For this month’s Top 10, “The Outlook” talked to Professor Dickie Cox, an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication. Currently, he teaches Games and Worldbuilding, and Introduction to Digital Media. Due to these of courses and interests in games, we asked him about his top 10 favorites. Games are an immersive way to connect and socialize with family and friends and they were a way for Cox to make friends in new places as he moved professionally. Beyond his interests in games, Cox is a media artist and creative technologist. Because Cox loves tabletop games as much as videogames, the list includes both. Because of his unwillingness to create numerical rankings, this top ten list appears in chronological order.
“Ms. Pac-Man” (1982)
While I played many of the games in this list well after their release, this is definitely the first game that figures into my lifelong love of games. This was the game when I joined the “Pac-Man” craze of the 1980s. As a kid, I would weave my way through grocery and department store aisles in a parallel action as the title character hunting for this game cabinet with quarters burning a hole in my pocket. The arcade in a nearby mall was my first “third place.”
“Final Fantasy” (1987)
I spent as much time in my familial basement playing this game on my Nintendo Entertainment System as I did mowing grass and swimming in the summer of 1988. The design team at Square created this classic dungeon crawler that afforded the opportunity to create a four-character adventuring party with classes. This is the first game I played which featured characters who matured during gameplay…and AIRSHIPS!
“Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 2nd edition” (1989)
Pen and paper roleplaying games became a staple genre in my life at the age of 13. I would play with a small group of friends before and after school in our local library every possible weekend. This immersive shared fantasy storytelling game was my safe haven while growing up in a small southern town. Playing this game taught me creativity, collaboration, how to build shared worlds, and gave me my love of studying systems.
“Pokémon Trading Card Game” (1997)
I started playing Pokémon in the summer of 2024 because of my five-year-old son’s interest in the creatures on the cards. I credit this card game as the vehicle that gave him a passion for reading. He was so curious about what each card said and, as we worked through new words, I could not help but notice the embedded systems for interactivity written into the cards. I love both the collectability of this game’s specially printed cards and building new decks to test synergies. My son loves his fired-based Cinderace ex deck from Steller Crown.
“The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” (1998)
I first played this game on the Nintendo 64 in 2006 in my thirties. I was so moved by the time travelling puzzles of the game and how much the songs played on the titular woodwind unlocked secrets in the game. While it was one of the most aesthetically beautiful games that I played, I never completed the game; mostly because of my work schedule at the time. Someday I would like to rebuild a Nintendo 64 system and finish this game.
“Portal” (2007)
I played and finished Portal two days after its release while I was faculty-in-residence at the Mallet Assembly at the University of Alabama. The honors students in that hall all downloaded and played the game all night and day upon its release. I was struck by their deep commitment to be among the first players to finish the puzzle-platform game designed by Kim Swift and developed by Valve. The overnight meme became the “Cake is a Lie” and I was directed by the students to explore the game for myself to see the mind-bending wonder of the portal gun mechanic.
“Fallout 3” (2008)
There is a little irony that I discovered the Fallout series while living in New Mexico—home of the Trinity Site. The post-apocalyptic setting for this game was the ruins of Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia which I had previously explored in my personal and professional life. This was one of the first games that made use of locations for which I had a mental map. It is a great blend of adventure and horror with some comedic moments.
“Carcassonne” (2000)
The German board game designer Klaus-Jürgen Wrede created this tile placement game that depicts the medieval landscape of France. In my mind, this game is the front door ushering in the 21st century’s golden age of boardgames. It has a streamlined rule set with lots of expansions created since its initial release. The seamless tiles are puzzle-like but players vie for points through worker placement mechanics.
“Dragoon” (2016)
This strategy box game featuring warring dragons was published by Lay Waste Games after a successful Kickstarter. The base set offers 2 to 4 players the opportunity to play as Dragons ruling over villages and cities while hoarding treasure. I love the weight of the metal-casted tokens and texture of the cloth playmat. It is the most balanced game for three players that I have ever played.
“Kids on Bikes” (2018)
This roleplaying, RPG ruleset is loosely based on coming-of-age fantasy and science-fiction films from the 1980s like “Goonies” and “E.T.” and released on the heels of the critical success of “Stranger Things.” In this collaborative storytelling game, player characters work through the pains of growing up while wrestling with dark and strange occurrences in their hometown. I adore this genre as the 1980s was the backdrop of my own coming-of-age. The designers scored additional social currency with me when they held a charity sale and donated those proceeds to the Sylvia Riveria Law Project to benefit transgender rights.
