Jason Matthews

O criador dos aclamados Twilight Struggle e 1960 deixou umas palavrinhas no nosso blog. Nada muito profundo, pois já existe muito no mercado, mas mesmo assim relevante o suficiente. Pessoa de fácil acesso e sempre disponível... aqui está Jason Matthews.

Spiel Portugal (SP) - So Jason, who are you and what do you do when you are not “boardgaming”?
Jason Matthews (JM) - The number one item, far and away, is my real job. I work for the Democratic Senator from the State of Louisiana. I have worked for the Senate for 12 years now. Most of my other free time revolves around my two small children. I have a daughter who is 7 and a son who is 4. But don't worry, I make them play games as well.


SP - I read that you spend 8 hours a week playing board games. How much time do you spend designing new games?
JM - Some of those 8 hours are playtesting too. Our gaming group meets almost every Saturday. We start playing at 3:00 PM and go into the wee hours of the night. Both of my co-designers, Christian and Ananda, come over and play as well. So we can get design work done over dinner and between games.

SP - Do you have any history background or the ideas for your games are “only” hard research?
JM - I majored in history and political science in college. Of course, I also needed a job, so I went on to law school. But, if I could have spent my life studying history, I would have been happy.

SP – I’ve seen that you inspired yourself in other game’s mechanics to design your own games (as you told you did when used The End of Triumvirate‘s cubes in/with 1960). When you are playing a game are you usually thinking in what to use from that game? Or do you just play the game and when you are designing you remember of those mechanics?
JM - No, I play to play. But, I love to encounter a new and clever design idea. I think it’s important for game designers to see the way other designers are approaching problems. In the case of End of the Triumvirate, I was looking for a way to get away from using dice. I thought that the designers had come up with a clever way to do that and we applied it to 1960. But, I never started out trying to imitate Triumvirate -- though it is a game worthy of imitation.

SP – By your comments I see that you also enjoy Brass (as we do :D). Can we wait an economic game from you?
JM - I would be surprised to find myself working on an economic game. There are so many great designers who do such a great job of them already, why do they need me? But I love playing them. I really enjoy Wallace's Tinner's Trail as well.

SP – And, when will we have a game from Jason Matthews alone?
JM - If I designed a game all alone, who would do all the work?

SP – 1960 or Twilight Struggle? Which one do you prefer? Why?
JM - This is a mood choice. Twilight Struggle is longer and very tense. Like a lot of great games that are very tense (Lowenhertz is another example for me), I have to be in the right frame of mind for that sort of intensity. 1960's tension slowly builds up to a big finish. I can say yes to that more often than Twilight Struggle.

SP – I’m a big fan of Twilight Struggle, but for some guys the game is not well balanced. Is it really intentional? Why did you design it like that?
JM - The game is intentionally asymmetrical. The player positions are meant to feel very different and the western player is supposed to feel this relentless pressure from the Soviets. The Soviets have an edge because they start out with a superior position. The Americans need to survive the midwar to watch the Soviet Bear slowly collapse.

SP – Aldrich Ames was a very important spy during the cold war, but don’t you think that this card is too powerful? And Wargames? What was your intention in creating an event like that?
JM - To this day, I do not think that Aldrich Ames is that powerful. It depends on what cards you have in your hand at the time. I have never lost a game because of Ames. But, if I had it to do all over again, I would rewrite the card. The way it operates creates too many questions and too much confusion. I would go with something cleaner now.
The Wargames card was designed to simulate the risks of maintain high tensions during the Cold War. If you want the DEFCON to sit on "2" all game, you can do that, but there are risks of accidental nuclear war (like in the movie). Furthermore, in game terms, we did not want anyone to be able to ride the game out until turn 10.



SP - Do you think that we could have a 2008 McCain vs Obama game?
JM - Stay tuned on that front.

SP – You gave an interview for the DiceTower in which you talk about your next games. 3 new collaborations. This was a long time ago (1,5 years ago). So, when will we have a new game from you?
JM - Founding Fathers which will be a multiplayer card driven game about the creation of the American Constitution, will be ready for the Origins game convention in July of '09.

SP – One of the games you talked about was a multiplayer CDG about colonialism. Will we have Portugal represented there?
JM - If that Colonial CDG project ever gets going again (it was a collaboration with Alan Moon), Portugal -- the great maritime power of the Iberian peninsula -- will certainly be represented.