aka Mongrel in a Mange Land
Today’s roundup includes Abigail Nussbaum, Vox Day, David Dubrow, Peter Grant, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Doctor Science, Jennifer Brozek, Noah Ward, Laura “Tegan” Gjovaag, Aaron Pound and cryptic others. (Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editors of the day Will Reichard and Kyra.)
Abigail Nussbaum on Asking The Wrong Questions
“The 2015 Hugo Awards: One Month Out” – July 1
It should be clear that I don’t for a moment believe in the Puppies’ indignation–this was clearly an attempt to hurt Tor, a company they identify with the left wing despite the fact that it publishes people like Orson Scott Card and John C. Wright (in the end, this will all turn out to be about Vox Day’s hard-on for Scalzi, as so much of this clusterfuck probably is). But this does not, in any way, excuse Tor’s actions. For Doherty to buy the Puppy party line–which has been thoroughly debunked so many times–indicates either that the publisher of a major genre imprint is unaware of the year’s biggest news event within the genre, or that he’s a political fellow traveler. And the fact that Tor, which was so quick to respond to the outrage of a single bigot, has said nothing in response to the outrage of a huge swathe of fandom including many of their own authors (not even to the extent of closing the comments on Doherty’s letter, which quickly became a toxic swamp of vileness and bigotry), speaks volumes about their priorities and how they see their audience.
To be honest, this experience has left me more disgusted and enraged than even the original Puppy ballots. I expect vile behavior from vile people. I do not expect it from one of the genre’s biggest publishers. The fact that my opinion–and the opinion of so many other fans and readers–clearly does not matter as much to Tor as the opinion of Vox Day is not something that I feel inclined to forget or gloss over, and it has been dispiriting to see so many otherwise sensible people rally to Tor’s defense, for example in response to Day’s proposed boycott. I’m not saying that I want to boycott Tor myself, but I don’t feel that they should be rewarded either. If Doherty’s behavior teaches us anything, it’s that Tor is, first and foremost, a business, and businesses only respond to one thing. Treating them like family–as too much of fandom has been doing–is a mistake, because they will take advantage of your loyalty and then stab you in the back, as we’ve just seen.
Vox Day on Vox Popoli
“The hysteria crescendos” – July 1
Why are they still babbling incoherently about us while simultaneously insisting on our totally irrelevant wrongness?
I don’t know. Perhaps they fear that the record influx of Supporting Members are not all reliable SJWs and Truefen flooding in to defend the Hugo Awards by voting to not give out any awards. Perhaps they notice that my site traffic has continue to rise, and that support for both Sad and Rabid Puppies continues to grow as more sane people observe the behavior of the SJWs and realize we were not exaggerating. Perhaps it is simply a reflection of the wider cultural war that has heated up of late. Perhaps it is a reflection of the economic instability that now haunts even those who don’t pay much attention to the economy. Perhaps it is because we use their tactics against them more effectively than they do.
But whatever the reason, it is clear that they are afraid of me, of you, and of the growing number of people who realize that they are incoherent lunatics who possess an insane and immoral vision for society. Let them hurl spurious labels and tell ridiculous lies. It’s what they do. We are immune to all their pointing and shrieking and posturing and preening attempts to DISQUALIFY.
David Dubrow
“Hugos, Puppies, and Politics” – July 1
Let’s Set the Table
There is not one element of modern life that has not been politicized in some way or other. Politics have infected everything from education to science to the environment to professional sports to individual entertainment choices. That’s inarguable. Who’s responsible for it can be debated elsewhere, but I defy you to find me one human endeavor that hasn’t been touched by politics.
What the American Left has done is deny that their politics are politics at all; that is, they’ve attempted to normalize their point of view as a non-political viewpoint. Leftism is, therefore, the natural state of things. This explains why so many Leftists self-identify as independents, moderates or even apolitical despite espousing left-wing ideas, supporting left-wing causes, and voting for left-wing political candidates. They’re not being political, they’re just doing the right thing. Leftists have redefined politics as what other people do, not them.
This, of course, excludes those individuals and organizations that specifically identify as progressive, liberal, or left-wing.
