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• Jess Nevins' article in the Los Angeles Review of Books on The Classic Horror Stories, a 2013 collection of H. P. Lovecraft's major stories, is not specifically game-related, but it might still prove of interest as a way to explain the proliferation of Cthulhu-based games over the past three decades:
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Lovecraft was the first author to create an open-source fictional universe. The crossover, the meeting between two or more characters from discrete texts, is nearly as old as human culture, beginning with the Greeks if not the Sumerians. The idea of a fictional universe open to any creator who wants to take part in it is considerably newer. French authors like Verne and Balzac had created the idea of a single universe linked through multiple texts, and following them, the dime novels and story papers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had established the idea of ongoing fictional universes, but those universes were limited to magazines published by the original stories' publishers. It was Lovecraft who first created a fictional universe that anyone was welcome to take part in. Both during his lifetime and immediately afterward, other authors made use of Lovecraft's ideas and creations in their own stories and novels. Lovecraft's generosity with his own creations ultimately gave them a longevity that other, better writers' ideas and characters did not have.
And later comes this smile-snatcher:Quote:
Lovecraft did not create cosmic horror. He recreated it. Lovecraft desacralized cosmic horror, reinterpreting it through the lens of modern scientific theory and removing its Victorian moral assumptions. What Lovecraft created was a specifically twentieth century idea: the universe as an empty, materialist one, in which there is no spiritual meaning to any actions and in which human existence is not significant in any way. This idea has been enormously influential on creators of fantastic fiction, and is Lovecraft's lasting legacy.
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Of particular interest for gamers might be the guest appearance of designer Touko Tahkokallio on the trip, along with a limited-edition production of his game Thermopyles, which is otherwise playable online at Board Game Arena for those unwilling or unable to head to Greece in late August 2013. A trip to Lapland, Finland is scheduled for early 2014.
• In its May 13, 2013 issue, The New Yorker has a profile by Raffi Khatchadourian of Falafel, the highest ranked backgammon player in the world. An excerpt:
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He is committed to backgammon, which is his main source of income – to the extent that he can find wealthy people who want to lose to him in cash-only private games. There are more of these than one might expect, but not a lot. Finding them and hanging on to them is a skill...
He can make ten thousand dollars in half an hour playing backgammon; he can make many times that in an evening—and he can lose it all just as easily. The money comes and goes. Currently, he has no home. He has no driver’s license. Until just a few months ago, he had no cell phone, no bank account, and no credit card. Pretty much everything that he owns can fit into a large black suitcase.
Unfortunately, the online segment is only a teaser for the full profile, which is viewable in full for subscribers or in the print magazine at libraries and elsewhere.He can make ten thousand dollars in half an hour playing backgammon; he can make many times that in an evening—and he can lose it all just as easily. The money comes and goes. Currently, he has no home. He has no driver’s license. Until just a few months ago, he had no cell phone, no bank account, and no credit card. Pretty much everything that he owns can fit into a large black suitcase.
• Let's close with a fun segment from The Mythical Show featuring the "Most Complicated Board Game Ever". (HT: Tanya Cook Thompson)
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