Date: 2009-11-25 22:47 Subject: 2009 LARP Roast - Kirt Dankmyer Security: Public

I know we're all busy with the holidays, but I wanted to remind folks that the 7th Annual LARP Roast is coming up (Saturday 5 December).  This is an occasion when the local LARP Community comes together to honor someone who has done outstanding service in the past year.

For folks who don't game with him regularly, I'd still like to urge people to come out and support Kirt Dankmyer who is this year's honoree.  It's a fun, hilarious occasion, and there is an endless afterparty.

The evite, which includes details and menu information, is available online at http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/LZIOMXEBIDRVYNQERSTY/2009roast. 

Since the deadline for payment and RSVP, just three days away, is in the middle of the holiday weekend, I wanted to give everyone a last minute heads up.  If you would like to come to the Roast, we need to receive your payment of $45 on or before Saturday, 28 November 2009. If for some reason you can't pay for the Roast right now, please contact me and we'll try to work something out.  We can only accept "at the door" payments by pre-arrangement, and that arrangement must be made before Saturday 28 November 2009.

More information about the Roast:

http://www.larpwriting.org/roast/index.shtml

Date: 2009-08-17 19:56 Subject: IMA Cancelled for 2009 Security: Public

This is a short note to say that IMA is officially cancelled for 2009.

The responses I got back confirmed what I have come to believe

1) Many people enjoy the Convention, but it is a third or fourth priority for almost all of them
2) There is not a strong core audience for the convention at this point
3) Most importantly offers of actual advertising and recruiting are minimal. If I were to twist every arm that responded, I could not reasonably expect to get more than a half-dozen to a dozen new people. This ties back to (1) - many people would vaguely like the convention to occur, but making it happen is just not a strong priority.

I think we have to be realistic. Events do reach the end of their lifespan at least in current form. A couple of people commented about it being "too late to save IMA." We've been putting as much time as was *reasonable* into the Convention for nine years. "Saving" it would be an exercise in Pyrrhic victories...a "save" that cost more than the benefit."

In the end IMA as it is currently configured does not hold up to any level of Cost-Benefit Analysis.

I'm open to new approaches, and helping if someone wants to organize a grass roots effort in 2010. Feel free to contact myself or Eric Johnson after Danzig. I feel the Region could probably benefit from some pan-LARP event, but clearly it needs a new core audience and a new approach.

And at the risk of seeming brusque, offers that boil down to "I am willing to tell you what to do, if you do the work and spend the money" are less welcome than offers of actual time, organizational skill, and capital.

Date: 2009-08-10 11:48 Subject: History of the Intercon Name Security: Public

Teem made a comment I thought I'd break out into a longer post

I personally think marketing of the 'Intercon' name hasn't been done well from the initial 'numbers vs. letters' split. (But I really wasn't involved in things then and I don't know all the whys of what was decided.) The sudden change to regionalizing the names of conventions--okay, it was sudden from our point of view in New England--wasn't orchestrated well. I tried, with a couple others, to get the name changed up here to 'Intercon New England' but we got outvoted. (I won't say outargued because I still consider the reasons specious.) Since I was doing much of the communications for the last five-six years, I tried to be careful in naming each of the conventions, but perception tends to win the battle. (And probably 14.2% of the people reading this post will care.)

Well there is a lot of history there, and I think it is worth recapping in full.

One thing to understand is that the suddeness from the New England point of view was based largely on perception, and I think it may be worth recapping both the actual history of Intercon and the myths I've collected over the years.

SILiCon left Boston to go to New Haven with IV, then moved to Trevose V, and Annapolis VI. The plan after VI was that the Convention would move to NJ or NY to be "equally inconvenient to everybody." The reality was that the long travel was a financial strain on everyone and only the "top circle" of attendees would go 250+ miles to attend a convention.

When the original leaders of the SIL withdrew support from the ILF which they'd co-founded at the Annapolis Convention, the ILF leadership held the Convention in Northern Jersey the next year as an olive branch and to make it clear that we were reaching out to Boston LARPers. In practice very few came, and the Convention was a disastrous and painful financial failure. It was run into the teeth of the 1992 Recession, and fared amazingly poorly

ILF went through an additional set of local political upheavals, in retrospect largely driven by the 1992 Recession. Job loss by some of the officers sparked Depression. With everyone stressed, depressed, and out of work, confrontation and infighting was inevitable.

Acknowledging political and financial realities, it was clear that if the Convention was to run at all, it needed to run locally. It was moved to Baltimore Maryland for VIII.

This began two years of misfortune, which it is a vague miracle that Intercon survived. VIII had a bad blizzard, but was already suffering because four hour games were rising in popularity and the Intercon format was "full length v. full length" which was bound to be Problematic.

In the meantime Stephanie ran 7.5 and proved the "all minigame" concept on a small scale. That's a bit of history worth noting. The modern Intercon - all Four Hour games and a Dance was introduced by my wife in 1992.

The ILF Board and Officers refused to issue a charter to run 8.5 until it was too late to run it. I ran the doomed Intercon IX - a convention of full length games at a time when all the good TSFL groups were producing in their own venues, and everyone clearly wanted a convention of four hour games. I asked the Board, which then controlled Intercon about making the Convention one of four hour games and was told that the "Board wasn't ready to do that yet." There is nothing like running a failed concept that everyone already knows is obsolete. The convention did about as you'd expect, dismally.

Stephanie proved the minigame concept at 9.5, which was the first con that you would find almost indistinguishable except in size from J, and took over X, moving the convention to Ocean City.

In the meantime I was working heavily to rebuild ties to younger less radicalized Boston gamers. This began what I think many people still enshrine as a "golden era" for Intercon with the Conventions running steadily and stably, one in Maryland and one in New Jersey.

In practical terms the road trip was hard and we always had to struggle to get attendance at the Jersey Convention, but we began to rebuild a Boston player-base. Internally, the Intercon system came close to extinction with IX, and between 1994 and 1996 I worked with Stephanie closely to rebuild it. She chaired the conventions and I served as a lead officer for the ILF. It's worth noting that this time period 1995-1998 was also the "Golden Age" of the hotel based Theatre Style Full Length game. Other people were also important. Mike Young and Dirk Parham did an excellent job of building Intercon XI.

Unfortunately 1997 was also the "year that killed LARP" with a string of expensive TSFL howlers that left audiences crying...and not for more. Comparatively Intercon prospered because it offered a more stable experience. But the failure of TSFL by 1999 was also spelling a cloud for the future of TSFL LARP in general in the Mid-Atlantic. The mid-90s also saw vampire LARP eclipse all other forms of LARP in the US as we recognized when we tried to organize an ill fated White Wolf game at sequential Intercons.

