Folks have asked me why did I take on the Don Quixote-like attempt to make and publish such flexible, and in someways complicated, games?

Glad you asked! Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for Christmas, 1968!

Back before there was such a thing as computer games and even D&D, along with its ilk, I was a board wargamer. My first ever game was given to me as a Christmas present in 1968. It was Avalon Hill's 1966 Guadalcanal.

I was hooked for life with that game.

Then came the 1970's and the advent of SPI (Simulations Publications Incorporated) and the advent of the Monster Game. Once again I became an even rarer version of the boardgamer, I became a monstergamer.

The bigger and more complex the game, the better I liked it. As long as I got a feeling of satisfaction from the complexity. To highlight what I mean by that lets take a look at two monster games that I have played, and to some extent have enjoyed.

The first one was SPI's Next War. I freakin' loved that game! It was huge and complex.

However, as a Warsaw Pact player it was frustrating, and at the same time, enjoyable to see Southern Germany open to your armored thrusts. Then you realize that to make those thrusts you would have to risk your regiments with Fatigue Point gains.

Moreover, there were possible NATO counterattacks that could disrupt or even destroy entire divisions that were strung out at the ends of a tenuous supply line.

Some gamers disliked the fatigue point rules as being too complex. However, to me it was the perfect way to represent overextended units and just how fragile they are to counterattacks.

In addition, before you ask, yes I got my ass handed to me as the Warsaw Pact player once. It was a beautiful counterattack, and it was a joy to watch, even though the Third Shock Army disintegrated in that attack.

This is what I mean by getting satisfaction from complexity.

The second game was SPI's Campaigns for North Africa.

All I can say about this one is quote designer Richard Berg about it: "CNA was designed to be the most realistic game on the North African campaign. When you play it you will see the frustration Rommel experienced by his lack of supply. In fact Combat is a side effect of the logistics system and is not the main focus."

Amen Richard. I would only recommend this game to accountants or gamers with a logistics fetish, since it is that tedious in its complexity. 

Moreover, this is what I mean by not getting satisfaction from the complexity.

Fast forward to the 90's, SPI is gone, TSR is on its last legs, Avalon Hill is bought out by Hasbro!!!! (Will the horror never end?) and the king of the game world is a freakin' card game!!!! Magic, The Gathering!!!

Fast forward to 2012, Magic is still there, and what has become the most popular games? The mind numbingly simple board games!!!!! These games are so mind numbingly shallow that they are a hit with the mainstream and part-time gamers.

By 2012 I was so sick of the dumbing down process, which is STILL continuing by the way, I incorporated GPI with the idea of creating and publishing games that I, and gamers like me, wanted to see.

So that is the history of why I began my crusade as Don Quixote, erm, I mean as a concerned gamer, to try and reverse this dumbing down process, if even just in my lil' corner of the universe.