Wow! It's been a little over two months since I last put out a Matrix Gamer. Why so long? Well...That darned life thing gets in the way. Work, self help meetings (I'm thinking of founding Adventure Gamers Anonymous) and yard work (since early April). All add up to a lull for the Matrix Gamer. Such are the dilemmas of a newsletter with a one person staff. I have not been lazy though. In April I wrote a bunch or article for the Mid West Wargamers Newsletter. They all dealt with my recent experiments in Matrix Games that run battles. At first it was just a fun game but then a co-worker suggested I do a psychotherapy group for teenage boys where we play games to learn social skills. The idea intrigued me because I recall how much I learned by attending the Falls of the Ohio Wargame Club when I was a teen. For such a group to work the game has to be very fast and give a complete game in 30 minutes. The rules needed to apply to all periods – so players would not have to learn and relearn rules sets. The Encounters MG on the drawing board appeared to meet the requirements. In addition I can build into the game the language of social skills and anger management training – so the game becomes the laboratory in which the players try out their skills. Add on a pre and post test of the members social skills and I should get an academic paper out of it. If this game therapy group works then that will be a boon to the gaming hobby as a whole. For years gamers have danced on the edge of acceptability. Miniatures gamers were "warmongers", role play gamers were "freaks", Magic the Gathering and Pokeman card players were "geeks" and we all were nerds. Well...er...I'm afraid that nothing can change that! BUT if I can show that a gaming method can teach social skills and anger management, then we will have an answer to certain political forces that view our hobby as a cause of school shootings rather than a cure for them. We will see… Back to Table of Contents -- Matrix Gamer #25 To Matrix Gamer List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Chris Engle. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com