Extremes are funny, ain't they? I've always wanted to pick the brains of the various hypercapitalists that preach socialism and the Obama nuts who hear the man say he's going to cut the deficit in half right after saying that it's going to increase by trillions of dollars over the next decade...and they buy it.

Everybody's got their dementia, but at least Beck's dementia realized would keep the government out of our wallets and lives.

PS: Obama's spending plans summarily nullify any centrism he's exhibiting in gay marriage or military endeavors. He's spending so much that I don't know if the inevitable Republican Congress in 2010 will be able to fully reverse his damaging policies...very high chance that they'll simply divert the funds to their own pet projects notwithstanding.

 

"I've been to Blizzard HQ and met Blizzard guys often enough that I'm not overawed by the visit"

Have you been to their new swanky 'campus' though? The one with their own museum wing?


Also I would slot 'story from the perspective of the monsters' into the 'gimmicky' idea for a short story, but that's just me. Mainly because, as you said, so little has previously been described about any of that stuff so you'll have very wide license, not to mention a lot of complexity you need to work in (how the monsters fight amongst each other, their social structure if any, etc). I really don't see that as too different from modern-day humans turning up in Azeroth.

Another idea would be a story from an angel's perspective, you could base it around the hunt for the Three after the great exile. You've got more background to work with there, but it might be too fanboy-ish to be taken seriously. It could also easily tromp on some of the other novels without you knowing it.

 

There are a few arguable differences between Obama's record budget deficits and Bush's record budget deficits.

Obama's are directly targeted at averting a historically dangerous recession/depression, which would be far more damaging to the US and world economy than any short term deficit increase.

Obama is dealing honestly with the situation (instead of keeping the Iraqi war costs off-budget and funding them through under the table emergency spending decrees) and attempting to offset some of the costs with (admittedly very) incremental tax increases on the very rich. Also, just yesterday word broke of massive proposed cuts in various bloated, cold war-themed, obsolete military spending, which would shave billions off of the deficit.

A great deal of Obama's deficit spending is in the form of loans and other assistance to troubled industries, financial, insurance, banking, automotive, etc. I have no idea how likely (probably not very) it is, but theoretically those loans can be repaid. And the costs of not making those loans would be much worse, when the businesses collapsed and deepened the recession.

Obama's spending is directly targeted to Americans and American industries in need. It is intended to boost the local economy, which will result in greater income revenues. And it's necessitated by the wreckage of an economy the Bush policies created and the leavings of two wars he instigated.

Bush, on the other hand, inherited the prototypical "peace and prosperity" and put an end to both of those almost immediately. History has revealed his economic actions as unmitigated disasters, characterized chiefly by tax cuts for the rich, corporate pork, and other acts that directly enriched the already rich, while overall median wages and the standard of living decreased. Actions that got us to where we are today.

So yes, deficit spending by both, and even more by Obama than Bush, but there are plenty of extenuating circumstances.

As for the "inevitable" Republican return, what do you base that on? Obama and his policies are hugely popular, he's following his campaign promises to end the very unpopular Iraqi war, the opposition is rudderless and outwardly deranged, and they've got no counter proposals, goals, or plans of action, other than rooting against Obama. They're not ridiculed as "the party of no" for nothing. As has been noted, Democrats tried that in 2004, and even with Bush and his policies basking in wide disapproval, it wasn't enough. A political party can't just run on "not him" and succeed, unless the "him" is intensely unpopular. And Obama is quite the opposite. For now, at least. Which is why Republicans can only root for disaster; recession, terrorist strikes, nuclear proliferation, etc. There's a reasonable argument to be made that such fulminating is objectively treasonous, but that's a topic for another day.

 

Lanth, I've been to the irvine offices, though it was years ago when they were first in the space, and it wasn't all built up yet. I could have gone in October, the day before Blizzcon, but didn't care enough to drive up there early and take part. It was just a walk through tour of the cafeteria and other public areas, without any visiting access to the actual design studios, so bleh. I'll compare that to the visits I got to Bliz North and Flagship, where I had more or less full open access, and the corporate visit to irvine doesn't seem that special.

As for my potential story idea, I have to be a little bit gimmicky to stand out. I don't think just a straight action-style story will win, though it might claim one of the 7 runner up prizes. I'd probably go with that if the word limit were lower, but I feel like up to 10k words gives so much room for innovation and inspiration that I'd be a fool to pass it up.

I did think about doing something from the pov of angels or in the high heavens, but I'm less interested in that, and I've got to write what I'm passionate about. Also, some concept art for d3 cinematics shows that some scenes will be set in heaven, so we might get into that in the game story. Which means any fan fiction written about that now would be heretical.

