Chris Benefield on Magic: The Gathering, Digital Card Games, and GenCon 2012 - a podcast by Dr. Michael Mallen, The Id DM

This week I'm joined by Chris Benefield, a longtime friend I first met during our days in graduate school way back in 1998. Chris has a masters degree in Educational Psychology, and is now working toward an advanced degree to become a school counselor.  In the episode, we discuss our history of arguing, "Who is the bigger nerd?" and explore how social comparison theory affects geekdom, "Sure, I'm a nerd - but I'm not THAT nerdy." I ask Chris why he cannot get into tabletop roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons, and he asks me why I'm unwilling to dive into Magic: The Gathering (MtG). He discusses the merits of MtG, and we explore how games like Hearthstone, SolForge, and Eternal scratch a similar itch. We delve into our approaches to mindfully engage in hobbies and time management, which leads into our use of social media - for better and sometimes worse. Along the way, we review our trip to GenCon 2012, and talk about trying to remain a nerd while parenting young children.

Enjoy the episode, and please provide feedback if you would like Chris and I to continue recording similar discussions as we are considering spinning this off into a separate podcast.

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