The American Right, vastly outnumbered in the entertainment, education, and journalistic industries, tends to conceal itself among the general public a little more than Leftists. Outside of political environments, conservatives aren’t as explicit about their beliefs, in part because the right-wing point of view hasn’t been as successfully normalized in popular culture. Right-wingers aren’t cool. They’re sticks-in-the-mud who resist change, especially social change. Who wants to be known as a fuddy-duddy? A conservative might identify himself as an independent, but he’ll rarely call himself a moderate. He is sensitive to the politicization of modern culture because he resists social change. He has his political viewpoints and feels about them as strongly as the Leftist, but outside of places where conservatives gather, he tends to keep his cards closer to the vest.
Until now….
By elevating these surface aspects of diversity, the Hugos have been politicized to deliberately exclude authors based on their skin color, gender, and political viewpoint. White men need not apply, especially conservative white men. Or conservatives of any color and gender. Scalzi and his allies have altered the Hugo Awards to focus on message fiction written by people who fit their definition of diversity, not quality science fiction. As Leftists, they don’t (or can’t) acknowledge that they’re politicizing the Hugos; to them, they’re simply doing what’s right and good and proper (and keeping the riff-raff out).
What’s amazing is that merely pointing out that the Hugos have been politicized leaves one open to attacks of politicization, as though the accusation is enough to condemn the accuser rather than the accused. So if I point out that Book A was nominated for a Hugo because it espouses a particular viewpoint, not because it’s a good story, I’m the one politicizing the process. Combine this with how progressives cannot or will not acknowledge that their point of view is political, and you have a very comprehensive, if utterly transparent defense: it’s the Puppies’ fault that the Hugos are a political football because they accused the Leftists of politicizing the Hugos, which is impossible because Leftists don’t practice politics. Also known as, “I know you are, but what am I?” Hence, the Puppies’ efforts to nominate stories based on their criteria are, de facto, illegitimate. It’s perfectly fine to nominate only Leftist message fiction written by Leftists, but it’s gaming the system to nominate science fiction stories written by conservatives.
It may be that you like message fiction and think that science fiction needs a broader diversity of authors to maintain the genre’s relevance in the 21st century. In which case it’s only natural that you would decry the Puppies’ efforts. Just know that you’re also engaging in politics. You’ve decided to redefine the Hugo Awards to celebrate a political viewpoint rather than promote quality fiction.
Peter Grant on Bayou Renaissance Man
“The state of the Tor boycott (and SJW’s)” – July 1
The SJW’s also appear to be trying to conflate the Tor boycott with the Hugo Awards controversy. Please recall that I didn’t call for a boycott of Tor because of anything to do with the Hugo Awards. I did so because of the lies and unconscionable actions of a number of senior Tor staff. It looks to me as if the loony left is grasping at straws here. Vox Day, who as organizer of the Rabid Puppies is the SJW’s favorite demon, has done a great job cataloging their manic efforts to further polarize and inflame the situation. I know that some people regard him as all sorts of nasty things because of various incidents in the past, but I don’t know anything about those. I’ve only had dealings with him since this situation blew up. In that context, I have nothing but praise for his openness, honesty and willingness to co-operate.
L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
“Readers, Conventions and Sad/Rabid Puppies” – June 30
…. The problem in both politics and the current Sad/Rabid Puppies kerfuffle is that each side’s assumptions behind the words differ. Conservatives view “liberty” and “justice” in terms of property, while liberals focus on human rights. I’d like to think that moderates realize that both property and human rights are essential to a functioning society.
Likewise in the F&SF kerfuffle, it seems to me that the Sad/Rabid Puppies tend to focus more extensively, at times almost exclusively, on the importance of action, storyline, and individual worth and action, while the more “liberal” side insists that the context of the society/world in which storylines exist should play a far greater role, and that no functional future society should be racially/culturally unidimensional. The Sad/Rabid Puppies appear to believe that the other side wants to continue using the Hugo awards to reward works and individuals that further their goals, while the “liberal” side believes that the Sad/Rabid Puppies want to wrench the awards back to representing the male, patriarchal U.S. culture of the 1950s. That’s an oversimplification, since each group has individuals who don’t fit those definitions, but I think it captures the gist of the conflict.
The sad problem is that the unspoken simplistic assumptions on each side ignore their commonalities, and the fact that, for F&SF to continue as a vital form, elements of both sides need to be represented and that neither should “dominate” the awards. Of course, since the politicians and all too many voters haven’t been able to comprehend this concept, why should mere readers and authors?
