MEET AND GREET WITH BELLA

Sunday December 28, 2008

Chez Diesel (Social Center of the Solar System)
Diesel has decorated her famous bar for the festive season, and this year she has eschewed good taste and gone for the kitsch Christmas look. The walls are covered with brightly colored fairy lights, which flash on and off gaudily. Paper chains and foil decorations hang from every bit of the ceiling. A large inflatable snowman sits in one corner, rocking backwards and forwards and giggling manically. It's actually quite scary!
Phil, the ancient Arcturian piano player, is reluctantly playing a selection of ancient traditional Christmas songs, but from the way he is scowling - and the sign on the piano that says "No I won't play bloody Jingle Bells!" - he isn't exactly full of the joys of Christmas.
The waitdroids all have tinsel and colored flashing lights wrapped around them. It's a wonder they can see to serve the customers.
The banister of the stairs leading to the roof is festooned with those thin strips of silver paper that are meant to look like icicles.
A large spiral staircase leads through a trapdoor onto the roof of the bar.

Djmayhem is here.
covered in blinking red and green christmas lights Shrevo is here.
Jezz is here.
Munabilo is here.
covered in tinsel and ornaments Meijerman is here.
Plugged into a socket in the back wall, recharging, Gandroid is here.
Freya is here.
Meteu is here.
Wearing a green snarcot hide flying jacket, Bella is here.
Fletcher is here.
Dinger is here.
Occy is here.

Jezz clips a microphone to Bella's jacket and checks with the sound technician that it's working

Bella drawls, "two minutes and counting..."

Cloudbase hands Jezz a new and unopened box of duct tape

Jezz laughs

Bella says, "1..2.. 1..2.."

Fletcher has just arrived.

Jezz says, "Um.. I think we might forego the duct tape this once"

Bella taps the microphone

Jezz gets the nod from the sound tech

Cloudbase exclaims, "ah cool, now the mic has been tapped we can screw a bolt into it!!!"

Bella says, "have you noticed by the way that roadies only count up to two these days? I put it down to the decline in the education system"

Galaxyxpress jumps under a table thinking the mic test is a mortar attack

Jezz says, "ok.. here we go.. cue intro music"

Bella listens carefully

Jezz waits for the sounds of the Meet and Greet jingle to fade before speaking

Jezz exclaims, "Ladies, Gentlemen and Neuters.. please give a warm welcome to my very special guest. The green Goddess, The Creator of the Universe, The One and Only... Bella!"

Martia holds up a cue card to the audience with the word "APPLAUSE" written in large letters.

Bella smiles modestly

Cloudbase applauds

Shrevo applauds

Jezz smiles, "It's great to have you with us today, Bella. :)"

Bella says, "I know"

Bella smiles even more modestly

Jezz asks, "it's not often we have a genuine deity on the show.. So are you here to talk about the release of another movie through Doctor Fogg's? Will it be as.. um.. action packed as the others?"

Fletcher mis-reads cue card and applys makeup

Bella scowls

Jezz look expectantly at Bella

Jezz coughs and looks at the cue card

Bella says, "I was not in fogg's movie - it was all a set up"

Bella says, "just because"

Jezz says, "ahhh.. right. No tour then I'm guessing.. lets move on"

Bella says, "all Rigellians look the same to mere humans"

Jezz asks, "Perhaps we can talk about the meaning of life here in Federation for a moment. I'm sure the audience would like to know how you got started in the creation business. What drove you to create Federation Space in the first place?"

Bella says, "boredom - I got bored with slaying dwarves"

Bella says, "so I wrote the game I wanted to play"

Bella says, "but, of course, you can never play your own game"

Bella sighs

Bella says, "now a days of course half the world is slaughtering dwarves"

Jezz asks, "Ah.. so you don't wander space disguised as someone else?"

Jezz nods

Jezz asks, "do you still play other games?"

