Strange Journeys
Tyler Sigman: Game Designer, Writer, Engineer
Category
Life or Something Like It
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07.22.08Camouflage Styles in a Time of WarIs there anything so utterly repellent as popular culture adopting camouflage as a clothes pattern during a time of "war"? It strikes me as a blatant symbol of how out of touch popular culture can be with the geopolitical developments of more substance. It gives me the shivers in a terrible sort of way. Continue Reading...
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12.22.07Holiday Gift - Free Boardgame DownloadHappy Holidays from StrangeJourneys.com! Best wishes for a great 2008.
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08.16.07Reality TV Doesn’t Bite…not all of it, anywayReality TV is a lightning rod for criticism. It's responsible for the stupefication of America, not to mention the unfortunate economic pressures it puts on the networks. (Reality TV generally is a lot cheaper to produce than scripted shows, *plus* the ratings have been good. Together that means a lot less scripted show content is on the air.) I'm as aghast as anyone at the pure idiocy of shows where the featured contestants must do nothing more than guess what's behind curtain A or B. But I'm an unabashed lover of shows where people actually have to demonstrate a REAL SKILL. My ...
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07.29.07Sick Cats and Sunk CostThere’s a very important concept in game design and game playing (and business!) called “sunk cost.” Basically, the core concept is that whenever you have to make a decision about whether to spend resources in pursuit of a goal, you need only analyze the resources you are about to spend—you should not include any resources you have already spent. Those already spent are called “sunk costs”, and they are resources that are no longer in your possession, and therefore are immaterial to any further resource spending decisions. Human psychology being what it is, we are often betrayed into making decisions that ...
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07.27.07Sadness in Mojave; Risk is Part of AdvancementI was saddened to learn about the NO2 explosion at Scaled Composites (www.scaled.com) on Thursday the 26th . It appears that it was related to the SpaceShipTwo program. I had the good fortune to work at Scaled for a time, and know quite a few friends and colleagues there. My thoughts go out to them at this difficult time. The work that they do at Scaled is truly amazing, and I can personally vouch for the excellent leadership that Burt Rutan provides and the incredible technical skill and dedication of his employees. Burt's known as a "maverick designer", and it's true: he plays ...
