(no subject)

Okay....I am a serious gamer geek. I have gamed for 26 years. I have played many many games. I have a podcast about gaming. To say I am a gamer geek may be an understatement. As a result i have taken an interest in games and the people who make them for a long time.

There are several brilliant known individuals from the gaming market. Most folks with a cursory knowledge of gaming has for instance heard of Gary Gygax, one of the people who made Dungeons and Dragons. Monte Cook is another well known name. He helped make the changes in third edition D&D. Robin D. Laws made several original game designs such as the Hong Kong action rpg called Feng Shui. I am confident a few of the folks I have known for years will be luminaries someday themselves.

I say all of that as preamble to this. One of my favorite game designers a man well known in the game industry is Erick Wujcik. He designed some of my favorite games like Amber Diceless RPG and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I briefly met the man after a game designers roundtable at Dragoncon years ago. At the roundtable most folks on the panel stated they thought the future of gaming lay in the direction of his product, Amber. I did not get to meet him enough to say I knew him but he seemed a nice man and he really is brilliant.

So it was announced on a couple of websites that he is dying of a very aggressive case of pancreatic cancer. They apparently decided not to wait till after Christmas to announce it because it is that short of time. The truth is this guy has had a huge impact on an activity that has made up a whole lot of my time for two and half decades. I am deeply saddened to hear of his impending passing.

http://www.erickwujcik.com/

http://www.palladiumbooks.com/press/erick.html

mom sent me this and I thought I would share.

Merry Politically Correct Christmas

Public Service Announcement
Please accept with no obligation, implied or
implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially
responsible, low stress,non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the
winter solstice holiday, practised with the most enjoyable traditions of
religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for
the
religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their
choice
not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a
fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated
recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008,
but
not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures
whose
contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply
that Great Britain is necessarily greater than any other country) and
without
regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith
or

sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are
accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or
withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original
greeting.

It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of
the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law,
and
is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.

This wish is warranted
to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a
period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday
greeting,
whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this
wish or
issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: No
trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant
number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.

so I have been playing with Hulu

As a service it is actually not terrible. I wish it had more seasons of buffy cause well the first season was not as good as later seasons. it has some other shows I have not seen in a while or ever and all for free to view online. You put up with ads but not as many as tv. It also allows you to embed episodes of shows you have watched on your blog or the like. All in all not terrible.

While browsing through their selections I came across Total Recal 2070. I had not actually watched the show before. I have to say despite some minor over acting and a little cliche here and there, this pilot did not suck. It seemed more like what would happen if you crossed total recall and blade runner. It was very dark and atmospheric in it's presentation. The paranoia factor is there as well. While not super, for a pilot it actually did not suck at all. I think i will make a point of checking the rest out.