Get In The Game is a new column by Dan Yarrington, managing partner of Myriad Games in Manchester and Salem New Hampshire.  This week, Yarrington introduces his new column.

Welcome to Get In The Game, a new column that will focus on proactive ways we can improve the games industry.  We have so many wonderful products, ideas, and opportunities in this business and hobby.  This column will be dedicated to those ideas--great and small, brilliant and terrible.  We will venture forth to explore those opportunities, as well as frustrations with how the system works now.  I will venture recommendations for how we can adjust existing systems and always be on the look out for innovative mechanics that we can use for the betterment of the entire industry.
 
In the creation of this column, I will draw on my own experiences in the games industry.  I’ve been enjoying games even since I can remember, and I’ve been actively involved in the business of games since 1997.  Each and every day, I engage in fascinating discussions with my fellow game industry compatriots including retailers, publishers, distributors, designers, media members, and gamers.  Many of these columns will be general in scope, drawing from routine business practices and general life experiences.  And for all the topics we cover, I will strive to show how they relate to this industry specifically.  We’ll explore how different issues look from different perspectives within the games industry.

The title of this column was inspired by the realization that, all too often, we pontificate about some game-changing opportunity but then write it off as untenable.  Whatever the reason, I want to help counter this reticence to innovate, this negative reaction to change, this stifling ability to resign before we’ve even begun.  There are marvelous people in this industry, working hard every day.  By bringing together the best of our efforts, we can inspire each other to become even better.

I’d love this column to be as interactive as possible.  I want to hear from you!  Please email me directly at Myriad@MyriadGames.com with your comments, questions, suggestions, abuse, general ridicule, specific ridicule, and occasional (undeserved) praise.  I pledge that I will read and reply to each missive, so if you do not hear back, please follow up with me by phone (you can find our store contact info at www.MyriadGames.com and any of the friendly Game Guides at our locations can get a message to me promptly).  If for some reason you eschew both email and telephone as archaic communication paradigms, you can contact me through www.Facebook.com/MyriadGames.  Your thoughts and ideas will help guide which topics we address, so write early and write often!

Have you ever wanted to shout at the top of your lungs about some aspect of our industry that frustrates you?  Well gentle reader, I am happy to be shouted at, if that experience yields an idea we can use to grow and improve.  Bring it on.

Have you ever wanted to tout some brilliant inspired success, bragging to anyone who will listen and proving once and for all that you are the greatest and most awesome person on this or any other planet?  Brag in my direction and I promise to fawn upon your every word.

Have you ever been stymied by something you see in the industry and wondered, “Why do they do it that way?”  I’m here to solve those mysteries and elucidate those enigmas.

I look forward to talking and working with you in helping to usher in a new era of growth and innovation for our beloved games industry.  So what are you waiting for, Get In The Game!

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.