X-Message-Number: 12610
From: 
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 12:38:50 -0500
Subject: cryonics vs. gaming & comics
References: <>

In response to Mike Darwin's comments about unlovable cryonicists, 
John Grigg wrote:

> Are we really as unpopular as guys who hang out at comic shops and
> play role-playing games and "Magic" every moment they can? :)

Uh-oh! I'm a cryonicist (haven't made arrangements yet, 
though) AND a comic book reader/role-player/Magic player. 
Does this mean I'm DOUBLY unpopular? Dammit!

But seriously folks. I've worked as a comic book artist 
and as a game designer. Comic book characters get made 
into multimillion dollar hit movies. Comic book fans, role-
players and Magic players have bigger conventions than 
cryonicists do. Magic gets cool TV ads. The company that 
publishes Magic is now making a mint on their new Pokemon 
card game. Is cryonics as unpolular as that? No. It's LESS 
popular than that!

Those things are *entertainment*. Their entire purpose is 
to be appealing and fun. Cryonics is not about "fun", it's 
about grim realities and survival. No wonder people sink 
more money into those "unpopular" games and comics than 
they invest in cryonics.

But there's no reason why games based on a grim struggle 
can't succeed, and popularize cryonics concepts at the same 
time. Look at Monopoly. It's about cutthroat financial 
competition - hardly a "fun" thing in real life. Or look at 
Battleship. Chess. You name it. And yes, even role-playing 
games and Magic: the Gathering.

Okay, maybe not Twister, but you get my point.

Anybody out there ever played The Game of Life? Not the 
cellular automata one, I mean the one where you drive 
around the board in a little car, trying to get a job and 
build a family and buy a snazzy house. What if that game 
ended with players trying to accumulate enough cash to 
arrange for cryonic suspension, instead of just comparing 
bank balances?

Why not a role-playing game that begins with your modern-
day character being defrosted in a fantastically exciting 
world of the future? Or a game like "Operation", where the 
goal is to prepare the patient for freezing? And these are 
just cheap ideas that put a cryonics spin on existing 
types of games. The best cryonics game idea might not bear 
much resemblance to any game that's already been done.

Hey Steve Jackson, are you listening? Let's talk. We 
should do this.

-Jeff Dee

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