Today we’d like to introduce you to Edward Stafford.
Edward, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The idea for Gamerunner was born about five years ago when we realized that playing board games as a family was more than just having fun together. As Sasha and I played games with our kids, it dawned us that they were doing fairly complex stuff like math, reading, and critical thinking without being forced or cajoled into doing it. Even better, they were having fun while they did it and asked to play more games.
As it turns out, humans, like all mammals, are hard-wired to learn through play. Observe kittens or puppies or any young wild animal while they’re “playing” and it’s easy to see that what they are really doing is learning and practicing the skills they will need later in life. We are no different. When we play, we can practice things like social cues, taking turns, sportsmanship, and decision-making with no real-world consequences. Losing a game is a great way to assess what went wrong and what can be done better next time. So even though there are games out there labeled specifically as “educational games,” in reality, all games are educational.
We began offering classes while I was working full time as closed captioner for the hearing impaired. The classes filled up and became popular enough that I could quit my job of 11 years and run games full time for the last two years. In addition to board games, Gamerunner offers roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons and maker/crafting classes in the Gamerunner workshop.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I couldn’t do what I do without my wife, Sasha. She’s the one behind the curtain pulling all the levers and doing all the paperwork while I get to write stories for the roleplaying games, read rule books so I can teach the games, and pretend to be a band of marauding goblins.
The biggest struggle was making the decision to leave behind a job I had been at for more than a decade to do something that seemed so outlandish. I’m going to play games with kids as a job? To this day, it’s hard to believe that’s what I do. But I’m grateful to the parents who trust me and to my wife. Without them believing in me, I don’t think I could have made the jump.
Gamerunner – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Gamerunner serves mostly the homeschooling community, but we also offer pop-up workshops and run game nights and roleplaying games for parties or organizations. We specialize in using board games and roleplaying games to allow learning to happen organically. I don’t have to remind students that they are doing math because they are intrinsically motivated to do math because it’s just part of the game.
I’m most proud of the fact that, in the five years that we’ve been in business, “Gameschooling” has become a thing. In fact, it’s so much of a thing now that we were able to take this idea and build the first ever “Gameschooling” conference. I never would have imagined when we started that we would be putting on a con attended by 500 people! But there are articles and dissertations are being written about the benefits of roleplaying games. Board games are getting attention as a way for family and friends to spend quality time together. So it’s satisfying to see the things we’ve believed in being confirmed by people who study them.
What sets us apart from others is we don’t emphasize the “learning” that happens in our classes. We just let it happen naturally. Kids are smarter than they get credit for and they don’t need to be told “this is the portion of the game that involves math.” We speak with the parents about it and if any of the charter schools need a certain subject checked off, we provide that. But as far as the students are concerned, they’re just here to play games or make stuff.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment so far has been seeing 500 people turn up for a convention that we made. And when I say “we,” I mean Sasha. She’s a force of nature and I just ride on her coattails. Seriously, the success of GameSchoolCon made me do a Keanu-worthy “Whooaah!”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.gamerunner.com
- Phone: 310-625-5088
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gamerunnergames/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/gamerunner-long-beach?osq=gamerunner
- Other: www.gamechoolcon.com
Image Credit:
The photo of Sasha and I should be credited to Trevor Toma
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