Laptops at the table..and recent research showing how bad it is in education..does it carry over to gaming?

[Emirikol]

This is in relation to this thread and a thought of mine that deserves more general discussion. Yes, "laptops" were dicussed in the past, now we're looking at smaller electronics (even google glasses). Well, recent research on the subject seems to confirm that they are a bad idea in education. I would argue from experience that this carries over to other attention-based things such as roleplay gaming as well. Thoughts on this renewed topic?

"Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers"
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...60131512002254

Since most of us gamers seem to be pretty bright fellows, shouldn't we be inclined to heed this?

Read more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...you-Project-Morningstar)/page12#ixzz34isequqq

 

[herrozerro]

As someone already pointed out this article really has no bearing on gaming. Unless your games are a one sided lecture.

 

[gamerprinter]

Our group is very old school in that we don't allow any electronics in our tabletop gaming - no labtops, no IPADs, no smart phones. All such devices are placed on a table outside the game room with rings shut off. A complete bookshelf in the game room contains our hardback/softback books. Any PDF material to be included in the game is printed as physical copies with a laser printer. Get those damn electronics off my lawn!

As an aside, I attended a GENCON several years ago and watched a con game with a laptop for every player. In the first 10 minutes of play, all players and GM were talking. Once the game got on a roll, everybody shut up and just stared at the screens, clicking on mice and keyboards, but not another word was spoken. I considered it eerie, even wrong, and very provocative in how electronics takes a social game like tabletop games and turns it into a PC game - not a direction I want to go...

 

[Ahnehnois]

I think it's nice that we can research factual questions in real time if they come up. That said, I think the negatives of having active electronic devices at the table vastly outweigh the positives, and I try to avoid having them around. Attention is the key commodity; if people's attention is split, the game suffers.

 

[Emirikol]

I made a slight response in the other thread.

I'm guilty of this myself, but I figure it might be a interesting experiment of the mind because I've observed it numerous times in our own groups that laptops and tablets are more of a distraction than a benefit..and this is the closest peer-reviewed research that is out there.

In the end, it doesn't really matter, but if your group looks more like 5 people staring at their smart phones on a train, than a group that is having actual human interaction without magical devices..well...maybe have that discussion at your table.

jh

 

[herrozerro]

Conversely if your game is 5 people hanging out using technology and still having fun, there is nothing weird about that.

 

[delericho]

I don't object to the electronics, per se. However:

- I would object to someone using the electronic tool to multitask while playing the game. If you'd rather be surfing the net than playing, that's fine - go do that instead.

- I don't like screens between players. I don't actually like DM screens all that much, but they're sometimes a necessary evil, but don't want screens between players in what is supposed to be a social event. So an iPad is fine, since it can be placed flat, but I my experiences with laptops at the table have been universally negative - purely because of the screen.

 

[Morrus]

Completely anecdotal, and related to distractions from electronic devices rather than valid in-game uses of them, but a few months ago we instituted a new rule at the table. Basically, if anyone touched their phone or tablet during the game for any other reason than a game-related reason (rules lookup etc.) they had to go and make drinks for everybody. Our game has improved 100% since then, in my opinion.

(We use a similar rule when we go out for dinner or what-have-you - anybody who touches their phone has to buy a round of drinks. It works wonderfully! Emergencies and stuff like checking on kids is excepted, of course, but random texting or Facebooking isn't allowed).

 

[Janx]

I don't object to the electronics, per se. However:

- I would object to someone using the electronic tool to multitask while playing the game. If you'd rather be surfing the net than playing, that's fine - go do that instead.

- I don't like screens between players. I don't actually like DM screens all that much, but they're sometimes a necessary evil, but don't want screens between players in what is supposed to be a social event. So an iPad is fine, since it can be placed flat, but I my experiences with laptops at the table have been universally negative - purely because of the screen.

I agree here. It's generally the "not paying attention to the game" that is the problem.

I switched to using my iPad for my character sheet, with the PDFs loaded in, and the d20 SRC site loaded up. Works better than paper for me. But I also don't surf the web, watch youtube, etc, let alone during the game.

I got my buddy setup with a similar process on his laptop, and at some point, mid-game he caught himself wasting too much time and not paying attention, so he put the hardware away.

Basically, the challenge is that the tech can't be trusted in everybody's hands. Since I can use it responsibly, I resent strict edicts against me using it, just because others can't handle it.

 

[tomBitonti]

Hi,

How much does how (or for what purpose) the device is used?

At the table, we frequently use tablets to view PDFs, or to lookup game rules in the online SRD (D20, Pathfinder), or to present an image selected for an important NPC.

I personally use an iPad to hold my character sheet and to take notes during play.

But, I don't arbitrarily surf, nor play games.

We occasionally have disruptions, or folks distracted, but, some of that is OK (say, when a party members are gearing up; often, we figure out generally what everyone is going to get, then the party breaks up to find shops and buy their stuff; that can take 5-10 minutes of the DM interacting with a subset of the group, during which time the other folks will surf to keep occupied).

As far as being distracted, there seem to be problems which go beyond the use of digital devices, which is amplified by having those devices present. That is, a failure to maintain focus, and a failure to wait ones turn, or to have much of an awareness of the state of the other people at the table. Some folks seem to be very poor at one or more of these.

Thx!

TomB