koi

I lost someone I know on livejournal today.

The reason why is that they pointed to something that was rather horrific and said, "HA! That be funny!" I turned around and said, "No, it isn't."

They said, "Chill." I said, "Why, didn't you just approve of this message by laughing at it?"

Instead of taking that as "Wow, what you just did was sexist" they took it as, "Wow, what you are is sexist."

Since I didn't get a chance to reply to her last post let me just state right now.

I have never, ever, EVER, written anything about sexual assault and tried to play it off for laughs. I don't play video games that use sexual assault for laughs. I don't read books that use sexual assault as a joke. Why? Because we live in a rape culture and I don't want to help perpetuate it.

Am I perfect? No, but I hope when I make a mistake people tell me that I made a mistake so I can not make it again.

Not that she's going to see this, but in the end I guess I'm fine with that. I'm disappointed, and maybe I would like to apologize for hurting her because she was reminded of horrible things (which makes it all the more jarring that she didn't have sympathy for the person in the video), but in the end I stand by what I say.

There are a lot of letters up there but let me explain.

In the previous federal election, Danny Williams (the DW) who is the premier of Newfoundland ran an ABC campaign. Anything But Conservatives. This is doubly funny when you consider that Danny Williams is a member of the provincial conservative party, where they're still called the Progressive Conservatives (or the PC party for short).

He did it because he felt that Harper had broken his promise over equalization payments to the province and it worked in Newfoundland and Labrador. It went to the Liberals. Great for them, not so great for the rest of us because NFLD (that's the short for Newfoundland and Labrador, I just love throwing out those acronyms, don't I) only holds four seats and in an over 300 seat house that's not that much.

What I think we need is a nation wide ABC campaign. Now I know that there are going to be a lot of people who just shut down at this, but let me explain. I don't think that this round of conservatives is good for Canada. Not because of their policies (which, they don't really tell us about) or because of the way they govern (which, they don't really do much of that either) but because they don't add anything to the political discourse.

Have you seen the new attack ads? They're basically saying the Iggy is bad because he's been away from the country for a while, because he's just running attack ads (Whoah, complaining about attack ads? The Conservatives?), he's in it for himself and other crap like that.

Oh, how do I long for the days when parties, you know ... talked about what they wanted to do for the country. Maybe mention their plans for the future, talk about what they want to do in regards to say education, the border situation, jobs, the pension fund, EI, jobs, training, the environment, jobs, the environment and other such things that people might find important. You know, the issues. Sure, you can lie to me all you want about it, I expect it. You can't explain these complicated issues in a soundbite, and that's what elections are now a giant collection of soundbites, but you can at least pretend like you're actually trying to lead the country rather than pull a bloated liberal "hold onto power by any means necessary" kind of stall.

Look, there are plenty of reasons to not like Iggy but the same can really apply to Harper. Literally, almost exactly the same reasons. We kept making the joke around here that Iggy was just a lighter version of Harper that knows how to smile. But I'll take that, and I'll take anything other than these parade of mental crap that does nothing but say, "Well ... he sucks. Vote for me!"

This is where I draw the line in the sand. I don't care who you vote for. Vote for the Greens, the Canadian Action Party, the NDP, the Liberals, the Bloc (which is hard for those who don't live in Quebec) just ANYTHING BUT CONSERVATIVE. Tell everyone you know, inform people that they need to do ANYTHING BUT CONSERVATIVE. Get their grandmother to run for office and vote for her. Why not? Parliament could use the diversity.

I want my politics to be action packed, ornery and full of drama and tension. However, I want them to be real and organic, not this manufactured conflict that the Conservatives think will help them win.


