Chris Whitley, 1960-2005

 Posted by (Visited 8571 times)  Music
Nov 282005
 

I leave Locus Online to read the obit of an SF writer I had never heard of, and see Chris Whitley’s name at the bottom of the list of obituaries.

He was only 45, and he died of lung cancer, and somehow, it’s exactly the right bluesy ending to another great bluesman, albeit one that most people don’t remember, or only know because of “Big Sky Country” playing in the background of a Chevy commercial.
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A Bartle lead in the NYT?

 Posted by (Visited 6699 times)  Game talk
Nov 282005
 

Yep, check it out.

“So you have these four basic types that occupy the environment: the Achiever, the Explorer, the Socializer and the Killer.”

Nick Fortugno, the 30-year-old teacher, turned away from the whiteboard and faced the 14 undergraduate and master’s-level students in his Thursday seminar. “Killers act like predators, and like any ecosystem, if you increase the number of killers and facilitate them, you decrease the number of achievers and socializers.”

I’m sure that right about now, RIchard chimes in wondering why nobody uses his newer model, found in his book…

Recent site fixes

 Posted by (Visited 6904 times)  Game talk, Misc, Music
Nov 272005
 

The following fixes have been made:

  • The essays and presentations have been split onto two separate pages.
  • The GDC presentation on Online World Design Patterns is now back on the site. This presentation covers the basic common characteristics of MMOs and MUDs: what characters are like, what game systems are common, etc. IE-only, for now.
  • Also back is How to Manage a Large-Scale Online Gaming Community. This presentation is often misread as cynical manipulation of customers. Well, it is some of that, but it’s also intended to be a blueprint for honest dealings with your community. Also IE-only for now.
  • Two Models for Narrative Worlds has slightly changed URLs (it is now an SHTML file) and is no longer one of those fancy JavaScript IE-only presentation webpages, but instead a single page of PNGs with the transcript of the talk interspersed. Over time, I hope to change all of the presentations to this format, since most folks who visit here use Firefox (as do I!).
  • The snippet “Online worlds and the law” is back on the site — it just had a bad filename.
  • Same with “The ethics of online world design”. Neither of these pages, as with several others of the snippets, look correct yet, but at least the material is restored.
  • The sheet music for “Alice” and “Memorial” should be legible again.

Since we’re here — what needs to change about the site? What’s working? What do you hate? What do I need to blog about more? Feedback is welcome.

The Sunday Poem: Grandmother is Forgetting

 Posted by (Visited 7532 times)  The Sunday Poem
Nov 272005
 

Some comfort lies in knowing
A tree’s inner core gilds a human wall,
And no one pays it mind —

I stared into her faded eyes, while willing
Into being a look not a reflection
Of my own. Her bones have been
Unlearning youth for years,
And dry rot clenches whispery hands
Around her veins. She feels oblivion,
Perhaps, and rooted fears to die —

And worse, the fear of being furnishing
For a mourner’s heart, a comfortable
Seat for sadness on display, a grief
Unlearned, replaced, reborn, beveled
By the familiar gaze of children wishing
For knowledge, continuation, and belief.

I pay her mind, in hopes that one will do
The same for me — ring me, round me, learn
And ground me, make me theirs, and never burn
The grains that build me, where they gild me
through and through.

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