MInTheGap
“Should Christians Engage in the Culture War?” – July 1
Gird Up for the Battle
This group of individuals have decided that they will go down fighting. It seemed to begin in a movement now called GamerGate. A journalist was found to have insider ties with the gaming industry that was biasing her reporting. The flare-up occurred where game designers started to stand up for the rights to make the games they wanted to make, which is only a problem to those that expect that games should meet some arbitrary societal norms—whether it’s the number of females, what clothing they wear, how the racial balance is, and other social issues.
The battle opened up another front on the side of Science Fiction in a clash over the Hugos and the banning of a lifetime member of the Science Fiction Writers of America over a tweet on the SFWAAuthors twitter account promoting a blog post which some took offense to. This lead to higher participation in the Hugo Awards presented by the SFWA, in which those that had previously not been allowed to participate managed to dominate the categories.
While this is not Christian in nature (some Christians are participating, but the movement in and of itself is not Christian), these people believe that it’s best to fight back against the social justice tyranny they see being forced upon them.
Doctor Science on Obsidian Wings
“Dear Transformative Works Fandom: Please think about voting for the Hugo Awards” – July 1
…I’m particularly encouraging my friends in transformative works and Tumblr fandom to consider voting because you-all are younger than the average Hugo voter (Worldcon members tend to be aging baby boomers, like me), which is good for the future of the award and the fandom, and because many of you have a lot of insights and opinions about visual and audio media: comics, fancasts, TV shows, art….
Should you go to Worldcon?
Last year’s Worldcon was in London, the one before that was in San Antonio, Texas, next year’s is in Kansas City. Because Worldcon moves around, because it’s put together by volunteers, and because it has few or no actors attending, it never gets terribly large compared to Dragoncon, much less ComicCon. Currently, Sasquan has about 4000 attending members and 5000 supporting members, from five continents … plus one in Earth orbit.
Compared to other cons you might have attended, Worldcon runs light on high-gloss movie, TV, and game presentations, but heavy on cosplay and music. Cosplay isn’t just in the halls, there’s also the Masquerade, a judged costume and stage show that always includes some staggeringly beautiful and complex presentations — last year’s Best in Show Winner, “Aratalindale”, for instance, depicted the Valar from Tolkien’s Simarillion. Worldcon music includes performances, filking, and many types of dancing. There’s an Art show and Artist’s Alley, of course. Alas, the deadline for the Writer’s Workshop has passed, but there are lots of other opportunities to talk about writing and fanworks.
I’ll make another post about this year’s Hugo nominees, some historical background, and some possible guidelines about what to look for, but I want to keep it separate from this one. Reblog, tell your friends, think about getting more of us into the structures of SFF fandom. I believe we’re the future of the future, and I encourage you to take up that shiny shiny mantle.
Jennifer Brozek
“Travel and Awards” – June 30
I ended with LepreCon in Phoenix, AZ. Yes, it was hot. Really hot. Like 110+ degrees hot. However, it was a great convention. Highly recommended. Small, enthusiastic, and great guests of honor.
In particular, I was pleased to meet Dayton Ward, whom I know from IAMTW, and David Gerrold (most famous for “Trouble with Tribbles.”), who soothed all my fears about the Sasquan Hugo Awards ceremony. After talking with him about my concerns (David is the host), I feel like I can relax and just enjoy the ride. That’s a huge deal for me.
Noah Ward
“Who Decides The Best SF/F Novels?” – July 1
A recent Sad Puppies related discussion lead to the topic of how well the Goodreads Choice Awards match up with the Hugo nominations. Thus I decided to actually find out, and therefore compiled a list of the works that had appeared on both awards….
Hence the results produced by the last four years of Goodreads Choice Awards imply that the Hugo awards might not the best indication for what the fans consider as the best Fantasy or Science Fiction. Which in turn would suggest that the ‘Puppy narrative’ would posses a kernel of truth when it comes to Hugos being out of touch with the fans of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Yet another kernel to be placed into the sack.
Nevertheless, I cannot say that the Puppies have had a noticeable effect on the actual nomination results themselves. Just like the three years prior; the Hugo ballot is still filled by the same number of appearances from the Goodreads list, and we have that one highly ranked work while the rest come from somewhere nearer to the bottom end of the list….
Goodreads (2013) & Hugo (2014):
- – A Memory of Light (Wheel of Time) (2nd in Fantasy)
- – Ancillary Justice (20th in Science Fiction) (Won Hugo)
Goodreads had 119,222 votes cast in Fantasy, 108,739 votes cast in Paranormal Fantasy, and 75,642 votes cast in Science Fiction.
