Julia Bond Ellingboe on fastaval 2010

(This post is in English for fairly obvious reasons.)
I was fortunate enough to have a chat with Julia Bond Ellingboe on this year’s Fastaval role-playing con near the Danish City of Århus in the Easter holiday week.
Julia is a young American indie game designer, with some very interesting designs under her belt. She was invited to Fastaval as this year’s honorary guest.
(I cannot link directly to the relevant sections but on page 20 of the fataval program (pdf) there's a nice introduction to a couple of her games.)
This is by no means a formal interview or anything like that: just a couple of interesting observations taken from a long..ish completely informal conversation we had in the bar lounge at Fastaval.
We talked a little about what you might call the dilemma of amateurism vs. professionalism. No - even in America (pun intended) - it is only a select few game designers that can make a living designing role playing games. (And let’s be honest about it, those games are not all that interesting!?) Julia's take on this is that as long as you have a job you like it is OK. The fact that you're not a full time pro in the field, has the advantage that it gives you a level of creative freedom that the full time professional doesn't have. She mentioned a concept she'd been working on for some time, in a way that wouldn't have been possible in a fully pro non-indie set up. And she seemed to think her approach to this aspect of game design work demanded a certain level of freedom that the full-time pro non-indie designer does not have.
An amateur is by definition a person who does what she/he does out of love for doing it whereas a professional is someone who does what she/he does because she/he has to get bread on the table and/or cars in the driveway. I 'totally get' Julia's view. My own experience is that while it must be fun to work professionally in game design it's also very awarding too work in areas where gaming offers relevant experience. For instance I've done some teaching with young people with various learning challenges, where I’ve found that some of the angles and perspectives I've applied when writing scenarios, turned out to be extremely useful.
Julia and I also talked about the significance of her being there: Being the guest of Honor in a remote northerly country known mostly for not being exactly Sweden must be a slightly surreal experience? I don't think she used that exact term, but I got the distinct impression that she was very flattered. Some of her predecessors as Fastaval honorary guests have been rather obviously aware of the significance of their own awesomeness (or have succeeded in acting that way) Julia on the other hand was very open and seemed to make a point of wanting to talk to every-one interested. This is actually rather important because the usual presentations/panel discussion style sittings are often not that productive. I'm sure that it hasn't been a part of the deliberations behind Julia's invitation; Julia is an accomplished and interesting game designer and is absolutely the right choice. The fact that she's not your typical white male slightly geeky not quite as young as he used to be game designer makes her a very powerful banner bearer for role playing (and game design). It is simple put a lot more satisfying to be able to point to her and say "look she's one of us" than having to point to Ron Edwards, Lars Andresen (Prizewinning Danish RPG-wirier) or myself for that matter. That she is a very nice person doesn't actually hurt.
I want to thank Julia for being there, the Fastaval organization especially Frederic Jensen, the international coordinator for getting her there and the Danish national role playing organization BIFROST, for sponsoring (part of?) Julia's trip.
It is a very significant part of the future perspective for Danish RPG-design work that an international network of mutually inspirational connection seems to be developing. Julia's visit has been a significant contribution to that effort.