Pre-RIP: Erick Wujcik

I was reading Knights of the Dinner Table last night and came across a bit of sad news. The reasonably well-known game designer, Erick Wujcik, has contracted a very nasty form of cancer: pancreatic, and it has already spread to his liver.

This is an extremely virulent form and frequently you don't have long to live once diagnosed, which he was in December. He's still kicking, and recently celebrated his 57th birthday.

Part of a list of games that he's responsible for, from Wikipedia, is: "numerous role-playing games and supplements for such gaming settings as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game, Paranoia, Robotech, Rifts, and many others."

I'm not a fan of Kevin Siembieda's business practices in silencing criticism, but he's extremely tight with Erick and has written a very glowing tribute at the following link:

http://www.erickwujcik.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erick_Wujcik

Another Pre-RIP: Borders Bookstore

Apparently they're having severe financial problems and collapse is just around the corner, likely to be bought out by Barnes & Noble. I seem to recall reading about the closure of a Borders in someone's blog, I think Felisdemens, and I was quite surprised.

Many years ago, there were two major bookstore chains in Phoenix, they evolved into Borders and Barnes & Noble. Though I always felt that Borders had the better selection overall, I never liked the feel of the stores. I've yet to identify exactly what bothered me, and this is not to say that I go into throes of ecstacy when I walk into B&N, it's just that Borders has never been my primary destination. Dunno why. So now most of the mom & pops have died, though they seem to be making a bit of a come back, and now one of the majors is about to die. I wonder if Amazon might make a play for them.

http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2008/03/giant-bookstore.html

An exploration of the laws and morals of Battlestar Galactica

"We are very pleased to be able to present a transcript of our interview with Ron Moore and David Eick, the creators, producers, and writers of the TV show Battlestar Galactica. Joe Beaudoin, Jr., the project leader of the Battlestar Wiki, transcribed the interview for us. We edited the transcript, but the bulk of the work was done by Joe. The transcript is also posted at the Battlestar Wiki, which has a ton of great information for fans of the show. In editing the transcript, we took the liberty of cleaning up grammatical errors and eliminating "ums" and other distractions in order to make it more readable.

In this interview, we explore the legal, political, economic, and social ideas raised by the show. If you prefer to hear to the interview, click here to listen to the audio files.

Below is the introduction to the interview and the transcript for Part I, which explores the legal system, morality, and torture. I couldn't fit the entire transcript into one post, so Parts II and III are contained in another post. Part II examines politics and commerce. Part III explores the cylons. "

http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/03/battlestar_gala_4.html

http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/03/battlestar_gala_5.html