One Reason I Got Out Of The Design Business

Over the years, I came to realize that my best work has always involved subjects that interested me, or -- even better -- subjects about which I've become interested, and even passionate about, through the very process of doing design work. I believe I'm still passionate about graphic design. But the great thing about graphic design is that it is almost always about something else. Corporate law. Professional football. Art. Politics. Robert Wilson. And if I can't get excited about whatever that something else is, I really have trouble doing a good work as a designer. To me, the conclusion is inexcapable: the more things you're interested in, the better your work will be
--Michael Beirut, "Warning: May Contain Non-Design Content" from Seventy-Nine Short Essays On Design.

There is just an astonishing quantity of paying work out there for projects that try to get people to buy things, and there is almost nothing I want to buy. I don't want to kindle a desire to buy more things. I don't want kindle that desire in others.

I have focused my design efforts on non-marketing pieces: magazines, maps, information guides, books, games, illustrations. I enjoy doing that-- particularly for topics that interest me. I am known for boundless, passionate enthusiasm. I don't know how to generate enthusiasm. Certainly not in exchange for money. I'm not sure I could live with myself if I did.

On the other hand, I think a lot of programming consists of making a product. That product is what you are selling. It is your business-- not a dozen different businesses a year. Someone uses that product. Corporate software, unfortunately, is chosen and paid for by someone who doesn't have to use it, and that's why it sucks. I hope very much to work on something that is chosen and paid for by the person who uses it. I want to make something the user wants.

Dominion: Hinterlands

It is a maxim and an axiom that many (if not perhaps most) highly-anticipated games arrive a couple of months later than the predicted date. That's normal. However, a few weeks ago my curiosity was piqued that, nearing the end of July, we do not even know the name of the sixth Dominion expansion, despite the fact that it is intended for an October release. This does not track with the pre-release timetable of any previous expansion.

Not that I'm complaining, but I can't help be curious. I found myself, as if an expectant uncle, at a loss for what name to call the fetus, and perhaps even its pronoun, despite that the parents have presumably had an ultrasound like they did with all their previous pregnancies. It is one of the foremost topics of discussion by the extended family, because they already know they love this person who they have not met, and yet they all circumlocute awkwardly for lack of language.

Forgive my amazingly rubbish metaphor, but that is what my game group was like. In retrospect we could have called it "expansion 6".

I inquired politely, and DXV (Donald X. Vaccarino, designer of Dominion) said it was not a matter of secrecy or a marketing tactic. It was just that Rio Grande Games didn't have the time to make an announcement on the internet.

At GenCon, I got to meet Jay Tummelson of Rio Grande Games. (Let's be frank, Jay Tummelson is Rio Grande Games. It's a one-man company.) I asked him, "If I keep it a secret, will you tell me the name of Expansion 6?" He cupped his hands around his mouth as a megaphone and cried out to the room, "HINTERLANDS!" He doesn't care who knows. He's just busy!

Now the box text has been released, and it turns out this is the expansion I helped playtest at Buckeye GameFest! I am extremely pleased that soon, I will no longer be sworn to secrecy about the cards I saw.

The world is big and your kingdom small. Small when compared to the world, that is; it's moderate-sized when compared to other kingdoms. But in a big world like this one - big when compared to smaller worlds anyway, if such things exist; it's moderate-sized when compared to worlds of roughly the same size, and a little small when compared to worlds just a little larger - well, to make a long story short - short when compared to longer stories anyway - it is time to stretch your borders. You've heard of far-off places - exotic countries, where they have pancakes but not waffles, where the people wear the wrong number of shirts, and don't even have a word for the look two people give each other when they each hope that the other will do something that they both want done but which neither of them wants to do. It is to these lands that you now turn your gaze.

Dominion: Hinterlands is the sixth addition to the game of Dominion. It adds 26 new Kingdom cards to Dominion, including 20 Actions, 3 Treasures, 3 Victory cards, and 3 Reactions. The central theme is cards that do something immediately when you buy them or gain them.

DXV himself writes all the box text for games he designs. Reaction to this one has been mixed- at least compared with reactions to box text from other expansions. Some love it- when compared to people with no sense of humor, anyway. Others think it is the worst box text ever- although pretty good when compared to text on the boxes of games they have not played, and pretty bad when compared to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy- well to make a long story short- short when compared to longer stories- you might say this has the most polarizing box text ever.

I like it a lot.