[Sound-off Sunday] The Future of Journalism

I graduated from high school around 11 years ago. If you’d asked me then what I was going to be by the time I turned 30, I would have told you, with the most certain of expressions, that I would be a journalist.

It’s funny how the events that occurred over the intervening decade radically altered my course. In some ways, it was a good thing — I never dreamed I’d get to write comic books, or manage a video game store, or work towards a master’s degree in marketing research. I avoided getting into a job market where paying gigs are getting increasingly rare. I avoided finding myself frustrated at the rise of blogging and Twitter. And, best of all, I was able to keep writing as a hobby rather than a full-time profession, which meant I was able to enjoy my time spent getting better at the craft.

But every now and then, I look over at the field of journalism and wonder what it’d be like if I’d stuck with it. And I also think about all of the things I learned about journalism that made me lose my passion for the occupation. Because, you see, even in 1999, when I took my first college-level journalism class, I could see the hand writing on the wall, and I knew things were going to change radically in my lifetime. And while I had no specific insight into how things would change, I knew that the Internet was going to be the death of the 20th century institution journalism had become.

And, quite honestly, I felt it was a good thing. But my reasoning why might surprise you.

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[Sound-off Sunday] Confessions of a Former Retail Manager

I've spent more hours working retail than I care to admit.

My wife and I went shopping at the mall yesterday, and it was a pretty horrifying experience. Our local mall has somehow managed to banish every bookstore, toy store and nature store from its premises, leaving us with a pet store (that will probably be out of business soon), a “Club Libby Lu” (which is going out of business), a GameStop and a slew of clothing stores, gift shops and cell phone kiosks. Blech.

Now, for those who don’t know, I have a fairly successful background in the retail industry — when I was working for EB Games (which is now GameStop), I was the top-ranked manager in the entire Midwest for 2 years in a row, and when I left the company to go back to school, I was ranked #2 behind the regional manager’s home store. From what I’ve been told, I was the only manager in the history of the company to ever do that. (To be fair, my employees were a big part of the effort, and they deserve credit too!) But it wasn’t just because I was really, really into video games — even when I worked in an Eddie Bauer, which was way out of my element, I was the top sales associate in the store fairly consistently.

So, yeah, I know a thing or two about retail. And what I want to say right now to anyone else who is in the retail business is to stop asking me if there’s anything I’m looking for when I walk into your store. This helpful-sounding question actually kills more sales than you’d think.

“Huh?” you might ask. But trust me, I have a good reason for saying this.

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[Sound-Off Sunday] Five Board Games You’ve Probably Never Heard of (But Definitely Should Try!)

Star Wars: Epic Duels is surprisingly fun for a licensed game.

Last week, I shared five card games you’ve probably never heard of, but should try. This week, I’m going to focus on board games.

Now, I’ve been a fan of board games ever since I was a kid, but I’ve always found that the standard family games (Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue, Stratego, Risk, The Game of Life, Payday, Sorry! and so on) are a little dull. I’ve also never been a fan of gimmick games that require a massive amount of setup time for a weak payoff (Mousetrap comes to mind…).

When I was in junior high school, some friends introduced me to some board games that dared to go beyond what I’d experienced before. The first I played was HeroQuest, a game co-developed by Games Workshop and Milton Bradley. It was a board game that played like a paper-and-pencil RPG — very cool. Another game was Battle Masters, a giant battlefield game that featured humans, elves and dwarves fighting goblins, orcs and ogres. Because of these games, I learned about Games Workshop titles like Space Hulk, Warhammer, Warhammer 40k and Blood Bowl… none of which I could actually afford to play. I was, however, able to afford a copy of Battletech: 3rd Edition, which included little plastic mechs and a paper gameboard.

Yeah! A good board game should come with LOTS of pieces. It's especially awesome when the miniatures are painted already.

I left board games behind as I got into video games, but when I was a little older, a friend introduced me to Star Wars: Epic Duels, a board game I didn’t expect to like, but which was surprisingly fun. I got so into it, in fact, that I wrote one of the definitive tactics pages for the game (apparently), which people still use as a resource for developing strategies. If you can get your hands on Epic Duels, I recommend it; it’s a fun and easy game that is easily accessible to casual gamers, but which has some real depth and strategy to it as well.

This game helped to rekindle my interest in board games, and over the last few years, I’ve been able to play a few that I never even knew existed. The five games below are all games that are a lot of fun, and which I’d recommend to anyone looking for an interesting evening of playing games with friends. Read more »

[Sound-Off Sunday] 5 Great Card Games You’ve Probably Never Played (But Should!)

Have you ever turned off the TV and/0r video games, sat down and spent an evening just playing cards with your friends and family?

We do this pretty frequently at the Jordan house. It’s a lot more fun than watching a movie, and it’s lead to some legendary rivalries. Card games are a lot cheaper than board games, and they’re usually easier to play.

But when most people think of card games, they think things like Poker, or Blackjack, or Uno. Not us. Here’s a list of five card games that we enjoy playing… and that you might like too!
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