Attack Ads
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq1BfkEWwy4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aiGNvhgv9s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAbXpgfymKw&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BVoT-1B3Os&feature=related

The ABC Campaign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_campaign

Maclean's article on them
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/05/19/about-those-attack-ads/

Other Parties you can vote for care of Elections Canada

http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=pol&document=index&dir=par&lang=e&textonly=false

If you're lazy I'll list them here:

* Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada
* Bloc Québécois
* Canadian Action Party
* Christian Heritage Party of Canada
* Communist Party of Canada
* Conservative Party of Canada
* First Peoples National Party of Canada
* Green Party of Canada
* Liberal Party of Canada
* Libertarian Party of Canada
* Marijuana Party
* Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
* neorhino.ca
* New Democratic Party
* Newfoundland and Labrador First Party
* People's Political Power Party of Canada
* Progressive Canadian Party
* Western Block Party
* Work Less Party

"I wake up in the morning, and I'm two years old again.  Eventually, I make my way up to my age," she says to me while we're both sitting on the bus going to the same place, "but it takes me a while."

When I travel on public transit, I tend to do things a bit differently.  I do the small things that a lot of other people don't really do.  I look people in the eyes and smile, because that's being friendly.  I bring a card game or a deck of cards, something that requires me to engage other people if I want to play.  It keeps everybody a little more sane during things like two the three hours layovers and I get a chance to make bus friends.  Bus friends, for those who never take the bus, are the people who you can talk to and hang out with for the duration of the ride.  When it's over, you don't see each other again, but for those four, ten, twelve, thirty two hours you are entertaining each other with stories that everyone you know has already heard but are fresh and exciting to these people.  When the ride is over you get off, there are no strings no promises of we should keep in touch.  There are only memories of good times spent on the bus.

"It's weird, but I know that there's something important in this," she says a little later.  Her name is Carla.  She saw me playing with a deck of cards and then came over, we played a couple hands of crib and then I did a few magic tricks for her and some other to pass the time while we were waiting in Sudbury.  Carla continues, "I bring it up to my doctor, that it might be something.  I'm sure it's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but he tells me no and gives me another prescriptions."

Half of what is chilling is what she is saying, the other half is that she says it in such a matter of fact way that I am astounded.  I spend several seconds in shock, but it's only a couple of seconds.  You see, I've seen this script before.  That doesn't make what she says less horrific and sad, only more so.  This isn't just he story.  This is the story of most, if not all, of the women I know.  It's my friend's story, it's my family's story, it's the story my daughter is going to inherit not matter how hard we try to supply her with the tool and the know how to make it otherwise.

In Sudbury, she had told me that she was a dancer.  I think she knew she didn't have to elaborate further because she didn't explain any more and I didn't ask.  There really is no need.  In Sault Ste. Marie there is only one type of dancing that people pay for, and the casino does not do giant floor shows.

The next hour passes and I do by best not to throw out any privileged nuggets of widsom, as it the want of any dude in this situation.  It must be because we think everything has an easy fix, just the right words and the right mindset and that's all you need.  That's a lie. Carla keeps talking and I hear he talk about drugs, her addictions, her relationships, her life, her wants, her dreams, and I want to do is to selfishly cry, and cry, and cry. 

"What really brought it into focus was that I was heavily assaulted a couple of years ago.  It wasn't good.  My shoulder blade was coming out around my neck.  Two surgeries later and I said never again."  All this told to me on the same vocal level I might read off a shopping list, or someone might order a meal at a fast food restaurant.  Not a fancy one, a regular cardboard cut out on where you just need to say "burger" in a flat emotionless tone to get your point across.  I just nod, she accepts this and continues.

Other things fly past in over the next couple of hours.  Some hit me straight in the face and plant themselves in my heart.  Her acceptance of her addiction, and how she wants to move beyond it.  Her attempts to fill up her life with something, anything that might be a positive.  Mashing up spiritualisms in a effort to remix something she can aspire to, an effort to just be a person. 

"I hate having assholes for DJs."  Is another bit of information that Carla imparts to me.  "We had one, this one time, where he kept playing all these old tunes and ti was bringing all the girls back to a place we didn't like.  It was freaking us all out.  I walked up to him to talk about it, he nodded at me but he just kept playing the same music.  It was a really bad night for everyone."