As early as 11.5 in Mt. Laurel, it was a declared plan that Intercon would return to Boston and the chief barrier was the lack of someone locally to take responsibility for organizing. New Jersey was the far edge of the range at which Stephanie and I could run a con "by remote control."

To his credit, Jeff Diewald was the person to accept the challenge, agreeing 1997 to organize XIII in Natick in 1998.

The turn of the century saw some really dramatic changes...

All the original discussions over Intercon in Boston centered around the concept that the flag of the "Annual Convention" would rotate. So, for example XIV would be in Baltimore, XV in Boston, and so forth...

Unfortunately there was some partisanship. There was a mythology that was at odds with the facts which I've often heard repeated. In this mythology, SiliCon was run in Boston until the original SIL members withdrew from the ILF and then was "taken" to the south. With XIII it was brought "back to Boston"at the insistence of Boston activists.

In reality of course no such thing occured. The Convention was moved to New Haven by the original organizers when they made Bob Vincelette Chair, and moved to Trevose by Greg Frock, who was at the time an intimate of at least some of the original SIL crew. When it moved south to Annapolis, there was some politicizing by myself and others for a "fair shot," but at the time the established plan was to rotate it back and forth from New England to Baltimore until it could settle in NJ. And after the split it returned to NJ, not Washington. Likewise, I and other "southern" Board members had canvassed heavily for Bostonians to join the ILF leadership, and the issue was not holding onto the convention with a deathgrip but finding someone willing to chair it, which did not exist until Jeff Diewald came along.

But...this legend led to some "regionalism" and it was put forward that Boston would run XIV. This wasn't as planned or talked about, but at the time, it seemed worth not fighting over. Thus through 2000, the Annual Convention was in Boston. In 2001, I decided that "enough was enough" and that it was time the Annual Convention began rotating again as we'd always planned.
There was reason behind my madness. The Boston Convention was prospering and the Baltimore Convention was failing. The reason was simple enough. TSFL had failed by 1999 and in 1997-2001, a series of powerful campaigns were sweeping the DC area. XPI began to draw a strong player base, the Mike Young's Dark Summonings and my Mersienne Medieval Fantasy. The failure of TSFL was proving to have a catastrophic fallout for Intercon and we desperately needed a new player base. The number of campaign games meant that a campaign that was only starting in May of 2000 had created an entrenched and loyal following within 12 months, something no TSFL game had been able to equal.

With Intercon Millennium we had proven that the Convention could draw a heavy party-base. That it could galvanize the Campaign Crowd by being a place for them to hang out that was not campaign focused.
Intercon IAGO was the last effort in the south to organize a con with a traditional rotating chair. Intercon had prospered with Stephanie or I as Chairs, and a few other people had given talented service while one of us acted as a primary staff officer. But as Intercon became more specialized the idea of tapping a random layman to serve as Chair was doomed, and the implosion of the attempt to run a second Millennium Convention was emblematic of this.

So...successful campaigns, a successful model to harness campaign players, and a track record of intimidating failures that looked like it could doom Intercon in the South. I wanted to pull out all the stops to produce a really first rate convention, and I felt that returning the Annual Convention flag would be a boon to this. At the same time some of the partisanship in Boston seemed to have been quieted, and people were behaving quite sensibly.

I don't want to sound accusatory talking about "partisanship in Boston," and not in Maryland. It is the case though that it fell out that way. Boston had a large student population of people who had free time and few real life constraints. It was usually the younger and more radical of these people that lent support to partisan ideas, based on half-understood stories about the past. That population largely didn't exist in Maryland because the large student population didn't exist. The truth is I could not *find* anyone in Maryland to care about the "Annual Convention" title.

At the same time, another major strain was going on. The ILF had died. The Board of Directors had decided in the late 90s to back Sandy Antunes' plan to produce Metagame as a print magazine. Sandy was a reasonable and not unrealistic guy. At the Board Meeting where the idea was presented he said "99% of all gaming magazines fail." The Board heard "we can have a print magazine."

Even in 1997-98 it was clear that print was dying and the Web becoming ascendant. But that was a "silly thing to say," if you asked already-graying 90s TSFL players. Sandy thought maybe having the backbone of an NPO to subsidize a core print run would give a "margin of viability" that other magazines had lacked. In all cases before the early 2000's recession firmly hit the US in 2001-2002, it was hitting Europe and killing small business chains. A major distributor collapse and gaming industry downturn torpedoed Metagame, and the ILF became insolvent, and was turned over into LARPA.

The ILF was already becoming irrelevant. It had never had the slightest buy in from boffer gamers, and had scant support from vampire. In practical terms it was the organization for Theatre Style LARP and might have done better to sell itself that way. Instead it tried to be everything to everybody and ended up being nuffin' to nobody.

So...the world was changing and if Intercon was to be saved changes needed to occur.

It was never my intention to "take the official number back" from Boston. The actual plan was more what Teem describes. Each regional convention would have a name "Intercon New England, Intercon Mid-Atlantic," and the designation of "Annual Convention" with a Roman Numeral would be an honor that floated between them.

In practice this was not the way it worked out.

Another myth that I got to hear often a few years ago, but is less common now is how the NEIL Convention "declared independence" from LARPA, and what not. In fact nothing could be further from the case. The establishment of NEIL came after a set of ugly internecine conflicts among the New England convention staff in which I as ILF CSO had been repeatedly canvassed by parties on both sides to intervene.

Not having been born yesterday, I well understood the actual situation. If I intervened on one side, the other side would cry foul that "people 400 miles away with no vested interest were making decisions for a Boston Convention" and I'd be roundly stoned by them. In the end the ILF had ultimate fiduciary responsibility for Intercon, but no effective channel to exercise management control. It was clear that nobody wanted a bunch of Marylanders telling them how to run the local con, right up until they got into a hopeless brawl with each other in which case each wanted me to play referee...but only if I favored them.

At the same time I had my own problems. Intercon in Baltimore had ceased to be financially viable around the time of Millennium. It had never been prosperous and no Intercon had ever done more than make a small profit. Increasingly I was the sole financial support for the Con. I already ran a chain of events every year most of which lost small amounts of money. The difference is that when those events ran, I could take back any nominal receipts to cover losses. With Intercon I was using the same infrastructure to stage the convention I was to stage the 1936 Campaign, but I wasn't able to take any money back...it belonged to the ILF, an organzation that I already provided most of the funding for. I could pay in, but not take back.

