John David Thacker

Freelance Writer

United States of America

Portfolio
Noble Knight Gaming Hall
05/20/2022
Board Game App: Friend or Foe? | Noble Knight Gaming Hall

Smartphones have been with us for 15 years now. Students entering high school this fall have never known a world where people didn't carry the internet in their pockets. Since Apple's iPhone went on sale in 2007, these devices have gone from a luxury item for techies and early adopters to a practical necessity of modern life.

Noble Knight Gaming Hall
03/24/2022
Hidden Movement Games: The Best of | Noble Knight Gaming Hall

There is something primal about the childhood game of hide and seek. It's such a simple game-one person hides, and another looks for them-yet it is deeply compelling. The game taps into our primitive instincts to hunt, track, and capture as well as our instincts to flee, hide, and evade.

Noble Knight Gaming Hall
02/10/2022
I Cut You Choose - Pizza, Cake & Board Games | Noble Knight Gaming Hall

The I-cut-you-choose game mechanic is most easily described by a simple analogy. There can be no peace in a house with two children and one piece of leftover birthday cake. That cake is a powder keg just waiting to be set off by the unjust distribution of desserts.

Noble Knight Gaming Hall
01/24/2022
Board Games and Emotional Intelligence | Noble Knight Gaming Hall

You are playing Ticket to Ride and you are one card away from completing a 22-point cross-country route from Seattle to New York. You can feel the tension rising within you as you watch the players ahead of you reveal new cards and claim routes.

Noble Knight Gaming Hall
01/04/2022
Roll And Write Games - the Right Way | Noble Knight Gaming Hall

With hits like Cartographers, Welcome To..., and Railroad Ink releasing in the past four years-2018 was a banner year for the genre-everyone can agree that Roll and Write games have gained in popularity, even if no one quite agrees on what exactly a Roll and Write game is.

Noble Knight Gaming Hall
12/01/2021
Best Deck-Building Board Games: Top 5! | Noble Knight Gaming Hall

Today we bring you our Top 5 Deck-Building Board Games-including map/game board! Ever since Rio Grande Games' smash hit Dominion introduced deck-building in 2008, the genre has grown in popularity, inspiring games like Ascension and Star Realms. Like Dominion, these are strictly card games, but as the deck-building mechanic has matured, other genres of tabletop games have incorporated it.

AMBS
03/24/2021
Online Pastors and Leaders event explores how to thrive in the pandemic

By John David Thacker for AMBS (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) - A year after the COVID-19 virus reached the shores of North America, leaders of churches and church institutions continue to imagine new ways of ministering amidst the difficulties and demands of living through a pandemic.

The Municipal
07/01/2016
Calling 'Code Green' on Mental Health

A profile on the Code Green Campaign, a national nonprofit raising awareness of mental health needs of EMS providers | Trade Magazine

The Municipal
08/01/2016
Taking it to the Streets

Article on the public design process for a major road project in South Carolina | Trade Magazine

The Municipal
09/01/2016
Learning to Lead

Article on Iowa's Municipal Leadership Academy | Trade Magazine