All of the girls.  Every last one reminded of something horrible.  My sympathy and compassion for this person kept vaulting itself forward.  This was all par for the course for her as she explained all this in the same voice she used to explain her belief that the archangel gabriel would help her remove evil spirits and negative energy put there by those who wish to do her harm.  How arguing with her girlfriend on the phone, and having her yell at her triggered her greatly so that she was still shaking thirty minutes later.  Discussing the stars and constellations and speaking of metaplanes and the sisters that lived there.  Her ability to feel the power through crystals that would help her.  Her girlfriend's hatred of cleaning up, so much that she'd rather sit down and smoke a crack pipe than pick up something on the ground.

I'm writing this because I want to get this down.  Her talk was so big, I couldn't keep it all within myself.  She asked if it was too much, what she was saying but I wasn't going to tell her to stop.  She was explaining something to a bus friend, those stories that you've told a thousand people or the stories that you've never told anyone, certain that they will not come back to bite you on the ass later.

I'm writing this because I hope that maybe, just maybe, someone will read this and decide to skip seeing the dancers, as she put it.  She didn't say skip, that was me, but she called her co-workers dancers so we will stick with that.  To stop being a part of something that willfully, gleefully takes these people and happily keeps them broken so that they can make lots of money off of them.  Your money off of them.  Money that you provide every time you step inside a strip club, every time you watch some porn, every time you look at a person and rate them according to how much you'd like to fuck them.  Maybe, just maybe.

If you read this and you don't have even a little bit of compassion, that your desire to get your dick satiated in some way or another that you don't really care how it's done, then I can only say "fuck you."  If you read this and then go visit a strip club, or watch some porn I can only say "fuck you."  

Fuck  you for paying people to break down others.  Fuck you for your entitled desires that override your basic human decency and compassion.  Fuck you for keeping these same scripts popular and coming back again and again and again.  Fuck you for making this a place where my daughter, my friends, my partner will have to deal with you and your inability to consider them a human being long enough to be embarrassed by what you're doing.  Fuck you for all of this, because this is your fault too.

The bus pulled up to the station.  We said goodbye to each other, gave a "nice talking to you" with a wave.

We got off the bus, and we walked in different directions.

So apparently I'm up to everything but Livejournal.

I've started a poetry blog, for the hell of it.  If anyone is interested you can check it out at

http://excerptsfromourrealworld.blogspot.com/

koipond
-poem

Okay, so you have to kinda who who some of the players are to get this.  But this is one of the best commercials I've ever seen.

My name ... "Sidney Crosby" *click*

All I can say about it is ... "Ovechkin!"

koipond
-Ovechkin!

The largest thing I have noticed during this whole kerfuffle is how stupid we Canadians are.

Seriously.  Big, plain, old, stupid.  Enormously stupid.  Frightfully stupid.

Which is a big blow to a lot of my lines, because I like to play up how smart we are when I go to the states.  This thing is proving otherwise.

I've come to this conclusion after listening to people at work, reading comments about it in the Globe and Mail and just gawking at how quickly and how fast people are gobbling up Stevie's bit of line.  Let me clear up for those, though I don't think anyone is actually that stupid on this list, in Canada who are complaining about the state of affairs.

1. Welcome to your minority government:

This is what happens when you have a minority governments.  Usually, minority governments are filled with people yelling, screaming, fighting, biting and in the end compromising.  That's the big word of the day.  Compromise.  If you say it, Steven screams.  Some of Canada's most effective governments have been Minority ones because the yahoos on the left and the yahoos on the right have to come together and meet in the middle.

The Conservative Party of Canada (These are not the Tories, or the PC party ... they are dead and gone and this mutant is left in its wake) has not done any of this.  It has acted like they had a majority government the whole time.  To be fair, with the straw man that Dion was there was no wonder why this was the case.  However, you can only push straw men so far before you hit the pole that's holding them up.  That's what this budget update was.  It was the slap in the face that made the 95 pound weakling kick, and scream and bite and do all the things that good opposition leaders do.