Bella says, "no - that would be unacceptable - i always come in as myself"

Bella says, "that way players can ask questions if they need to"

Jezz says, "I'm sure we all appreciate the oppotunity"

Bella says, "game authors who are afraid to face their players don't deserve to have any players"

Bella says, "oh yes - both single and multiplayer games"

Jezz asks, "but presumably not dwarf-slaying games?"

Bella says, "Older versions of Civ are still great - Command and Conquer"

Bella says, "no not dwarves"

Jezz grins

Bella says, "Morrowind was neat"

Bella says, "oblivion less so"

Bella says, "I also play Travian and Warfish on the net"

Jezz asks, "are the games you play also text based or are they more graphical in nature?"

Bella says, "You can't really get text games any more - unless you want hack n slay MUDs"

Bella says, "guess that's about all at the moment"

Jezz asks, "so where do you think that leaves Fed.. is there really a future for text based games given the level of education you quoted earlier?"

Bella says, "well even 15 years ago we had a newbie come on and announce 'Writing! I can go to school to get that!' and leave immediately"

Jezz looks shocked

Fletcher says, "that was probably me. '-)"

Bella says, "in the long run I suspect that text games will probably not prevail, but it's difficult to say - everyone thought radio would vanish when TV came in"

Bella says, "radio is still with us - and it's still mainstream"

Bella says, "i don't think that text will ever go back to being mainstream on-line - only English language is flexible for it to work"

Bella says, "which means that there is no culture of it in, say French or Chinese"

Jezz nods

Jezz asks, "Speaking for myself, I think the text based game offers more to the imagination than the more graphic based games.. would you choose to add more graphics to Fed if you could?"

Bella says, "It's a matter of cost."

Bella says, "graphics are expensive because you need so many artists"

Bella says, "take a look at the credits for any PC or console game"

Bella says, "ther is a designer some level designers, a couple of programmers and dozens of artists"

Bella says, "art is expensive."

Bella says, "having said that though, once this version of fed is finished,"

Bella says, " I might have a look at producing a web version based just on the economic stuff"

Jezz says, "interesting.."

Bella says, "I might be able to do a deal with an artist to produce material for the web"

Bella shrugs

Bella says, "it's possible, I don't really know at the moment"

Jezz drawls, "moving along to something slightly different..."

Bella says, "OK"

Jezz asks, "Now given that Fed2 is not the original Federation.. Why did you decide to go ahead and recreate it? Was there a moment at which you thought the old Federation was a failure and you just had to start over?"

Bella says, "well it was really caused by a disk failure of the old version - we already resurected it twice by taking it out and giveing it a hefty smack against the wall, but eventually even that stopped working."

Bella says, "and no one manufactures high voltage SCSII drive any more"

Bella says, "so we had to do something - it was still running on code - and the data structures I wrote when I was teaching myself to code in C"

Jezz says, "ah I see.. so the the old Fed sort of died an accidental death rather than a planned one"

Bella says, "yes - although we did warn people that it would die sooner or later"

Jezz asks, "I'm sure everyone would like to know what you have in the pipe-line that is shortly to arrive in Fed Space.. could you tell us a little about what you're working on right now?"

Bella says, "I was able to redesign the program and incorporate a load of new stuff into the new version"

Bella says, "well there are only two more builds for the leisure planet owners - space fleets and longevity - so I'm working on what goodies plutocrats get"

Bella says, "plutocrats run cartels - that's roughly equivalent to the old duchies"

Jezz asks, "What sort of differences will there be between the old Duchies and the new Cartels?"

Bella says, "this time round you can have up to 15 star systems in a cartel"

Bella says, "well for instance cartels have their own job board"

Bella says, "and they have some rather unique 'builds'"

Bella says, "builds which will enhance the cartel rather than just the star system."

Bella says, "For instance"

Jezz listens attentively

Meteu leans forward so he can hear better.

Bella says, "Okie cities - these are self contained cities that have production capacity and can fly round and help out other planets in the cartel"

Bella says, "they provide production and consumption on the planet's exchange"

Martia holds up a cue card to the audience with the word "Ooooh and Ahhh" written in large letters.

