Gaming Culture 2022

THE DUCK?

out duckpin bowling for

next group event or party at Reboot Social

founded, even though people have likely been playing the sport since around 1894.

Duckpin bowling has different rules, history, and pins than regular bowling, even though they look similar are first glance. The most obvious difference between the two is the size of the ball and pins. The balls are about five inches in diameter with no finger holes and the bowling pins are shorter and thinner than regular bowling.

popularity and the lack of places to play the game in the Chippewa Valley (again, duckpin bowling, not mini-bowling).

“Some customers are hesitant to play right away because they don’t understand it,” Prock said. “But once they step up and throw a few balls and understand the game, everyone really seems to enjoy it.”

daily bowling specials, according to Prock. Reboot will also start hosting duckpin bowling leagues for those who simply can’t get enough. There will be more info on the leagues on Reboot’s Instagram and Facebook.

In the future, Reboot Social will also be offering comedy open

IF YOU’VE BEEN INSIDE REBOOT SOCIAL since it’s opening, you’re likely aware that they are one of the only places in the area that has duckpin bowling. You might have thought it was just regular bowling but smaller – however, that is truly not the case.

The history of duckpin bowling is a little hazy because it didn’t become an organized sport until 1927 when the National Duckpin Bowling Congress (NDBC) was

The games themselves are also very different from regular bowling. You get the same ten frames, but you get three balls per frame. The scoring is also different, if a bowler knocks down all ten pins with their first roll in a frame, it is scored as a strike, if all the pins are knocked down in two rolls, the bowler has made a spare, and if all the pins are knocked down in three rolls, it is scored as a ten, with no score bonus.

One of the owners of Reboot Social, Ian Prock, said they wanted to bring duckpin bowling to Reboot Social because of its rising

Reboot is $6 a person and usu ally lasts for about 45 minutes. If you’re interested in reserving lanes, you can do so on the Reboot Social website. Their new ban quet room also opened re cently and can hold a party of 50 people and arcade enthu siasts.

the near future, there will be some

UW-STOUT STUDENTS UNVEIL 3D VIDEO GAMES

students show off prototypes at 2022 Stout Gaming Expo

words by EVAN THIBODEAU

UW-STOUT SENIORS IN THE COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGRAM RECENTLY UNVEILED PROTOTYPE

CAPSTONE PROJECTS for the Game Design and Development concentration at the 2022 Stout Gaming Expo (SGX.22). The expo, held in the Great Hall of the Memorial Student Center on Wednesday, Dec. 14, was a showcase of games, virtual reality, and interactive experiences developed by UW-Stout GDD students.

SGX.22 featured seven playable prototypes developed by seniors at UW-Stout. These prototypes, while incomplete, mark an important milestone in these students’ last year at the university. For the GDD concentration, students must design and develop a 3D game from concept to prototype while working in a team, modeling the approach used in the

game development industry.

Lilly Sommer is a senior at UWStout and one of the programmers for Divining Rods, one of the capstone projects displayed.

“We get two semesters to work on a game with six to 10 other people, and we are at our halfway point right now with SGX,” Sommer explained. “We work the first semester largely on design and we’re told not even to get into the game engine until November-ish. Then, next semester is adding more features, fine-tuning, and cleaning everything up.”

Trinity Beltran, producer of Reaper’s Isle, hopes that her experience in the capstone project will propel her into a future game design career.

“I’m the producer of Reaper’s Isle, which means I came up with the original idea for our project,”

Beltran said. “I’m hoping to be an environment artist, but I’d be open to being a lead on a game someday.”

Beltran credits existing media as her primary source of inspiration for Reaper’s Isle. “Some of the main inspirations include Princess Mononoke and the spectral look of its monsters as well as the movie Annihilation with its evil scientists.”

Joshua Ambrecht is a programmer for AI Gotta Go, a platformer where the objective is to beat each level as fast as possible. “Basically, the whole plot of the game is that you’re a robot who’s gained sentience, and the factory that you were built in is trying to destroy you, and you gotta go,” Armbrecht said. “The big focus of it is movement, platforming, and speed running, so we give you a lot of options for how to interact with the environment, such as a grapple.”

Ambrecht went on to describe the difficulties of programming a game that is dependent on movement mechanics: “There are different ways to complete each level, and each way has its own completion methods. For example, there are target levels and other levels just have you get to the end.”

“One of the things we really want to do is have a network-based leaderboard so people can actually compete without having to be on the same system. That’s been our consistent stretch goal for what we want since it’s a speed running game after all,” Ambrecht said. “We want you to be able to get the world record in the game, and that’s definitely the thing we’ve set our eyes on the most.”

More information on SGX.22 and its student projects can be found at uwstout.edu.

BEST PLACES FOR GAMERS

words by JAMES JOHONNOTT

ARE YOU READY TO ROLL?