For more information on that, I'm going to crimp from Wikipedia (because it's quick) but you know all that wonderful health care and stuff?  Thank Pearson and a Minority Government.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_minority_governments_in_Canada

2. Welcome to your elected government.

IF I HEAR ANOTHER PERSON SAYING HOW THIS IS UNDEMOCRATIC I WILL PUNCH THEM IN THE HEAD!  TWICE.

Every single person who is in that house is elected.  You can sit down in the low bowl seats if you haven't been elected.  That's democracy in canada, you elect people in a first past the post system (a stupid system for a modern age, but important at the time) where the person with the most votes in a riding gets elected in that seat.  So, if a group of DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED OFFICIALS decide to join forces because THEY HAVE MORE SEATS THAN YOU DO that's A-Okay.  That's again what happens when you have a minority goverment and you decide to spit in your opposition parties' soup.

3. National Unity

I've seen people making the joke that says whenever Steven Harper says Seperatist take a shot, the new Canadian Politics drinking game.  It's true, he's pretty much villified the whole province (or nation ... remember that one?) of Quebec as being knee jerk separatists.  Why don't you just hand the whole province back to the Bloc why dontcha.  Seriously, all this so he can hang on to power like a child clutching his favourite toy?  If you want a power grab that's it.  The NDP and the Liberals are putting their futures on the line because they think Harper's got no plan (and if you saw anything of the election, he didn't ... and the people voted for him anyway) to help with the economy.

I betcha this is going to spawn another separate vote in about 10 years ... maybe 8 but more likely 10.


4.  Taking his time with the stimulus package

Look, I'm no big fan of taking tax money and handing it out willy-nilly.  Most people aren't, unless your getting some of that willy-nilly money.  Steven didn't have any plan though for a stimulus package.  He didn't announce it, and you'd think that's pretty important.  All he did say that he was going to do to help the economy was cut spending and sell assets.  That's brilliant, let's sell government property when it's at it's least valuable.  Why doesn't he just give it to the banks and have done with it.

Apparently he forgot the whole way you make money at that.  Buy low, sell high.  Not, Buy low and sell around the same price ... maybe lower ... and if you act now you can get this second building free.

The other "money saving measure" was to remove funding from the other parties.  That's a big whopping 30 million or so ... every 4 years.  Which translates to less than 9 million a year.  That kind of money is chump change to governments these days.  I'm sure they spend more on the sandwhiches, the drinks and the attack ads that are available during meetings and conferences around Parliament Hill.  You can't tell me that wasn't a political move when the last thing we need as a country is a political move.


Now before you start going off on me for being a crazy lefty loon, let me say that I think Dion is totally out of his element and Jack likes himself waaaaaay too much.  I'd swear he'd give himself his own autograph if he could.  What I think we need to do is scrap all of them and start brand new.  A politlcal do over where we don't have an Iggy or a Bob or a Stock or a Petey or a Steve or a Jack.  They all take a nice long vacation and just enjoy themselves somewhere else and we can get back onto the business of running our wonderfully dysfunctional country.

The only person who is being smart about this whole thing is Gilles Duceppe.  I used to think he was such a weasle, but as the years pass you just can't get over how good a job he's doing.  He's not Lucien Nixon Bouchard in your face powerful, but he's pretty subtle.  He's the only one that comes out of this smelling like roses.

On one hand, he gets to help out Quebec by being a Troll and taking down the Conservatives.  The same Conservatives who cut arts funding that caused that huge stink in Quebec.  On the other hand, he gets the Conservatives making everyone in Quebec to be some sort of FLQ sympathiser which then sends him more votes in any future elections.

Can we have him run the country?  He seems the only one smart enough to come out ahead?  Sure he's part of a movement to put Quebec first, but I'm that desperate for someone to actually want to lead the country somewhere.

koipond
-Spectating

Dear Canada,

Boy do you like flirting with disaster.  BOY OH BOY DO YOU LIKE FLIRTING WITH DISASTER.

In particular Southern Ontario.  I have just lost any small amount of respect I might have had for you.

BOY OH BOY DO YOU LIKE FLIRTING WITH DISASTER!

Hey Oakville, may I remind you this is the guy who's response to people losing car manufacturing jobs was "Don't worry, we'll just stick with the status quo and everything will be A-ok!"

