Back to the Present, Part 1 - Traveling Light

Back to the Present is a series of posts chronicling my trip up until now. After all, I've been on the road for over a month!

I left the US for my international saga with only a modest backpack… not quite the tiny napsack I had hoped for, but still pretty diminutive. In the planning phase of my trip I had aimed for "fast and light." I dreamed of being a nomadic ninja with just a few wispy filaments between me and Mesoamerica. After all, the smaller the bag, the larger the adventure. Hold on, I'm going to go tweet that right quick… 

Ok Done.

The bag & I

Quickly, my quest for paucity took on questionable dimensions: I broke my toothbrush in half. I fetishezed wool clothes for their superior odor control. I hemmed and hawed over the necessity of deodorant. Who needs it when you have the power of Merino!? And yet, despite forsaking everything good and holy my bag never made it to the rucksack status I craved. I could ditch Malaria meds but I couldn't part with my iPhone, iPad, Macbook Air, OM-D Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera, Amazon Kindle, and GoPro Adventure Camera. And my collection of gear required it's own collection of gear: tripods, battery packs, battery pack chargers, AC adapters, AC Adapter Adapters, adapter cases, case protectors, and so on. You can see where I netted out on the left. I did actually need a lot of this stuff for the wanderplay project and for my work designing games & mobile apps. 

Now, I'd been saving my foreign currency through years of international business jaunts: Euros, Yen, Yuan, Pounds,  Kronor, Baht, and whatever people spend in Korea. Pre-partum, I traded it all in at SFO, pocketing nearly $100US on the transaction. It felt glorious. Getting 100 buckaroos from that motley pile of crumpled bills and dirty coins made me feel… prepared. I had executed on my sock-drawer plan and turned strange tender into substantive beer funds. I was, quite clearly, the master of my domain. Everything was going to be fiiiiiine.

In retrospect, this was a rookie move. I ended up exchanging the dollars again for pesos, so got hit twice on the exchange rate. But in even greater retrospect it was fine. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have accepted my creasy funny money in Mexico anywho. 

En route I snapped these photos of the geoscapes below. I was hungry for food on the flight, but I decided to be frugal. After all, I was entering a new world of budget consciousness. I had to be careful now. No more Taxi cabs or hipster haute for me. No more wool socks or third wave coffee. No more local organic seasonal craft  brews served in oversized bottles with names like Prairie Artisan Ales Prairie Ale, Blue Mountain Local Species, Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre, Hoptimus Prime, and Heretic Shallow Grave. No more cans of Italian tomatoes. No more full-priced Amazon Kindle eBooks. 

Yes, things were going to be different now. From now on I'd really consider what iOS apps I truly needed. I'd need to cancel Rdio and slum it with the vulgar Spotifites. I'd force myself to actually read the Kindle books I already bought before buying any new ones-- that should be a serious cash-saving measure. After that I'd plow through my collection of Kindle samples. Oh, and I'd finally listen to those Audible books I bought with my membership in 2009. Maybe I'd even listen to the audio lectures I nabbed online in 1998. Where were those, Amazon s3?

Oh yeah, I felt real good. This plane was delivering me into a new life. A better life. A life where I'd really suck every last bit of marrow from the shit I bought online.

But, would I find what I was looking for? Would I find unique play culture around the world? And if I did, would I be able to say anything interesting about it? Would the game industry care? What was I really searching for? Would I be decapitated by a drug lord immediately upon entry into Mexico? These questions swirled in my mind as we squeeled onto the Yucatanian tarmac.

I really could have used a sign.

The funny thing was, as soon as I got off the plane and in front of the baggage claim, I found one-- literally:

Can you believe this is the first advertisement I saw in Mexico?!

That's the Mayan Ball game! It's ancient religio-sport known for human sacrifice. Seeing it on a baggage claim billboard took away any Indiana Jones fantasies, but it still seemed like a warm welcome. Little did I know how difficult a subject it would prove to be…

I blinked my eyes at the omen a few more times, then saw my backpack coming down the carousel. I slung it over my shoulder and headed out, to customs and to the unknown.

Ya know what? I felt pretty damn light, deodorant and all.

---

In the next installment of Back to the Present: beaches, babes, and work for hire game design!

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Top 5 Reasons Not To Read Top 5 Lists

Bloggers be Triflin'

Dear fellow interneters. Stop clicking on blog posts that present gratuitous numbered lists. They are worthless, and I include this post amoungst their tired and feeble ranks. And yet, you will read on, won't you? Sucker.

