who's playing this game?

[SimsHost]

All the science fiction stories I've had published were in Analog magazine, mostly novelettes.  If you were reading Analog in the early Nineties you probably read them. 

I'd guess my most popular story was "Fish Tank".  (An astronaut named Jeanette rescued an octopus named Oscar from a dying space station.)  It got the Anlab award for best skiffy novella published that year.  That one was fun.  I designed the whole space station as well as Jeanette's spacecraft and the space colony she lived on, but the only parts of it you hear about in the story are the things Jeanette experienced.

[witch]

That sounds awesome! I mean designing the entire set, space stations, ships and all. Maybe you should be a movie producer.

I don't recall Fish Tank though it sounds like one I would enjoy, people stuff as well as tech stuff, the best mix in my opinion. I started reading sci fi (1966) with Asimov and the others of that era and boy, what a stiff stilted relationship writer Asimov was. Fantastically intelligent man, not a clue about women or how to relate. Even as a nine year old child I knew he didn't do romance well. Writers now seem to have a much better handle on incorporating sex within sci fi. Too good some of them. *shudder*

Mind you, the galaxy was populated by spacefaring males in sci fi originally, there weren't females out there in the big space operas. I often used to wonder what aliens would think of us, maybe they'd think we were a one gender race. Anyway, ship doctor by paranormal xenobiologist, we women snuck on board the spaceships until we can now hold up our heads with pride in any alien federation you care to mention. 

Someone drew me a spaceship once, I designed a D&D dungeon in it. Do you still have plans of your space colony? That might make a cool setting for a game, for the thread talking about starting a role-playing game. Or a space station.

[laeshanin]

There's a trick to writing really good SF, which Stanley Schmidt beat into my head during six rewrites of my story, "The Last Plague" before he would print it in Analog.  (Some of my writer buddies started calling it "The Last Rewrite"!)  You have to work through all the technical details and then leave 95% of it out of the story. 

Instead, show how the characters react to the stuff you've invented.  Now matter how much effort you've invested in getting the technical details right, the story is about the people, not the rivets.

Couldn't agree more. Too many times authors forget that what a reader wants is to be able to identify with the protagonists. I have some aspirations as an author myself (unrealised mostly, I'm afraid), but have had a couple of shorts published in magazines. Lots of ideas for stories but no time to develop 'em. Damn this job...!

[J. M. Pescado]

Someone drew me a spaceship once, I designed a D&D dungeon in it. Do you still have plans of your space colony? That might make a cool setting for a game, for the thread talking about starting a role-playing game. Or a space station.

I designed a D&D dungeon based on my own home. My victimsplayers refused to believe that such a deathtrap could possibly exist until I actually allowed them to witness it. And specially told them not to touch anything. Not even the toilet. To emphasize the point, something blew up, which I immediately blamed on one of them, instructing them NOT TO EVEN LOOK AT IT.

[fff]

Someone drew me a spaceship once, I designed a D&D dungeon in it. Do you still have plans of your space colony? That might make a cool setting for a game, for the thread talking about starting a role-playing game. Or a space station.

I designed a D&D dungeon based on my own home. My victimsplayers refused to believe that such a deathtrap could possibly exist until I actually allowed them to witness it. And specially told them not to touch anything. Not even the toilet. To emphasize the point, something blew up, which I immediately blamed on one of them, instructing them NOT TO EVEN LOOK AT IT.

 
Friendly get-togethers at your place must be a total mindfuck.....
 

[Renatus]

Fantasy writers often make the same blunder with elaborate descriptions of social structures, spell-casting systems, family trees, and how castles are made.  Geez, folks, if you just want to bloat the word count, throw in a sex scene.

Oh no no no please, don't. Infodumps are boring, but random sex scenes are worse because they're universally bad. If I want sex, I'll read erotica, in which the sex makes sense in the context and is much more likely to be written by someone who knows what they're doing.

I can almost make an allowance for it for NaNoWriMo, although I think if someone needs to inflate their word count they'd do a lot better by writing some more actual story.

