Professor Hartman's Polemics

Professor Hartman is a video game industry pioneer with nearly 40 years professional experience. He founded two studios and published 10 games, but his biggest contribution to the industry is inventing the Free-to-Play business model: launching the first F2P game in 1991 (Legends & Illusions for BBSes) and the first F2P internet game in 1996 (Threshold RPG).

In 2019 he began teaching about video game development, game theory, and related topics as a college professor at the University of Cincinnati, then Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Kentucky.

He is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service with a BSFS in International Law, Politics, and Organization and has a JD from the University of Georgia School of Law.

He has won countless awards in his profession, shipped 10 commercial video game titles, spoken at many conferences and conventions, and volunteered at schools of all grade levels to spread an understanding of careers and merits of video games and esports.

Personally, he is a real life tank married to his support, healer, and creative muse, Pang Hartman. Together they have two spectacular grown daughters making for a family of highly accomplished competitive video game players and artists with varied areas of creative expertise. (Check out: Green Grubber Creations!)

He was a Division I collegiate rower and US national team member. Now, he is a competitive powerlifter who loves to read, play video games, go for walks/hikes, a political activist, and an animal magnet.

Popular Videos

Real Friends Hold You Accountable - How Pearlman's Rocker Article Changed My Life.

Professor Hartman 247 views March 18, 2025 5:26 am

What Happened to Edutainment? Educational software for kids? Kevin "Mr. Wonderful" O'Leary happened.

Professor Hartman 685 views February 28, 2025 3:21 am

Ignore the "woke" boogeyman. These games are "meh" for deeper reasons: Dragon Age: Veilguard, Avowed

Professor Hartman 171 views February 25, 2025 5:20 am

Video game development IS uniquely hard. Reacting to Asmongold's comments about video game dev.

Professor Hartman 12 views January 29, 2025 5:06 am

MDA - Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics. Core elements of game design.

Professor Hartman 20 views January 29, 2025 3:55 am

Lessons from Non-Digital Games

Professor Hartman 6 views January 29, 2025 3:32 am

Recent Blog Posts

At the time I write this blog post, Jeff Pearlman’s new youtube channel “Press Box Chronicles with Jeff Pearlman” has 1.2k subscribers and his 2nd

Hey Guys? Is Life Supposed to Suck This Much? There’s a problem in society that has been festering for decades and is far more dangerous

Edutainment originally meant educational software for kids. Creators sought to make education fun and take advantage of new technology children already enjoyed using. In the

Professor Hartman's Collaborations