Getting Personal

The author's profession was journalism and his involvement in designing and writing about simulations and games occurred by chance. Perhaps what mattered to him most was the interesting people he met along the way-Garry Shirts, Cathy Greenblat and many others. He does not start with an aim but with an idea that interests him. However, he feels he does not seem to get good ideas. Rather, he gets muddled or bad ideas and the design process is the attempt to clarify, simplify and improve. Perhaps the author's major contribution to theory is the concept of an ambivalent event, an event in which incompatible methodologies are in operation simultaneously, usually with the participants and facilitator being aware that something has gone wrong but not being sure of the cause and tending to blame people's personalities.