As tabletop gaming and RPGs push further and further into the mainstream, it’s a great idea to make friends with a friendly local game store whether you’re buying for yourself or a friend. GAMES

BY JAMES (in Oakwood Mall) was voted No. 1 for Best Game Store in Volume One’s 2022 Best of the Chippewa Valley Reader Poll. Stacked floor to ceiling in classic games, RPG accessories, modern board games, and tons of dice, Games by James is well known for its knowledgable and helpful

staff. Coming in second place is the IMAGINATION STATION (also inside Oakwood Mall), which is certainly the best spot to pick up a new children’s game. In third place is D20 GAMING (2158 EastRidge Center), a newly expanded gaming paradise that sells miniature wargaming, RPG books and accessories, and hosts tournaments for Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, and more.

Note: These results were collected in our 2022 poll. Readers’ responses to our latest poll will be published Feb. 9, so stay tuned!

readers picked these spots in our Best of the Chippewa Valley Poll

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: 7 REASONS TO ROLL

THERE'S A TON OF VALUE IN THE LEGENDARY ROLE-PLAYING GAME

words by JAMES JOHONNOTT

THAT SOUND YOU HEAR MIGHT BE THE SOUND OF A HANDFUL OF PLASTIC DICE HITTING THE TABLE IN YOUR BASEMENT.

The fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons has enjoyed something of a renaissance during the past several years. The game has been heavily referenced on the hit Netflix series Stranger Things and casually discussed on late night TV between personalities like Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert. The most successful crowd-funded TV show, at $11 million, is based on a weekly D&D webshow played by a group of voice actors (Critical Role). 2019 marks the 45th anniversary of a game that has strong midwestern roots having been invented by Midwesterners Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

But if the phrase “fantasy role-playing game” seems a little foreign, then allow me to break it down. Dungeons & Dragons is a game where a group of people create and play characters, each of which has set of specialized skills that make them different, that work together as a team to overcome challenges set forth by the Dungeon Master (equal parts storyteller and rules referee) in a fantasy world. A gaming group regularly meets for a handful of hours at a time to play through these scenarios in a story that spans several weeks, months, and sometimes years. A game of Dungeons & Dragons includes storytelling, puzzle solving, action adventure, dice gaming, improvisation, and acting.

For a lot of people, D&D isn’t just a hobby, but a foundational element of friendships, a creative outlet, an escape, and much more. Rather than getting into the nitty-gritty of the game, here’s just seven reasons why picking up some dice and finding a D&D gaming group is great for anyone.

1. GET CREATIVE.

At its core, D&D is a game fueled by creativity. No two games will ever be the same, because every group of players will imagine a different character and adventure in a different way. The game exists in a special, shared imagination space between the players and the Dungeon Master. For Dungeon Masters in particular, the books are only a starting point. The fantasy worlds of D&D are imagined and brought into existence through words alone.

2.

GET SOCIAL.

While geek-related activities often get a bad rap for being “antisocial,” this couldn’t be further than the truth for D&D. The game can only be played with others. For some, that group might be a weekly group of changing members at one

of the Chippewa Valley’s fine gaming shops. For others like myself, it’s a group forged from friends. A gaming group of friends only gets closer as they explore the world D&D together and face challenges as a team. Friends that you only see once every month or once or twice a year can turn into the kinds of friends you see on a weekly basis. For those that attend groups at a local game shop, the shared language of the game dispenses with the formalities and awkwardness that can plague anyone of any age from making new friends.

3. IMPROVISE.

D&D is a game with rules, but it’s not at all like playing through a novel or a video game; the world responds to the actions of the players.

The game challenges its players to come up with interesting solutions to problems. Unshackled by real-world consequences, players can try anything from the reasonable to the outlandish to solve a problem. Often the most courageous (read: off-the-wall) solutions are the most memorable.

4. INSIGHT.

An oft over-looked benefit of D&D is the opportunity to live vicariously through daring fantasy heroes, but also to look inward at those same characters. The game world not only allows players to create elves and dwarves, or wizards and rogues, but also to play as a character completely different from themselves. In a world powered by imagination, aspects that some of us take for granted like religion, gender, and sexual orientation can be chosen at will. This freedom offers players the ability explore aspects of their own personality they may have never explored real life.

5. SKILLS.

A D&D game challenges the players to use several skills that are useful in daily life. Team

<< For a lot of people, D&D isn't just a hobby, but a foundational element of friendships, a creative outlet, an escape, and more. >>

building, creative problem solving, quick thinking, listening, and empathy are all important to the game. These skills alone are a great reason for people of all ages to grab some dice. Younger players will learn a lot from the game’s challenges, and adults can brush up talents important in their social lives and careers.

6. MAKE MEMORIES.

Ask anyone who plays D&D what the most memorable moment in their game is and you’d better grab a chair. A gaming group’s sessions are chock full of tales of harrowing adventure, that will commonly be recounted over a few drinks like old war stories. The true magic is that players will almost always remem-

ber their adventures as though they, not an imaginary character, lived (or didn’t live) to tell the tale. Through the power of the game, these stories can be a vivid shared memory between friends.

7. HAVE FUN!

Most importantly, D&D is just fun! It can be challenging to learn the game if you don’t have someone to help show you the ropes, but once you get the hang of it and take advantage of the experiences it has to offer, it’s hard to put down. I discovered the game in 2008 and I’ve been playing in different groups ever since. It’s strengthened my friendships, helped me connect to other people, let me flex creative muscles, and more.