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What Play Does For Us: A Special Screening of The Good in Games at the Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo
- Chris Moreland
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
If you’ve ever sat around a table full of dice, character sheets, and people you barely knew an hour ago, then you already understand something most folks miss: play changes us. Games aren’t a distraction or a hobby. They’re a kind of fuel — emotional, social, and creative. They give us permission to be bold, to be silly, to be vulnerable, and to be fully ourselves.
That’s the heart of The Good in Games, and it’s the reason I’m bringing a special cut of the film to the Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo on Saturday, January 7, 2026 at 10 PM.
This version will only ever be shown to the people who show up in that room.
From “50 Years of Fantasy” to The Good in Games
This film started as a nostalgia piece. Something fun. Something about the last five decades of fantasy gaming — the creators, the communities, the weird times, the brilliant ideas, the controversies, the joy.
But the deeper I got into it, the more I realized the real story wasn’t about sourcebooks or editions or the “right way to play.” It was about people. The firefighters who unwind at weekly game night. The veterans who use RPGs to reconnect with their own emotions. The kids who discover courage through imaginary worlds. The friendships that didn’t exist until someone asked, “Hey, you wanna roll up a character?”
The title had to change, because the truth had changed. This isn’t about history.It’s about impact.It’s about healing.It’s about why games matter.
What Play Actually Does For Us
We say “it’s just a game,” but inside the stories people shared with me, I saw something bigger.
Play gives us a safe place to practice being brave.
Around a table, you get to try being bold, loud, clever, or fearless long before you’re ready to be any of those things out in the real world. When the stakes are imaginary, people take chances they’ve never taken before. Eventually those chances stop feeling imaginary.
Play creates found family.
So many folks told me the same thing in different words: “These are my people.” The table becomes a weekly ritual. A place where it’s okay to be strange. A place where you’re celebrated for trying. A place where you belong.
Play rewires how we see ourselves.
Kids find confidence. Adults rediscover imagination. People who thought they weren’t creative suddenly find themselves telling stories that move the entire table. Games give people new mirrors — and in those mirrors, they see something worth holding onto.
Play preserves our stories — and makes room for new ones.
D&D, tabletop games, LARPs, card games — they’re all modern mythology. They’re the campfire stories of our generation. And every time someone rolls a die, that mythology grows.
Why Philadelphia? Why Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo?
The Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo feels like the perfect place to show this cut of the film. PAGE is built by the kind of people this documentary is about — community-driven gamers who put connection before everything else.
They’re the folks who create welcoming tables.They’re the ones who keep the hobby human.They’re the ones who prove that games are not escapism.They’re engagement. Creativity. Joy. Healing.Sometimes they’re survival.
That’s why this version is just for them.
On Saturday, January 7, 2026 at 10 PM, I’ll be in the room sharing footage, stories, and moments that won’t appear anywhere else. Not online. Not in theaters. Not even on the DVD release.
If you want to see how powerful play truly is, and how deeply it shapes the people who love it, this is the place to be.
Closing Thought
When you strip away the editions, the rules, the dice, and the arguments — all games really do the same thing:They give us room to breathe.They give us room to grow.They give us each other.
That’s the good in games. And I can’t wait to share it with Philly.
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