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Today’s not-so-mysterious guest columnist is James Dunstan, attorney-at-law and total geek like us. He and I went to law school together and unfortunately, the pull of the dark side was too much for him. Luckily though, he has maintained a sense of humor, love for gaming and has been involved in both my previous companies (AUSI & Mythic) from day one. He has spent more than 25 years providing legal services to high technology, communications, and computer game law clients. He has been involved in almost every aspect of the digital revolution, from representing the true “fathers” of the Internet, … [Link]

I have not given up on blogging, despite all appearances to the contrary. It’s just that, well, I’ve been busy. Lots of great stuff going on at work. As you may have heard, we announced our first product and have been talking about it at various shows. I know many of you are anxious for more news on the MMO, but our promotional efforts are focused on the RPG right now. All good things to those who wait. If it counts for anything, I have started (or thought about starting) several articles over the past few months, but never finished … [Link]

I'm away tomorrow for a lightning trip to Visby in Sweden, where I'm giving a talk on computer games and human rights. Well, I am if I can ever check in — the BA web site has been giving me this continually for the past hour: I'm looking forward to this, for obvious reasons. Back on Friday! [Link]

Gamasutra has an article up about more GDC Online talks, and mentions in there that I am giving the design track keynote. Classic Social Mechanics: The Engines Behind Everything Multiplayer Speaker/s: Raph Koster (Playdom) Day / Time / Location: TBD Track / Summit: Design Description: Games have been multiplayer throughout history and have always been fundamentally social. Today were seeing an explosion in games driven by new ways of interacting with people online. Many lessons are available to us from both anthropology and the history of games that demonstrate that sometimes, social mechanics are just old wine in new bottles. … [Link]

Okay, this should be interesting. Glenn Beck has launched a new web site entitled TheBlaze. I’m sure it won’t generate any controversy, personal attacks or rotten fruit hurled at him and I’m sure it will restore balance to the force and bring about world peace. I can just imagine how his critics will have fun with the site and its name. Tasty linkage here. And just to clarify things, I’m not endorsing/criticizing GB, his views or anything else. I’m just going to grab a nice big bowl of Edamame (I can’t eat popcorn on this damn diet) and watch the … [Link]

A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewed by the Times Higher Education magazine regarding my formally becoming an online games legend (I did mention I was becoming an online games legend, didn't I?). Last night, I woke up at 4:45am and couldn't get back to sleep, but in the sugsequent hour and 20 minutes until my wife's alarm went off I did remember that I ought to check this week's THE to see if I was mentioned. I was indeed. Here's the piece: Ordinarily, I would have been worried about making the last statement reported there, on the grounds … [Link]

And besides that, he is also Christian, was born overseas, racist, hates white people, hates black people, is part of a polygamous marriage and has superpowers. He also knows where Jimmy Hoffa is buried, can raise people from the dead, is secretly a communist and is a sleeper agent for an alien invasion force. And this being the Internet, all someone needs to do is say it and suddenly, a whole lot of people believe (or say they believe) that it’s true, it’s true. Now, to all of us who have spent way too much time on the Internet, we … [Link]

I wonder what language this was translated from English into before being translated back into English? Telubuxiao after leaving the University of Essex, to work to maintain MUD1 transferred to Richard Bartle, Battle MUD using Telubuxiao developed special language — "MUDDL" continue to improve the game, he the number of rooms increased to 400, to further improve the database and chat system, an increase of more tasks, and every player produced a scoring procedure. I'm guessing Mandarin Chinese, given the way Trubshaw has turned into Telubuxiao (which, thanks to the removal of tonal marks on the syllables can happily be … [Link]

Assorted thank yous, bite-size and gathered together for tasty goodness. Mike Crossmire – Mike was a friend of mine before he worked a day for me at Mythic. Mike was one of the earliest members of Old Mythic (pre-DAoC) and I’ve known him forever. Mike is a very talented artist, a hard and loyal worker and somebody who doesn’t come into work with an agenda other than helping to make great art. Well, other than trying desperately to survive in the lan-based shooters we played at OM, when Brian “The Assassin” Axelson would frag poor Mike repeatedly and the howls … [Link]

So, I had another piece almost ready to go up when in came this email: [Mark, It’s good to see you back. I was wondering how you were doing since you fell off the radar. I’ve always loved how involved you were with the community, but at times I wondered – were you TOO involved? One thing Blizzard does well is make you feel like you are yelling into an abyss. People don’t really know where to direct their anger there. I kind of felt like you stepped into the line of fire unnecessarily. At least your CMs can honestly ... [Link]