Allow me to tell you a little bit about myself and answer a few questions about this blog.

I have been playing board and roleplaying games now for a little while. I started back in the late 70s with Avalon Hill’s Arab-Israeli Wars (anyone else out there whose first hobby game was Arab-Israeli Wars? Anyone?) and D&D, and went through periods of Civilization, Star Fleet Battles, Advanced Squad Leader, Dune, Traveller, Up Front, Magic Realm, 1830, and Magic: The Gathering, just to pick a few high points. Then in 1995, I discovered Kosmos’ Settlers of Catan, Hans-im-Glück’s Modern Art, and ICE’s Middle-Earth: the Wizards, and everything changed; all of a sudden these games were no longer a small niche for the serious gamer with lots of time on their hands, but something you could play with relatively normal people (and I say that with affection for us gamers).

I started writing occasional reviews of boardgames for the usenet newsgroup rec.games.board back about 1994. I haven’t kept records or copies of my early pieces, but I remember writing reviews of Republic of Rome and several 18xx games around that time – they were not exactly Sumoesque, but I enjoyed writing and one has to start somewhere. After that I had a couple reviews published in Sumo (Dune CCG, Babylon 5 CCG) and Counter (Cheops), but virtually all my writing was just put somewhere on the internet, for the newsgroups and later the Gaming Dumpster and then BoardGameGeek.

After working at and honing my writing for a few years on BoardGameGeek during a particularly slow time at work, I moved to my own blog, imaginatively titled “Chris Farrell’s Gaming Blog” (it made sense at the time).

Why a blog, and not just standard review pieces, as many do? Well, for a couple reasons. Firstly, the work I most enjoyed doing (and which I still consider some of the more interesting pieces I’ve done) were some of the GeekLists I did on BoardGameGeek. They were quick, concise takes on games followed by interesting discussion with people of different opinions. Many modern games are disposable, you play them a time or a few times for the novelty or the experience, and so the amount of time spent reading and writing a full-blown review seems out of proportion with the time you spend actually playing it. Many recent games are very amenable to a “quick-take” style – hit the high (or low) points and be done. Perhaps more importantly, as a more interactive format that is not simply a pronouncement but a forum for a give and take with the readers, a blog is far more interesting and entertaining both to read and to write.

I did Chris Farrell’s Gaming Blog from late 2003 through the end of 2006. I am happy with the work I did there – especially if you compare the quality of the early pieces with the quality of the later ones. I am proud of the number of people I was able to reach and the quality of the discussion. I even did a short-lived companion podcast, including one episode on the ASL module Armies of Oblivion that was one of the better bits I produced in 2006, I think. But then in early 2007, I quit.

The reasons for ending that blog, and then beginning this one about a year later, are complicated. I blame Reiner Knizia and Beowulf: The Legend. Playing Beowulf was so enlightening for me that all of a sudden the average, one-dimensional, themeless games that make up a good chunk of what is published today were no longer cutting it, and my interest in them tanked. Likewise, after  trying to keep up with new wargame releases and getting hammered with disappointing and underdeveloped game after game, I similarly lost my edge in that area, retreating into known classic games like EastFront, Rommel in the Desert, and On to Richmond!. I found I didn’t have much interest in covering the new games as they came out, and that sort of “reportage” had been the core of what I had done for the previous 3+ years.

So I took some time off. I played Scrabble a lot, and enjoyed it. I played Monopoly, and enjoyed it. I played Risk: Star Wars – The Clone Wars, and enjoyed it. Heck, I even played Monopoly Mega and enjoyed it. It’s not like I stopped playing modern games – they still are most of what I play – but I even realized I enjoyed Monopoly more than Notre Dame.

It must seem odd that Beowulf should be the trigger that would illuminate to me what I was missing in Monopoly, but so it was. But now I am back writing about games again, in a new and better-titled blog.

So what’s different? On the one hand, not a lot. On the other hand ... well, something.

Stepping away from writing for about a year allowed my perspective to fully adjust to a different way of thinking about games, an adjustment that it was trying to make but couldn’t quite fully do while I was still regularly writing (and, I should mention, having a full-time job). I always tried to be fair in my writing, tried to talk about and evaluate a game for what it was and not what I wanted it to be. But in looking at issues like pacing, downtime, interactivity, and balance – concrete game elements – I was not always seeing the whole picture, the entire gaming experience. I was starting to get at it in my 2006 writing, but I hope to do more of that now.

Who do I hope will benefit from this blog? You might not guess from the sometimes extensive comparative analysis I do that I hope that it is the new gamers who will see the greatest benefit. Perhaps not by reading this blog directly, but through their friends who are serious gamers who read this blog. As gamers, we often know what we like and don’t like, and don’t always think about it too much. That’s fine; it is certainly not the point to try to convince anyone who really likes Caylus that they are wrong and should give it up for Beowulf and Monopoly. I’m just hoping that we all may come to a better understanding and appreciation of all the different ways that people enjoy games, and so be better prepared when a new friend comes by and expresses interest in all those interesting-looking games on your shelf.

Hope you enjoy the new blog!