Seriously, do people actually pay attention to anything.

koipond

Hey folks.

I did a short but sweet interview for Living Dice!  You can check it out over at www.livingdice.com

Jonathan
-interviewee

This con, for gaming at any rate, is a joke.

A big, fat, stinking joke and it was on anyone involved with the Hobby Gaming Industry (as opposed to the Electronic Gaming Industry).   You see, Fan Expo is a convention that caters to a lot of people.  It's got Anime fans, SF fans, Comic Book fans, Horror fans and finally Gaming fans.  I put our industry last because that's exactly where they put us.  Seriously, we were in the armpit of the convention centre.

To give you a brief description:

We were in a featureless room, with no signage, behind the guest of honor autograph area and next to the dark video game corner.  The only entrance that bothered to open onto us had VIP entrance over top of it all weekend.

Quotes of the convention:

"I found you because I went looking for a bathroom."
"I didn't go there because it was the DARK VIDEO GAME corner."
"This looks like a place I shouldn't be going."

If I had paid for this I would have been screaming from the beginning of the con until the end of it.  I wouldn't have stopped yelling until they either gave me my money back or given me something for my money because it was awful.

Zero foot traffic, a hassle when I tried to roll with the situation and make something positive out of it.  It was perhaps the worst con I've ever been at.

Now this isn't a slight against the guy who organized it.  Justin did his best to try to make sure we got what we needed and to get those who he works for to listen to us, but at best the brushed him off at worst the ignored him.  He tried his best, it's not his fault that we've dropped to beyond after thought.  (This is also not because he's on the friends list, he seriously did try to get us anything)

With this con it's never a case of "if something goes wrong" it's a "when something goes wrong."  Last year none of the gaming guests were listed and none of my events were posted.  This year none of my events were posted and we had to deal with the location from hell.

The only reason why I bother is that it's free, and even then I wonder if I overpaid this year.

(Check out other con posts, etc at gamishdesigner.blogspot.com)

koipond
-not a fan

Ganked from </a></b></a></div>

Instructions: Go over to Wikipedia and enter your birthdate and then pick 3 events, 2 births and 1 holiday that occurred on the day of your birthday.

Events:

1636 - A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes the first college in what would become the United States, today known as Harvard University.

1886 - In New York Harbor, President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.

1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba

Births:

1955 - Bill Gates, American software executive
1967 - Julia Roberts, American actress

Holiday:

Charlotte, North Carolina - Stephen Colbert Day

ored at work
Look at the list and bold those you have read. Italicize those you intend to read. Underline the books you LOVE. Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read and hated. Reprint this in your journal and share

To be fair, I think it's cool that I only have 3 groups where I don't have a book I haven't read in there.  Assume the italics are the ones I'm actually really interested in reading and the others are ones I wouldn't say no to.

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want -- good or bad. When you're finished,post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified)about what people remember about you.

Every year I've gone to Anime North to do the gaming stuff there, and boy has it come a long long way. The first year I went, as a company, was in 2003 and it was my very first con. It is a very good con to have as your very first con because a lot of people are there for anime, and when the find a game company there, they're all surprised. Good surprised, like "Oh! I didn't know that was here," rather than, "Oooooh. A game company. What are you doing here?"

The first year we had a table in the dealer's room, which was crazy, and then we were running stuff almost non stop. It was all in the TCC (Toronto Congress Centre) and we had to compete with the noise coming from things like Anime Karaoke and Dance competitions. Nothing against them in general, but have you ever tried to run a game next to white guys who are singing in a language that they don't speak? It's not a fun experience, at all. You have to yell to be heard, and you're trying hard not to laugh and be angry at the situation.

The next year we were moved to the Doubletree Hotel which is right across the street from the convention centre. It was good, quieter and a lot more comfortable than sitting in the huge box that is a convention centre. The bad news was that the organizer wasn't much of one, and they MOVED THE KARAOKE OVER RIGHT NEXT TO US AGAIN!

But I'm only bitter, that's okay.