[Marvin Kosh]

I don't mind an infodump so long as it goes somewhere.  For example, if David Weber hadn't explained what a gravity sidewall or an impeller wedge were - and what their military implications were - the rest of the book (On Basilisk Station) would have left the average reader scratching their head.  When you incorporate the information in a way which pre-empts questions you are bound to ask later, you speed up the narrative flow (and thus the must-turn-page effect) later on in the book.

[fff]

Tom Clancy's books are the worst for that, I think - great big huge bloated monsters where he goes into so much intricate detail about things.... it just puts me off wanting to read anymore sometimes...

[bluecatvon]

haha...sorry guys, i know this will have a catrastrophic effect here but...is anyone here a Lord of the Rings fans? cuz i am, but i don't see anyone talking bout it...

[laeshanin]

Of course... LOTR is THE finest fantasy book/s ever written and is the standard upon which all others hang their colours. Aragorn is the character I fell in love with (thus setting an impossible standard for boyfriends and partners), and as I've never met anyone like him and won't, I shan't be bothering (again) with the whole relationship thing. It blew me away the first time I read it at 13, and on subsequent rereads have been similarly affected.

A note of interest...I live within a mile of where Tolkein grew up, and walk around the area he frequented as a child. It's very industrialised now, but there are remnants of what he based The Shire on, namely, Moseley Bog. Sarehole Mill has regular events, and readings, plus there's the chance of a decent beer.

[laeshanin]

I adore Terry Pratchett. He is one of very few authors who make me laugh out loud while reading. Generally when I have a new Pratchett book, my family thinks I've lost my mind as I am chuckling, giggling and guffawing as I read. "Interesting Times" is probably my favorite. "Death to our oppressors when convenient!" I need to reread that. I also love his collaboration with Neil Gaiman, "Good Omens". It's like Monty Python doing the Apocalypse.

This isn't SF, but anyone who enjoys a good laugh should read "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. You should definitely read it if you've ever been to New Orleans, ever want to come to New Orleans, or are interested in our more colorful resident-types. I think I've read that book at least 6 or 7 times over the years and it still cracks me up every time.

Sos, taken so long, but yeah, Pratchett is cool. As for Good Omens, it is one of my favourites, making me laugh out loud. Must look at it again... *runs off to rifle through boxes of books (decorating)*

[witch]

haha...sorry guys, i know this will have a catrastrophic effect here but...is anyone here a Lord of the Rings fans? cuz i am, but i don't see anyone talking bout it...

When I was about 11 I discovered Lord of the Rings. I read it in one sitting, from a Friday night after school until Monday morning. I don't think I slept. It was like watching a movie unrolling in front of my eyes. It was a magic world made just for me. A few months after I read the books, they became popular again, I was angry that other people talked about my magic world! 

I re-read the books about once every 5-10 years. As I've matured I've liked the books less. They are very moralistic and during the trudging and fighting, quite boring. (Same thing happened with Narnia - the Christian moralising antipathy anyway).

Peter Jackson, shamelessy plugged here as a New Zealander, made the Lord of the Rings movies. I have to confess I've only seen the first film. I thought he did an excellent job, though I'll never know why they missed out Tom Bombadil. Despite the lovely movie however, the movie in my head is still better, so I haven't seen the rest of Jackson's movies. I wasn't happy with the casting of Frodo either, I thought he was too gormless looking for the lead character, what with his pop eyes and all. Aragorn and Legolas are both hot. 

[gali]

Witch, too bad you were caught on cheating.... When and where it was - your avatar keeps secrets unrevealed....

[Renatus]

It's a foregone conclusion that a bunch of fantasy-inclined people are going to have interest in LotR. Yes, really.

[Kristalrose]

Ahhhh!!  I love this board, and I'm sorry I don't get a chance to visit with you fine people very often.  So, I'm answering this late, and with so many topics discussed, well, let me see, where to start:

1)  Artsy or Scientific?  I am more artsy, I think.  I love to write and love to talk to people and exchange ideas.  People also fascinate me, which is why I went into Social Services originally.  I discovered a love of history later in life.  I adore old houses and I study genealogy.  Genealogy is really the study of us:  who we are, how history shaped us.  We can't go back in time and meet our ancestors, so this is as good as it gets.  I like to read the facts and data, and then try to figure out the "why" in a family.  Why did this person migrate halfway across the country or leave the old world and come to the new?  Why does this census have an ancestor one race, and a later census have the ancestor in an entirely different race?  Gee, this branch of the family tree has lots of men dying in their 40's and 50's, and my Dad died at 48, so does that point to high blood pressure and diabetes being something that has taken the men in my family for generations?  Some sort of faulty DNA?  Who knows. 

