Author: Gareth

A House Divided…is a pain in the ass.

Taken from this week’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO:

“New rule: Southerners have to at least consider voting for candidates from the North.

North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has a powerful argument in his bid to be the Democratic nominee when he says, “What I give people is a candidate who can win everywhere in America.” Translation: “We Southerners ain’t gonna vote for no Yankee! You suckers up North will take our Clintons and Carters, but we just ain’t buyin’ Kerrys and Deans.”

And that’s a shame. Not just for Democrats but for democracy itself. And I feel bad for the millions of intelligent people who live in a region still dominated by so much prejudice that anyone who wants to be president better have a twang in his voice and pronounce all four E’s in the word “shit.”

Sorry, but responding only to people who look and sound like you is small-minded, so if Southerners don’t want to have an inferiority complex, I say stop doing things that make reasonable people think you’re inferior.

Like, getting rid of slavery was a good start. But don’t quit there: Stop being the place that’s always challenging the theory of Evolution. What’s next, Gravity? Is that just a plot by the Jews up North to get people to drop spare change?

Southerners need to let go of the Civil War, beginning with those reenactments. First of all, you’re reenacting something you lost. It’s one thing to gloat about victory — when you do it about losing, your front porch is a few couches short of being decorated. The time has come to move on. The time has come to consider voting for a Yankee. Howard Dean’s Vermont is no longer where carpetbaggers come from. Carpet munchers — yes.

There’s no good reason that America, at this late date, still needs to be a house divided. At bottom, we all want the same things: dignity, security — and someone to slap the shit out of Janet Jackson.”

A-friggin’-men, Bill. Either get with the “E Pluribus Unum” program, people, or just secede again. This time we’ll let you and your 20-some-odd percent of the GDP go, because it’s just not worth putting up with you for it.

GMS

I’ve added another link in the list of blogs to the left, this one belonging to Ken Hite, he of Suppressed Transmissions and brilliant-drunken-game-convention-ramblings fame.

A thought for the weekend: If one is struck with the knowledge that the topics of greatest interest to you are not those that would resound with today’s gamers, does one begin to explore the idea of pursuing those interests in other media forms, or simply damn the torpedoes and craft games for the sort of folks who share your interests?

GMS

Another Interview…

…this one from Elissa Carey:

1. I hear so much praise for UnderWorld. I’d like to eventually see it and play it myself, but for now, tell me what you think makes it the bee’s knees and why others like it so much.

That’s a bad question for me, actually, because I become very harshly critical of my own work in retrospect. I look at UnderWorld now, and all I see are the missed opportunities to do it better. I just see the things that I would’ve preferred to handle differently, or the things that didn’t go the way I wanted them to (whether due to my own inability, or due to comprimises with others). So I really don’t think it qualifies as the bee’s knees, nor can I explain why others do…although to be blunt, I think a lot of that might be simply due to the glow of my particular Cult of Personality, for better or worse.

2. As one of those unlucky bastards with his own company, you have the freedom to make any kind of game you want, and you’ve likely already written the top ones on your list. However, I like to think that our lists change over time. If you could, what game would you most love to write? Not counting the ones currently on your plate, unless one of them (like Apollyon Noir) is it.

I would most love to write a licensed DOCTOR WHO game, simply because of my long-standing love of the program, and my fond memories of playing the FASA version in high school.

My list *does* change over time…but honestly, I’m finding it harder and harder to shoe-horn my inspirations into the RPG format. I keep coming up with ideas for settings and such that I’d like to work on, and then get frustrated as I try to hammer them into a shape that would make sense from a gaming perspective. I’m rapidly arriving at the point where I realize that some of this stuff would work much better in other forms than games…and that idea is interesting to me.

3. What do you dig most about electronic music? Is there a type, like ambient, jungle, drums’n’bass, downtempo, lounge, etc. that you like more than the others? Could you define what the allure is, or is it simply a diggable groove?

What I like most is the discovery of creation: At its best, electronic music manages to create organic, “real” music (in some cases, a “diggable groove”, as you say) through the combination of purely artificial elements, and I find that fascinating. I especially love work that involves samples and found sounds, because that is almost like collage–the re-interpretation of previously-existing materials into new patterns that, when it’s done well, creates entirely new meanings to those materials, without invalidating their old meanings.

4. You’re the only writer I know who has kids older than mine. With just that bit more experience under your belt, what do you think has been the most rewarding aspect of fatherhood for you? Do they think of you as ‘cool,’ or an old fart? Do you think your lessons have sunk through, or will it be just a matter of time?

The most rewarding aspect of fatherhood for me has been the knowledge that I helped to create another individual with their own beliefs, opinions, creativity and personality. That’s still a source of amazement to me, because it’s something that happens so slowly you almost don’t notice it until it’s done. The point at which kids start to assert their own identity, independent of you, is simulateously wonderful and heart-breaking.

5. I am firmly of the opinion that we all have pet theories concerning anything under the sun you can think of. Some of us have just one; some have more than one. (I think I’m of the latter type.) Tell me about yours: wacky, profound, mundane, spiritual, cynical, you name it.

I have a theory that the table-top gaming industry will experience a renaissance in about 25 years or so, when the first generations of gamers start retiring and suddenly have a lot of leisure time available to them again.

(I’ve got tons of other pet theories–that’s the first one that came to mind)

GMS