Last year we got moved again, but this time to the Renaissance Hotel, which is across the bridge and through the woods from Grandmother's house away from the Convention Centre. Which is great because it's even cozier, we have our own rooms, the organizer is far better than the last one and the karaoke stuff is nowhere to be found. The bad news is that it's across the bridge, through the woods and a Gradmother's house away from the Convention Centre. Not a lot of foot traffic, and it still had the feel of being thrown together at the last minute.

Much to my surprise it was. Huh. Imagine that.

Now gaming at Anime North is getting a lot bigger. We consistently filled up the rooms that we were using and only had a few, minor hiccups that kept all of us on staff (yes, I did volunteer this year) hopping about the place.

Now for the really cool things at Anime North. Every year we have a group of people, a lot of whom are from that first year so many moons ago, who come to Anime North and spend a large bulk of their time hanging out with us. In fact, most of all my con stories here involve these people who are all phenomenal roleplayers. Seriously, all the good RP people come to Anime North and I have the distinct privilege of having most of them love CyberGen. It's a kind of heady experience.

The other awesome thing is that I got to meet Jess Hartley, who is a phenomenal writer and individual who was willing to grace us with her patience as we fumbled her about from one event to another. I put a link to her blog over there on the right, not that many people are going to see it, but it's still there. She put up with our lack of organization and structure and enjoyed herself this weekend.

Note to self, make sure that I take better care in owning that portfolio at AN Gaming next year.

All in all a very successful weekend.

Jonathan
-Anime-d Out

Updated the other blog thing.

Check it out

I’m working on a new game. That’s not entirely true. I’ve been working on this game for a while, but it’s mostly been in my head. A somewhat inside joke that a lot of people would get if I only took the time to sit down and write it. Before the end of the new year I thought that’s what I’d do.

It’s a Parody game. I’d tell you the title, but then I’d have to get it done faster.

Parody is nothing particularly new, especially within the gaming Industry. We have a habit of being incredibly self-referential and meta-cultural (we refer to ourselves and geek culture a lot) because that’s where a lot of our humour lies. This means that we tend to lean towards parody for cheap laughs.

Culprit number one of this is Steve Jackson Games’ Munchkin series. Not the original series, which is genre parody (which I’ll get into a little later), but the expansion set Munchkin Bites! The reason why this whole game has any sort of humour value is because it uses the meta-cultural parody paradigm. Basically, referencing another game and game company, and their game, Munchkin Bites! relies on the players knowledge of another game in order to make with the funny. Take the card to my left, “Invisible, Invisible, Invisible,” it’s only funny when you know that in the LARP rules for the World of Darkness (WoD) you’re “invisible” if you cross your arms in front of you. The same goes for other such cards in the game that are immediately referential (like “Invisible, Invisible, Invisible) which immediately draw upon a reference, or like “Clereitousness” (image on the right) where it plays with the spelling of a common ability found in the Vampire WoD games.

Ultimately what I’m trying to say is that the game industry is pretty rampant with this kind of thing. I’m pretty sure that to people who have no idea what the hell White Wolf is, or what the WoD is, they wouldn’t get this game at all. I don’t know of too many other industries where this kind of stuff happens, and is commercially viable. Munchkin Bites! was successful enough that it got its own expansion.

Some games go beyond this level of humour. An example could be Slug Fest Games’ Red Dragon Inn which uses the fantasy setting for a humour game, but doesn’t refer to geek culture or another game or manufacturer to get the laughs. Here the humour is a parody of a genre and not the meta-parody shown above. You don’t need to really know a specific game or a specific company in order to get the jokes. Heck, to be fair you don’t really need to even get fantasy to get the jokes, the cards are pretty self-explanatory and funny.

The trick for me, when trying to write this game, is that I have to really understand which one I’m doing. What type of humour am I going for? Do I want to stick to the meta-cultural and self-reflexive, or do I want to dabble with genre humour as well? Do I want to try to expand the horizons of the jokes, or do I strictly stick with the cheap easy gags because it’s easy?