The remedy to both problems was clear. The regional cons ought to be autonomous, licensing the shared Intercon name with a set of agreements as to the fundamental things that "made" an Intercon - an Open Bid Process, Non-Discrimination, and Shared Promotion.

Oddly this initially met with resistance. I think the keystone is that while everybody in Massachusetts generally did not want an organization with a Maryland center running their con, they did not have a strong agreement on who would run it, and the early political infighting was still going fairly strong. So I was in the odd position of having to "push" New England to form a leadership group that would run the Convention. A further complication was that I chose to push the requirement that the the organization have some sort of elected structure and constitution. It needn't be Democratic, but it must at least exist and show "community participation and support."

In the end leadership did emerge and NEIL was formed.

I don't think it's mine to go into the political history of NEIL and I doubt that everyone would agree on it in any case. I took the whole number for the next local convention, with the intention that it would be passed back and forth between NEIL and the shell organization formed to fulfill the same organization for IMA.

I'd explained the theory of the Roman Numeral designating the honor of being the year's Annual Convention several times. Certainly there are other organizations where this occurs...several regions have conventions, but annually one is the "Annual Convention" and has a number and is larger.

The NEIL Board decided instead, for whatever reasons to establish its own numbering scheme separately, using letters. I honestly think that the reason was simply that the concept of the rotating Annual Convention was not broadcast well, and there was still some feeling that the rotating Annual Convention number that had "belonged to Boston" since it was settled there to promote XIII was "taken away" with XIV.

In the long run, it is likely that IMA was doomed when TSFL precipitously collapsed in 1999. The new strategies I developed kept it vital for an additional 8 years, and I think that is nothing to sneeze at. In practical terms, I think it has been made obsolete by its competitors, and that what energy remains to it should be rolled back into other LARP conventions and events.

In historical retrospect the great changes in Intercon were driven by the economy. The stress and tension of the 1992 Recession drove the SIL/ILF split, and the 2000 Recession drove the failure of Metagame, the dissolution of the ILF and the formation of NEIL. The end of IMA is so firmly tied to the current recession as to be indivisible. The one thing we are improving on is practicality efficiency in these changes.

I'll make a final annoucement later this week but it seems unlikely that IMA will run this year, and I personally do not think it is likely that a group will present an organized plan to revive it next year. Last year I discussed the concept that both Intercons should promote the "25th Anniversary," and I hope that whether or not the number XXV is used, the New England Con will consider promoting the 25th Anniversary if IMA does not exist.

While the New England Convention seems "huge" compared to IMA, it is tiny and a mere flicker. Gaming Conventions of less than 500 are considered little better than "student conventions" and barely show up on National Radar. The growth to 300 clearly suprised everyone, and I get a sense of question in where to go from here. I think that this is a time of promise and concern for LARP. if it is properly nourished and organized, the NEIL convention will continue to grow - though that may mean making scary choices to move to a larger venue and embrace carrying the flag of LARP nationally. Unfortuantely I think in many ways IMA is mostly constituting a distraction to the central issue of the growth of Intercon as the intellectual center of U.S. LARP, and at this time I think that is where we need to look for the future growth of LARP as the decade of the 2000s draws to a close.

Date: 2009-08-06 13:19 Subject: The Fate of Intercon Mid-Atlantic - A Discussion Security: Public

Last week I circulated this message to some of the people who were nominal leaders of the Community that has produced IMA in the past.  This week I am posting it for public discussion.  The short version is that after looking at last year's attendance, the economy, attendance patterns and falloff in other events, and the overall situation, I am strongly inclined to cancel IMA.  We have until 27 September to cancel without prejudice, and only about two refunds to issue.  My recomendation will ultimately be based on the replies here.

I want to get the tone of the message across.  This is not a "ZOMG my Con is dying please HALP!" message.  If anything the Con is dying largely because my other project, Threads is more wildly successful than I would have expected, and that an two other events, one of which I also organize, are making IMA obsolete.  So I'm not weeping here. 

What  I want is a calm, realistic Community Discussion to determine for how many people IMA serves a special need that is really not met by any other event. 

( The Details and Discussion... )

Date: 2009-03-23 18:32 Subject: Intercon Mid-Atlantic Bids open - $500 LARPA Contest Opens Security: Public

http://ima.larpaweb.net

The annual LARPA Small Games Contest is also open. To bid a contest game, please fill out the submission information and deadlines here:

http://www.ima.larpaweb.net/imawiki/index.php?title=Contest_Introduction

Two Top Prizes $200 and $300

Overall best will win $300, $200 for best in Category, Additional $100 top prize

Two category winners will receive $200 and the be eligible for best overall.

Categories

Games compete either in the 5-12 player category or the 12-24+ player category. Each category will have one $200 winner, and one of the winners will receive "best overall" for a total prize of $300. Games must have a flexibility of at least 6 players. So for example a game could be for 12-18 players, or 18-24 players. Games may be written with more characters than 24 available, provided all other criteria are also met. Games can be run privately for playtest purposes

Date: 2009-01-29 01:27 Subject: John Updike is Dead Security: Public

This isn't news to the world.  John Updike died on Tuesday.  Many of my friends do not know this, or do not know what it means, but I am saddened.  So I will tell them a little.

Around 2002 I had a bitter argument online with a player and author about the use of non-genre media in LARP.  I made the point that my influences are not limited to the universe of action-adventure or genre SF, Fantasy, etc.  Many of my stories come from "mainstream" fiction.  I was inroduced to the concept of LARP through John Fowles novel The Magus where it takes the form of "Godgaming."

If you had asked me on monday to name the greatest living American author I would probably have named John Updike.  Of the men who formed the constellation of great names when I grew up, he is the last among the living.  Updike's name I associate with the like of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, John Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Mailer died two years ago, and I drank. 

Even his lesser contemporaries are mostly in the grave.  There are novelists who reached his ability but only in one or two books.  Ken Kesey, Joseph Heller, Hunter S. Thompson.

Philip Roth alone remains alive and I mean him no disrespect.  But I never warmed to Nathan Zuckerman the way I did.  J. D. Salinger is miraculously still alive (as far as we know).  His literary career ended the year I was born.  There is hope however.  Margaret Salinger says much of Salinger's unpublished work is marked for publication when he dies so...he may yet emerge as the true literary giant of our era.  I think not though.  Relevance is more important to a novelist now than in the year of my birth and I fear he will be an echo for academics a museum of his own past.  Salinger is a narcissist and to me it is narcissistic enough to be a novelist...he has compounded the sin.  Sad that, but his choice.  I think it's a shame he broke up with Joyce Maynard, but it gives me something to look forward to.

