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

[Ruin Explorer]

Anecdote two: according to my mom, I was diagnosed as gifted at an early age. More recently, one of my friends suggested that she thinks I'm on the Autistic spectrum, and she has experience with that because she has a diagnosed autistic child. Ultimately, I think I'm better for not having it diagnosed if I am Autstic/Asperger's because it doesn't let me use it as an excuse. And yes, I've had experience with people using their disorders as a "get out of trouble/doing work" card.

Wow. No. If you were really Autistic or Aspergers, I mean, really, not diagnosed by an unqualified relative (or, in fact, any relative) or self-diagnosed by the internet, as is fashionable, you would definitely not be "better off" not knowing. Being kind of rude and nerdy doesn't mean you're on the spectrum. It's means you're kind of rude and nerdy.

As for "get out of doing work", well, if you think you're fit to judge that, you're wrong. Period. That's a really bad attitude.

 

[Zhaleskra]

Wow. Reported.

 

[Janx]

Because basic arithmetic is hard, and would not be quick and simple if you did it yourself? We need a computer to do it for us?

yes and no. If my char sheet is on ipad, and I've got scratch paper and pencil for HP tracking, that's both added clutter that my method eliminates and a mental context switch between mediums that my method avoids.

What I addressed specifically in my post is that some people with the tech fumble around tracking their HP in the computer. I have devised a simple way to easily automate that in the framework of my spreadsheet based char sheet without wasting other people's time.

 

[Mallus]

I believe recent research shows comparing apples to oranges is still a bad idea.

The campaigns I'm in are all tech-heavy tables. Tablets, laptops, smartphones, etc. They present no serious problem, even when they log into WoW for a spell.

The way I see it, a DM can't ban their way into being compelling. If your players attention's are wandering, be more interesting.

(and have the graciousness to accept it when you're not).

 

[Ratskinner]

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...

I kinda think that's cool, in a way. Although I find myself wondering why they'd bother getting together physically, at that point....running a game totally online, that's something I haven't gotten around to yet.

I would personally love tech at the table, if I found that it actually sped things up. So far, that hasn't been my experience. YMMV, wildly even, obviously.

 

[Remus Lupin]

I use Herolab at the table and I love it, but I will plead guilty to being easily distracted by shiny objects at the table, whether it's a Facebook chat with a friend, an email from my boss, or a blog post. However, in the days before I regularly brought a computer to the table, I don't think I was necessarily less distracted. I was just distracted by other things. If the game bogged down, I'd thumb through a book or stack dice, or else step out of the room and see what someone was watching on TV.

On the other hand, the advantage of having my iPad at the table or my laptop is that it not only allows me to tract and maintain my character in some more or less permanent form all in one place, but also gives me easy access to the online SRD and dozens of PDFs, without having to schlep a large and increasingly heavy cache of books.

But I will acknowledge that I need to do a better job of staying focused at the table. And we tend to have multiple computers and tablets at the table, and looking over folks' shoulders, I know I'm not the only one. I do think this is the kind of thing that can be handled via agreement among the group members (e.g., no browsing Facebook while gaming!), but there are lots of utilities to computers at the table that I think are worthwhile.

 

[billd91]

Because basic arithmetic is hard, and would not be quick and simple if you did it yourself? We need a computer to do it for us?

One of my best DMs had some learning disability issues with math, so sometimes yes. Let's not dismiss, here.

 

[billd91]

Anecdote two: according to my mom, I was diagnosed as gifted at an early age. More recently, one of my friends suggested that she thinks I'm on the Autistic spectrum, and she has experience with that because she has a diagnosed autistic child. Ultimately, I think I'm better for not having it diagnosed if I am Autstic/Asperger's because it doesn't let me use it as an excuse. And yes, I've had experience with people using their disorders as a "get out of trouble/doing work" card.

One certainly hopes you don't view all people with disabilities in the same way, using it as an "excuse" rather than a legitimate reason for things.

But let's face it, being undiagnosed is generally NOT better since people can't qualify for therapy without the diagnosis. And kids on the spectrum (and their families) can really benefit from the therapy.

 

[Zhaleskra]

One certainly hopes you don't view all people with disabilities in the same way, using it as an "excuse" rather than a legitimate reason for things.

I'm glad you're at least giving me the benefit of the doubt. No, I certainly don't think all people with disabilities are faking it. What Ruin Explorer failed to understand is that he does not get to tell me what I've actually seen or what my attitude is. Often not from the disabled people themselves, but from parents or instructors encouraging them to use their disability as a fall back, and have you seen some of the posts on Wrong Planet? I have been accused of being too harsh on certain students in assisting martial arts instruction, and I've often been tempted to say "and you're being way too lenient, sir". With one student, he actually improved after we stopped treating him differently.

I have an "as cured as possible" disability myself: stuttering/stammering, whatever you want to call it. Although it helped, at the time, I did not enjoy the speech therapy I got in elementary school. Sometimes I still stutter, and when it happens, some people harass me about it. As a kid, I was more often believed when lying and not believed when telling the truth. It doesn't help that modern "lie detection" tricks describe stuttering as a "tell". Now, I stutter when I'm nervous (which could include feeling intimidated), or when I haven't fully prepared what I'm saying. Of course some "liar" accusations came from someone who was one of those people who if you don't think everything she does is perfect, you're a liar. In job interviews, I point out that I stutter and that one of my techniques to prevent it is to take longer pauses. I've been a victim of "Hesitation Equals Dishonesty" far more often than I care to count.

 

[Umbran]

The way I see it, a DM can't ban their way into being compelling. If your players attention's are wandering, be more interesting.

(and have the graciousness to accept it when you're not).

Except, as previously noted, "bored" or "not compelling" is not necessarily the issue.

There's lots of people out there who are, for lack of a better word, conditioned to poke at the internet. For such people, it has nothing to do with their interest in your game, any more than a smoker's desire to step out for a cigarette is a sign they are bored.