I'm 29. Very laid back, I play to win but I'm not one to flip out if I lose, having fun is the end goal after all. Currently reside in Lansing and am working on my Ph.D. in History with a specific focus on the comparative analysis of the American and Canadian working class in the late 19th and early 20th century, particularly through an examination of radical movements and events such as the Seattle and Winnipeg general strikes.

Currently a semi-active member of the Grand Rapids Area Boardgamers.

My top 10 games are my top 10 games of all time. My hot 10 games are the games that I am most interested in trying out.

For Geekbuddy purposes:
My rating tendency is highly in favour of heavier weight games like Macher, Age of Steam, Java, 18XX and that sort of thing. I tend to play games that I own repeatedly and re-rate them along the way. I rate in a fairly vicious manner in comparison to many people on the Geek, but it's due to the realities involved: there are only so many games that I feel I can rate an 8 and up at a time, even a 7 and up, because when I say 8+ on a rating it means that I am going to be suggesting the game, and when you get down to the basic level of the way my brain works, there are only so many games in each mechanic that will be at the level where I'm going to request them, with everything else necessarily falling lower in my hierarchy. Thus, as I play more games, my average rating is actually trending down because the competition for the high slots becomes tougher and tougher.

My two favourite game types are card games and train games. The former just have positive associations for me, and even though I like the meatier ones (i.e.: Eidex, Doppelkopf) the main reason why I enjoy them is the lighter atmosphere, and the visceral fun of tossing cardboard onto the table. Train games I like not because of their theme, but because of the mechanics that are commonly paired with the theme such as route building, pick up and deliver, stock holding (with accompanying alliances) and economic planning. Hence, I don't like "train games" like Ticket to Ride (which I think of as a poorly disguised Rummy variant) but I do love train games without the train theme like Indonesia.

Lately I've been enjoying flexing my creative side by doing some design work. As of 2006 I've been designing expansions to my favourite game, Age of Steam, and thus far this has resulted in two commercial releases: Age of Steam Expansion - Montréal Métro (2007) and Age of Steam Expansion - The Zombie Apocalypse (2009). I have several additional maps in the pipeline and anticipate having new releases coming out on at least a bi-annual schedule for years to come.

I also ,,appeared" on the Metagamers Age of Steam episode, and talked about basic strategy and so forth. The episode is available at: ( http://www.themetagamers.com/index.php?post_id=255224)

"Everything's so temporary."