But...all that aside...

I came to Updike through Bech: A Book, and its sequels.  I had a Jewish girlfriend and was fascinated by all things Jewish, particularly Updike's alter ego Henry Bech.  I saw myself in him.  I saw mortality in him and most of all I learned a sense of proportion about ambition from him.  Updike will get a funeral...he was a Christian of sorts...but someone should sit shiva for Henry Bech.  I later pursued him through Couples, which taught me what to really expect from polyamory.  All the truths Heinlein glossed in Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love.  My readings in Updike were eclectic.  If my friends know of him it is almost always through Witches of Eastwick (considered one of his lesser works).  Of all of his works I think the one which I most admire is The Coup which is probably much like admiring Shakespeare for Coriolanus.  I admit I never read the Rabbit  novels.  Someday maybe I will. 

Occasionally someone comes along that I honestly am a bit stricken by...there have been a lot of losses to the literary world lately.  I do not think they will be replaced.  I truly mean this.

There will be new and great artists.  But the novel is dying or dead.  The day when it is mostly a matter of desperation sales, adventure, and Oprah Winfrey is upon us.  I am not saying writing is dead.  But there will not be another John Updike just as the survival of John Williams and the existence of Orchestras or the importance of John Lennon or does not suggest there will ever be another Igor Stravinsky...there will be no new great classical composers...

There will be no new great American Novelists in the mold of the 20th century.  Updike was the last of the real titans.  I liked him.  He was unassuming, wrote prose spare enough to die for, and was comfortable with sex.

We shall not see his like again.

Date: 2009-01-18 16:27 Subject: Repo - the Genetic Opera Security: Public

So I spent the weekend with Stephanie and she suggested a Saturday night entertainment.  She said REPO  was in town, and we should go see it.  I said "sure." 

I'd heard of Repo.  It had been brought to my attention because it concerned a dystopian future where they repossessed people’s personal organs, and that happened to vaguely match a plot I’d been writing for Threads of Damocles.   But Repo was a musical and I’m not that fond of musicals.  Also a number of people ranted and raved about it, and I’m not a big joiner.  Finally a friend who saw it wasn’t impressed by the “personal sell” element of the Road Tour.

But I didn’t have anything against it either, figured it would be amusing. 

So for people who don’t know the background, here’s the quick rundown.  Repo was an indie arts project playing in black box theatres, that managed to get a budget and a theatrical release as a project of Director Darren Lynn Bousman, best known for the  Saw franchise.  It’s a very SFX and squip heavy satire.  It’s impossible to really say what genre it is.  You could say roughly it fits into the dark musical genre associated with Assassins or Sweeny Todd.  But theatrically it shows more like Frank Miller’s Sin City, or other dark anime rendered into live action.  You might through Guillermo's Pan's Labyrinth in there too...but it's not serious, so that's a very weird divergence. 

I can understand why it's a marketing nightmare.  It's "Springtime for Hitler" level fucked up...like "Hey what if we made Pan's Labyrinth into a musical comedy."  It's the sort of thing that does well on stage but has a very fucking hard time getting in front of a film audience.

One paralell that has been invoked is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the roadshow adapts this framework, encouraging people to come out in costume.  Since the costumes include pretty hot looks for the girls, I’m generally okay with that.   For actual thematic similarity the closest thing I’ve ever seen to it was Brian De Palma’s 1974 Phantom of the Paradise.  In terms of feel and content, it struck me an awful lot like Frank Miller, but the universe complexity and themes really reminded me of  Mike Kaluta’s Starstruck (not the more recent Gaiman piece).   I think the feel may come somewhat from the fact that Starstruck was derived from an off-Broadway play by Elaine Lee, Norfleet Lee and Dale Place.   It’s darker and more “modern” than Starstruck of course, along the lines of Watchmen. 

At any rate, Repo flunked it’s test-screening badly and Lionsgate sent it straight to DVD.   It missed the mark largely because it was billed to the test audience as a horror vehicle by the Director of Saw II, and it’s not.  It’s not surprising that “Frank Miller as musical comedy” did not play well to that crowd.  It was a flop, and so like Terry Gilliam’s Brazil faced a huge issue getting released.

Theatres are sockets that studios put movies into to make money.   You pick the movies that are going to fill a 200 seat theatre to 200 people.  Not that are going to fill it to 50 people.   It’s true hype and advertising play a role.  But while I don’t agree it is the worst movie ever made, I can see it having real trouble finding a clear advertising method and an audience.  I’m not sure the people who went to see Sin City would like it, and I’m not sure who you’d sell it to.  One thing to understand about movies is just how fucking enormous releases are.  Sin City cost $40 million (a lot more than Repo’s 8m,) but grossed 158 million worldwide.  You can have a TV show, or Broadway show that a fuckload less people are interested in that is still very profitable.   Movies need a big audience to be anything other than arthouse films.  I suspect that Repo’s gore makes it hard to play in art houses like the Landmark E St. Cinema.  And frankly that’s a big drawback.  I can’t say “everybody is going to love this show,” because unlike say Sweeny Todd, if you are not okay with seeing human skin cut open and blood spurt out this is going to freak you right the fuck out.  It's not incredibly far afield in either tone or gore from Kill Bill, but it's a lot more fantastic and it's a musical.

At any rate, Director Darren Lynn Bousman and Writer Terrence Zdunich are touring around with lead Alexa Vega to try and generate a cult following.  Intentionally or not there's a sort of push for it as a new Rocky Horror, and they want to see a bigger big-screen release.  I think it’s a noble goal, and I doubt it’s really profiting Bousman, though it may be the best thing Zudnich can be doing for himself right now.  If you've read Terry Gilliam's The Battle for Brazil  you have some idea of how these things work. 

They make a good show and it’s fun and friendly.  People who know me know that I’m not big on actresses.  I don’t care much about them…my fandom stops with Ingrid Bergman, Myrna Loy, Katherine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich.   A friend of mine got me half sold on Julie Christie.  But that’s about it.  That said, Alexa Vega kinda kicks ass.  She’s got a commanding personality which is not something you usually hear said about actresses.  When she takes charge, vocally, you actually feel it, and that’s sometimes very hard to do with a pretty girl especially one who’s playing young.  I’m gonna like the girl of course, it’s me, but she’s a cut above. 

