Your writer of the roundup this week is a big fan of tabletop games, and the way they can create a screen-free social experience.
For many neurodivergent folk, they provide a great environment to interact with other people without the trappings of ‘traditional’ social situations. Tabletop games allow for the inhabiting of other characters, structured interactions, or even just quietly playing a game within the presence of other people – whatever suits the individual.
So it’s great to see a local games shop in Dubbo providing an place for people to interact and be themselves while playing some great games, as Emily Middleton reports from ABC Western Plains.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-18/dubbo-games-shop-neurodivergence-loneliness-d-and-d/103968470
Well, sometimes you’ve just got to take matters into your own hands.
Mary McCool at BBC Scotland reports that a group of anglers who were frustrated with the water conditions in a stretch of the River Ericht in Perthshire have… bought that stretch of river.
The poor water conditions were harming the endangered salmon in the river, so the four fisherman bought the section of river themselves to try and improve the recovery of the species, and persuade the Scottish government to take action.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c722528kpgmo
Despite being born without any hands, 12-year old Aubrey Sauvie has managed to achieve more that most people twice her age – she’s a tae kwon do black belt, competitive dancer and plays the drums.
Nonetheless, she admits her life has been challenging – aside from the physical difficulties, she has encountered bullying and teasing.
But as Katelyn Quisenberry reports for Yahoo News, some Tennessee Tech students have worked to make her life a little bit easier – and they’ve created personalised 3-D prosthetics to enable Aubrey to better play the drums.
It’s quite a remarkable story:
https://news.yahoo.com/news/building-future-tennessee-tech-student-150000254.html
If you’ve ever felt like you might be too old to finally pursue that DJ career, does 85-year old Polish grandmother DJ Vika ever have the reality check for you.
The subject of the new documentary Vika! is a remarkable figure, especially in the country of Poland, where documentary director Agnieszka Zwiefka says it’s more common for people to focus on family life than their individual dreams.
No one told Vika, though – as RNZ’s Music 101 program reports:
And finally, another one on the subject of games.
Positive News reports that a new project is encouraging video gamers (you know, the type that doesn’t go outside) to build a stronger relationship with nature by cultivating plants featured in their favourite games.
Gamers actually spend quite a lot of time dealing with various plants – some normal, some carnivorous – and ‘Seed Saga’ is the result.
Thankfully, players will only be cultivating plants found in a specific game at this stage, and not any of those piranha plants you find in the Super Mario games.
How the virtual world is inspiring gamers to become botanists – Positive News
