Gaming and friendship have been bubbling up in all sorts of unexpected ways for me in the past week. My closest friends growing up were those with whom I gamed. Those experiences around the table transcended the mere chucking of dice together. Play can be a powerful shared experience, and when done with kindred spirits, it's the closest thing I've found to the magic of writing and playing music in a band. They're not the same, but they can involve a transcendent connection with other people in the room...they can lead to a different experience of time and of connectedness. I don't think it's an accident that we use the verb play for both games and musical instruments. They can engage similar parts of our "psyche." The intersection between gaming and friendship came to the fore unexpectedly just this afternoon in a discussion on Facebook around the idea of commodifying the role of a game master as a "professional service" with actual monetary ...
A Tabletop Field Marshal's Campaign Journal