I was pleased to meet them all where “meet” = seeing their presentation and passing about nine words in the lobby on the way to the gents.  All friendly words though.

So this film is not without talent.  The big names in the film other than Alexa Vega (who was in Spy Kids and is apparently now on Broadway in Hairspray) are Paris Hilton and Anthony Head (who played Giles on Buffy for folks like me not good with names). Paul Sorvino (Law and Order) rounds out the bill.

There's also apparently a cameo by Joan Jett though I missed it.

The music is pretty fucked up in a good way.  Sarah Brightman actually has a screen role as does Ogre of Skinny Puppy.  But I think a real chunk of the sell is the soundtrack. You’ve got David Lee Roth's in studio guitarist Brian Young, the frontman from Filter, the drummer from Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros, the rhythm guitarist from Guns n' Roses,  David J Haskins the bassist from Bauhaus and Daniel Ash of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets.  It also includes Ozzy's bassist Blasko, the drummer from Rob Zombie, POE ("Hey Pretty"), and Rami Jaffee, who has played with The Wallflowers, Foo Fighters, Soul Asylum and Pearl Jam. 

The producers were Yoshiki (who I've never heard of but is apparently big in Japan the way Elvis was big in the U.S.) and Joseph Bishara who produces Glenn Danzig, which kinda figures.

So what did I think of it?

Well…I did not walk out thinking “this is the greatest fucking movie ever made…I am obsessed with it.”   But I think it has the power to grow on you.  There’s a lot of rich complexity of the sort that you see in Pan’s Labyrinth that feels like there's a world behind it.  It feels strongly like it was made from a comic or graphic-novel media. 

The music was the same way.  It's complex and despite it all not all that catchy except for "Zydrate Anatomy."  Some of it really seems to suborn music for story which since it claims to be an opera you can't complain about.

But I think it grows on you.  It's rich and there's enough there for two watchings.  It's a fascinating world, and in the end you've only sort of licked the dark corners of it. 

I think it's destined to become a cult classic, though I doubt it will ever see a major theatrical release.  It's got some serious chops and if it seems a little scratchy in places, it's really beautiful in others.  And it draws you back.  Sin City was pretty, but I'll be damned if I remember more than one or two scenes. It was a comic book - bubblegum.  I suspect I'll remember Repo ten years from now in pretty good detail.

It's worth buying rather than pirating, and I'd strongly recommend it (out on DVD and Blu-Ray on the 20th).  It isn't often art is "something else" and Repo is definitely something else.

Date: 2009-01-16 11:14 Subject: Not really a meme... Security: Public

As most people have probably gathered I do LJ memes approximately never.  I've recently become interested for reasons of personal reseach in the concept of the "Johari Window" 

According to Wikipedia:

A Johari window is a cognitive psychological tool created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955 in the United States, used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships. It is used primarily in self-help groups and corporate settings as a heuristic exercise.

When performing the exercise, the subject is given a list of 55 adjectives and picks five or six that they feel describe their own personality. Peers of the subject are then given the same list, and each pick five or six adjectives that describe the subject. These adjectives are then mapped onto a grid.

Charles Handy calls this concept the Johari House with four rooms. Room 1 is the part of ourselves that we see and others see. Room 2 is the aspect that others see but we are not aware of. Room 3 is the most mysterious room in that the unconscious or subconscious bit of us is seen by neither ourselves nor others. Room 4 is our private space, which we know but keep from others.

This went around as an LJ meme about a year or more ago, and like most memes I bypassed it.  At any rate, while I don't tend to do memes I do occasionally comment on serious issues raised by my friends, so I've created a Johari window and a negative Nohari window, and I am interested in the input.

Just for what it's worth, I don't expect people to use identifiable names, don't care what they say, and won't take anything personally.  You can't really NOT be critical in the Nohari window.  I'm just curious about the results for purposes of research.  I tend to take all things pop-psychological as interesting, but superficial.  As an estimator I value roundhouse methods while recognizing they are an incomplete picture

At any rate, for anyone interested:

http://kevan.org/johari?view=James_dc
http://kevan.org/nohari?view=James_dc

Date: 2008-11-21 11:02 Subject: Live Roleplaying Groups, Money, and Self-Destruction Security: Public

This morning's economic news came from Monty Python.  According to the Post:

OBAMA:  But I don't want to think I've not lost a Treasury Secretary, so much as... gained
    a bailout!
    [clap clap clap]
    For, since the tragic death of the economy--
PAULSON:  It's not quite dead!
OBAMA:  Since the near fatal wounding of the economy--
PAULSON:  It's getting better!
OBAMA:  For, since the economy, which, when it seemed about to recover,
    suddenly felt the icy hand of death upon it.
FEDERAL RESERVE:  Uugh!
HARRY REID:  Oh, it's died!

So...the best we can say about the economy is that it was coughing up blood late last night...

In that spirit, I'm going to reprint an article from back in 2002, during our last declared financial panic.  I think it was a good summary then, and holds up reasonably now.  I wasn't enchanted with the title, but mine was admittedly much more boring and the current title was put on it by Dave Coleman, then the Editor of the LARPer, and it is probably better than whatever I had (which may have been the subtitle)....


This article originally appeared at http://larper.larpaweb.net/no_work.html

January 2002, Volume 2, Issue 1

Live Roleplaying Groups, Money, and Self-Destruction
by Gordon Olmstead-Dean

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with the Co-GM of my current campaign and figured out our current unemployment statistics. After a few moments with pen and paper, we came to the conclusion that about 18% of our regular contingent were currently unemployed, with about a quarter having expressed serious concern about being severed.

I shook my head, and began looking through our schedule…this game could move to a private venue we owned. This one we could cut the price on a little bit and offer more meals…and we could look towards running the season without any significant prop expenditures…we'd always borrowed where we didn't have to buy, and between that and my private stock, we could run the season till about next October on last year's properties…

"Maybe..." I said hopefully..."Things will be better by then."

My partner in crime began running games in the mid-nineties, and had never been through a recession. So I ordered another cup of coffee and launched into the dreaded old-timer's account.

I ran Live Roleplaying events through the `92 recession and lived to tell about it. So I told her what I was worried about.

Date: 2008-11-18 00:29 Subject: LARPA Contest Winners! Security: Public

Intercon  Mid-Atlantic is over, and what a convention.   The company was great, the games were very good, and the weather stayed fairly warm if rainy.   The Con numbers never reached the usual levels, but you couldn't much tell from the party in the function space after hours.  People had fun, talked shop, danced, and generally had a good time.  I got several "best Intercon evar!" comments from people, and if we lacked a little in numbers we made up for it in quality of company and good spirits. 

