(This blog is written with wit and humor, not with bitterness or meanness. I hope that comes across. If not, well, sue me, okay? I’ve got liability insurance… yeah, right.)
I’m getting a lot of random questions through email. To think I was worried about those proposals of marriage before the game even shipped. “Thank you, but no thanks,” was pretty easy to write. So, there’ve been no proposals after those first two, now it’s just strange and interesting questions. Any Qs about the game, I ask people to please post on the forum (http://mardigras3000.forumup.com/) but the other Qs aren’t really appropriate for public consumption… which is why I thought I’d answer them here. I mean, isn’t a blog a private place to explore one’s thoughts and musings? Is it my fault that the silly counter registers three hundred strangers? I mean, you’re all my… friends… right? ;)
“Are you sleeping with your publisher?”
Hello! Wow. Way to be forward, there. Incredible. I suppose this means that someone (or four someones) think I’m too effusive toward my publisher, Jennifer, in my blog. And, yeah, I am a kinda passionate person who appreciates a beautiful woman (or handsome man) which is to say I like people who have the whole package – intelligence, sass, humor, looks, steel and control. But I think this in-your-face Q really has more to do with the fact that no one seems to have mentors or heroes any more.
I was surfing blogs over that last few days and a lot of folks seem to run out of things to say and start just running quizzes. I guess quizzes are a fun way to let people know about you but what use are they if you don’t answer half the Qs or you answer things like, “Duh!” or “NA.” One of the Qs most left unanswered was, “Who is your hero?” Isn’t that sad? I mean, really, truly sad. You have no one to look up to? No one you admire for their bravery, kindness or other feats? To me, that must be a very lonely existence. And, hey, I’m not being a patronizing jerk here, I mean it. I think I would feel really alone in the world if I didn’t have a few healthy, kick-butt heroes. I would feel that it was just me against the universe and no one else was out there fighting the good fight, and making the hard decisions.
So, no, I’m not sleeping with my publisher (she’s married, she has two kids, and SHE’S MY PUBLISHER!!!) but the admiration that I feel for her is pretty deep. Sorry if that comes across as all sexy. Perhaps try watching the NASA channel before reading my blog? It might put you in a better frame of mind than leafing through Hustler.
“Gaming isn’t mathematics. Do you think that just by dropping phrases like ‘zero-sum’ and ‘dove and hawk theory’ that’ll you’ll be taken seriously?”
Nah, probably not. To be taken seriously I’d have to garage my bike, sell my leather jacket *and* my chaps, and panel at conferences with titles like, “The Annual Number-crunchers Divided (And Multiplied) Convention.” Honestly, I think I did forget, for a blog or two, that I haven’t paid my membership fee to the Jealous Math Geeks Club and that does suck. I was never trying to flash any mad math skills, trust me. I didn’t (couldn’t) even design the O.S. for my own game (Remember? The publisher I’m sleeping with did that.), for goodness sakes. I also forgot that mathematics (like game theory, chaos theory and quantum mechanics) can *never* be applied to every day life by every day people. Higher mathematics are outside and beyond the reach of reality… which is what makes them so *important* to the rest of us. Strangely, until this emailed Q, I was so hot to date a math geek. Now, I’m just hot.
“Doesn’t it bother you to have to deal with teen-agers critiquing your work?” (on the forum)
There’s two ways to answer this question. These are:
The Market Analysis Answer
As a designer of CCGs, my prime demographic is players 18 to 25. But players 13 to 17 (specifically, players 13 to 15) have the most expendable capital in comparison to their debts/expenses. So, I’m not “dealing with” teen-agers, I’m courting potential players (read: customers). Teens are my bottom-line of profitability. Without teen interest in my games, I may as well be paneling at faux mathematics conventions for pitifully small honorariums and a poorly stocked Green Room.
The “I’m in a Mood” Answer
The teen-agers on the MG3K forum are the future lawyers, senators and movie producers of your all-grown-up America. Most of them are already voting (and in larger numbers than most “grown ups”) and questioning the conventions that shape their day to day existence. Other than actually working on a game right now, more than anything else I enjoy interacting with the teen-agers (and others) at the forum. They still dream (do you?), they still ask questions shamelessly and honestly (unlike yours) and they are fresh and alive in the world of mythology and religion – they have not been beaten down or muted by years of working for or against the machine. They are still shouting from the roof tops. What are you shouting about, buddy?
“Don’t you think you’re a little too old (at 28) to be using a handle like ‘grrl’?”
Don’t you think you’re a little rude to be calling out a grrl’s age like that? What? I’ve blogged about my age before? It’s posted on my website? Oh. Fine. Whatever. The next time some trucker calls me “baby,” I’ll remind him I’m not an infant, and the next time anyone calls me their “girlfriend,” I’ll point out that I’m a “significant other.” And, actually, the word “grrl” doesn’t find its origins in the word “girl.” It sources from the word “Grrrrr!” I have no idea where the “L” came from. Maybe Showtime?
“What division do you box in?”
Bantamweight. I’m 5’4”. 117. 34. 23. 32. 5 (ring size, baby). Want a match? >;)
For my answer to, “Is Mardi Gras 3000 a Christian game and/or are you trying to convert or recruit Christians with the game?” check out page 23 of the MG3K sourcebook at (www.windstormcreative.com/fandom/mg3ksb.htm). I loved that question almost as much as these, you know? I mean, when I see shape-shifters and vampires, I just scream, “Recruitment propaganda!!!”
E.J.
