Still having some database trouble with the old site as we get the new one in place, it looks like - the comic will be up shortly.
So, as you can see, I’ve supposedly been “granted a contract” to write several novellas based on Epic Legends of the Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga. This is a “popular franchise” that began life as a CCG but now has a boardgame, a pen and paper variant, a Saturday morning cartoon, a series of limited edition busts, a CG animated direct to video feature, and upcoming MMO and a line of “totally street” hip-hop fashions - all of which strive to remain canonical.
This week I’ll be populating an extremely sparse wiki with a few of the basic touchstones of the franchise and its timeline. It begins with the birth of the first Magic Sword King, Ronard - and it culminates in the betrayal of Princess Crystalcrown at Mount Wor. There are other items in the middle there - like the discovery of High Elemenstation by the wizened Harbinger Portent - but there is also the execrable (some might even say blasphemous) Wizbits, an ill-advised foray into tween programming where four young wizards and their collectible familiars introduce no less than fourteen retail products per episode.
Anyway, the idea is that collectively we will have a body of bizarre and sometimes savage fantasy criticism - and when forces beyond my control alter my life irrevocably at the beginning of December, we’ll realize some of these things in strip form. For the purposes of the metanarrative, assume that the thirteen novella (ahem) cycle has been completed, you’re welcome to sketch out “Tycho’s” indulgences to their most horrifying degree. And since we are all “experts” on the subject, polite but somewhat stern disagreements on the “rich” subtext are encouraged.
More information about that Sony Rootkit stuff here, if you want it, and a response by the company who developed the software here. I don’t want to become an online radical who repurposes his “blog” toward digital justice causes, but God Damn.
(CW)TB out.
the dead man’s hand again
I apologize that I'm a bit late linking this. Things at PA industries have been pretty crazy lately. We just moved into a new office with a lot more space but they don't have the intertron hooked up yet.
Child’s Play 2005 is ready to go. This is our third year and I’m sure many of you are familiar with the process by now. If all you needed was the word from me to get started then please, by all means have at our new Child’s Play site. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Child’s Play I’ll break it down for you.
At the most basic level Child’s Play is a way for gamers to help sick kids in Children’s Hospitals. These hospitals obviously receive plenty of donations year round but what we learned is that the money they get for the most part is spent on things much more important than toys. Things like medicine and equipment are a bigger priority than say Crash Bandicoot.
These Kids need toys though. They need games to play and crafts to make in order to take their minds off their situations. Something as simple as a Game Boy can make the stay in one of these Hospitals much more bearable for a kid. That my friends, is where we come in. Penny Arcade has teamed up with Amazon to create wish lists for Children’s hospitals all over the world this year. Each list is full of age appropriate games and toys. You simply select a hospital from the map and choose a gift. Easy as pie.
These toys are used in a number of different ways. First they get distributed to kids in the hospitals during the holidays. They are also given out to the brothers and sisters of these kids who often times end up spending all their time at the Hospitals as well. Many of the toys will go to re-stock the play rooms and activity centers in the Hospitals. Finally some of the toys will be stored and then given to kids throughout the year as they come out of surgery.
People like Jack Thompson are welcome to scream at the top of their lungs about the gamer menace. They can go on television and lie about our hobby until they’re blue in the face. In the meantime, we as gamers will come together and quietly change the lives of hundreds of thousands of sick children all over the world for the better.
-Gabe out