I don't know how much risk there is of a story not being awarded based on guessing too accurately at the future plans of the blizzard game stories, but I can't discount the possibility. I don't follow the plot of WoW or SC, but clearly the designers have future games and stories sketched out. What if someone's submitted contest story hits upon a very similar tale? I'd have to think that would DQ it from winning, simply because Blizzard wouldn't want to post or publicly endorse what would amount to a spoiler. Even though the public wouldn't know it as such, when the official product arrived in a year or 3, people would go, "they stole this from Story X!" Even if the Blizzard version was written well in advance.

You'll note that the rules for this contest require surrender of all copyright ownership and intellectual property to blizzard, no doubt for just this reason. But they don't want to create the appearance that they stole their own game plot from a fan fiction contest winner either. (They might well take ideas, but I don't think they'll publicize those stories with contest prizes?)

 

and here's the danger with (allegedly) shorter updates. I wind up writing 1000 more words in comments, explaining things I didn't cover in the first draft. Alas.

 

Anonymous here,

I'm not about to defend Bush's policies, but your argument sounded very much like one of Obama's favored talking points: "Bush did it, too." I base my fiscal preferences on a simple philosophy: it's my damned money; not theirs. I don't advocate high (or higher) taxes on anybody, and on that front Obama is failing abysmally. Eliminating tax breaks on charity? Raising cap gains? I guess I'm of the mind that even the rich earned their money; if they did something criminal, prosecute them mercilessly and take back every penny. Otherwise let them prosper.

On the direction of Obama's spending, I imagine it's obvious that I don't think it'll do a lick of good -- namely because there are libraries of historical evidence and already piles of evidence on these recent bailouts suggesting in no uncertain terms that the government does not handle authority well. With all this talk of controlling CEO pay and even the personnel themselves, much less nationalizing banks, I have a hard time following the logic of anybody who is hopeful about this spending.

Besides, isn't the Obama camp primarily comprised of those who buy the whole Darwinism evolution schpiel? Because I, for one, think that is the best philosophy in regards to our economy; if it can't stay solvent on its own, let it die and be replaced by something that CAN remain solvent. In that way, the swarm doesn't have to encumber itself with the heavy demand for aid. An additional plus: None of this AIG-CEO-bonus bullcrap to deal with.

 

As far as the Diablo books go, you haven't missed much. They're pretty generic and bland, even by pulp fantasy terms (This from a guy who voraciously consumes Forgotten Realms novels).

I first bought them hoping they'd delve into the rich lore behind the Diablo world, and felt rather let down. Even the Sin Wars trilogy, which I hoped would delve into the whole 'Heaven vs. Hell' war bit was a major let down, focusing on an overpowered farmer. It was enough to make me immediately discount any book with the Blizzard stamp on it.

 

Obviously you've got your own ideas (and you've probably already started the story), but I think harking back to Diablo for your main character is probably wise.

Diablo had 2 very memorable non-human monsters that spoke - Gharbad and Snotspill. There was also Lachdannan but I guess he doesn't really count since he didn't fight you. Going with a goatman is probably a good choice, since they're in all 3 games and are memorable. There were goat shrines in D1 which points towards some kind of culture, as does the lore for the D3 variety. You could throw in some references to "great uncle Gharbad" or something too for extra gimmick points.

Diablo 2 only had humanoid monsters (and Izual I guess) that had any characterisation, everything else was just brainless and there to be beaten to a pulp. I've said this before in various places, but with what happened at Flagship and the very methodical precise work Blizzard are doing on Diablo 3 (eg, dropping inventory tetris and identification because they don't actually 'add' anything to the game, while Hellgate slavishly held onto them out of some misguided nostalgia), I really get the impression that Diablo 2 being as popular as it was/is is a complete fluke and not through any particular skill on the part of Blizzard North. Then again I've always been disappointed with D2 ever since the day I first played it.

 

i haven't started it yet since i'm on deadline trying to finish a big chunk of the wine novel I'm working on with my dad. But I've been thinking about it at the gym and during other idle mind times, and have it pretty well planned out. it's not exactly from the pov of a monster, but it's similar to that. it's basically a retelling of one of the major events of the diablo world history/lore/mythology, but from a very different, first person PoV.

I can't imagine someone would take my idea and do their own story from it, but all the same I'll wait to post the story online until after the submission deadline. I think it's a pretty cool idea, though it remains to be seen if I can execute it adequately.

 

I personally love Glenn Beck's show. It's depressing that people actually think like him, but it's so over-the-top crazy that I can't help myself.

I've noticed in the last month that about 30% of The Daily Show/Colbert Report were made up of Beck's craziness, so after said shows go off, I just cut out the middleman and just watch Beck's show.

It's a lot like that creationist lady you posted a video of in your most recent post. It can be quite frustrating at times and depressing at others, but it's worth it just to add your own Stewart/Colbert-esque jokes.