Tom Dalton :: Doer of Good

I just saw this on somebody else's site -- it's perfect. I must store it for future amusement.

How can you build a fan-base for an entertainment property that's still in production?

A typical videogame marketing cycle starts at least nine months out from product launch date. You begin by contacting fans of your company's prior games and let them know a new one is coming...

But, what if you're a brand new company with no past games, no past track record, no past fans?

Discover how the new studio behind Darkwatch turned an unknown game into one of the most-anticipated launches of 2005 by building a community online.

Corban and a handful of his men arrange to speak with the commander of the enemy forces. Corban is astonished when he sees Tark swagger in at the head of a group of enemy generals and guards. Tark smiles, "I have several surprises for you, Corban."

Tark draws his sword -- everyone knowing that he dare not attack Corban -- and suddenly plunges it into the side of one of his own guards!

"Don't ever send a spy among my forces again. I lived among you for seventeen years. I know your ways."

Corban watches as his friend slumps to the ground. Then he turns to Tark and begins negotiations.

(Why does this somehow feel more like Moroni and Amalickiah?)

Why do we fear great things?

We do not fear failure. We fear foolishness. We fear above all that, like Don Quixote, we will be found tilting at windmills. That our friends will see our efforts and know that we spent our strength in vain. That our friends will laugh at us.

When we can try and fail in solitude, we have little enough hesitation. We risk little, and generally we achieve little. The truly great requires us to risk the laughter of our friends. The truly great requires us to reach, to risk falling. It requires us to strive for something that may not even exist.

But we fail to see that any expense of effort redounds to our benefit. All work makes us grow. If the end for which we strive is not attained, yet we become one who has done the work. If the end for which we strive is found to be a windmill only, yet we have gained the experience, strengthened the muscles, and trained the spirit.

And if the ends of today are windmills, and our friends and foes deride, yet there remains tomorrow.

And tomorrow, they might be giants.

=========================

(And yes, this did really all start by wondering why the music group selected its name.)

Everyone remembers the day the cloudmaker fell. Some say he looked like one of us. Others recall his powers and strange speech. Still others insist he was nothing but a wanderer from another tribe. Everyone remembers the day the cloudmaker fell.

But I alone remember the day he left.

A group of tribes living in the cratered remains of a world -- trapped and isolated from the modern world still growing around them, just outside the craters.

Maybe too like my Firefly Stars, but maybe not. Miyazake can tell the same story twice, and Stephen Douglas. Why not me?

The sound of the cloudmakers was a call to the fields. We wanted them to see us working hard, so they would bless us with the falling waters.

"Are you a God-fearing man?" the priest thundered.

"No, I wouldn't say I fear God," the young man answered.

"Heathen!"

"Not at all. I know God, and I love him."

"Do not speak to me of love!" The priest trembled with righteous passion. "You are a being incapable of any real emotion -- a vessel only of wrath and darkness."

"Oh! Well, I had no idea. I'll try to keep my wrath and darkness to myself."

"Oh, no you'll not! You'll not keep it at all! I command you in the name of the Almighty -- be free! Be cleaned of the terrible evil that even now racks your soul!" The priest concluded his tempest with a vigorous shake of staff.

An awkward quiet settled in the clearing. "...Did it work?" the young man asked.

"You tell me. Are you a God-fearing man?"

"Well, is God like you?"

"I try," the priest preened, "to model my life after His divine pattern."

"Then, yes."

How many digits are in an American Express credit card number?
Which country in Asia gets the least annual rainfall?
What's a good recipe for snow cod that also uses the soy sauce I need to finish off?
Wgnt rnisoal bletang igj prownth en abscrym Jenfrup?

This is just the start of an idea I hope to develop further: I think the ability to use search engines is fast becoming an essential survival skill, like reading. If you can "search," you have answers to a thousand times more questions than before.

At work, I can answer almost any question that somebody emails me. When people ask me in person, I don't know -- I turn to Google. The Internet becomes (how scary is this) almost an extension of my own mind. Okay, that's the sci-fi in me, but it's true to an extent. Having near-immediate access to the best thoughts of the best people all across the world is a tremendous advantage.

Search is important for far more than just commerce.

Did you know there's actually a reason why people talk so loud on cell phones? It's related to the reason your voice always sounds funny when it's recorded. ("I don't really sound like that, do I?")

Have you ever searched for yourself online? Or for other people? I do all the time. (Both.)

And it turns out -- there are a lot of Tom Daltons out there!