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

If you want to be a good person who is constantly growing and improving, you need to surround yourself with people who challenge you and hold you accountable. This is especially important for choosing a life partner.

My wife nearly dumped me for my initial opinions on the Rocker story! But as I kept an open mind and came around, she saw that perhaps I had some potential. :)

Jeff Pearlman's article exposing the truth about baseball pitcher John Rocker was a foundational example of the importance of challenging your own opinions and keeping an open mind.

The events and many discussions inspired by Jeff's article were a huge part of my evolution from a conservative to far left progressive. It was a marking point in some significant transformations in the way I look at the world and how I judge appropriate behavior and opinions.

Please watch Jeff's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwwGmgYyfCA

And check out his channel: Press Box Chronicles with Jeff Pearlman
https://www.youtube.com/@UCxV1cc2-nsUMxs16786Xs0w

Thank you Jeff! I really hope you see this.

My blog post about this topic/video:
https://profhartman.com/the-interview-that-changed-my-life-forever-jeff-perlmans-john-rocker-story/

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

Professor Hartman 265 views March 18, 2025 5:26 am

A booming and wonderful industry of educational software for kids once flourished and brought delight and joy to millions of children.

Then Kevin O'Leary (self-styled "Mr. Wonderful" of Shark Tank) bought up all the edutainment companies, gutted them, ran them into the ground, sold them for a bundle, and dipped.

The industry has never recovered. Who know what sort of incredible educational opportunities might exist if O'Leary had never destroyed it.

PROFESSOR HARTMAN BLOG POST (and sources):

https://profhartman.com/what-happened-to-edutainment/

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

Professor Hartman 694 views February 28, 2025 3:21 am

I love RPGs and MMORPGs and yet so many that come out these days are mediocre or worse. No risks. Nothing new. No imagination. Inexperienced dev teams. Huge franchises wasted and ruined. Dragon Age: Veilguard and Avowed are the latest examples.

The complaints about them being WOKE/DEI should be utterly ignored. Those elements are trivial and irrelevant. The real problems are bigger and deeper.

Big RPGs don't fail because they are "woke." They fail because inexperienced scapegoats are put in charge, teams aren't kept together thanks to constant layoffs, and publishers are too risk averse.

PROFESSOR HARTMAN BLOG POST:

https://profhartman.com/avowed-dragon-age-veilguard-these-games-arent-bad-and-the-woke-parts-are-irrelevant-they-are-safe-dull-rehashed-and-mid/

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

Professor Hartman 175 views February 25, 2025 5:20 am

Asmongold is one of my all time favorite youtubers/twitch streamers/creators, but he sometimes goes too far when speaking authoritatively on subjects he is not truly an expert. He makes the claim that "there is nothing uniquely hard about making video games." That is simply false - provably false - and I make an attempt to delve into this subject.

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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

In this video we look at a framework of game design that has undergone significant academic rigor. It was first published in a paper by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek titled: "MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research."

This is a bit of a dry topic but I want anyone coming here to learn about game design to have all the basics and fundamentals.

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

Professor Hartman 34 views January 29, 2025 3:55 am

What sort of game design ideas and lessons can you learn from non-digital games? Simple games, card games, dice games, board games, and hybrid games are all non-digital games with cool, fun game mechanics you can use or be inspired by.

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Lessons from Non-Digital Games

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

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Recent Blog Posts

The interview that changed my life forever: Jeff Perlman’s John Rocker Story

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

Making Friends: How Men Can Break Free from Toxic Masculinity and Solve the Loneliness Epidemic

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

What Happened to Edutainment? Mr. Wonderful robbed us all.

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