I’m not very good at these introductory-type posts, and so I’ll keep this one brief. The Ashtray is a blog and associated forum for the discussion of computer and console video games, from AAA titles to independent games. While we welcome all sorts of viewpoints, our intended focus is to examine and analyze games and game development from an artistic and (informally) academic perspective.

Similar examination has been done in other areas of interactive entertainment. In particular there’s The Forge, a community of independent roleplaying game (tabletop variety) enthusiasts and developers, and whose work has had a significant impact on me personally and led me to put together this site. Maybe, with a little help, we’ll come up with something as useful for video games.

(And because I’ve already been asked regarding the name: I had a domain I needed to reuse.)