Dale Yu
Editor of the Opinionated Gamers
Dale Yu is an enigma wrapped in a mystery shrouded gaseous mist which is hidden by that large stack of game boxes that pretty much blocks your view no matter what angle you try to take. He is well known in some circles as being a square peg. He is also often confused for his brother. While this generally leads to some embarassing situations, it’s never quite certain whether Dale or his brother should be more offended to be mistaken for the other. Dale has never been mistakenly identified as OMG!Melissa… (yet). Dale has designed about a trillion games which are all quite good. Dale is also a prolific liar in his online musings.
Designwise, Dale has taken part in the project known as the “Agricola X-deck”. The 4 cards that he designed for this deck are clearly the most impressive and thought provoking cards found in that stellar design. This was followed up by some Legen*dairy work in the “Agricola Forest Deck”.
Developmentwise, Dale is one-half of the partnership known as “They Might Be Developers” (TMBD) along with Valerie Putman. TMBD is responsible for the development of Dominion, Dominion: Intrigue, and the Alchemy, Seaside, Prosperity and Cornucopia expansions for Dominion. On his own, Dale has also worked on refining the solo game for Agricola for Lookout Games/Z-Man. Other games which he has helped with include: Age of Steam, Steam, multiple Age of Steam expansions, Axis and Allies: Pacific and many other games that he won’t admit to publicly (mostly for legal reasons).
Adminwise, Dale somehow tricked Aldie into letting him become an admin on boardgamegeek.com. In general, he stays out of the way and just approves files, but he has been known to get his hands dirty from time to time (causing Aldie and others to work for hours cleaning up the database mess left behind).
Modelwise, Dale has served as the eye-model for the Envoy expansion card. His pecs are also prominently shown on the original Dominion box cover. It is suggested in furtive whispers that this is the reason why the German box art had to be redone. Earlier in his modeling career, Dale was the token Asian guy in the Sunday newspaper ads for a number of local Cincinnati department stores. Blissfully for Dale, those ads were never put on microfiche and likely can never see the light of day again.
One highlight of Dale’s career would be the day (March 11, 2009) when he was on top of the Hotness rankings — even above Doctor Knizia! (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/449528). Other highlights include being asked — no, demanded — to sign a copy of his brother’s design, Desert Bazaar, at Origins. Also, it’s hard to ignore the one year at the Gathering of Friends when I had my own posse of groupies (thanks to Tery, Jenn, Janet, et al!) after winning the Crokinole tournament with Alan R. Moon as his partner.
You might have found some less convoluted (and more serious) writing on his weekly column at Boardgame News – but since that opportunity is gone – now you get the OG. Of course, many of the columns are filled with gaming non-sense such as this, but what do you expect for an unpaid blogger who doesn’t even get decent dental benefits as a result of writing?
And despite what people say, Dale Yu has never officially crashed anything. Well, except a wedding or two. And a sorority formal in college. And two cars – one of them into a stationary light pole in an empty parking lot. But now’s not the time to relive those great memories.
When he’s not writing or playing boardgames, Dale works as an Internal Medicine physician in Ohio. He also spends an inordinate amount of time transporting his two children to various athletic events.
Finally, Dale must admit that he finds is quite awkward to write about himself in the third person. Someday, he aspires to become the Most Interesting Boardgamer in the World.