Cloudbase oohs

Cloudbase aaahs

Munabilo says, "neat"

Bella says, "I also plan to give each cartel its own stock exchange to sort out the buying and selling of company shares"

Galaxyxpress Hears the oohs and ahh's and decides that what he earlier thought was a mortar attck is fireworks and crawls from under the table.

Mindslip exclaims, "outstanding!"

Bella says, "A long time ago Nightdroid figured out how to do stock exchanges and wrote it all up for me, but I haven't had time to impliment it yet"

Jezz says, "that will certainly add a whole new dimension to Fed."

Bella says, "I have other ideas, but I'm not sure what is practible yet - so you'll have to wait a while for more info"

Bella says, "other things include"

Bella says, "upgrades to the location and message editors and tesla"

Jezz nods

Jezz asks, "What sort of impact would you expect the Cartels to have on the way we interact with others?"

Bella says, "I expect cartels will increase inter-player interaction"

Bella says, "I'm also working on making the events editor stable enough to let players get their hands on it"

Bella says, "and Hazed demanded an extra script or two"

Martia holds up a cue card to the audience with the word "CHEER" written in large letters.

Bella says, "tesla will need upgrading to check events"

Mindslip exclaims, "Woo Hoo!!!"

Bella says, "I've also fixed it so you can add events directly to locations, instead of pretending to have an object there"

Bella says, "which is a work around we use at the moment"

Bella says, "hazed does most of the events at the moment, and the other staff have some access to events as well"

Bella says, "remember though that I only program fed in my 'spare' time"

Bella smiles

Jezz asks, "ahh so you are once more gainfully employed?"

Bella says, "these things all take time"

Dinger nods with a knowing grin

Jezz smiles and nods

Bella says, "no - at the moment I'm wait for Xmas/new year to finish so I can get back to applying for jobs"

Bella says, "'however I have other things to do as well - there are several skills related to programming that I need to brush up on"

Jezz smiles, "I see.. good luck with that :)"

Jezz asks, "There are all sorts of different things that people seem to miss from the old Fed... one of the main ones seems to be teleporters. Will teleporters ever fling our disconnected atoms across space here?"

Bella drawls, " well, I was thinking about that - I did like the idea that they might sometimes go wrong and reassemble you as a different player..."

Bella smirks nastily

Jezz gulps and laughs nervously

Jezz asks, "you mean we all could ACTUALLY turn in Zardoz Alts?"

Freya says, "or Icey"

Bella drawls, "possibly you could end up as one os Zardo's alts..."

Freya says, "or Arlene"

Bella says, "or arlene's glasses"

Freya says, "or Occy"

Jezz tries to muffle a scream

Bella says, "I will eventually possibly put teleporting in - but it will cost and be a high level only command"

Dinger agrees

Jezz asks, "Is it amongst the things you would like to see in 2009 or further down the priority list than that?"

Bella says, "oh - and I forgot earlier - plutocrats will have the option of a 4th planet if they want it, and their existing planets will continue to have economies"

Bella says, "that depends on how long you think 2009 is going to last"

Bella drawls, "according to Einstein time can be stretched..."

Bella drawls, "two week can become a very long time..."

Jezz says, "well true.. um.. yes relatively speaking"

Bella says, "exactly"

Jezz says, "As we all know, there is a sort of trinity of divinity here.. how did you first meet Freya and Hazed."

Bella says, "when I invented them"

Bella asks, "when else?"

Freya snickers

Jezz grins broadly

Bella says, "unfortunately I got distracted by a passing 24 inch monitor, and hazed, being only half finished, became a demi-goddess"

Jezz chuckles

Bella says, "hazed in real life i met in a library in Croydon, south london"

Bella says, "freya in Dulles airport"

Jezz drawls, "ok one more question before I open it up to the audience..."

Jezz asks, "As the only practicing sociologist in the universe.. could you share with us what you have learned about human behaviour from the population of Fed?"

Bella says, "behaviour"

Jezz nods

Bella says, "I learned that people's real nature always shows through online eventually"

Bella says, "i learned long ago that you don't have online friends, no matter how well you think you know them, only aquaintances"

Bella drawls, "and I learned that..."

