Pretty hard to argue with you here. I've always been interested in Mike Carr's role(s) in the early game - the B1 module is seminal and stands the test of time.
Well, one comment here and 23 for the post above in a limited amount of time. Guess what that says?
Short of bribing or more forceful cajoling of participation from people who /should/ have a vested interest in the hobby, even if not actually feeling "obligated", it's a bit difficult to know what to do. For Mike, for example, it's pretty much one way traffic - more than happy to tap for additional information (e.g. http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=blackmoor&action=display&thread=3069 ) but not so obviously willing to return the favor within a reasonable timespan. Ditto for tapping information from John Snider, for another recent example.
Sure, it does take a good few hours if writing the likes of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Jaquays from scratch (as had to be done, alas), but it's easy enough to add in ad-hoc improvements and it /would/ be nice to think Wikipedia was considered at least in some way a "team effort".
(Thanks for the prod, even if you didn't get much response, Rob!).
I had the extreme pleasure of chatting with Michael at the last Garycon. I hope he is there in March, and I do hope John Bobek shows as well. Seeing Len Lakofka would be a hoot, too.
Yep, there's a world of people out there who have been /deeply/ involved and have stories to tell above-and-beyond the usual, inevitable, focus more-or-less on Gary alone. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SmallReferencePools has a lot to answer for. :/
It's a rather sad indictment that some of the best essays/personal viewpoints from /across/ the hobby are still those "My Life and Roleplaying" contribs in Different Worlds... hmm... 30 years ago.
Someone could do with capturing a few of those discussions on video, IMO, even if that's primarily a chance to catch up for personal reasons. :)
January 3, 2010 at 3:32 AM
[Image]
Mike really needs a better bio than this. Among many other accomplishments, he was the co-designer of Don't Give up the Ship (with EGG and Dave Arneson), the designer of Fight in the Skies (aka Dawn Patrol), one of TSR's earliest officers, editor, designer of In Search of the Unknown (Basic D&D adventure module) and was among Dave Arneson's earliest players in Blackmoor. An elder IFW member as well, Mike has always upheld great game design theory and has a consummate love of games and the history surrounding them, especially his love of WWI air combat.
4 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formPretty hard to argue with you here. I've always been interested in Mike Carr's role(s) in the early game - the B1 module is seminal and stands the test of time.
December 28, 2009 at 6:44 PM
Well, one comment here and 23 for the post above in a limited amount of time. Guess what that says?
Short of bribing or more forceful cajoling of participation from people who /should/ have a vested interest in the hobby, even if not actually feeling "obligated", it's a bit difficult to know what to do.
For Mike, for example, it's pretty much one way traffic - more than happy to tap for additional information (e.g. http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=blackmoor&action=display&thread=3069 ) but not so obviously willing to return the favor within a reasonable timespan. Ditto for tapping information from John Snider, for another recent example.
Sure, it does take a good few hours if writing the likes of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Jaquays from scratch (as had to be done, alas), but it's easy enough to add in ad-hoc improvements and it /would/ be nice to think Wikipedia was considered at least in some way a "team effort".
(Thanks for the prod, even if you didn't get much response, Rob!).
d.
January 3, 2010 at 12:47 AM
I had the extreme pleasure of chatting with Michael at the last Garycon. I hope he is there in March, and I do hope John Bobek shows as well. Seeing Len Lakofka would be a hoot, too.
January 3, 2010 at 1:02 AM
Have a great time, y'all! :)
Yep, there's a world of people out there who have been /deeply/ involved and have stories to tell above-and-beyond the usual, inevitable, focus more-or-less on Gary alone.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SmallReferencePools has a lot to answer for. :/
It's a rather sad indictment that some of the best essays/personal viewpoints from /across/ the hobby are still those "My Life and Roleplaying" contribs in Different Worlds... hmm... 30 years ago.
Someone could do with capturing a few of those discussions on video, IMO, even if that's primarily a chance to catch up for personal reasons. :)
January 3, 2010 at 3:32 AM