Goodreads (2014) & Hugo (2015):
2/5 of Hugo nominees were found on Goodreads.
- – Skin Game (3rd in Fantasy)
- – The Goblin Emperor (16th in Fantasy)
- – Ancillary Sword (12th in Science fiction)
- – Lines of Departure (20th in Science Fiction) (Withdrawn)
Goodreads had 233,644 votes cast in Fantasy, and 146,367 votes cast in Science Fiction.
4/5 of Hugo nominees were found on Goodreads.
[Survey also covers four earlier periods.]
Laura “Tegan” Gjovaag on Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog
“Hugo Reading – Novella” – July 1
[Comments on all five nominees.]
I only was able to complete one of the stories in this category from start to finish, the rest just don’t deserve to be on the ballot at all. I guess I’ll give “Flow” a ranking, probably below “No Award”, and leave the rest off. It’s sad, though. There must be some better works out there, but having three pieces by the same writer in one category? That’s just pathetic. Perhaps that’s what they mean by “sad” puppies?
Seriously, though, I really want to hear from the people who nominated these works. I want to hear why they thought these stories deserved the Hugo. I want to know what it is about these particular works that makes them literally the BEST things they read in 2014. I need to know what criteria those readers were using to pick these works, because for most of them I cannot fathom what would possess anyone who actually read the stories to say, “Yes, this is the best of the year.” And I particularly cannot believe all three of those Wright stories were seriously considered that good by anyone, much less by enough people to get them nominated.
Aaron Pound on Dreaming About Other Worlds
Following in a pattern established by Analog over the last few years, Flow by Arlan Andrews, Sr. is another story fragment masquerading as a novella. Unlike many of the other stories chopped up into shorter lengths as a result of this odd editorial practice, Flow doesn’t feel like the filler in between other, more interesting parts of the story. Instead, Flow feels like filler between other filler.
Roger BW’s Blog
“Hugo 2015: Graphic Story” – June 30
[Reviews all five nominees.]
Well, none of these makes me want to dash out and read the next chapter. Maybe I shouldn’t vote in this category at all: these comics are evidently not aimed at me. If I do, it’ll be purely by my enjoyment, in which case Sex Criminals comes top, Saga bottom, and the other two in between, Rat Queens probably above Ms. Marvel. I really have no feel for what’s “Hugo-deserving quality” here.
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Rrede – I can see the impact of having worked for PP in much of her work. I wondered how much of Gibbon’s was autobiographical, actually, but never did a lick of research to find out.
BTW, it is awesome that you and Gabriel both took the time to contribute to the Invisible collections. Many of those essays moved me to tears, and I can’t praise Jim Hines enough for publicizing and anthologising them.
Games –
I am another big fan of Dominion! Cally, my experience with random card selection in the Adventures expansion is: Don’t. It can very easily lead to a tedious game.
Any fans of Sentinels? It is a cooperative game, based on classic superhero comics. My board game club is nuts over it.
And virtual cookies to Lori Coulson for mentioning Night of the Lepus. The scenes of the rabbits running through the the little model Town warm my heart… But I am part of a long running B Movie awards group, so I know my tastes are warped.
@Matt Y
My impression was that the question was about what you’d tell fans to get them excited about Worldcon rather than how you’d change Worldcon.
I’ve been a Powers fan since The Drawing of the Dark (another one with an older protagonist), and while Declare was excellent I bounced right off of Three Days to Never, so hard that I haven’t read anything by him since; it contained some interesting elements but they simply refused to come together for me. For me Last Call was probably his strongest work, though there’s some stiff competition there.
Hambly leans towards older characters in general I’ve found, the Sun Wolf and Starhawk books, starting with Ladies of Mandrigalyn (sp?), are notable in that regard, although I think Dragonsbane is easily her best.
Glen Cook is another one to check out, the Black Company characters start out mature, and those who make it through the series get positively geriatric. His current Instrumentalities of Night series runs along the same lines, but to me that series feels like it’s starting to go off the rails.
Are any of the Civ V players playing Beyond Earth? It hasn’t really grabbed me the way other Civs have, although considering the state V was in before Gods & Kings, and Brave New World came out Beyond Earth could get much better if they do an expansion for it.
Just back from seeing Inside Out, which was breathtakingly good.
