About ♥
Here’s the truth about games:
We love them.
And love, well, it’s a crazy thing. It twists you, turns you, crushes you and delights you. Above all, it changes you.
This is a blog about how loving games changes us. And how our love changes games.
Who’s Russell Bailey?
I’m a professional writer and game designer. I currently work for ZeniMax Online Studios in Baltimore, Maryland.
If you want to know how I got here and why I’m writing this blog, read “Little Hearts Like the One in Me.”
What’s a Fantasy Heartbreaker?
Ron Edwards coined the phrase, and defined it as:
[Games] which are truly impressive in terms of the drive, commitment, and personal joy that’s evident in both their existence and in their details – yet they are also teeth-grindingly frustrating, in that, like their counterparts from the late 70s, they represent but a single creative step from their source: old-style D&D. And unlike those other games, as such, they were doomed from the start.
The thing that makes fantasy heartbreakers so heartbreaking is that they’ll never be more than a footnote in most people’s lifelong love of the original… and that they’re often hampered by assumptions inherited by D&D.
Sounds like some relationships I’ve had. And if it relates to both D&D and my relationship baggage? Then it’s worth writing about.