Teach your kids Dungeons and Dragons
This meme is meant to be humorous but I have had enough conversations in the last week that I think more people should get into D&D (or any group roleplaying activity).
It teaches co-operation, empathy, imagination, creative problem solving, communication skills.
Heck, it should be part of the school curriculum.
I completely agree! I can't believe I never thought of it like that. Part of it might be because I don't have kids. I probably would teach them D&D if I did though. I played D&D extensively when I was a kid, and used to beg my brother to play.
I suppose @lextenebris is right in that there are better designed RPG's these days. Although there are tons of worse designed ones as well. Many of the other ones do not have a similar fantasy setting either.
In the case of practical experience carrying over to resume material, better designed doesn't matter. The ability to pick up new rulesets, quickly internalize them, and then use them to solve problems, that's programming. If you build the world that you're putting the characters in, that's software engineering.
Having experience with multiple rulesets and being able to weigh them against each other for their pros and cons, watch out, you might be heading into management... or just higher paid software engineering.
Sure, it carries over into other fields, but these are the ones I have experience in and can fall back on (albeit anecdotal) evidence.
Damn. You're too fucking good. Now I'm wondering if I'm a better programmer because of playing D&D.
XD
I don't think it's worth risking missing out on the skills. Just to be sure, you should probably game some more.
I have literally mentioned my experience as Dungeon Master in a job interview as relevant experience for leading focus groups. And I got the job :)
Heck yeah we should teach our kids D&D! Can't wait to get my family campaign going when my sons get a little older :)
Cheers - Carl
Well damn, in all this replying I forgot:
Agree. Absolutely agree. School would be a great place for it. "I minored in Advanced D&D," with eyebrows arched a little pretentiously, "Advanced."
"What, you ditched the Cyclopedia? Heretic! And nothing more recent? Not even 5th Edition? Get out of my office, you poseur."
And then we burned the building down.
I blame all the Vampire the Masquerade.
I agree. Dungeons and Dragons (and role playing in general) helps develop important social skills, including empathy and teamwork! And it really does belong on a resume!