Flash of Steel is mine. I am Troy Goodfellow. This blog focuses on strategy and wargames – issues of design, marketing, media, but mostly what I think when I bother to put two thoughts together. Occasionally I’ll move out of that area for a post or two, but if someone asks you what Flash of Steel is, say it is a blog about strategy games. Two or three posts a year about something else won’t change that.

Since 2000, I have written on gaming for a number of websites, both professionally and on a volunteer basis. I started my pro-career late, as a contributor to the late, great Computer Games magazine. Beginning with the October 2010 issue, I took residence as the strategy columnist at PCGamer. I am a regular contributor to Gameshark and an irregular one to Game, Set, Watch. Some my best recent work has been writing features for Gamespy.

There’s really too much to list. A portfolio of my stuff is linked up top. I update it irregularly, and it only includes stuff I was paid for..

In 2006, I contributed to 2k Games’ Civilization Chronicles compilation pack, writing the history of the beloved franchise and conducting interviews with major players in the series.

Though I will occasionally have guest contributors, 99% of the content on the site is authored by me alone. I’m not responsible for how the blog looks.

The main banner up top and the logo for our official podcast, Three Moves Ahead, were designed by Jennifer Sparks. The WordPress theme is Cutline modified and customized by Jenn Cutter. You can follow my Twitter feed if you like, though it’s not very interesting.

Why “flash of steel”? The phrase itself comes from Sikh Guru Gobind Singh who writes:

When all efforts to restore peace
Prove useless and no words avail
Lawful is the flash of steel then
And right it is the sword to hail.

A reasonable philosophy I think. And since most strategy and war games assume that words will be to little avail (or have already proven useless), the steel flashes quite a bit, be it the steel of a sword or a bayonet or a grenade launcher.

All original material on this site is the property of and copyrighted to Troy S. Goodfellow. All guest contributors retain copyright and ownership of their posts.