We had some new faces this year and that was very exciting.  I got a chance to talk to a lot of the good people involved in producing the New England Convention about cross promoting, and pushing the Intercon name.  If IMA is going to have a growth year and be a good neighbor, we'll need help and everyone I asked for help was really forthcoming and willing to go the extra mile. 

I love IMA and I want it to keep its special feeling and characteristics, but it's time for us to grow again as well, and this weekend we roughed out a lot of the things that need to happen for IMA to move forward.  Contest Submissions will be much earlier this coming year so that at least a few tracks of good games are up by the time the New England Convention runs.

This year’s contest proved pretty exciting.  There was some real competition.  I should explain briefly that all games compete in two categories.  Technical Submission (a copy of the game submitted beforehand and read by judges) and Runtime Scores.  A game that does not complete it’s Technical Submission may still run and Receive Runtime Scores, but is unlikely to win Best Overall since its highest possible score will be 50%.  We also had a “Wildcard” category this year which only reflected Runtime.

This years winners were:

Gold - Best Overall - Time Travel Review Board by John D'Agosta, Susan Weiner, Nat Budin, Josh Rachlin
“Wildcard” – Best Runtime - Holiday Season by Mike Young
Gold – Best in Category – 6-12 Players – The Road Not Taken by Mike Young
Gold – Best in Category – 12-24 Players - Time Travel Review Board by John D'Agosta, Susan Weiner, Nat Budin, Josh Rachlin
Silver – 12-24 Players - Shangri-La by Tom Vorhies, Carol Young, Andrew Zorowitz and the Foam Brain Staff
Bronze – 12-24 Players - Finals by Christopher Buck, Emily Buck, Jennifer Buck, Elizabeth Mullen

I’m going to throw in a note here.  People who were at the Convention are aware that Road Not Taken won best 6-12, but also had no competition.  I think it’s worth mentioning that it was only beaten for Wildcard by Holiday Season by the same author, so clearly competition aside, it was a very worthy entry. 

I think all these games were very solid and very credible, and the spread on scores was close enough to make us feel that all the games were good competitors and that everyone put in a good effort.

The real winner is the rest of the LARP playing world.  There are now six new games in the GameBank, posted and ready to go!

http://www.larpaweb.net/gamebank-mainmenu-31

On a final note, I want to thank everyone who attended Intercon, and the people who worked hard to produce it, particularly Stephanie Olmstead-Dean, who handled the hotel, and con-suite, Meredith Peck who handled a lot of the admin work of the convention, and Mike Young who handled database issues.

I also want to thank the many people who came forward and made displays of generosity by donating to the Con and the Bar.  Many people went above and beyond the call of duty to help out in this difficult year, and we deeply appreciate that. 

Next stop – Intercon I!

Date: 2008-11-12 15:03 Subject: Intercon Mid-Atlantic - almost upon us! Security: Public

So Intercon Mid-Atlantic is almost upon us.  With gas prices falling and the economy stuttering and Obama elected, reg has picked up a little.  More than I expected, honestly.  And there are a few more people in the wind, friends bringing undecideds who will either come at the last minute or not.  The games that are open now are probably going to have slots at the door, and the ones that were full already were.  I'm guessing we'll shuffle up to around 80, which has us down about 22%, which given the timing on our ass-kicking is not bad.  By the time people unfroze and decided they might be willing to travel again, IMA was just too close.

I'm looking forward to the weekend!  For once I have the latitude just to have fun and not worry that the con is going to lose a lot of money.   Effectively this Con is paid for by LARPWriting.org and Threads of Damocles.  Enjoy the bar!   This year for all it's failings IMA will be a good set of games and a good party.  I'm browsing through the attendance list, and except for a very few people who had some pre-existing conflict, we're mostly not missing the core people who we enjoy partying with and who make the Convention fun.  And IMA is still bigger than Threads, which is a great party.  So it's going to be a nice fun weekend, and I officially refuse to worry that the economy hurt us.  We're going to rock on, play games, have fun, and maybe learn something.  I'm thinking of running an informal roundtable track during the day, and seeing if anybody shows up if we actually have a TOPIC for our rambling daytime discussions.

Also I'll add that we've run a lot of discounts and slashed prices to try to help the games by getting more reg.  That was aimed at people who were hard hit. With GM comps, price reductions, etc., reg will cover about 35% of Con budget this year. I don't want to guilt anyone so I'll just remind my friends who work jobs as good or better than mine and are not starving that most of the Con is coming out of my pocket, so if you don't need to figure out how to pay nothing for the con, you know those little bits do help.  I don't mind and I won't complain, but everybody appreciates the person who kicks in for the party.

We'll turn that around next year, having gotten Threads up and making ends meet. 

We'll do a lot of things differently next year.  Next year will be Intercon 24, and we have some big plans for Intercon 25, and if that is going to happen we need to ramp up now.   We're moving back to the Baltimore-Washington area, expanding the Convention to include workshops and roundtables on Thursday, and finally adding a real workshop and panel track all weekend.  I'm expecting about twenty people the first year, and we'll go from there.

I've added an additional "WildCard" prize to the LARPA Small Games Contest this year, and that should make things interesting.  We've got three competitors for the 12-24 Category, but it's likely that the one micro entrant will win that category.   We have more entrants this year than ever before, and I'm happy about that.   Next year we are going to open Contest Game Bids before we open Regular Bids and may also offer a few more Categories.

I think if IMA is going to be the art and theory con, we need to be the art and theory Convention and that means really putting our money where our mouth is and provide a real programming track.  It will be lightly attended at first, but you can't grow something without planting a seed, and it's time.   We'll also move to a heavier promotional message.  IMA-2008 was intended to be a "coasting" con - run our usual numbers and usual crowd during what would arguably be the most intense and difficult year for the Threads Campaign.  With Threads beginning to run itself, I'll have more time to devote to IMA-2009 and to the twenty fifth anniversary in 2010.

As a side note, the 25th Anniversary of Theatre Style LARP passed without remark last year.  But I think in a lot of ways that's less of a landmark.  The SIL was founded as the Harvard SIL that year, but we know there was LARP before that, and there are murdery mystery events that go back as far, and Assassin games, etc.  So that was a landmark, but not really anniversary worthy.  I think that the beginning of SilIcon/Intercon in the United States is going to be a much more memorable date down the years.

