Jamie 20Fristrom

Me

My ludography: [1]

My blog (and other people's) about games: [2]

My other, older blog: [3]

My book reviews: [4]

Why Am I Putting Myself On This Web Page

Because I like to hear myself write, and because Noah Falstein's *400 Project* is moderated. At some point an effort like his or Doug Church's requires moderation, but I don't think we're at that point yet. We're still in the brainstorming stage, so to speak. But we do need some kind of formal guidelines for game design, particularly in the videogame business, where we're trying to find ways to short-circuit the process of implement / playtest / iterate to make better games quicker.

I'm mostly interested in games for their simulation / virtual experience aspects, but that doesn't totally limit me to videogames. Lately I've been into narrative role-playing games such as Universalis as well. And who doesn't like spending several hours straight playing nickel ante Texas hold 'em? But I also play games--in particular, Kohan--for the more traditional joy of overcoming challenges. I play a lot of different games poorly: where mastering one game teaches you only how to play that game, learning lots of games gives you various kinds of general skills that are useful in the so-called real world.