More older protagonists, both from Larry Niven: Louis Wu in the Ringworld books (although at that point in the Known Space timeline, people don’t really age any more) and Jaybee Corbell from A World Out of Time.
Oh, and as far as books, I just started American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett, and am prepared to recommend it highly just based on the first 100 pages or so.
Civ:BE has an expansion coming in the fall of this year. Whether it will be enough to make the game seem a bit less “meh,” I don’t know. For me, it suffered from “this isn’t the modern Alpha Centauri I was hoping for” quite a bit. I went back to Civ V (like everyone else).
As far as I can tell, many in the transformative works fandoms go to source specific conventions. Some of those are commercial with lots of stars (all the constant Supernatural cons) and others are fan run with lots of fan activities (like 221B Con). So Comicon etc. might not be the most helpful comparison to explain Worldcon.*
*I’ve only ever been to Readercon myself so probably don’t know what I’m talking about.
@rrede
*squee* That’s amazing! I thought I’d fall down dead when I saw Katharine Kerr and I in the same anthology. Her character Jill made SO MUCH of a difference to me, growing up reading “boy books.” You should email or message me and tell me what your pseud is though. Y’know, if you want to 🙂
I would give many, many things to hear someone announce a cosplay contest by yelling “Costume costume under Atlas! 5 million inf prize!”
Alas. I still miss CoH.
@ Cat
Try Roll20, it gives you a virtual tabletop and access to minis and maps! It also has a skype-like interface if you want to use it.
@ Laertes
It’s really not his foreshadowing (legitimate foreshadowing, I mean) that I mind. It’s introducing an entirely irrelevant character (which I love the way he makes people in the crowd actual people!) and in the same sentence tells me they’re about to die. Like, you know… just show me them dying. I’m not in suspense for them, they haven’t been introduced long enough for me to care about that. Just… don’t tell me they’re about to die horribly a half-page before they do. Just kill them.
And he does it a LOT. It’s just part of his writing style. I’ll take it, considering how much I enjoy the rest of his writing, but that one little quirk just bugs the crap out of me.
@Lunarg – Sentinels fan here. One of my friends has been a playtester since Shattered Time lines.
I think this is one of the biggest differences between historical reenactment events and Ren faires. Both are fun. Neither is “superior” to the other. But at a Ren faire, the average person goes to be entertained. At an historical reenactment event*, the average person goes to be part of the entertainment for each other.
At a WorldCon, even average attendees are part of the entertainment–whether they’re on the Con Com, volunteering as Staff, asking questions at panels, participating in fanac, or sitting in a gopher chair for an hour or so. More low key. More us for us.
Readercon is a whole ‘nother level of low key and more book-focused even than WorldCon.
* I don’t mean demos where the public is welcome. I mean events reenactors throw for themselves.
Petrea Mitchell –
I apologize for spelling your name wrong, I’m not sure how to do accent marks with my phone. But thank you for the link to your anime reviews – Death Parade wasn’t even on my radar, and you’ve convinced my to give the all-boy Sailor Moon riff a try.
Were you the one who said you’d give a Hugo to Puella Magi Madoka Magica? If so, you have very good taste… I agree, but only if one has already gone to the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena for BPD Long Form. Utena, and the Adolescence of Utena movie, opened the doors for much of the more experimental works and reconstructions that we have now, like Magi Madoka… And that last third still packs a hell of an emotional punch.
In all the games being mentioned, anyone else play LARP/Freeforms?
Re: 70’s Animal movies.
No love for “Food of the Gods”? Always one of my favorites.
@LunarG
If your phone is Apple in origin tapping and holding the relevant letter should bring up lots of accent options. It might work on other devices, too, but I have less experience with those. 🙂
Yeah, Beyond Earth was disappointing. I loved loved loved Alpha Centauri and…yeah.
I mean, if you can’t control Mindworms, what’s the point?!
It was okay. I think if I hadn’t had AC in the back of my head, I would have liked it more, but it suffered by comparison.
LunarG:
You’re welcome! All I ask is that people give them a try.
It’s funny that you mention Utena one paragraph after Cute High, because… well, never mind, you’ll see. 🙂
This, everyone!
GSLamb –
That would induce serious envy. I have a friend who has backed the Kickstarter(s) and since Origins, can say he even has the T-shirt.