So we'll worry about the future later

Date: 2008-11-05 13:36 Subject: (Offtopic) Because people ask... Security: Public

No particular ideas on Defense other than Jack Reed.  I think you could do a lot worse than that.  Reed is a veteran with cred and a certified expert, who can work closely with Joe Biden, who is probably going to be the Defense/State guy.

Treasury is obviously going to be very important.  Bob Rubin has been talked about a lot as well as Paul Volcker.  My personal guess is going to be Timothy Geithner (President of the Federal Reserve Bank).  He's worked for Rubin, who may well end up as the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors rather than Secretary.  Geithner is already in the middle of the bailout, day-in/day-out and that's going to be enormously important.

the_smith_e asked what Warren Buffet wanted.  I'd guess if anything a role on the CEA.  I'd guess Rubin or Volcker for Chair though.

State is a big one.  Madelaine Albright has been suggested, but she's something like 72, and I just don't think she could keep up with the pace.  I think she'll be an advisor of some sort, but someone younger will take State.  You do not want the health complexities inherent in a 72 year old derailing the delicate processes State needs to be responsible for.  A good realistic choice is Greg Craig.  Colin Powell has been suggested, as has John Kerry.  I think if we see that sort of "dream team" pick it would be in this slot, but my money is going to go on Craig or somebody like him.

At this writing, as far as I know Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Illinois) is a given for Chief of Staff and should be announced shortly.

No strong feelings about the other slots...

Date: 2008-11-04 10:28 Subject: Election Day Rants, IMA, and Leadership Posts - III - "Modular Structure" Security: Public

Intercon Mid-Atlantic is coming along. Reg has started to move up a little, which may go with the easing of the financial panic. There is some thought that the likely "blue" election day will settle things more and people will get a little less panicked about spending. If you still want to come, but were locked out of the room block, please contact me directly as we may be able to get you a room.

Election Day - I haven't digressed much about politics this year, because frankly it was a very close horse-race then a foregone conclusion. But a quick early evaluation. To pull off a win, McCain would need to get every solid vote he has, also claim every leaning vote he has, claim every single tossup vote in the country AND claim 18 electoral votes that are currently leaning Obama. I won't say that's impossible, but it would take a significant miracle...the only thing I see that could possible save McCain is a surprise upset in Pennsylvania. That still means he has to carry both Ohio AND Florida, but he could afford to slip in one other place...he could afford to lose one of GA, VA, NC, MO, and he could afford to lose the Dakotas and Montana.

Today in Leadership, we visit the topic of Modular structure...

---

The Modular Structure and some Pros and Cons

Despotism in LARP

Date: 2008-11-01 11:44 Subject: Make money on IMA - Leadership Posts - II Background A Security: Public

Intercon Mid-Atlantic will Pay you Money!

We're broadening the Intercon Economic Incentive Program, and you can make money!

We need to encourage people who are COMING to the con to push to fill up their car with people who can afford $35 to crash, eat, and drink for the entire weekend.   We're getting some response but it isn't enough. 

Get ten people to sign up for IMA, and show at the door.  Crash space or full hotel and $25 rate.  I will hand you a $100 bill at the door
Get five people to sign up for IMA and show at the door. Same deal and I will hand you a $50.

Sorry we can't quite do a $10 refund for "bring a friend" but coordinate...fill a car with people, come to the Con and get paid.

Just as a side note...every time we've been in tough financial times and been trying to hold out a hand to help, we get one or two people asking technical questions like "so if I bring my friend Bob and he shows up but leaves because he was really just coming to see his sister, does it count..."   My answer to all questions is, "we're fair, generous and trying to help.  Do well by us and we'll try to do well by you."

Now on to the next segment of the Leadership White Paper.  Remember you can read the full White Paper here.

II - Background – How Things Have Been and Are Now

Structural Facts – How Threads is Organized

Date: 2008-10-28 18:32 Subject: Leadership Posts - I Introduction Security: Public

Hey folks.  The GMs of Intercon Mid-Atlantic still need reg.  We've had a few new reg, but we really need to push the free crash space, the other deals.  Please push information about the Intercon Economic Incentive package out as far and wide as you can.  I wouldn't ask for myself, but the people who have bid games deserve good full audiences, and there are some events really hurting.  You can help.  You can offer to drive people.  With $10 crash space and $25 food, people can afford Intercon if they can get there.  Help me with that. 

Today I'm starting a modular release of my White Paper on Leadership in LARP groups.  You can read the whole paper at LARPWriting.org, but for people who want small, digestible bits, we're going to serialize it here.  While it was unashamedly written for the Threads of Damocles group, it has a larger significance.

Since it was released the most common response I've had is for someone to describe a basic business management model, and suggest that maybe instead of this hare-brained amateurish stuff we try doing it like the "real" folks do it.  It may be worth explaining that we began with a straight business model for LARP back in the 1990s and have evolved to this level of specialization.  I summed up the differences by saying: 

<i>Volunteer management and leadership on an NPO level does not work like real business leadership
Volunteer management on the organized suburban community/soccer mom level does not work like real NPO leadership
Volunteer management on the gamer-geek/LARP level does not work like organized suburban soccer mom leadership...

So once you pass through that filter...really the model we need is DRAMATICALLY different from a real business model. I've seen groups apply that model and seen them fail. Where they have worked it is only because people have carried out the pretense of that structure as an elaborate LARP while actually running on a much less sophisticated model. Where they have failed that structure typically shot the group in the foot, became a huge stumbling block it could not work around.

It's a great ideal to break the project down into blocks, etc., but that MUST happen along organic lines driven largely by the volunteers and personalities involved. If it doesn't, it's going to be a resounding failure.

What most business people want to build is a business structure that works if you fill it with people. That will, in no uncertain terms, fail. <i>

I - Introduction

This White Paper is intended to kick off a planned discussion on the future of leadership in Threads. It is long. I have tried not to repeat myself or use too many big words, but this is a big subject. If it seems I’m writing too much about it, consider the hours that many groups have spent miserable because of failed choices about leadership and ask…”is it too much to spend an hour reading to avoid weeks of misery and a failed campaign?” I figure it will take about two hours to read through the 45 pages of this discussion.

It isn't just a blueprint of leadership. It is a detailed discussion of every challenge and problem facing us. It presents a new model for production based on a "Free Market of Ideas."( More ideas... )

Date: 2008-10-23 16:38 Subject: Intercon Economic Incentive Package Security: Public

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO YOUR GAME LISTS!!!