Here's the deets:

1. It's a scam - The post's author has no special dispensation to say what are the top 5 (or 10 or 7) of anything. She's just manipulating your elephant brain into thinking there is something authoritative about the post. It's the same psychological trick at play when stores prices things at $213.47 exactly. We assume the specificity must be due to a rationale. It's not. There was a beggar in the Mission who always asked me for 27 cents, 55 cents, and so on. I felt bad for him but I also loathed his psycho-trickery.
2. They tell you what you already know - These lists rarely contain new information. They just repeat the same old lines. Yes, I should start meditating and cut out sugar and focus on one important thing every morning and think like Steve Jobs and learn to forgive. But reading about it one more time isn't DOING it. My advice, pick the one habit you know you need to pickup and focus on only that. If you're looking for a method, try this.
3. The third item in the list is usually just filler - Case in point...
4. You're making the internet worse - Every time you click on this sort of pablum, you're encouraging writers to create more of it. It's a downward spiral that leads to cat pictures. I know you love cat pictures and you know I love cat pictures but that's not the point. The point is by avoiding these articles you are doing your small part to improve the world... or at least the world of poopy blog posts. We are the change we've been waiting for.
5. In honor of those who've suffered through the top 5 list epidemic, the fifth reason is in absentia. Instead of reading about the fifth reason, go kiss someone you love, or someone you at least like, or someone who smells pretty good today. The internet will thank you!

Go forth and multiply, but when it comes to top five lists, I suggest going forth and subtracting. And don't get me started on slide shows or infographics!

Of course there are exceptions that prove the rule. If you've seen a wonderful, or wonderfully awful, Top X list, post a link in the comments. 

The Second Best Time

Chinese proverb says:

"Best time to start blog was in 2002. Second best time is right now." 

I'm starting this blog at the second best time.

In 2012, after ten years working in the video game industry, I quit my job as a Lead Designer at Zynga in order to pursue a new vision for my life. I won't be able to say too much about this new vision for my life in this post, but I'll talk more about it soon.

Now, my life as an active SF yipster & full time corporate employee was pretty sweet. I deeply dug SF, regularly enjoyed world class cuisine (18th & Guerrero fo' life), cavorted with the finest and most generous SF playpals, and loved my work in game design & production.

Zynga HQ, San Francisco

But there were cracks in the cosmic egg that was my life. Friends and colleagues began telling me I wasn't as happy as I used to be. It took some time for me to understand why:

• I wanted to contribute to the industry games in a more personal and meaningful way. Even though I wasn't sure what that meant or how I could do it.
• I was working too much. This was by my own unconscious choice, and I take responsibility for it. As my friend Dan Gaylinn once told me "Workahol is a helluva drug."
• I had been ignoring my dreams of round-the-world travel for over 5 years. The better my career went the more I deferred the world. This eternal defferal was sapping my Jordo-mojo^TM. Passions must be pursued, don't you agree?

After ten years in the game industry, it was time for me to take stock and think about how to contribute.

I haven't perfected the answer, but I think I'm on the right track. I want travel and to contribute to the game industry in a new way, so what I'm setting out to do is to explore the world's most unique gaming traditions... I want to find all the fascinating ways we play together, and to share it with you right here at wanderplay.net.

After all, games are one of the most fundamental pieces of society. Play is as foundational to society as work or relationships, and games are just a step behind. So what better way to explore this planet than through the diverse games we play?

Bottle Cap Chess - Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

I'm excited about this project for so many reasons:

• As a ten year game industry veteran, I feel this powerful urge to go back to the roots of games and play. I am an industry expert at optimizing games for engagement, retention, monetization, and so on, but I want to reconnect with the intrinsic rewards of play that got me into the industry in the first place. Our industry is so focused on the brand new, but games are also incredibly old and I love the idea of helping the industry reconnect with that.
• With this mission in mind, I will go places and meet people that will make my trip even more enriching and memorable. I hope to end up in places that I never would have imagined, hunting for some unusual game I've only heard about.
• I hope to develop a deep knowledge of worldwide game mechanics that have withstood the test of time without fancy graphics or  extrinsic rewards. I find this extremely exciting. Why did these games survive the centuries? Isn't that a question every game designer should think about?

I've been lucky enough to be able to keep working while I pursue this dream through my freelance design business. I'm available through my own consulting company, JordanCo, as well as with the incredible team at Adrian Crook & Associates where I am honored to contribute as a Lead Designer. Feel free to check out those links if you're interested in working with me on a project.

But what I really want is for you to join me on this adventure. There are two audiences I'm writing for:

First, if you are in the game industry, you will learn about the world's gaming traditions past and present. You'll discover new, unusual, and bizarre games you've never heard of, and historical context for ones you have. You'll get insight into how culture impacts taste in games, and you might discover an old idea in traditional games that would work perfectly for your project.

Second, this is also going to be a personal blog with my travel experiences and photos. If you enjoy travel, adventure, or the story of a life lived outside traditional categories, this may be up your alley. I'll write about working and living nomadically, the adventures, and the people I experience along the way. What's it like to go from a traditional corporate designer to a design Ronin? What's it like to go from city slicker to wandering traveler? It's about more than finance and gear, it's about relationships and attitude and spirit. 

 You know, if you think about it, it's nearly impossible to do anything at the absolute perfect time. You'll inevitably miss the exact bottom of the market, or the perfect second to say something sweet to your lover. 99% of the time, the second best time *is* the best time.

So let's get started. If you want to help, please share this post, especially with game industry folks. You can also join my mailing list to get a note whenever I post something new. I'd also really love your ideas on unique games that I should check out.

Yours,

Jordan

San Cristobal de las Casas