Ideally I’d like to have a little bit of both. However, I think it’s going to lean towards the self-reflexive rather than anything else since it’s really parodying a game type. But now that I’m more aware of the whole situations I can at least include a bit that goes beyond the scope of the original idea.

I’ll have to tell you that story another time, because it’s not that relevant to this little bit. Also, it would give up the name of the book, which is something I don’t quite want to do just yet.

I'm actually going to be starting my own blog of game design over on my actual website www.firestorm-ink.com

I'll cross post stuff here, but this one will also include the few personal tidbits that I have from time to time instead of only being about design.

I mean, everyone else is doing it. Why can't I hang out with the cool kids?

*-*-*

I thought I’d start the blog by going over the general introduction post.

A good general introduction post should have the following things: A stated goal, A general feel for what should be in the blog, An obvious typo, an overview of the structure, some sort of snarky comment, and a “What I’m working on now” expose. I’ll do my best to make sure that I cover as many of these areas as possible.

What I want to do is create a blog that covers my idea on the creative process of game design. Particularly, my creative process.1 This will give me a way to watch my own methods when it comes to designing a game. I’ll cover games that I’ve done, games that I’m working on, games that are already published by other people. That doesn’t mean I’m going to do game reviews, I’m going to do game design reviews. There is a difference.2

I should try to breake3 things up so there’s a bit of cohesion to what people are reading. I’ll try to break it down into: Current Games, Future Games, Other’s Games, General Design notes. It’s general enough, with a catch-all in case things don’t work out.4 That is if anyone actually decides to read this thing. I know I wouldn’t.5

As for what I’m doing this second, that book says it all. A while ago we got a contract with R. Talsorian to be working on a series of books for them that revolve around their Cyberpunk line.6 No, we didn’t get line license, and to be fair I wouldn’t want it. Cyberpunk is an awesome game but it’s not at the level we’re ready for yet, to do something like that on our own. CyberGeneration is far more my pace and style, and I love it.

Nope, what we’re doing is working on some books as a team with R. Talsorian. We’re doing a lot of the grunt writing work and artist gathering, they’re doing all the higher level publishing and printing. They’re taking a rather large risk on us, and we really appreciate them for it. That means, back to reading up my dog-eared copy of Home of the Brave.

Jonathan
-Cyberpunk v2 1/2

1 - There was my Stated Goal
2 - There goes my general feel for the blog
3 - There’s the typo. I knew it was going to haunt me.
4 - How I hope the structure stays. Nothing worse then having to go over a blog structure, again.
5 - Snarky enough for you?
6 - We are really doing that. I just don’t look pretty with that book.

Go Jesus!

Seriously, go watch this.

Arlene posted this.  It's worth passing along.

Stolen from Erinya
1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.).
2. Put it on shuffle and press play.
3. For every question, type the song that's playing. When you go to a new question, go to the next song.
4. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool.

( my own personal movie )

The funny bit is that with a bit of judicious editing that might actually work.

Okay. Now I'm totally watching DS9 and I have to say that it is the best star trek ever.

Let me count the reasons.

1. Sisko. Dude is bad ass. Seriously bad ass. He's the kick ass part of Kirk that meets the intense control of Picard. Seriously, best of both worlds with a voice that has hella more authority than either of them.

2. Garrec ... or however you spell his name. Best spy ever, and he's not there every single episode so it doesn't get dull. In fact, you look forward to him showing up when he does. And he lives on the stations.

3. Quark and Odo. Why? Because the whole police/criminal conflict really doesn't get old. It's like watching a chess match where someone is stealing all the pieces and the other one is trying to put them all back.

4. Lots of Original Star Trek references. The crossover episode in season two. The trouble with tribbles episode. Honestly, how can you not enjoy those things.

5. Family. TNG and the original Star Trek was filled with single people flying across the galaxy. This one deals with people who have families who try to stay together on the station.

6. Political Backstabbing. There is tons of maneuvering and smiling while stabbing each other in the back. Tons of linguistic play.

There's more, but I think that makes a good 6. Anyone else wants to add to this feel free.