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Author: Bryant

Ghetto-think

May 20, 2004
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“Today we have elves, stormtroopers and now superheroes,” Koster said. “We need to break out of the geek ghetto. No offense … I am one.”

Wired is running the old mainstream acceptance article, except it’s about MMORPGs instead of comic books. And yeah, we all know how unpopular stories about elves, stormtroopers, and superheroes are.

movie of all time: Star Wars. #4 movie of all time: The Phantom Menace. #5 movie of all time: Spider-Man. #6 movie of all time: Return of the King. movie of all time: The Two Towers.

If and when MMORPGs break mainstream, it’s not going to be because of a change in subject matter. It’s going to be because of gameplay, which needs to be more tuned to the mainstream user, and ease of play, ditto. But there are no problems at all with the genres they’re mining.

GenCon Schedule

May 19, 2004
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For the curious, my GenCon schedule follows.

Thursday

Iron Ref (Judge/Player), 2 PM — 8 PM

This is run by a couple I’ve sort of kind of known for a long time, and whom I had a great time gaming with last GenCon. The concept is also terribly cool. Quasi-fortunately, my other first choice for this slot filled up two hours after registration opened, so I didn’t have to make a choice.

Beneath the Astrolabe (Dread), 8 PM — midnight

I’ve always wanted to play Dread. Maybe I’ll get lucky and score a copy… OK, while looking up something else I just discovered that this is not the Dread that Rafael Chandler wrote. Well, crap. And I already bought the ticket. Well, it sounds kind of interesting anyhow.

Friday

Whirlpool of Blood (Shadowfist draft), noon — 4 PM

I am not ever going to be a top-notch Shadowfist player again. I’ve pretty much come to terms with this. I don’t play enough, I don’t obsess about it enough, and my play style is sufficiently different from the play style of the designers that I don’t get that many cards which support my play style. Mostly, though, I don’t play enough. So I’ll do one draft event and have fun, but I won’t do the World Championship this time.

Fireborn: Become the Dragon, 4 PM — 8 PM

The setting sounds kind of cool but I really want to find out what the system is like.

Saturday

The Frogs of War (Adventure!), noon — 4 PM

Heard good things about this GM from friends of mine, plus it’s Adventure! so how could I miss it? I got the last ticket for this. Phew.

Real Men Wear Tights (Four Colors Al Fresco), 4 PM — 8 PM

I am very intrigued by superheroes in a historic setting. The system is also pretty fascinating — it’s different, and I’m a neophile.

Sunday

Dragon Bone (Everway), noon — 4 PM

Another GM recommended to me by friends. The same friends, come to think of it.

I also failed to sign up for a Black Company preview. I’m going to try and get into it anyway. I really want to see what Green Ronin does with Black Company.

Talking points creep

May 19, 2004
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A week or so ago, the WEEI morning radio jocks were pushing the “it’s no worse than a frat hazing” talking points on Abu Ghraib. This morning, though, there was some interesting mutation going on. Dennis and Callahan spent a lot of time talking about how admirable the people who tried to prevent it were, and how little attention the media was paying to them — which is tacit acceptance that a lot of the soldiers did do something wrong. They went on to talk about the psychological tensions that might lead to abuse, once again accepting the postulate that abuse did occur.

I don’t think the “frat hazing” talking point is sticking.

Suntan

May 18, 2004
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A reliable source informs me that, while it is not advertised on their site, the Renaissance Hotel Aruba has both wireless access and plenty of power outlets on their private island beach. Said reliable source spent part of his vacation playing City of Heroes while drinking marguritas and tanning.

I’m both horrified and delighted.

When it gets good

May 17, 2004
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I’d been pretty pleased with the Freaks and Geeks DVD set through six episodes, but in the seventh episode the beautiful new girl in class walks into the room in slow motion to the dulcet strains of Billy Joel’s “C’etait Toi.” And Jason Schwartzman guest stars. Now I’m just wholeheartedly recommending it.

18 hour-long episodes, drama with a lot of comedy to it, teenagers in a Wisconsin high school. Not unlike That ’70s Show, except not played for laughs. Decent acting, mostly by people who didn’t act much before or after — I’m sure there’s a story to the whole ensemble and how the show got made, but I dunno what it is. Painful if you don’t want to relive your high school years.

Letters from Iraq

May 16, 2004
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A while back I posted about a slew of identical letters to the editor from Americans in Iraq. It turned out that Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo wrote the letters and passed ‘em around to the troops to sign them.

At the time, a couple of the soldiers said he didn’t actually sign the letter. One of them, Shawn Grueser, just posted in the entry linked above confirming that he didn’t sign the letter but saying in no uncertain terms that he would have. I still think you don’t forge a guy’s name without getting his permission, but if Sgt. Grueser doesn’t mind, that’s a pretty strong mitigating factor. And it sounds like he may have been pushed into giving the negative quote he gave at the time.

Outliers

May 15, 2004
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Here’s what I get from this graph:

If, on September 12th, 2001, you would have told a pollster that you did not approve of George Bush? You are in about a 10% minority. I’m in the same minority.

Oh, sure, it’s also the case that Bush’s support is steadily slipping; you can be satisfied to realize that the majority of the country now agrees with your prescient wisdom. But still, I like being reminded now and again exactly how far out to the fringe I am.

Midnight bells

May 15, 2004
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The City of Cambridge will be issuing marriage licenses at the City Clerk’s Office on Monday at the stroke of midnight. The City Clerk’s Office is in the City Hall, at 795 Mass Ave. I intend to be there with champagne, if I can convince any like-minded celebrants to come with. Anyone?