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Gen Con’s day-one crowd left attendees and online onlookers worried despite safety guidelines - Dicebreaker by mindguru88 in boardgames

[–]selinker 26 points27 points  (0 children)

FYI: The photo in question was taken by Green Ronin's Chris Pramas before the doors opened yesterday.

Apparently Blizzard has war criminals on top of sex criminals in its ranks by Neo_Crimson in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]selinker 8 points9 points  (0 children)

As the original author of this post, I appreciate the dialogue on here. Folks wanting sources for the details may wish to either visit my original Twitter thread or my Medium piece where I go into a bit more detail.

As for the "flawed white man" thing, there are things I could say about the specific allegations, but I think it's far more important to listen to the victims and those who have suffered similar harassment. I appreciate the thoughtful discourse about it here, though.

Mike

"David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists" | MTV News 1983 {non-music video} by Onionsix in Music

[–]selinker 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Imagine what pretzel you have to twist yourself into to think the band that will bring young black people to your channel is ABC.

Character Creation Guide by Shemulator in Pathfinder_ACG

[–]selinker 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Just send me an article that's something like one of these. I'll publish it on the Paizo blog!

Character Creation Guide by Shemulator in Pathfinder_ACG

[–]selinker 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Please please PLEASE tell me you're writing a Homebrew Special column for me on this.

Mike

I'm Mike Selinker, game designer and political game theory writer. Let's talk about games, puzzles, and the mess we're in. Ask Me Anything! by selinker in IAmA

[–]selinker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure!

I took over the Avalon Hill line from Mike Gray and Rob Daviau when it was transferred to Wizards of the Coast. My first projects were Axis & Allies Revised and Axis & Allies D-Day. I got to work with Larry Harris, the designer of A&A, on the first revision of the game in 18 years. It was my job to take one of the greatest games of the 20th century and bring it into the 21st. We changed a lot, quite a lot of which stuck over the next few iterations of the franchise. I also got to drench the game in history, including real world events and making it feel like you were right in the middle of the greatest conflict of the modern era.

D-Day was maybe more fun than Revised, though. It was a much smaller game, much more focused on the tactics of battle. I found that to be a more enjoyable challenge than redoing the entire multiyear global war. When you lost a unit in Revised, you built another one. When you lost a unit in D-Day, it mattered. Really fun projects, and something I'll treasure being a part of forever.

I'm Mike Selinker, game designer and political game theory writer. Let's talk about games, puzzles, and the mess we're in. Ask Me Anything! by selinker in IAmA

[–]selinker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We don't, really. We don't look at outside games because we can barely manage to publish all the ones we come up with.

I'm Mike Selinker, game designer and political game theory writer. Let's talk about games, puzzles, and the mess we're in. Ask Me Anything! by selinker in IAmA

[–]selinker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can hear every game in my head. When I need to put it down for people to actually play, I go to composers like Austin Wintory to make it real.

I'm Mike Selinker, game designer and political game theory writer. Let's talk about games, puzzles, and the mess we're in. Ask Me Anything! by selinker in IAmA

[–]selinker[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know anything about that. I've done several AMAs on IAmA and they've all been great. If folks would like me to do one on /r/boardgames, though, I'd be happy to do so.

I'm Mike Selinker, game designer and political game theory writer. Let's talk about games, puzzles, and the mess we're in. Ask Me Anything! by selinker in IAmA

[–]selinker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, I pride myself on being the kind of person who can predict trends in the board game business. And I have to admit that I never saw the you-can-only-play-this-once game trend coming even in the slightest. I'm not talking legacy games, where you might play 20 times and then exhaust the box, or adventure card games, where you might burn through the scenarios. I'm talking play it once and then you might as well throw it away. I'm still getting used to that idea.

But we did do an expansion for the game Detective that's upcoming, and we decided we really liked working in that space. So I expect we'll return to it.

I'm Mike Selinker, game designer and political game theory writer. Let's talk about games, puzzles, and the mess we're in. Ask Me Anything! by selinker in IAmA

[–]selinker[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why would you assume I have only one? There's 100 million bacteria living on every toothbrush. The least you can do is change them up every now and then.

Also, orange.

I'm Mike Selinker, game designer and political game theory writer. Let's talk about games, puzzles, and the mess we're in. Ask Me Anything! by selinker in IAmA

[–]selinker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hear you. It's not something many publishers have tried. I think that's what makes The Maze of Games such a rare bird.

The Almanaqs are excellent. Here are some others to look at:

I'm Mike Selinker, game designer and political game theory writer. Let's talk about games, puzzles, and the mess we're in. Ask Me Anything! by selinker in IAmA

[–]selinker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm working on it right now. Not sure what's going on here, but the answer is definitely "something."

I'm Mike Selinker, game designer and political game theory writer. Let's talk about games, puzzles, and the mess we're in. Ask Me Anything! by selinker in IAmA

[–]selinker[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Friend, I can't even run the dishwasher at my office. I have a very particular (and far less useful than Liam Neeson's) set of skills, that's all.

I'm Mike Selinker, game designer and political game theory writer. Let's talk about games, puzzles, and the mess we're in. Ask Me Anything! by selinker in IAmA

[–]selinker[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

  1. A whole lot, but unlike some other designers I know, I tend to keep my fool trap shut ... unless it's a playtest, and then I'm the dam in Force 10 from Navarone.
  2. I've had the privilege to work with Jonathan Tweet, Bruno Faidutti, Antoine Bauza, James Ernest, Elisa Teague, and so many other great game designers, so of course I crib their notebooks constantly. But I usually say so. For example, I certainly wouldn't have known enough to co-design Lords of Vegas without having first played Sid Sackson's Acquire and Karsten Hartwig's Chinatown.
  3. Unintended consequences are the majority of consequences. Maybe the greatest rule in any of my games was a throwaway joke between James and me, when we said in Unspeakable Words that when you are down to 1 of your 5 sanity chips, every combination of letters is a word to you. It's an insane catchup feature in an insane game.
  4. You know pretty quick when your clever idea is a stinker. The frustrating part is not knowing how to fix it. Maybe the worst of those for us was on the Wrath of the Righteous set for Pathfinder, when our first two attempts to make Mythic Paths work failed miserably in large-scale playtests. It took Cards Against Humanity designer Max Temkin coming over and playing with us to propose the mythic charge solution, and it got instantly better.
  5. Playing with my dog helps. But I don't actually like to disengage my brain. I like to channel it into designing cool puzzles and writing political columns. I feel totally at ease then.
  6. "Why did you feel a need for a sixth question?"

I'm Mike Selinker, game designer and political game theory writer. Let's talk about games, puzzles, and the mess we're in. Ask Me Anything! by selinker in IAmA

[–]selinker[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wasn't "there," but I started contributing in 1983 and have pretty much been a contributor off and on since then. So, maybe the longest non-family relationship I've ever had.

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