Hi Guys!

Welcome to the first post on my new blog! My name is Ian, and I'm a serial gamer. I'm also lucky enough to own JustPlay. Although we regularly write about popular games on our gaming blog, I also wanted to do some writing about some personal projects and other gaming bits that don't really fit there so I figured it could live here instead - and hopefully it may also be of interest to some of you.

I want to quickly introduce myself, for context in articles to come (because I think it helps to have the context of the writer's preferences when reading an article), I'm a competitive gamer, and I play everything from online games to CCGs to wargames. Whilst most of my competitive gaming time has been spent playing CCGs or online games, I've also been playing miniatures games since the early 90s (I'm 34 now, at the time of writing). I do generally play games to win to some degree or another, depending on the game; something like Frostgrave has a more RPG attitude, for example. I definitely play miniatures games more casually than other games; "casual competitive" is my style. I like my armies to be cool, and fun. To me the point of miniature games is the visual and no matter how competitive you are, if you aren't in it for the models you might as well be playing Chess or Go. This attitude informs my gaming preferences and colours my views; I like a tight ruleset, and I don't like games that are just snakes and ladders with models. I like games that involve decisions, tactics, and are deep without being overburdened by rules. I like cool miniatures. I like awesome scenery. I like winning, but it's secondary to having a great game.

I can't paint - something which frustrates me enormously since I have so little time and inclination to learn. I do go through phases of dabbling, though, and I'm OK with an airbrush.

Anyway, that's enough about me and this blog. Enjoy the articles and please do Tweet me or get in touch in one of the many Facebook groups I'm active on if you have any comments!

Cheers

Ian