Recent Articles & Reviews by Peter Steele

I am a Massachusetts psychotherapist with more than 15 years of experience and a tabletop gamer who has spent more than 30 years rolling dice, shuffling cards, and thinking far too seriously about what happens around the table. I have presented at regional, national, and international professional conferences on mental health, the intersection of psychology and tabletop gaming, and the gamification of education.

My own gaming education began with AD&D 2nd Edition, HeroQuest, Axis & Allies, Star Fleet Battles, and BattleTech before the Star Trek Customizable Card Game got its hooks into me in 1994. Since then, playing games has expanded into collecting, studying, armchair designing, and introducing entirely innocent people to the hobby.

I write about the psychology of play and the strange, funny, deeply human things we reveal when given some cardboard, a few rules, and permission to become deeply invested in resources that do not actually exist. I am interested in what makes games work, but even more interested in what games reveal about the people playing them.