@C-Star:

MHO regarding politicians, judging by the way the system of democracy works and the general demographics of the world:

Politicians need to optimise the number of votes they obtain in order to be successful. To do so, a pretty face plus a lot of apparent passion is much more significant than competent know-how of what to do in a given situation. I'm guessing that most politicians just make promises which sound good, and they themselves may mean well, but the promises themselves will simply be disasters if actually carried out. So once they assume office, these promises have to be corrected by more technical people. In other words, the politician is merely a cover for the decisions made on a more fundamental level, the same way a celebrity endorsing an advertised product is never responsible for producing the product itself.

C-Star
Sun Jan 27 20:38:47 2013

Then... who actually makes the decisions?

Aiken
Mon Jan 28 10:08:12 2013

<bcyy>/ <C-Star> You are describing the basic premise of "Yes Minister" a classic English 80s sitcom. It's answer is "the civil service".

I believe the formal term for this theory is "public choice economics".

bcyy
Thu Jan 31 01:30:53 2013

I'd have said "experts in respective fields", but Aiken's answer is more pragmatic.

IMHO the sitcom got it pretty right. It is hard to imagine a person to be an expert at practically every aspect regarding how to run a country. In fact, it usually takes a lifetime of toil to master any *one* aspect of how a country works. I just don't believe that some genius would be able to master it all *and* have enough energy left to campaign for office.

I've had people tell me more than once how tedious it is to have a government observer on their team - they have a lot of power, but they don't understand *anything*. You have to explain how to add one plus one every step of the way in words that fit their vocabulary (which isn't a lot to work on, judging by what I've been told).

SCC Sun Feb 3 09:45:37 2013	No Golem's Gauntlet yet? Regards
	Yes, it's there now, sorry about the delay.

Princess Ivy XIII Tue Feb 5 11:55:33 2013	Loved those two in the Windhammer competition. Would be great if they could come as online games too.
	This is quite possible, though as usual I'm not really thinking beyond the next one (which will almost certainly be Return To G15-275).

Tammy
Tue Feb 5 16:32:40 2013

"For a brief moment there is a feeling of floating, and being disembodied, then nothing. Your adventure is over."

Brilliant.

Fiver the Great
Fri Feb 8 05:45:35 2013

Hey guys.

I've been a lurker in this place for a while now. Quietly I've managed to make my way through several of the game books posted, and would like to give kudos to some of the amazing work I've read.

Wrong way Go Back is amazing series, and The Diamond key drew me into the site.
Outsider! is brutally awesome.
Devil's Flight and Soul Tracker are intense.
Hunger of the Wolf was hardcore.

I figured some positive encouragement was in order after having enjoyed so many adventures. Also, however, I was wondering if anyone knew of a gamebook revolving around super heroes? I know that there was one published and later republished named Appointment with FEAR, but being a blind player restricts my access to print gamebooks.

SCC
Thu Feb 14 06:55:38 2013

Tammy, I'm glad you liked Golem's Gauntlet. It was a lot of fun to write and I felt it harkened back to the old Sorcery! series by Steve Jackson. Sadly, because there were so many entries in the Windhammer competition this year I suspect it wasn't played by many people due to its placement in the list. Not to worry - there's always next year!

Robert Douglas
Tue Feb 19 18:28:00 2013

The agoraphobia (did I spell that right?) part of Jack Frost Finnegan is actually based on me - shame the professional covert agent part isn't! But I wouldn't mind going off to live, far from civilization. Jack's home was really based on a personal fantasy of mine. Although a log cabin would be good enough for me. Somewhere to escape from all the nonsense that's happening....

Writing's going well with second instalment of Sean Calibre. Rough draft has reached about halfway (still have to type some of it out, though) and have it loosely planned out to the conclusion.

Just been playing Left 4 Dead - and couldn't help but be reminded about 'Blood of the Zombies'. It all stems from Night of the Living Dead (Dawn, Day, etc) movie franchise. It's funny how the content of cert 18 (higher in other countries) films influenced certain gamebooks for age ten upwards!

I spotted one film trailer on Youtube, but it's more a comedy: of how a zombie teenager falls in love with a survivor! As a result, he starts to become more human, and then his friends are 'infected' with the love virus...

ZOMBIE-FEST!

C-Star
Tue Mar 5 08:16:44 2013

@Robert Doughlas

I feel embarassed that I need to ask, but what exactly is Sean Calibre? Is it another gamebook or a novel you're writing or something?

Hullalla
Thu Mar 7 20:08:43 2013

Wow! what a good surprise is this site!!!

Robert Douglas
Sun Mar 10 03:31:35 2013

@ C-Star,

No, the he's the 'hero' of Below Zero Point, a sci-fi gamebook set in the year 2202 (you can find it in the downloads section). I'm halfway through writing the second instalment of the 'Sean Calibre Case Files'....but I'm keeping the title under wraps until release.

I've also got an idea (loosely planned) for the Windhammer Comp. It's very likely I won't be using FF rules, however - perhaps character traits being tested balanced with player's own decisions, and certain items aiding/being necessary to complete the adventure.

Robert Douglas
Tue Mar 26 00:49:59 2013

My next gamebook has 'Marwa Blues' by George Harrison as the opening. 'Always the Sun' by The Stranglers for end credits.

Robert Douglas
Mon Apr 1 17:03:11 2013

Typed up almost 300 entries for second Sean Calibre gamebook - I'm getting there! This one requires some careful planning so it might be ready by mid-2013 (hopefully).

I've also been busy reading Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles; partially responsible for my being behind. And now I'm starting his '1356'.

After which (phew!) there's Peter F Hamilton's 'Great North Road'.

No doubt people in 2202 will laugh at my version of the future! Heh, oh well...

C-Star
Thu Apr 25 21:03:40 2013

Anyone out there?

longchamp outlet Sat Apr 27 17:17:58 2013	Thank you stephanie for this great post
	OK I'll put this one back in, given that the subsequent conversation makes more sense when this message can be seen. By the way, nobody calling themselves Stephanie has ever made a post prior to this one, 'great' or otherwise.

pi4t
Tue Apr 30 11:48:02 2013

*Scratches head*

I'm sure I saw a completely different post after Robert Douglas's the other day. Odd.

Robert Douglas Tue Apr 30 14:11:13 2013	@pi4t, You did. Must have been removed for some reason. I was a bit confused by what it said, to be honest - I couldn't find a 'Stephanie' in previous posts. To whom were they referring? It probably slipped in from an alternate timeline, where 'Stephanie' has actually made plenty of messages. Bit like something from that film 'Another Earth'. Or, they probably did it to get us all going....
	You never know, but I suspect these kind of overly generic comments are caused by some sort of spamming software trying to find out if the guestbook is unattended. Usually they are filtered out automatically so you don't see them, but sometimes I have to delete them manually, as I did with longchamp outlet's post.

Phil Sadler
Wed May 1 15:28:00 2013

It was obviously Ian Livingstone or Steve Jackson trolling :)

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