2)  Aspergers Syndrome:  Jordi, I know you don't want it, but here's a hug anyway.  (((hug))).  My son has AS also.  He was non-verbal and showed some very destressing behaviors around the age of 2, and we had him evaluated.  At the time he was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism.  With intensive therapy and a lot of hard work, by the time he was 5 the diagnoses was changed to Asperger's Syndrome.  He's now 14.  He's the "weird" kid in school who wears red all the time, who doesn't really have any friends, who plays video games and draws elaborate storyboards and studies weather patterns but can barely read or spell.  He is a "nervous" child who paces back and forth and makes strange sounds when stressed.  Last year this behavior made him a moving target for evil little boys at the bus stop, and they threw rocks at him and blacked his eye.  He starts high school next week and I am terrified.  LOL  He plans on being a Video Game Programmer when he grows up.  The "geek" syndrome stereotype actually gives me some comfort, because when he was little a well-meaning psychologist told me that he would never have a "normal" life and that he would have a hard time finding and holding a job, probably never get married, and never live indepentently.  Obviously, that's not true of many who have AS, and so it gives me hope that with continued hard work, Al will be fine, too.   He really is a sweet, well-mannered, innocent kid.  His teachers love him because he is so well-behaved.  The kids. . . well, kids are cruel to kids who don't conform, we all know that, and I wish I could just treat those brats the way I treat Sim Townie Teenagers and feed them to a cowplant. 

3)  Literature:  I used to love reading.  It has been a while since I have picked up anything that wasn't non-fiction, though.(Damn TS2)    My favorite authors are Stephen King and Anne Rice, and my favorite book is "The Stand" by Steven King, with "It" being a close second.  Unfortunately, both my favorite books were made into cheesy mini-series, "It" being completely horrible!!!  I love fantasy and find ancient lore of witches and fairies and dragons compelling.  I met my husband while playing D&D.   

[witch]

Witch, too bad you were caught on cheating.... When and where it was - your avatar keeps secrets unrevealed....

Ah well, Dolores was a townie who fell in love with both the male romance sims in my house. Simon asked her to move in and they celebrated with a woohoo. Unfortunately Spock arrived home from work at the very worst moment and full of love unfulfilled, proceeded to make his feelings clear to Dolores.
_{_mumblehavesinceinstallednojealousyhack_}

Hi Kristalrose. Our neighbour's son has Aspergers Syndrome, he is intensely interested in RPGs and computers. In fact he introduced me to Neverwinter Nights.   My partner & I are also computer addicts, and sometimes I wonder if we verge on Asperger-like behaviours. It's all a continuum after all. Anyway, this chap used to pop over frequently and kind of give monologues no matter what we were doing. It became quite onerous until his dad told us what was going on and it all became clear. Now it's fine because we understand we can say to the guy, 'Hey, sorry, this isn't the right time for us, we are busy eating a meal, why don't you come back in 60 minutes.' He doesn't take offense at this, but he's pretty prompt returning at the 60 minute mark! Interesting people. Must be hard to live with. My son is dyslexic - or whatever the current buzzword is - means he has trouble reading and writing. Can build car motors and scale tall buildings though, so has different intelligences. It seems odd that we place so much emphasis on reading and writing now, when bulk humans have only used those skills in the last few hundred years.

[J. M. Pescado]

Hi Kristalrose. Our neighbour's son has Aspergers Syndrome, he is intensely interested in RPGs and computers.

I keep hearing this mysterious "disease", and I'm convinced it is complete and utter rubbish created to pigeonhole and defame. It's purely a fictitious creation intended to claim that "nerd" peoples have something wrong with them. This is balderdash. Why, have you seen the what they have in psychology books now? I guarantee if you read through one, you will find that you have at least one of the problems. Yet I'm pretty sure there's nothing wrong with you. It's absurd.

