(no subject)

This week's Wunderland Weekly News update is interesting. Looney Labs is letting the Zendo boxed set go out of print... frowny. I was so sure this would be a money-maker for them, since they were capitalizing on what is surely the Icehouse system's killer app. But the skyrocketing price of oil has made production of those pretty plastic pyramids eat up all their profit margin! What a bad break. Andy then writes about their investigation into exporting the work, and what they discover and ultimately decide.

It's frustrating... I have always loved the Icehouse concept, and considered myself lucky to discover the Looneys' efforts (and, through them, the whole world of "alt.gaming") just as they themselves were discovering a way to achieve their dream of mass-produced, retail-ready Icehouse sets. I hope they can find a way to keep that dream from dying, and without feeling like they compromised their ideals in the process. The world needs more Icehouse.

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Andy goes on to say that they're wagering on Volcano being the real killer app, which runs contrary to my own observations... or does it? I think it really runs contrary to own preferences, and maybe my own hopes. Zendo's attraction is immediate and obvious to puzzle-loving nerdos (like me), but Volcano may be far more accessible while staying piece-centric and retaining some of that puzzliness -- though in a more Sokobanesque sort of way. But, there are surely more players of Sokoban (and Tetris and Minesweeper and their ten million descendants) than of the logic puzzles that Zendo comes from. Hm.

And to be fair

One of the sysadmins IMed me late at night a coupla nights ago to explain that the cc:ing was an accident, not intended to be a LARTslap. I've already gotten a chance to pass this along to my orkers as a result of their asking me to stop cc:ing weird messages (such as "LART'd!!!") to them.

I was further informed that the poem was found (I symlinked it into /tmp and, er, posted it to my blog) and all had a good laugh.