Bella says, "some people never learn"

Jezz chuckles and nods

Bella says, "and believe they can beat my random number generator"

Bella says, "even when i tell them I wouldn't bet against my own program"

Bella says, "I also learned, not from fed, but from working in online poker, that the only people who make money from gambling are the bookies"

Bella says, "i don't play online poker, either"

Jezz grins "That's good to know"

Bella says, "the local labour party once asked me to write them a program to count votes"

Bella drawls, "they changed their mind when I asked them who they wanted to win..."

Dinger laughs

Jezz says, "that sounds like an application for a random number generator"

Jezz chuckles

Bella says, "people have a lot of misplaced faith in the 'neutrality' of computers"

Bella says, "I think most of all though"

Bella says, "I learned that most people are good people most of the time, but there are a few who get their kicks out of spoiling other people's fun"

Jezz says, "I'd agree there"

Jezz asks, "Questions from the floor... Muna, I believe you had a question?"

Munabilo says, "uh yeah"

Martia moves the sound boom over to Munabilo

Munabilo smiles, "multipart if you don't mind... :)"

Jezz winks, "as long as it's not six parts or more all at once ;)"

Munabilo asks, "wondering (roughly) when plutocrat might be going in? will member systems only be jumpable through the plutocrat's system? and what will syndicrats do? also, have you ever given thought to more abbreviations in fed, like even recognizing enough chars that make commands/commodities unique?"

Bella drawls, "welll...."

Munabilo takes a breath

Bella says, "I don't like to give time lines, because I can't work on things all the time - but I would guess about 6 weeks, since there are still two builds at leisure"

Bella says, "yes you will only be able to jump through the cartel main system link"

Bella says, "yes command recognition would be nice, but it's complex and cpu consuming - most people have complex stuff on f-keys as an alternative"

Bella asks, "OK?"

Munabilo asks, "thanks :) any hint on what syndicrats will do?"

Jezz nods towards Fletcher "Fletcher you had a question?"

Bella smiles, "no idea yet :)"

Martia moves the sound boom over to Fletcher

Bella asks, "is it a sonic boom?"

Fletcher asks, "Yes. From a player (and programmer) standpoint, what are the biggest mistakes most new planet owners make when uploading a new planet?"

Martia says, "well. it's more of a stick with a fuzzy thing on it.. Jezz told me to hold it"

Jezz shushes Martia

Zardoz shuffles uneasily at Fletchers question

Fletcher says, "and if the answer is "see Fletcher's as an example" ... I'm outta here. LOL"

Bella asks, "Hmm... you really need hazed to answer a question like that, but I would guess that people have already made it when they get to PO - its not studying the economic system

Bella exclaims, "other than that - it's making it difficult to find the way from the link to the orbit!"

Jezz nods

Bella smiles, "then, of course, there are planets written in Occy-ish :)"

Dinger raises his hand

Bella smiles

Munabilo laughs

Bella says, "that's about it"

Jezz smiles, "Dinger.. your question please :)"

Martia moves the sound boom over to Dinger

Dinger asks, "I missed the first part of this, so if I repaet something forgive me, but will there ever be a Duchy like system back into the game?"

Jezz smiles, "ahh.. to save time. That one has been answered :)"

Jezz asks, "Does anyone else have a question?"

Bella says, "they're called cartels"

Zardoz crosses that question off of his list.

Dinger says, "secondly, will the work bench be added into the game"

Bella says, "again i talked about that - just wait till hazed puts up the transcript"

Dinger sits and says "Thank you"

Jezz asks, "Does anyone else have a question?"

Jezz looks around the room

Dinger would like to hear more about how Freya, Hazed and Bella met

Bella grins

Zardoz nods.

Dinger snickers

Jezz asks, "Did you know they were destined to be goddess right away?"

Bella says, "hazed was the game's first player"

Dinger asks, "no kiddin?"