[witch]

Whether you label Aspergers a behavioural trait or a syndrome, it definitely exists. There are measurable behaviours and responses. It probably always has been part of humanity, one book I read talked about the 'old uncle who never married and who's hobby is writing down the numbers of trains' or collecting matchboxes or whatever. A certain type of eccentricity. People like this often did not marry because they were not capable of sustaining those emotional sorts of relationships, now however they all live in Silicon Valley and are dating and mating and breeding.

[Sandilou]

Kristalrose, Aspergers Syndrome is one of the saddest conditions around, simply because children are not visibily different from the outside, so other children see their behaviour as 'weird' and often initially treat them unfairly due to ignorance.   Alot depends on how informed the other children are, and on their ages. 

I've taught different children at different levels on the spectrum over the years in mainstream classes.  Educating the other children who come into regular contact with anyone with the condition is essential to prevent bullying, and to give children on the spectrum a chance to learn how to socialise without fear. 

It is hard all round.  I've worked with children on the spectrum who, due to previous negative experiences, don't want to have friends of their own age, and rely on the safety of adult company during break/playtimes to minimise chances of being bullied.  That's a challenging barrier to overcome because children need to feel safe before they can contemplate learning anything new.

However the nature of AS is so vast that it seems wrong to box and label children with the condition; I worked with a child that all the immediate professionals (including the educational psychologist) thought was on the spectrum, but when formally assessed was deemed to not score high enough on the spectrum to earn the label. This was partly because that child exhibited appropriate facial expressions and gave eye contact, could maintain friendships, had learned to read and write, was basically numerate.  Yet that child showed obsessive behaviour the like of which I've not seen since! (Except on the news.)

[laeshanin]

Asperger's certainly exists and I can attest to the issues it has for anyone living with the syndrome, but it is certainly not a "disease". I work with a number of young people with this diagnosis and they all present very similarly in that they have a lack of empathy, a need to control their environment, some ritualistic behaviour and intense sustained interest in odd subjects. Some may even have a second diagnosis bolted on to their condition and have a learning disability as well, maybe even mental heath issues. However, it is not an effort to label people (a mighty task that all social workers avoid to the point of sometimes being too phlegmatic), particularly children, but a short hand method of understanding WHY someone has the behaviours. Understanding means that better behavioural plans can be developed, and changed as the young person begins to work towards better social skills.

[Brynne]

Oh, yes, Asperger's exists. My son has it. He's a high-functioning autistic, extremely intelligent, but years behind emotionally and mentally. He didn't speak until he was 3. He's now 10. It is most definitely not rubbish and I always feel like crying when I hear people say that, as that's a sensitive subject for me. He has such a struggle with things we take for granted, and it breaks my heart. I think what is "rubbish" is when people are wrongly diagnosed, or merely assumed to have, Asperger's strictly going on the "nerd-like" tendencies, social awkwardness, etc, which is what I think you're referring to, JM. But real Asperger's is much, much deeper than that. While many can go on to lead somewhat normal lives, and do often end up being that quirky physics professor and other such stereotypes, many will have a much more difficult time. When my son was 3, I was told he would be "bagging groceries at Kroger" for life. He is in a special needs school, and has improved tremedously, but he still has a long way to go, and he may never get there. KristalRose, I know what you mean about being "terrified" about high school. My son is about to enter the middle school years, and even for non-asperger's kids, those are usually pretty tough years. Your story sounds remarkably similar to mine.
Jamie got his first taste of being  picked on for being "different" about 2 years ago. And can you believe it was from the parent of a child in our neighborhood? Jamie  was playing with his two "friends" (they are twin brothers who have since abandoned him as a friend) and a third child who is the neighborhood bully. I did not know this at the time. They all went to the bully-kids house, and the father let the twins in, but told my son at the front door to go home. Jamie cried and the father sang 'Crybaby Ha Ha!" It's all I can do to keep myself from burning their house down. I may sic JM on them.

Wow, I'd love to chat with all of you who have experience with this, sometime!

