Others have already covered that it's specifically a pyramid thing, and the 'mids have always had a bit of a skiffy/space flair to them with the whole Mars bit, so I can see Starship Captains working quite well (and I'm already imagining making the logo from the top of the SC page into a patch and sewing it onto some sort of a jumpsuit-ish thing...) Excerpts from Carol Townsend's message of Mon Nov 08 20:19:31 -0500 2010: > Secondly, it just feels somehow... I don't know... not what I'd expect > from Looney Labs. I understand that they seem to be moving away from > the Hippie Gaming Company to become the company about Smart Games for > Smart People. That's cool. But on the Starship Captain's site, it > talks about Throwdowns and Battles, and Multi-Battles and Competition > and War-war-war-war.... it's not the Peace-and-Love, > you're-accepted-as-you-are sort of feeling that drew me in. You're not alone on this one, Carol. The backstory Andy proposes talks about how Starship Captains like to play pyramid games against one another (and presumably their crews) to while away the long hours flying from place to place, and I really appreciate that there's nothing to suggest that Captains are/aren't of the warrior type. I'd personally imagine myself as more of an explorer, or possibly a trader. Thus there's kind of a jump when the competitive terms have implied violence. Not just the introduction of battle, although that's where it's most blatant, but throwdown does imply a violent confrontation as well. I think I like the ideas behind this. I definitely think there's a space for a pyramid-specific subset of the fan club. I do think it could be made more fun, less generic, and more Looney Labs if the violent imagery can be weeded out, though. Also, I kind of miss the Mars theme. Is Mars gone, or can we work it back in here? [A note: Starship Captains evokes a kind of rugged individualism that American culture and sci-fi really love, but I don't know if it fits the Looney Labs culture well. Something to think about as well, as it could end up feeling political for people.] Carol's point about potentially creating a sense that pyramid players are more "elite" Captains compared to the "mere" generic Techs is also something to watch out for. That could be very justifiably upsetting to people we love. P.S. I miss all you guys, whatever we're called these days!
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