Holy Cow.

Submitted by alderneyvamp on Tue, 2007-02-27 12:13.

Until looking at GHOSTS biography I didn't even notice this feature. I bet you all though I was being rather silly, leaking out personal information slowly when I could just dump my entire life here.

Come to think of it, it really is rather dull. To liven things up I had the right hemisphere of my brain do an interview with my left.

Right: So we are currently students studying AS levels in Guernsey. What subjects are you taking?

Left: In order of preference? Okay, Psychology, History, English Literature and Language, oh and Theatre Studies.

Right: It seems like you just tacked Theatre Studies on the end there. I quite like Theatre Studies, me being the creative hemisphere of the brain.

Left: So you keep telling me. Theatre Studies is a bit stifiling, even you must agree with me on that one. We are going to drop it to take up Biology AS.

Right: Biology...

Left: Well yes, it would be good if we are going to study psychology at degree level or even anthropology.

Right: Can't we take an english degree, I mean I know our spelling isn't that good but we could make a living as a wri...

Left: No! Besides, Paul has aspirations to become a psychology teacher.

Right: Why a teacher, surely he could become much more.

Left: Because he can't be bothered to get a doctorate.

Right: Well I'm afraid we are going to have to cut the interview short there. But hopefully we'll meet again soon and talk some more.

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One Biog?

Submitted by alderneyvamp on Fri, 2007-03-02 06:32.

Are we only allowed one biography page? If so I'll have to extend the interview.

The most important parts of any game are story and characters. Master these and a good game is on its way.

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Nobody's life is dull ...

Submitted by Gentleman John on Tue, 2007-02-27 12:28.

And you can't say yours is - particularly at the start of it! So, what do the two hemispheres do on their days off?

As for being a writer: very few people start off as one, but a lot end up as one: Ramsey Campbell, Dave Langford, Terry Pratchett ...

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Days off.

Submitted by alderneyvamp on Tue, 2007-02-27 12:40.

Days off (one every two months) involve vegetating in front of a no-brainer film or playing Pokemon mystery dungeon.

Writing: I never want to be a professional writer. I enjoy writing, otherwise I wouldn't be part of the site, but I would never want to rely on it, or be forced to do work. It would drain my love of it very quickly.

The most important parts of any game are story and characters. Master these and a good game is on its way.

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And wholly Chao ...

Submitted by Gentleman John on Wed, 2007-02-28 14:21.

In that case, don't ever take up writing professionally. Half the time, when I get home form work, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of another PC for another couple of hours. Being an engineer these days is just too much paperwork for my liking. And after a while, writing for games gets to look like paperwork too.

It's about that time I just have to sit back and do something else to get my mind off it. Like working out the physics for a realistic space combat game ...

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The write stuff?

Submitted by Chainsaw Aardvark on Thu, 2007-03-01 21:23.

Player A launches missiles
Player B launches missiles
Combined closing speed of incoming projectiles is higher than either ship's Delta-V.
Everyone dies.

Now that the realistic space simulation is done, what next?

I'm still maintaining the unrealistic assumption I'll be able to write something for a living. Or at least do something that uses my English Major super powers. It would be really nice to get a job as a school consultant, where I interpret their cireculem, and then design a war game and lesson plan around it. (Like This Site) At the very least, I'd like something that doesn't intrude too much on the 17 projects I've got going. No one has ever accused me of living in reality.

Actually, its a little spooky - I studied all those subjects in school too - and had people tell my I should be a counselor or psychologist. Don't tell me another dopplegranger is on the loose.

There is a fine line between hobby and obsession. I seem to have lost sight of it some time ago.

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If only!

Submitted by Gentleman John on Fri, 2007-03-02 03:03.

I seem to be having this tremendous difficulty working out orbital intercepts ... Once you start talking dV, intercept times, and closing velocities while deploying appropriate countermeasures, things get difficult. I mean realy difficult. mnone of this "Roll dice to hit" stuff here. I'm talking CEPs, ISP and data lag here.

Then there is the plan for the relatvistic physics-based combat game. Oooooh ...

Scarily enough, I had a mate who got a job at a school because he played ASL. And there is always the Wargaming Studies Department at King's College in London. Can't quite Google their url at the minute, but Web Grognard used to have link to them.

Their graduates seem to get jobs in the defence industry for some unfathomable reason ... :)

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