Why Renaissance Gamer?

In case you're wondering why I gave this project the title of Renaissance Gamer, it's pretty simple. When people ask me what kind of games I like to play, I don't really have a response. "Whatever's good?" I can switch from fighting games to real-time strategy, from turn-based wargames to turn-based sports games, from console RPGs to PC RPGs. Pretty much the only type of game that I'm not interested in are games which are attempts to simulate things that I'm not interested in: hardcore wargames, simulations or sports I don't like. (World Cricket 2K5, here I come! Though I did actually learn the rules of rugby by playing a Sega Genesis game once.) A renaissance man dabbles in everything, so it's an apt analogy for my gaming habits.

I also like history. And the Renaissance happened in the past. So there you go.

It also functions as a title for this project because I'm interested in good writing about games, and if there's one thing that the Renaissance loved, it was rhetoric. The hero of the Renaissance was the Roman Cicero, for his ability to write brilliant letters and make superb arguments. I hope to have high-quality writing as well, to eliminate the laundry-list style of game review that bores so many.

There are probably other historical comparisons to the Renaissance, but I'm not thinking of any. Who knows if this name will stick? I'm intending to make this a community with a much better website than this, and others who wish to write - there are two invitations out now - may think of a name that's much cooler. But for now, I am a lone autocrat.