Words in My Mouth

The Stateline News, a free weekly newspaper published here in Beloit, ran a “People You Know” article about me in the Sunday (12/31/05) edition. If you’re a local, you already have it. If not, my apologies, but there’s no web link to any such piece.

Mostly, I’m happy with it. I always appreciate free publicity, even in a publication with such a clear right-wing bias. (It regularly runs statement papers from the Cato Institute as editorial pieces.) However, the article did liberally misquote me in a couple places. For example, “Our young people need to understand the value of education and hard work.”

While I don’t disagree that there’s value in education and hard work, I would never have given this quote. For one, I never refer to those under eighteen as “young people.” Second, to imply that only the young need these values–and that merely by being older I’ve climbed some kind of mount from which I can dispense my hard-earned wisdom–strikes me as condescending. It’s one of those clichés along the lines of “kids these days” that’s grated on my nerves ever since I was a kid myself. It’s right up there with walking uphill to school–both ways.

I’ve seen all sorts of misquotes and inaccuracies, though, in just about every article I’ve been close to. The speed at which local news is reported means the papers rarely have a chance to go back and check facts. The mistakes are rarely worth getting bothered about, so most of the time people just let them slide. Normally, I do too. As long as there’s no malice intended on the part of the paper or the reporter, it’s usually harmless.

I’ve done a bit of journalism myself, after all. I used to write for InQuest, and I still write an article for each Games Quarterly Magazine. Accuracy doesn’t come easy. It’s a goal you must continually strive for if you care to achieve it.

Happy New Year!

I launched this blog/website just over two years ago, and it’s been a wild and wooly time since. I’ll leave the analysis of the past year and predictions for the next to others (or for a later time, at least). For now, let me wish all of you and yours the very best 2006.

History via Google

One of the best things about living in the Information Age is the ability to stumble upon websites built by people you haven’t seen in years. Case in point: Tim Pollard.

Back when I worked in the Games Workshop Design Studio, Tim and his pal Russ had desks in the same room with me and Bill King for a while. The four of us–and anyone who wandered through–kept each other in stitches most of the day. Which is why management moved Bill and I to a different office soon after.

In January of 1990, I joined a large crew to watch the Super Bowl at Tim’s house in Nottingham. I left England a month later and haven’t seen or heard of Tim since. But now he has his own site, complete with a blog, detailing his adventures as none other than Robin Hood. Too cool.

Break No More

Back when I was president of Pinnacle Entertainment Group, we used to give the entire company the week off between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Now that I’m back to freelancing again, I no longer have that luxury. There are deadlines to chase after, so things like extended breaks don’t make a lick of sense. I have high hopes, though, that this will be the year I’ll get well enough on track to think about things like long vacations.

This year, you see, I booked up lots of novels to write. Then I landed the gig with Playmates Toys for Marvel Heroes Battle Dice, and it was too good to pass up. This meant I had waaaaay too much to do. Still, it was a good kind of busy, and as any freelancer will tell you, it’s hard to pass up work–especially if you’ve ever gone without.

Happy Holidays!

Best wishes to you and yours during this holiday season, whether you choose to observe Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, the Packers-Bears game, the New Year, or the fact you’re still kicking!

Ecto Bargain

The creators of ecto, the desktop blogging software I use to post on this site, are giving a 20% discount until December 26. If you’re in the market for an excellent Mac OS X blogging tool, you really can’t beat ecto. Do yourself a favor and check it out. (And, no, I don’t get a dime for recommending them.) 🙂

Spycraft: License Renewed

My friends at AEG have licensed their Spycraft espionage games to a brand-new company, Crafty Games, co-founded by Patrick Kapera. A ways back, Patrick edited my Brave New World RPG in the days that AEG published it. I always enjoyed working with him then, and I wish him and his partners (Scott Gearin and Beloit College grad Alex Flagg) the best of luck with their new venture too.

More Battle Dice Images

SuperheroTimes.com has an article about Marvel Heroes Battle Dice, complete with photos of an opened starter set. As it states:

Battle Dice consists of “pop dice” that open to reveal themed dynamically posed action figures making up six different armies. Each figure has six different attributes including speed, strength, durability, intelligence, energy projection and fighting skills, plus symbols and numbers signifying the strength of their power.

Players battle by loading their dice with action figures, then rolling simultaneously with their opponents. The player with the lowest number selects the attribute to be used and the battle begins! Each battle can involve one, two or many characters in a player’s army and victory depends on each character’s strengths versus those of the opposing forces, meaning figures must be strategically selected before each battle. With every roll of the dice, the lives of your characters are at stake because defeat means surrendering your figure to the opponent’s army.

The first player to collect all of the opponents’ figures wins the war and the game. Game extensions included in the instructions make the game more complex and intriguing.

For those who wanted to know a bit more about the game play, I hope that helps.

P.S. They also have a larger gallery of images from the October Toy Show.