So every year, IMA reg is about 105. I suppose it could be bigger if we advertised more. It's true we're sort of the "best little-known secret of LARP." A small, quiet convention that is serving free food and booze at an incredibly cheap rate. But we like being the "thing you have to know about," and it's been a great place to run cool experimental work. Not trying to be snobby just figure you have to be around a few years to hear about IMA. We don't compete much with the Boston Convention.

I track registration. And I know when it should peak. The Con runs up to 70 and then during the period that would be the last two weeks

On the Day the stock Market first crashed, Intercon Reg was 70. It had been steadily gaining and was in the period where over about two and a half weeks it should run up to about 110, with a few drops taking us back to 105.

Today Intercon Reg is 71. The curve didn't just slump, it shattered. Never seen anything like it. Healthy, healthy...BAM!

The good news is, MOST OF THE GAMES HAVE MINIMUM. Most of the games are going to run, only a few are in danger, and there are players who haven't signed up yet. I think we're going to get everything run. I've been working on that.

But it's clear we need a larger solution. By now it is clear that this is not a normal time. This is not 1992. It may not be the Great Depression, but you may have to remember Nixon as a President to have been through worse. The solutions that worked to keep the con afloat in the last two recessions are not good enough now...THIS CALLS FOR MORE!

It's not clear to me that the crisis is really affecting our attendees all that much. But I suppose with people talking about staff cuts, people are reluctant to travel even if they don't actually have less money than they did last month.

I also understand that "it's the travel and the expense not the Con Reg."

But it's time for some "Economic Stimulus" of our own. This is a one time emergency provision to operate the Convention at a loss in order to make sure the LARPA Contest games run.

http://ima.larpaweb.net

1) The Con Rate is $25. If you paid $45 I will hand you a $20 at the door. I am resetting the rate. If you paid $25 I will hand you a $5 at the door. We are officially the cheapest place to eat and drink that weekend. PERIOD. You can hardly eat and drink at HOME for less than that.

2) We are creating "Crash Rooms" Crash space is $10 payable to me, per person. Rooms are going to be segregated into "Girls" "Boys" and "Couples." There is no guarantee of bed, it's "first come first served." That doesn't mean "get there and stake out a bed" it means the first four people who fall asleep get bed space. Bring a bedroll. If you can get to the con, we have space for you. So far that's $35 for the trip. TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!!!!

3) PLEASE DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DROP A ROOM RESERVATION. IF YOU DECIDE TO DROP YOUR ROOM CONTACT stephanie@vialarp.org. The Con may take over your room. (This doesn't mean we pay for your room, but we may use it for one of the crash space rooms). We realize that if people have a room and some room-mates bailed they may elect to go to the "Crash rooms"

4) Gas is fixing itself. Travel right now is cheaper than it has been at ANY POINT THIS SUMMER. Gas is the one thing declining. Pile into a car and COME TO INTERCON!!!!!

This is going to be a great Con and I don't want to see it ruined by bad Economic Timing. Come down and help us push Intercon that last 30!

We got food, we got soda, we got a bar...now we got crash space...Join us!

http://ima.larpaweb.net

Date: 2008-10-20 22:03 Subject: Threads Leadership White Paper - Introduction Security: Public

I've put together a White Paper on plans to revise the Leadership and Production Model of Threads of Damocles. I think it has a lot of value to anyone running a sophisticated campaign with a genuine commitment to a broad-based leadership.
This White Paper is intended to kick off a planned discussion on the future of leadership in Threads. It is long. I have tried not to repeat myself or use too many big words, but this is a big subject. If it seems I’m writing too much about it, consider the hours that many groups have spent miserable because of failed choices about leadership and ask…”is it too much to spend an hour reading to avoid weeks of misery and a failed campaign?” I figure it will take about two hours to read through the 45 pages of this discussion.

It isn't just a blueprint of leadership. It is a detailed discussion of every challenge and problem facing us. It presents a new model for production based on a "Free Market of Ideas."

Despite jokes that are made at my expense and which I may indulge because I'm good natured. I do not write or talk because I like to hear my own voice. This has been hard work, and I have put a great deal of thought into it. I collected and in some cases invented the ideas and principles here because I think that the players and volunteers of this group deserve well thought out and reasoned leadership. I could have done many of these things unilaterally, but I chose to write them down for two reasons.

First I think that our group is made up of intelligent, educated, people who can easily read fifty pages, and understand it. The ideas in it are an attempt to crystalize much of what I have learned and observed into a form that others can benefit from.

And that leads to the second reason. I think the ideas and concepts presented in this document could benefit many campaigns and many writers, and as much as I want these ideas to benefit our group, I want our group to serve more than it already does as a model for other worthwhile endeavors in the future.( a bit more introductory explanation, and the links... )

Date: 2008-10-14 02:33 Subject: Intercon Hotel Block Closing! Security: Public

Apologies if you receive this notice more than once, but it's impoirtant important (and apparently my spell checker is not working).

The deadline to reserve a hotel room in the Intercon Mid-Atlantic room block is tomorrow, 14 October 2008!

After that time there is no guarantee that you will be able to get a room at the reduced rates for IMA, or indeed, that you will be able to get a hotel room at all. November is actually a pretty busy month for the sites that stay open in Rehoboth Beach! I can't make more hotel rooms appear where they don't exist, so grab yours today while it's still available!

IMA 2008 room rates are $80/night single/double, $95/night triple, and $110/night quad, plus 8% tax. To make your hotel reservation, just call the Atlantic Sands Hotel at 800-422-0600 (302-227-2511 outside the U.S.), and be sure to mention Intercon. PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO'S PLANNING TO COME TO THE CONVENTION!

See you there, and thanks!

Date: 2008-10-12 12:27 Subject: Real Risks to the World Security: Public

I've generally stuck to LARP here, but after my comments last week, I thought I'd add this article on "The Next World War? It Could be Financial" At the risk of upsetting people who think that ideology is something other than a dying entertainment for people who grew up in tents or Red States, I think this speaks more to the realities of current day warfare, and economics can drive instability that results in miltary adventurism.

I'll go one step further, providing a vague LARP link, and say that I think the current crisis, and its political issues are of interest for players following the political game in Threads. The political game is constructed largely by three or four lifelong Washingtonians including a guy who can't say what he does but knows military and political analysis better than your average bear. It's certainly worth keeping your eyes open...the Threads political game is not a simple "us/them" set of conflicts, and it will shape up considerably over the next six to eight months. Not everyone is involved, and we've worked hard to create a modular game where not caring or being interested in those plots does not leave you without interesting things to do. But it's there for people who are interested and entertained.