I really wish I had a bajillion gold pieces!“

Quote by Haley.

Today Dungeon Crawlin‘ Fools arrived, the compilation of the first ~120 episodes of the Order of the Stick.

And boy am I impressed: Comparatively big format, heavy paper, full color pages, glossy and good looking. I admit, the price tag was steeper than those demanded for other printed webcomics (like Megatokyo) but I think it’s well worth it — if you like printed webcomics. I do like them, especially as Rich Burlew took some pains to ensure the result really stood out. He added commentaries to various episodes, grouped them to chapters, wrote introductions, and generally made sure everything looks and feels nice. 

Thanks a lot Mr. Burlew !

education

I do like reading intelligent things. GEE doesn’t completely belong ot this group, but it’s close enough: A game magazine that caters to a mature readership, and that is refreshingly different. 

Somehow it reminds me of the early issues of Wired. Wired was, and to a good extend still is, much more designed than GEE, and it had a much stronger political voice as GEE. But both serve the readers need to think twice, coupled with the love for technology as art. 

That’s what sets these magazines apart: They don’t count pixel, megabytes etc, but actually sit down and think about what one can do with them. GEE can’t care less if company x builds a faster computer than company y, or if the screen resolution is better. They write about the games itself, and what sort of culture can evolve around them. 

Couple that with a clean, if somewhat empty, design, good writing, and I’m sold.

Boo Hoo

From dot​.com to catastrophe…

I’ve been digging out old books again, to re-read them. This is one out of my „real life“ collection. Boo​.com was supposed the leading fashion store in the internet. They got millions of funding, big brands as supporters… 

… and failed. Horribly. 

This is their story. And a good one too. It keeps making me wishing that I had discovered my meagre talents in programming 5 years earlier. I could have busted a million by now then too!