Recent Articles & Reviews by David McMillan

Prior to 2001, my only experience with board gaming was the standard board game fare: Risk, Scrabble, Monopoly, and the like. I was more of a Magic: the Gathering fanatic than I was a fan of board gaming. Then, one night in 2001, my life changed forever. I was at an internet cafe in my home town of Memphis and a guy walked in with a copy of The Settlers of Catan and asked if anybody wanted to play. Having nothing better to do, I agreed and my mind was subsequently blown. But it wasn't until I played Carcassonne for the first time that I got really hooked into the hobby.

Since that time, my board game collection has grown by leaps and bounds. I've designed a few unpublished games, written a ton of reviews on BGG, and joined a local gaming group with my wife. Board games and board gaming have become central to my life and it is a thing which I am not ashamed to admit.

My interests tend to lean toward the heavier euro-type games such as Keyflower, Ora et Labora, or The Castles of Burgundy. These three games, in particular, are probably my favorite games ever and those also happen to be my favorite game designers. However, I am not adverse to playing lighter games. I'll pretty much play anything at least once, but I tend to shy away from games that rely heavily on chance and games that have a lot of miniatures in them.

Outside of board gaming, I am an avid reader and bibliophile. I currently own something in the range of 2,000 books and I'll read just about anything. Most of my collection is comprised of a mixture of fantasy, science fiction, history, English language studies, and books about physics and string theory. I also own more than a few books about cryptography and cryptographic systems (a subject which I have been fascinated by ever since I did a term paper on the William Shakespeare/Francis Bacon conspiracy way back in high school). And I am also an ardent Minecraft player.

Check out my game collection on BGG.