Val, forgive me for not remembering the details exactly on you want to do, but I just thought I would throw this out there for support.

It's a sad and almost unbelievable fact that many folks in the game industry cannot construct an analysis like this, and far fewer can put it into words. This is a great example of what would be termed an "executive summary" of Shadowbane. I suspect you could have written a very thorough breakdown of the product were you not limited by a word count.

My experience has taught me that while many game industry folks have a good sense about what's right and wrong with a game's design, qutie remarkably, only a tiny percentage of them can actually commit their thoughts to paper, at least in a constructive, coherent sense. Those who can are almost certainly going to succeed, particularly when they see the game both as a sum of its parts and as individual mechanisms, and can remain objective and stick to the facts.

One of my friends started writing short reviews of various game mechanics and started sending it around to different execs, producers, and designers. No one asked him to; he simply did it, and had this same style of effectively conveying the strengths or weaknesses of game content. It wasn't very long before folks started approaching him for reviews. Today, he is on what is known as the Third Party Development team, and has the wonderful job of reviewing game pitches and designs from development teams looking for a publisher.

I bring all of this up because while it may sound crazy, being able to strategically breakdown a game and creating a presentation of your analysis is not as common an ability as one would think. While it's been a while since we talked (I was Shaharazad in SB and WoW)... are you still considering game design or production?

In my opinion, this is a good initial demonstration that you have the talent to work in a production role, and it's great to hear that you're working on the skills as well.