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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keeper of Secrets" data-source="post: 3337518" data-attributes="member: 13836">1. How long have you been roleplaying? Have you ever stopped roleplaying altogether for any significant period of time? If so, why?I would say the only time I stopped role playing regularly was when I was in graduate school.  That was a two year period where I did not really get out much because of school.  However, as fate would have it, I was living in Milwaukee (about 10 blocks from the MECCA Center and attended GenCon three years in a row).2. What keeps you coming back to the roleplaying hobby?I like the entertainment, the interaction and the quality time spent with friends.3. Using your best guess, what roleplaying game have you played the most? What about that game has kept your interest over the years? Are you still playing that game?Pure numbers is probably D&D.  However, I have been playing in a supers campaign weekly since the early 90's (except for the graduate school period).  17 years of the same campaign world is pretty good, I'd say.  Though we would switch systems a lot.  4. What do you think of White Wolf's decision to reboot the World of Darkness?Honestly, I think it is pretty clever.  There comes a time when the status quo becomes stale.  I think the World of Darkness was getting unwieldy and needed a reboot to clean up some of the continuity errors.5. How do you feel about Mongoose Publishing's habit of rewriting and relaunching old games (Paranoia, Rune Quest and so on)?Its wonderful.  Mongoose seems to capture the spirit of the original intent of the authors.  I did a review for Paranoia when it was relaunched and I got the honor of interviewing all the original writers from the 80's.  They really felt that Mongoose had done the product right and were very pleased with the results.6. Many creator owned (Indy) game designers have a hard time affording anything but a bit of art. Part of your requirement is to judge a games presentation. This seems to limit the ability of many Indy designers to compete on a level scale with large game companies. Do you feel it's fair to judge a game on it's presentation?In a way.  There is a difference between art that was done 'affordably' and art that is just plain bad and not matching the theme.7. Many creator owned game designers have a difficult time being able to afford the cost of giving away free books to enter a competition like the Ennies. They aren't able to use the same markets of scale to justify the cost. Giving away PDF's can potentially bite into the profits of a small creators book sales, if those PDF's aren't guarded with care. If a creator owned game were supplied to you as a neatly arrayed text only file how would you judge it? Do you think that's not a good question, because someone should feel safe putting their potential profits in your hands, or do you think that eating the costs of free books is part of the game for entering the Ennies?Good question. I think that in all fairness those who wish to be considered for an award have a certain amount of obligation to supply the committee with a product to review.  If the company feels it cannot afford to give one away for judicial review then they have a few options - they could send photocopies of the product (thus greatly reducing the risk of illegal pdfs), or rely on the nondisclosure agreements judges sign, or simply not participate.   8. What do you think should factor higher when judging a game; randomization (or lack of randomization) mechanics, setting, presentation and art, theme, addressing specific styles of play, or a grabby situation?Mechanics is certainly important.  If the system or product is 'broken' then its usefulness is reduced.  But flavor plays a major role in the product, as well.  For instance, a product that that has numerous errors could likely be gleaned over if the theme of the product was dead on to what the writers wanted to do.  Truthfully, I do not think someone can judge a product on just one aspect.  Its not fair.  I think the 'totality of the circumstances' is the best way to look at a product.</blockquote>

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