Hi!
When I was about eight years old, I had a friend named Ed MacMillan. Ed's older brother Rusty became interested in a game called "Dungeons & Dragons." Being a young, blossoming geek, I found the idea of fantasy role-playing to be nigh-irresistible. I remember getting my first copy from an Allied Hobbies at a mall in Scranton, PA when I was visiting my grandmother. I think I was eight or nine years old, so that would make it 1979-ish. This was my introduction to one of the most influential factors in my life.
If I hadn't been exposed to role-playing games, then I wouldn't have met virtually all of the people I know, wouldn't have co-owned / co-run a gaming store for four years, wouldn't have... Well, there's a lot of things I wouldn't have done, not the least of which being that I wouldn't have become involved with Jeremy in the creation and production of Inevitable, and Invisible City Productions, Inc..
I'd like to mention another strong influence on my life: New Year's Resolutions. I like New Year's Eve much more than the other commonly celebrated holidays (since it is largely non-denominational). I prefer to exchange gifts at the dawn of a new year instead of acknowledging the other popular and over-commercialized holidays that precede it. I use this as a time to assess my life and my friendships; to share the bounty of the past year and share my enthusiasm for the year to come. Consequently, I take New Year's Resolutions rather seriously. Resolutions present an opportunity for me to set attainable, self-improving goals. In 1996 I made four resolutions to myself: Honesty, Assertiveness, Frugality, and Reliability. These are some of the best resolutions that I've ever made. They enabled me to get out of a struggling relationship, get better jobs, live more sensibly (within my means), and made me a better person overall. Interestingly, an acquaintance whom I showed these resolutions to (Hi R.P.!) wrote one word on the back of the paper: Power. He asserted that all four of these resolutions were oriented towards accumulating more control and power over my life and my environment. At the time I agreed rather strongly, then I started to rebel against his assessment. In retrospect, I do agree, and I don't think that it is a bad thing ether. Accepting and understanding that it's OK to need, want, and seek things for myself has been a very important growing step for me.
Another resolution story: Many years ago, I envied Jeremy and another friend (Frank Truelove (www.folklore.com) because I was very involved in collaborating with them on games and projects that they had created, but I felt that I didn't really have a project that I could call my own; one that was not derived in one way or another from an outside source. To break out of this, I borrowed a resolution from Jeremy (Ironic, isn't it?)-- I vowed to do something creative every day. This is one of the most enjoyable resolutions that I've ever taken. Through this resolution, I rekindled my interest in origami, learned about the Surrealist movement and the "games" that they played, started learning how to juggle, took up writing haiku and sonnets, and began to invent games of my own (i.e.: ones that weren't derived from other people's games or pieces of popular media). This resolution also got me interested in reading non-fiction, like histories and how-to books.
What this all leads up to is how I feel about games and gaming. If you look around the world, you'll find that virtually all human cultures and civilizations have certain things in common. Some of these are simple, straightforward needs, like the need for food, shelter, and clothing. Other shared cultural artifacts serve a less obvious function, like games and gaming. Not all cultures share the same games -- in fact, the games found in one culture are often wildly different from the games found in another culture -- but nearly all cultures have developed games (Supposedly only the Eskimos and one other society lack games, but I haven't done any serious fact-checking on that yet). One can learn an immense amount about the values, societal norms, and other facets of a culture by looking at the games that a culture plays. Within a given culture, games can serve a wide variety of roles. Games can educate and train, facilitate communication, and encourage new ideas (to name a few functions). Games are a powerful and robust means for learning about oneself, other people, and the world around us. In the mid-90s, a friend of mine (Dave Burchill) and I opened a small retail game store in State College, PA called Golden Mean Games (GMG). When we opened GMG, one of my primary objectives was to create a store where people could sit and socialize over a good game (be it card, board, or role-play). Part of that objective is the promotion of gaming as a form of entertainment, but the other objective is to just promote simple and direct face-to-face interaction between friends, acquaintances, and strangers. GMG lasted for about four years, and closed about two years ago. Even though the store is gone, and many of the games that the store carried have been forgotten or disappeared, the relationships that I and other people formed in the store still endure. Looking back on what the store accomplished, I find that I find more joy in remembering the friendships that were forged there than recollecting how much we sold in a given month.
Games promote the exchange of ideas.
Games expand our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
Games teach us to think in new and different directions.
For me, creating ICP is all about realizing a dream - a New Year's resolution I made several years ago. I resolved that I would be deeply involved in the production and distribution at least one board game. Invisible City Productions is the first big step in attaining this goal. Now understand that I have no worldly idea about how to actually attain this goal, but that's part of the fun and joy of it. I also like to learn how to do things, and then share that knowledge with other people. That's why Invisible City Productions focuses on helping independent artists and designers market and distribute their work.
One year from now, I visualize Invisible City Productions as a small-to-medium sized publishing house with a reputation for producing well-designed games and distributing fringe 'zines and novels. I picture the Invisible City Productions web site as a well-written and reliable source for information on the 'zine community, with a games section known for its nifty free games and information about upcoming Invisible City Productions game releases. Lastly, I hope that we'll be know as a community for artists, authors, and designers -- a place where these people can come to share and spread their creations while getting the credit that they deserve.
New millennium. New ideas. Let's see what happens...
Peace and Prosperity,
- Jonathan
PS:
My interests can be broken down into:
Game Design (Board / Table-Top, Card, Live-Action)
Role-Playing (Table-Top and Live-Action)
Surrealism
and
Psychology
I have a real thing against corporate media and news sources. I pretty much stopped watching or reading the news during the Gulf War when I realized that modern corporate news is not unbiased, and is not necessarily interested in keeping the public well-informed. When I went away to college at Penn State University in 1991 (I spent the preceding two years at Ogontz, a branch campus), I pretty much stopped watching TV altogether. Nowadays, I occasionally catch an episode of The Simpsons or Futurama, but that's about it.
