The Official --( Introduce Yourself )-- Thread!

[upintheattic]

Hello, I'm Doug McNair, and I was the developer (and occasional designer) for the Panzer Grenadier and Infantry Attacks series from 2005 to 2010. Before that, I playtested the original PG game back in the late '90s.

I'm 48 years old; was born in New York City; went to college in Northfield, Minnesota; met my wife there; spent a few years in Chicago while she was getting her M.A. in European history at Northwestern; and then moved back north to Minneapolis, where we've been living ever since.

Over the years, I've been an office clerk, an insurance underwriter, a Series 7-licensed investment advisor, a game developer, and now co-owner (with my wife) of a freelance editing business. She started the business ten years ago and pretty much kept us afloat while I was working for Avalanche Press for very little pay. After five years of having lots of fun working for AP but not doing much to hold up my end of our income needs, I joined the family business in 2010 and have been editing full time ever since. Recently, I also started writing children's mysteries for one of our publisher clients, so I hope to have some stories in print before too long.

I got into gaming in the early '70s, and my first game was SPI's "Foxbat and Phantom." Avalon Hill's "Kingmaker" and "Richtofen's War" came shortly thereafter, followed by "Midway," "Bismarck," and "Panzerblitz." The latter two games were my favorites, and that's what made me a natural for playtesting and developing the GWAS, SWWAS and PG series for Avalanche. I never got into ASL or other highly detailed systems; I wanted wargames that were high on playability while still retaining an acceptable level of realism.

Paula and I have been married for 25 years, with numerous dogs and cats. I've never managed to get her into PG, but she loves card-driven wargames and has beaten me more than once at "Paths of Glory."