[veilchen]

The best way to discribe this sub-group of autism comes from www.aspergers.com

Asperger's Disorder is a milder variant of Autistic Disorder.   Both Asperger's Disorder and Autistic Disorder are in fact subgroups of a larger diagnostic category.  This larger category is called either Autistic Spectrum Disorders, mostly in European countries, or Pervasive Developmental Disorders ("PDD"), in the United States.  In Asperger's Disorder, affected individuals are characterized by social isolation and eccentric behavior in childhood. There are impairments in two-sided social interaction and non-verbal communication. Though grammatical, their speech is peculiar due to abnormalities of inflection and a repetitive pattern. Clumsiness is prominent both in their articulation and gross motor behavior. They usually have a circumscribed area of interest which usually leaves no space for more age appropriate, common interests. Some examples are cars, trains, French Literature, door knobs, hinges, cappucino, meteorology, astronomy or history.

Diagnosis for autism in general and the sub-groups in particular are designed to help the child/adult, not to label them. The problem arises when doctors/psychologists/psychiatrists mis-diagnose or over-diagnose because they can't be bothered to focus on their client and her/his particular problem. Some even just describe medication without going further than that, and that is just plain reckless.

Patients with Asperger's have the same problem any of the high and low end autism diagnosed have, and that is a severe problem with short-term memory. It leads to information overload, and can't be handled well by the population diagnosed with this disorder. On the other hand, the long-term memory is usually excellent. I have seen people with high end autism, and especially Asperger's being highly successful in school and even University. But it does take a lot of care and involvement.

I am a counselor, not a Psyc-doc, but I always advocate the involvement of all family members. Social support is grossly undervalued and the supporters themselves face a lot of heart-ache and difficulties.

The biggest problem for all counselors and psychologists are the american HMO's. They allot a certain amount of time for counseling and then demand that the patients get cut off. If you are not a private patient or have access to superior health insurance you are more or less screwed (pardon the expression). I don't want to go on about this, it will only lead to a tirade...let's just say that I don't like the way health care is handled by the HMO's, whose priorities are as followed:
1. Profit
2. Profit
3. Profit
4. Health? What's that?
5. Patient? How much can we make off her/him?
Well, you get my drift

[Brynne]

Oh, yes, we wound up paying out of pocket quite a bit when we were with an hmo way back when. Luckily, Georgia has a lot of free programs for special needs children.
The thing with autism is, if you look at all the "symptoms" required for diagnosis, just about anyone can relate to many of them. And some doctors who aren't specialized in the area carelessly misdiagnose autism. Jamie's physician knew better and referred us to a specialist. He was concerned about the fact that he wasn't speaking yet (except for echolalia, which is a common autistic trait which means the person "parrots back to you" everything you say to him/her) and mentioned autism as a possibility, but did not diagnose it. In fact he said he couldn't diagnose it, as that wasn't his specialty.

[veilchen]

Bravo to your physician. I get very upset when health care providers haphazardly diagnose, prescribe, treat, etc. A few bad apples usually give the whole profession a proverbial 'black eye'. True, very true, for autism and its diagnosis and treatment you need a specialist, especially since the problems faced by the individual and her/his family are so many.

The prominent features of autism, such as lack of responsiveness, language and communication problems, unusual motor movements, rigid behavior, are usually misunderstood, and prone to lead to misdiagnosis of the actual disorder. They cover a whole range of other disorders, many of them of pure biological origin. A specialist is the only one that can properly diagnose, prescribe and treat. I'm so very glad you have access to free services. Behavioral therapy, communication training, parent training, and hopefully community integration take time and effort. It is especially important that the patients and their social support system don't lose heart or hope.

[Renatus]

However, it is not an effort to label people (a mighty task that all social workers avoid to the point of sometimes being too phlegmatic), particularly children, but a short hand method of understanding WHY someone has the behaviours.

Diagnosis for autism in general and the sub-groups in particular are designed to help the child/adult, not to label them.

THANK YOU, both of you, for saying this. My family has a lot of mental difficulties and illness in it, and I've had struggles myself, but trying to get some of my 'friends' to understand that when I do research about mental health and muse in writing about what I've gone through and discovered I'm not being a drama queen or looking for pity has been damned near impossible. Some of them don't even believe most mental illness exists, on basis of what I don't know. It's like they can't understand that a diagnosis doesn't magically put someone into a little box from which they cannot or will not escape - it's a way to understand what is going on with that person and how to deal with it. I've been wanting to take them by the shoulders and shake them in sheer frustration. Thank you for letting me know that there are people who get it.