It is interesting how many people I’ve encountered who don’t enjoy board games in general, but do enjoy cooperative games such as Sentinels, Pandemic, or Betrayal at the House on the Hill. I think it has something to do with how hypercompetitive board games can be… And maybe someone giving advice in a cooperative game has a motivation to be less condescending in the presentation? Has anyone else encountered this?
The big problem of Co-operative games I find is that less pushy players can find other people effectively playing their turn for them. That’s where something like Shadows Over Camelot comes in, where there’s always a chance that it’s not a co-operative game after all.
Thanks, Meredith! Let’s try, as I am on an android… Petréa.
Hurrah! I have learned something!
Petréa, you could not have baited that curiosity hook more adeptly. 🙂
The discussion of old protagonists could be looked at a different way.
Take the example of Old Man’s War (which I give 5 stars to)–the main character has a perfect body, is totally cut off from family and old friends and is completely OK with that, almost all his history is wiped away, and he is not terribly concerned with the future. He may be physically old, but he doesn’t seem to embody anything much related to age in our current world. We can say much the same thing about Lazarus Long.
A character like Hari Seldon carries a lot more of the baggage of age with him. His role in Foundation is confined to being a thinker and talker more than a doer, and he worries primarily about the far future and his spiritual and intellectual descendents.
Breq in AJ is old in this sense. She has lost most of her physical capabilities. She is more concerned with the past and getting revenge for old wrongs than the present or her personal future.
Just a different way of looking at it. Maybe ask me in 30 years what characters I feel closest to…
[boardgames for us — Boggle and Puerto Rico]
LunarG – I’ve played a lot of cooperative games (love Betrayal at House on the Hill), and I do think that people mostly go into them with a different mindset. I’ve noticed that the more competitive gamers I know are least willing to play these games, which I understand, since I do like games that have a lot of “screw your opponents” mechanics. You can almost see the mentality shift when a competitive gamer starts playing something co-op. It’s fascinating.
Favorite co-op board games? I am a big fan of Forbidden Desert, Room 25, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Machine of Death … yeah, I like co-op very much.
Gabriel F: Aw, man, now you have given me all the City of Heroes feels.
Even better, add a friend pointed out, if someone would cosplay the statue.
@nickpheas:
It’s occurred to me once or twice that a game of Forbidden Desert in which somehow players were able to communicate only with players on the same space might be really interesting.
LunarG, re: Betrayal at the House on the Hill I played this for the first time last weekend. It rocked.
What is Sentinals like? Never seen it.
EC: Are any of the Civ V players playing Beyond Earth?
I’ve played it and Civ V. But I keep on going back to the fantasy-themed Ashes of Erebus mod for Civ IV in preference to it. I really recommend it – it changes Civ IV into a whole new, and much deeper game.
Download instructions here : http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=493730
My problem with Civ these days – which is to say, for the last 15+ years – is that I actually want a shallower game. I want to be playing more like Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri. There’s a real gap in the market for engaging, smart, not so complicated strategy games. Civ: Revolutions on my iPad is much more like what I want. (And darn it, I want Reach for the Stars again, too.)
Speaking of B-movies, my vote goes to Tremors.
Though I remember Night of the Lepus (we used to call it Hare Scare or Having a Bad Hare Day).
“Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.” — Commissioner Pravin Lal, “U.N. Declaration of Rights” (Alpha Centauri)
Serious world building!
Cassy:
I played Sentinals last year on the JoCo cruise. It was a perfectly fine game, but I felt I was missing out on several layers of flavor because I’m not a comics fan, and had no real idea who the good (or bad) guys were. It didn’t help that I didn’t always recognize the artwork on the cards as depicting the same guy (and sometimes that was important).
For a comics fan, or for someone better at parsing comics art, this would obviously not be a problem. I would recommend it to comics fans who enjoy cooperative games wholeheartedly; to those who are not as familiar with the comics genre, perhaps they should play a game or two first.
I hate playing with sore winners (the sort that crow endlessly) and I’m not keen on sore losers either (but I am more sympathetic to it), so I usually avoid competitive stuff unless I know for sure that everyone is going to behave in a manner I find fun. I have several very good friends I’d happily play co-op with but wouldn’t play against in a million years. They get that sort of fun with people not-me and everyone is happier that way. 🙂 That applies to boardgames and video games.
My competitive side is fairly self-obsessed. I’d rather do better than I did last time than beat someone else, which works just fine in co-op or solo games and not so fine in competitive. Growing up home educated probably influenced that, since the only people around to be competitive with weren’t people I could easily get away from or choose not to spend much time with if any of us needed a break.
