I was interviewed by a missionary from Korea.
I didn't know that when it started. Tom Vasel is a personality on the Spielfrieks board game discussion mailing list. He reviews lots of games and also interviews game designers. He started a dialog with me a few months ago, sending me a message on Boardgamegeek. I have rated a lot of games and made a lot of comments on that website, especially for a game designer, several of which are on there.
After the first two questions, I got laid off. (You can see I had more time to answer the subsequent questions.) I didn't know how to contact Tom to continue. At Origins, I was chatting with Tom Shaw of Avalon Hill, reminiscing about the old days. Tom Vasel broke in to make contact with Mr. Shaw, and I reconnected with him. Vasel said that he lives in Korea doing missionary work, so this was about my only chance to meet him. His eyes lit up when I told him I was laid off, realizing that my answers could now be different.
Please note that while I continue to enhance my own celebrity, I am interview #57, so I have no illusions about my impact on the art of game design. There are many other designers worthy of interviews that don't have one there yet, but I have a big mouth and I'm easy to find. That's how I go to be Guest of Honor at Origins. In fact, that's how I got hired at That Company.
I answered his questions thoughtfully and frankly, including questions about what it was like to work at That Company. I tried very hard to be nice to the vast majority of the people I worked alongside, and characterize the problems there as the small number of people who worked against me. I hope that those of you I worked with get this vibe from the interview, as that was my intention. Any omissions or misstatements in that regard I regret and apologize for.
Anyway, I did it, and it's out there, and I might as well reference it here, because that would be Quoting Myself.
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5 comments:
I enjoyed the interview as I stated earlier. I wonder what percentage of the ones making bad decisions are still at That Company.
For what it's worth - Star Destroyer was always one of my favorite cards... Back in the day at a small local tourney we had this loud, boisterous player who would stop his game, stand up in his chair and yell "Star Destroyer" every time he played the card. I swear one tourney he must have played 5 copies in one deck...
Great interview and insight into the mind of a designer.
g-100%
How about a link so we don't have to go digging? A REAL celebrity would provide that, you know!
It's linked to the headline. I've always wondered whether it was clear that with this blog template, sometimes the headline is a link and sometimes it's not. I've been considering turning that off, and then putting the link in the text. Or doing it like BoingBoing, and adding a link to the bottom text.
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