movies ruling the box office, it has a completely different implication. For a while that was great, because playing games taught hand-eye coordination, social skill and creative thinking, and to that extent they still do.

However, in recent years gaming has gone from being a group activity back to being something that one does in the dark by oneself (and I’m not one who is pointing fingers, I enjoy spending 36 straight hours exploring "Skyrim" as much as the next guy) and not just because that’s all people have to do, but more often than not, people actually use video games to escape real life. And that’s fine, whatever. What kills me is that it has begun to hurt the quality of the game, to the point that "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" actually had a playable story line came as a surprise to many, and the most recent "Star Wars: Battlefront," previously one of the games that really brought multiplayer to the height of what it could be, had several essentially unplayable offline multiplayer modes.

However, in our darkest hour, as this truly is, an unexpected ally comes to our aid, one from the lands before true video gaming occurred, tabletop gaming. People, we are in the middle of a tabletop board game paradise! "Dungeons and Dragons" fifth edition recently came out, and with a decent DM, it is the mind-video-game that its potential allows for it to be, and games like SmashUp, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Cards Against Humanity and Bomb-Squad allow for a tense atmosphere so thick that you could call it the American Justice System, while maintaining a vibrant flavor that leaves you exhausted more so than any video game will, at least as far as our inundated minds are concerned. LARPing is a thrill ride unlike any other, and Poker, Charades, and even Pictionary remain as timeless as they always will be. There are so many options I just don't know what to do...

So, while perhaps our video games are becoming less and less (even as the graphics go from lackluster to stunning) high quality, we need not worry, we need simply put them down for but a moment, even consider it a tolerance break, and open our minds and eyes to the other gaming options that inhabit our geektastic world.

Sincerely,

A Proud Tabletop Gaming Addict