FAQ

This is a play journal blog and general thought warehouse by Nick Fortugno. For more information, refer to the FAQ below.

Who is Nick Fortugno, and why should I care?

Nick Fortugno is this guy.  He was lead designer on this, this, and this, and also was a designer on a lot of other games. He also co-designed this (with Katie Salen and Frank Lantz), co-founded this (with Greg Trefry, Mattia Romeo, Catherine Herdlick, and Peter Lee Seung-Taek) , teaches here, and does a bunch of tabletop and live-action roleplaying including this and this. He’s also written a bunch of stuff including this, an article for this, and this (with Eric Zimmerman).

And what is this?

Well, my company Rebel Monkey was a casualty in the Great Recession of ’09, and I had some time on my hands, so I started something that I had in my head for a long time.  I play lots of games and only vaguely keep track of them. It makes it hard for me to be critical effectively. So I thought I should take a page from my lit past and start a play journal where I just write my observations on the thing I just played. And given that I am generally at least three years late as an adopter of social technology, I figured a blog was the best way to do it.

Of course, I also like trying to be clever, and I like talking to people, so welcome.

So you just play games and write about them?

Yup. That’s it. Not for everyone, I guess, but good for me. You’re always free to take your web attention elsewhere.

Oh, and I’ll probably use this to self-aggrandize and rant on occasion. Apologies in advance.

You’re saying this is a game review site?

Not really. My point isn’t to review the games, although I’ll do that as I go. I’m just observing.  I don’t assume I share your taste.

Then it’s a walkthrough of the games?

Dear God no. I am going to SUCK at some of these games. Don’t ever assume I know what I’m doing here. I’m just writing what I do, and what occurs to me as I do it.

Still trying to find the point of this site…

It’s a play journal. It’s like a reading journal. I play for an hour and write what I thought of what I played. It’s a way for me to have raw reactions to the games and form them over time into reasoned arguments.

Right, but…

Okay, I guess one use of this site is to watch me walk through the games so you can sound all smart at game design parties by saying the use of a quick-time event to simulate the knife fight in RE4 was in fact a good narrative application of that much maligned mechanic, even though you never got farther than the opening village.

And I will try to be clever. Promise.

So you’re basically going to write a bunch of spoilers?

Nope. All the summaries will be clean. I hate spoilers, and I won’t ruin your fun by giving them away. The articles will spoil like crazy, but you will always be a link away from spoiling and I will always warn you before you click.

What about the comments?

I can’t control those too much, but I discourage spoiling there either. I mean, I don’t want to be spoiled either. Please don’t post secrets not revealed on the blog to the blog. Can’t make you, but asking nicely here. Let’s be good neighbors.

Hey, I posted a comment, but it never appeared. What gives?

It occasionally takes me a day to notice a comment go up, so please be patient. But if your comment never appeared, it’s because you directly and maliciously insulted me or someone else on this site. I welcome and enjoy criticism and debate and will never delete a correction or alternate opinion. But if all you do is curse and try to worthlessly troll, you won’t be part of the conversation. Simple etiquette is all I ask, friends.

I also reserve the right to remove hacky advertising from my site. If you post exclusively to plug your banking service or your Cialis delivery, don’t be surprised when I edit your comment to remove your spam.