The Grinder - September 2012

The most recent of my collection of miscellaneous articles, which were found in my refrigerator on return from vacation.

--- --- --- The Grinder --- September 21, 2012 --- --- ---

A little bit of Battletech history from a Mechwarrior Online interview with Jordan Weisman (source 1, 2):

MWO: What was your inspiration to create BattleTech?
Jordan Weisman: I had seen images and model kits from the Japanese shows Macross, Southern Cross, and Crusher Joe. I loved the visuals but wanted to create a story for them in which the Mechs where only machines, but machines that their pilots imbued with personality like we do with our warplanes, tanks, and even cars. I wanted to adapt these wonderful machines to setting that was born from Western tradition, in this case a retelling the Roman Successor States. And most of all, I wanted to create a game which merged the reality of tank warfare with the sci-fi/fantasy of giant suits of armor.

Emphasis added: I never knew about the historical reference to the fall of Rome. Parts of the Battletech universe story line makes more sense to me now (not much more sense, but hey, it's Battletech).

image: From The Warp

Painting Pink - From the Warp -- A nice little tutorial on an often misunderstood color. -->

(Some of you may recall my own misadventure with this lovely hue.)

Node-Based Scenario Design -

 The Alexandrian 

From WIRED: An interview with Jon Peterson, author of Playing at the World.  I want.

Web site for the book, and the Amazon page.






From Technology Review:

Mathematics of Sudoku Leads To "Richter Scale" of Puzzle Hardness

There might be some studying in my future, if I want figure this one out.


And now it's time to go clean out the 'Fridge, and maybe shave.
~