It’s Good Stuff, Maynard! …DOT COM

I suppose it is only fitting that now, in the era of Twitter, Twatter, Facebook and all that is Web 2.0 (or are we up to 2.5 by now?), I start off with a Youtube video. After all, how will I ever hold my tween girl target demographic’s attention without some sort of a moving picture reference to an obscure 1980s television commercial? Amiright? It’s funny–up until a few weeks ago when I decided to Google it, I never actually knew the origin of the phrase “Good stuff, maynard!”

And yet, here I am, posting on goodstuffmaynard.com.

So why “Good Stuff Maynard?” No, it’s not because I’m so obsessed with Malt-O-Meal that I want to take a bath in it (although if the Malt-O-Meal company sent me enough free samples as a result of this website, I might). It’s much less glamorous than that–it’s actually a phrase that my Grandpa used occasionally that I picked up on. I take it to mean something that is both good and good for you.

Like video games.

Of course, not all video games are both good and good for you; in fact, many are neither. I’m particularly interested in the ones that can be both. I, along with a growing number of game designers and enthusiasts, believe that video games, in all their manifestations, have the potential to not just entertain or even educate, but to also inform, persuade, evoke emotion, enlighten. That’s not to say I’m not interested in games that are simply good–I’ll most likely cover those as well.

This website will serve as a venue for expressing my thoughts on video games and game design, partially for my own purposes since writing thoughts down forces your to flesh them out, and partially for the purpose of taking part in and contributing to the larger discussion on where video games are headed.