R.I.P. Iain M Banks, you will be sorely missed. – 6/9/13
I recently changed the name of my blog again. I had changed it to “The Designer of Games” as a tribute to one of my favorite authors, Iain M Banks, who wrote “The Player of Games” and recently announced he was retiring after finding out he has advanced terminal cancer. His book had a profound effect on me, and helped me to make the decision to go back to grad school to pursue my love of game design. However, it was brought to my attention recently that my blog title came off as “slightly arrogant.” After giving it some thought, I decided that assessment was generous. So, to spite the sentimental value I placed on the name, I decided to change it.
So, why wormholes? Well recently I was asked in an interview, “If you could have any super power what would it be?” I’ve thought about it a lot in the past but never really came up with something I was happy with. But, sitting there, something just clicked. I would want the ability to create and manipulate wormholes of all types. I mean it seems perfect to me. This would give one the ability to travel anywhere in the universe, travel in time, and even allow one to get creative and defend one’s self in battle (against the enemies that would eventually crop up). Think of the endless exploration you could do.
Won’t end up like these guys though (lost AND canceled), their power’s weren’t super:
I think this response is very telling about me. Sure, it speaks to what a sci-fi geek I am. But, you’ll note that I don’t want to be invincible, invisible, or something of that sort. My life up until now has been about seeking knowledge and being creative, and I think that this “super power” would just be an extension of that. Of course it does occur to me that if I had a second super power wish I should ask for invincibility since exploring the universe through wormholes is going to be hard without all sorts of sophisticated gadgetry and protection. But, I figure it wouldn’t be too hard to raise the money once I demonstrated my unique abilities. Given how telling it was, it seemed like a suitable new name for my blog.