 THE MONTH IN BRIEF
In August we received some sad news
about the death of a former Fed player. Karen Hillyer was
one of the great players of Federation during its time on
GEnie, playing under the name Krell. A very flamboyant
character, she helped shape the social structure of the
game and was always fun to role-play with. She hosted a
Los Angeles Fed meet in May 1993 which was one of the
most memorable I have ever attended. Karen passed away
last week after a long illness. She will be missed.
The Chronicle took its annual
summer break, to allow the newsdroids to get a wash and
brush-up, get their oil changes and their pressure
equalized.
However, on the Internet August was
not the quiet month you would expect. The big blackout
left large swathes of north-east America powerless, which
had a knock-on effect on the net, and then several worms
starting doing the rounds, slowing everything right down.
In real life, Mars moved closer to
the Earth, making it even easier to visit Chez Diesel...
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE A
NEWBOD?
We're embarking on a new round of
Fed evangelism - spreading the word about Fed around the
Internet, by making sure the game is listed on game sites
and lists. And it's already having an effect, as we are
starting to see a slow trickle of new players dip their
toes (or equivalent) into the game to see whether they
like it.
So, all you oldbods out there, what
do you do when you see a newbod peer into Fed for the
first time? Do you:
a) Offer to give them your best
hauling macro program?
b) Hop over to the Cantina and buy them a beer?
c) Ignore them.
I hope the answer is that you buy
them a beer. Remember that Fed is supposed to be a social
game, a community; and its important that new players are
welcomed into that community and made to feel part of it.
At its best, Fed is a non-stop party, and that's why most
of us are still here.
So next time you see a new player,
let the navigator get them set up with a ship, and then
offer to buy them a drink!
HAZED VISITS SLARTI'S
In the absence of Ashkellion this
week, I popped my head around Slarti's office door to see
what action there had been on the new planet front.
"It's been very quiet," that elderly gentleman
told me. "The droids have been left twiddling their
thumbs (or equivalent appendages), and it's been all I
could do to keep them out of mischief. They will try to
get creative if they have too much time on their
hands." I nodded in sympathy, remembering the time
an under-employed planetary construction droid had
decided to create a whole system of miniature planets,
each only a couple of inches in diameter, populated with
nano-people. Which wouldn't have been a problem if the
box the mini-worlds were stored in hadn't got knocked
over, spilling the planets all over the factory floor.
They rolled in all directions and got lost under the
machinery - it took months to retrieve them all!
"MInd you," I pointed
out. "Weren't those award-winning fjords you keep
going on about designed during a real quiet period?"
"True," he replied,
"but one can only hope for such luck once in a blue
moon."
"No problem, then," I
laughed. "You're the planet builder: you make
yourself a blue moon!"
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