Archive for the 'schemes and ideas' Category

Keeping Veronica alive – on the cheap

Ever one to be on the bleeding edge of what’s going on in tv today, I’ve just finished watching Veronica Mars. I’m not gonna go on and on about this, but I have to ask: how on earth did that show suffer viewing figures low enough to cause it to be cancelled? Was it badly promoted? Terrible time slot? Cos I don’t get it – VM was every bit as clever, fun and teen-swoony as Buffy was, so why didn’t it take? (I hope for their sakes that Rob Thomas and the CW think that one over hard while planning the spin-off to 90210.)

But more to the point: if heavies like Stephen King and Joss Whedon loved the show, and fans are devoted enough to keep their fansites alive a year later, shell out a whopping £78.50 plus travel to see Veronica and Logan at a con in the UK (compare with £55 for the WoW Invitational) and $800+ to take a VM-themed cruise… then why has Veronica’s story skidded to a halt? A tv series demands a lot of infrastructure and investment: in crew, locations, promotional stuff – but a story just needs, well, a story, and a way to tell it, right?

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Whatever happened to… Chore Wars

Is anyone still playing Chore Wars? It was built on such a brilliant concept that I really hoped to see it take off, although having put it through its paces myself I can see why it might be slow to do so.

My problem was that when I tried to rope my husband in to play, he’d do the chores but just wasn’t interested in updating the site, so I ended up with a solo game that wasn’t any fun. I might’ve hung in there longer given SMS updating and better support for parties that don’t actually live together (and if that stuff ever makes it in I’ll go back and give it another shot), but as it is I can thank the experience of Chore Wars for helping me figure out a few things that I want from a chore-focused game.

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