The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question. - Stephen Jay Gould

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. - Niels Bohr  

Playing D&D is just like the mafia - just when you think you're out, they pull you back in. Now I'm painfully aware of the problems besieging pen & paper gaming - due in no small part to the success of online videogames. There's plenty of times I'm slaving over a character sheet or a particularly involved combat scenario and I mutter, "This is exactly what a computer is for." But so far there's nothing as creative or as fun as a well-run table-top campaign with a good group of players. MMOs and games like Neverwinter Nights give you some of the group dynamics, but none of the role-playing flexibility. Perhaps open-ended MUD-like platforms a la Second Life are the answer.

In any case, this is why I'm always a sucker for a D&D campaign and why've I've joined a co-worker's bi-weekly Eberron group. We've only played one session, but being the Wiki maven that I am I've already been spending many hours on a campaign site on Wetpaint. I really think Wikis give groups a great tool for building the collaborative fiction that can really breathe life into a game-world. I'd love to see a group of creative people take this to the next level and create some wiki version of Thieves World or Living Greyhawk. Anyways, take a gander. 

Link to The Eberron Northwest Campaign

The writer Matt Barton reveals himself to be an old-school CRPG grognard, but colorful statements like the one below make for entertaining reading. A nice stroll down memory lane for those of us who gamed and/or worked our way thru this period.

"Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, published by Ubisoft, is perhaps the most disappointing game in CRPG history. It's one of those games whose sheer wretchedness is hard to describe to the uninitiated, who assume the critic has some grudge or personal motivation for launching a stream of flaming vitriol."

[Link]

Spring's starting to creep in, the weather's getting better and like they're reading my mind, MINI sends me a nice mailer about "Mastering the Asphalt Arts." It links to a nice site with some top-line information about how to drive like a pro - similar to the stuff I learned on the track last summer. The cooler thing is that stuff like this makes me feel like MINI "gets me." A fine piece of affinity marketing.

For many years now, I've told people that I was part of the concept team that drafted the original Xbox proposal. But I have often sensed that this statement is met with disbelief. People probably think, "Well if that's true, then why aren't you the VP of Xbox?" or "Why didn't you become as famous as Seamus Blackley or Kevin Bachus?" (who are often called the Fathers of the Xbox).

Well firstly, to all the non-believers, check out this little internal MS e-mail that Dean Takahashi posted on the Mercury Blogs site. Yep, that's lil ol me on the "TO" line. That was a heady time. I'd basically gone 7 years at MS without meeting with BillG, to suddenly meeting with him 3 times in rapid succession when the Xbox ball started rolling. And yes this was high-stakes Boardroom Intrigue with two project teams going head to head, winner take all. In the end, we won, they lost - yay us!

As to the answer to those questions I posed at the beginning of this post:

1. Green Card - Most of you have never been thru the immigration or naturalization process in the US, so let me just tell you it's no damn fun at all, even for Canadians. When you're going thru this process, you're expected to sit tight career-wise. The reasoning is that you deserve to get one because no one else in the US can do your job. Doesn't help if you keep changing jobs. Shortly after the Xbox was green-light'd, they wisely relocated the project outside the Windows team and I could not follow. Instead, I got to work on Windows Me (talk about adding insult to injury... actually more like disemboweling agony to injury but I digress). I'll admit the project had taken on a life of its own, it was pretty hot - left to my own devices, I'm sure I would have followed it.
2. Personal Passion - A year or two later I had my green card and an opportunity to join the project. However I'd had an opportunity to reflect. As much as I understood the strategic need for the Xbox (hey, Playstation was eating our lunch at the time) it wasn't where my passion lay. I'd spent 9 years at MS doing Platforms marketing and evangelism and I was tired of working on the "roads", I wanted to work on the "cars" - or put another way "screw the console, I want to work on the games." Also, as much as I love my Zelda and Halo, in my heart I'm a PC Gamer. I can't complain - some of the best things in my life have come thru playing MMOs including great new friends, a couple of jobs and most importantly my wife.

So is it bittersweet that I didn't get to follow the Xbox team? A little, since I'm always curious as to "what might have been" - and I really felt like a prisoner of the system at the time. But I love where I am these days, working on MMO's at an ambitious studio with a multi-million selling franchise - the future's looking pretty bright.

"A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled." - Sir Barnett Cocks

Imagine your first day on the job you find out PC Gamer is coming in next week for a cover feature on not one, but TWO new products. Thank god I wasn't a PR n00b, but even so - talk about having to get up to speed fast. Kristen Salvatore was a pleasure to work with - a total pro and a passionate Guild Wars player.

It hasn't been easy sitting on this story, and lord knows there's been the odd leak or two (ahem!) but in the end it's been all worth it. The PC Gamer issue is gorgeous, 14-pages of juicy GW goodness. Kristen does a good job pimping the games and the issue on this pod-cast.

And this is just the beginning: I just met with our PR lead for Europe and the amount of Guild Wars press coming in that region is staggering.

Overall I've been terribly impressed by the folks at ArenaNet and NCsoft and I'm having a blast. Hard to believe I'm not even 2 months into the new gig! Stay tuned for more!

This year our annual "big bash" consisted of old friends and new ArenaNet co-workers. The party started with a bang - Steve knocked over a big bottle of Creme de Menthe, and ended with Asian 2 on 1 wrestling and Karaoke. :D Click here for the Flickr PhotoStream.