Cassy B. –
Betrayal at the House on the Hill is so much fun, and it has tons of replay value, too.
Sentinels is a card-based game. Each player picks a superhero to play, who has a base power and a deck of cards representing their other powers/equipment/special attacks. The group picks a supervillain to play against, who has a similar power and deck of cards, as well as an environment to play in (ranging from classic noir cities to outer space to Atlantis to the giant robot body if your comrade). The environment also has a deck of cards, full of challenges for the heroes. So each turn, both the villain (and any minions that might emerge from the villain’s deck) and the environment throw attacks at the heroes, who must use the the cards they draw and their powers to respond. It is fun… And the heroes do not always win.
I’m glad to see some love for Sansukh. That would definitely be my Related work nomination. What an epic.
@Bruce Baugh
Yes! Absolutely! Civ: Revolution is just about right. My first (and still favourite) Civ was the slightly odd Call To Power (FUSION TANKS). Newer Civ games are just way too much for me to cope with without my brain melting down half an hour in (disabilities, yay), and most other strategy games copy them.
@ Bruce
Yay, another CoHer! Virtue forever! I’m always pleased by how many people stop me and ask for hugs or handshakes when I wear my “Atlas Park 33” Tshirt.
Meredith, you are wise. Sadly, the sorest losers are in my family… They are still grumbling, mostly good-naturedly, about a years-ago Apples to Apples decision.
And now I am curious about your homeschooling, as I thought that was mostly a USian thing? But that’s both prying and a massive derail.
Games, lessee. We’re pretty firm board and card game fans around here: recently played games include King of Tokyo which is ok, 7 Wonders (which I love), Agricola (which I like a lot but usually feels like you’re just getting established when it ends), Lords of Waterdeep, and Puerto Rico. Pandemic is a longtime favourite.
Here’s a cool bit of trivia: one of my best friends is *almost* the model for the woman on the “In the Lab” expansion cover. Chris Q tried to use her as the model for one of the role cards twice (or was it three times?), and had the character concept rejected. So he put her on the cover instead, tweaked enough that they didn’t say “What, her again?” but so everyone who knows her can recognize the source.
The only RPG I’m currently involved in is a Beta testing for a new system called Fantasy Infinity, which contains some definite nods to the Final Fantasy video games, and some cool-to-insane worldbuilding of its own (the world it’s set on IS a Moebius strip). And one of the better, quicker-running fight systems I’ve ever seen, though with level 3 characters it’s a bit early to say for sure.
It’s my brother’s work, so I have family bias, but I’ve played enough other RPG systems with enough other GMs that I feel like I’m not just talking when I say I think this one’s a genuine winner that *should* be marketed.
One of my several (no, really!) fond memories from High School was playing Diplomacy one move a day. And the day one of the players was sick so everyone made their moves assuming he wouldn’t make any moves at all, but he’d secretly phoned his moves to someone else that morning. Good Times.
@Exarch
Whilst I didn’t bounce of Three Days To Never it didn’t really wow me as much as most of his novels. As well as Declare, I thought The Stress Of Her Regard to be a top-notch work but then a novel about romantic poets and vampires and nephilim is bound to be great.
Re City of Heroes. I miss this a ton. My brother and I would play MMOs all the time but, since he tends to obsess about level grind (and has the free-time for it), he normally out levels me quickly. CoH at least let me sidekick to his level so we could still play.
For those of you wondering: City of Heroes was a superhero (and then also super villain) MMO. It had an amazingly good costume creator, and lots of us spent many many many hours making up interesting costumes. Costume competitions were a very frequent thing, with guilds or social groups or just individuals with high-level characters offering prizes, usually in influence, the in-game currency. Some would be themed – best Halloween costume, for instance, or best high-tech costume; others would simply be “whatever we think is cool and well done”.
City of Heroes had absolutely the nicest community of players I’ve ever seen in a multiplayer game – tending a bit older than many, and with strong social pressures not to be a jerk in play or on the forums. Though I must say that so far, the Final Fantasy XIV community is shaping up as good company.
@LunarG
Well, one of my sisters did go through a phase of flinging board games across the room when she was losing, so that probably coloured my opinions. 😉 (We never did track down some of the game pieces.)
Yes, home schooling is largely USAmerican 😉 but home education is not. I don’t mind questions if there’s something in particular you wanted to know? After the last time I got carried away talking about disability access I don’t want to just start typing an overview of life, community, etc..
ETA: My limit is any questions feeling out child abuse, because its amazing how young you figure out what that line of questioning means when you’re home educated and usually in the presence of a male parental figure (Mum worked, Dad stayed with us). Anything else is basically fine.
Re: “Declare” by Tim Powers
It’s really good but not my favourite because of too many instances of American English in an British spy story – parking lot & sidewalk vs. car park & pavement. “Declare” also mines the same ground as Charles Stross’ “The Atrocity Archives” though they are very different books. “Last Call” is my favourite Tim Powers and “The Anubis Gates” is up there, and “Expiration Date” and…
Board games:
The last time we played, it was “Kill Doctor Lucky” which was a lot of fun. Think of it as a prequel to Clue(do).
All due respect to Mr. Stross, but Declare is the definitive lecarre/sff marriage.
And, wasn’t Stross’ supposed to be a IPCRESS File homage, rather than the different flavor of stale beer found in lecarre?
hmm…being american, i obviously missed the linguistic errors you mention, but now, the next time i read it, i won’t! you bastard!
Older protagonists, comics edition:
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and BATMAN: YEAR 100
GrimJack (a character so beloved by Roger Zelazny, he inserted him into Amber)
Jon Sable, Freelance (over 40 and beginning to feel it)
Spider Jerusalem in TRANSMETROPOLITAN (hard to determine his exact age, but no longer a young man)
The Eternals.
The recent MAGNETO series.
Old Man Logan.
And of course we have the TV Immortals: Duncan MacLeod, Angelus, Ben Richards, Nick Knight.
Glenn: If I’d been thinking of comics in this this context, I would absolutely have included Grimjack, one of my favorites ever. A bunch of other good picks there too.
Meredith –
Is there a standard curriculum your Dad had to follow? One of my big issues with US home schooling (I use that phrase to emphasize the distinction from home education, if which I am ignorant) is lack of consistent standards from state to state. Many states have no curriculum requirements or testing requirements at all, so that if a parent doesn’t want to teach math or science, that’s just fine.
Home schooling is often, but not always, associated with fundamentalist religion, and in these cases can be intended to prevent the child from being exposed to ideas the parent does not approve of. Did religious reasons play a part in your home schooling?
Soon Lee:
I bumped into the opposite in the first volume of Stross’s “Merchant Princes” series: an American in Cambridge, Massachusetts renting from a “car hire agency”; Stross may not know better, but his American editor or copy editor should have caught that.
I was also annoyed by that volume because the local geography was all wrong, and it’s virtually in my back yard.
This is risky because I’m not caught up yet, but I seem to have been unclear —
When I said “What other things would you add to attract people who’ve been to cons like DragonCon, ComicCon, the PAX cons, Otakon, etc?” I meant, what things would you add to the description of WorldCon, that might be attractive to fans whose con-going experience is of the mega-cons.
I’m not at all suggesting changing WorldCon’s basic character! I just want to describe it clearly to attract fans who might like this sort of thing, with the goal, frankly, of lowering the average age of WorldCon members, to keep the institution strong and healthy in the coming decades.
@Gully Foyle,
Yes, Atrocity Archives was more a Len Deighton riff. Stross himself has said that he’s not going to attempt Le Carre, certainly not after reading Declare. Besides, the series has grown & he’s pretty much given up on riffing spy thriller writers and has switched to taking on fantasy tropes, except not in the way you might expect.
Equoid: unicorns
The Rhesus Chart: vampires
The Annihilation Score: superheroes
Le Carre is a master writer/novelist/what have you. If the puppies had attacked spy fiction he would have been their bogeyman. Moral equivalency between east and west in the cold war? Literary values? Complete lack a firearms description?
Folks round these parts seem powerfully well informed on a range of topics, let ne put this question to you all: is there another spy writer with the depth and style and power to give Le Carre a run for his money? I’ve not found them if so, and would savor any recommendations anyone might offer.
nickpheas: Definitions for Larp and Freeform cover a multitude of different things, but I do, in the East coast Australia freeform/larp styles. Mostly at phenomenon, a Canberra RPG convention. http://pheno.org.au/
I tend to stay away from ongoing larps, especially the more system heavy ones, but it may be possible that will change in the future.
I’m also kicking around an idea for a Vorkosigan universe freeform, but its a long way from even being a serious idea.