Bella says, "not until she twisted my arm"

Freya says, "I'm not a goddess, I'm a demi-goddess"

Jezz laughs

Zardoz chuckles

Munabilo raises his hand

Bella says, "the game crashed after she had been playing it for about 20 min"

Fletcher raises his hand

Bella says, "but it was running on an Atari ST at the time"

Jezz grins

Dinger nods, listening

Bella smiles, "it was at the world's first multiplayer convention :)"

Bella drawls, "in a grotty suburb of London..."

Dinger gins

Bella says, "south London at that"

Dinger then grins

Bella says, "OK - some others wanted to ask a question"

Dinger exclaims, "ah, this was getting good!"

Jezz asks, "Muna?"

Martia moves the sound boom over to Munabilo and accidentally bonks him on the head with it

Munabilo asks, "yeah, was just wondering how well the slithy system is keeping up with expenses. i realize more purchasing is better, but *currently* is it working ok, or is there a chance Fed goes bankrupt at some point?"

Zardoz clarifies financially rather than morally.

Jezz looks towards Bella

Munabilo says, "just wondering how close to the edge we are... or aren't"

Bella says, "well I'm not sure, because Hazed looks after them, but I know we are still short of the money for december at the moment."

Dinger thinks Bella will get a good job and support all of us

Jezz asks, "so buy more slithies everyone... Fletcher you had another question?"

Bella says, "I'm trying to come up with more things people can use them for, but it's difficult, because you must be able to play without them"

Fletcher says, "This is more a question for the audience. I've noticed that an incredible number of Fed players have been playing for quite some time .... which shows a lot of loyalty and that the game has staying power. Just curious when everyone started playing initially (for me it was 1996)."

Martia moves the sound boom over to Fletcher, more or less

Freya says, "December 7th, 1990"

Fletcher smiles, "and then I'm afk to get some more slithies :)"

Jezz beams at Fletcher

Bella asks, "anyone else?"

Bella says, "like to say when they started"

Bella asks, "Occy?"

Munabilo says, "played on AOL for a few months before and after they went flat rate, then quit. been playing Fed2 since jan/feb of this year"

Dinger says, "1995, then back in 96 to 2001, then back about 8 months now, I was Implantguy in the previous years"

Occy says, "i've forgotten it been so long"

Galaxyxpress exclaims, "I remember you!"

Freya says, "you were hanging out in CDs the first time I entered Fed"

Jezz says, "Cloudy was saying he started about 21 years ago"

Dinger asks, "who?"

Jezz says, "Cloudbase"

Dinger says, "ah"

Occy says, "in those days cd was the happen place to hang"

Bella pours herself a Taylors 2002 LBV port and leans back

Jezz asks, "any other questions?"

Dinger has bought you and everyone within arms reach a shot of his favorite grog. You hesitate because the jug it was poured from is marked XXX! But after seeing Dinger down his and live, you down yours. Dinger then starts to sing... "Fifteen men on a dead man's chest

Occy says, "onlly one"

Bella says, "Ok - freya will translate"

Jezz says, "go ahead Occy"

Occy says, "how much economic changes are coming"

Bella says, "well, there's a recession at the moment"

Bella says, "lots of people are out of jobs"

Bella asks, "oh - you mean in fed?"

Occy smiles

Zardoz was worried for a second.

Bella says, "interesting question - i'm not sure"

Bella says, "I expect it will alter the economic to some extent"

Bella says, "inflation is my main worry"

Bella says, "all online games suffer from inflation of the online currency to some extent"

Occy says, "yes they do to much coin running around"

Bella says, "one of the wilder ideas I was referring to earlier was to let dutchies have their own currencies"

Martia holds up a cue card to the audience with the word "GASP IN SURPRISE" written in large letters.

Zardoz leans back and pictures his face on a 10 groat bill... and smiles.

Bella says, "but I'm not sure how that would work at the moment"

Occy says, "personally, that would be a mess"

Bella drawls, "it would be a 10 Zard bill..."

Freya winks, "much like that on a Wanted poster, Zardoz ;)"

Fletcher says, "lol"

Zardoz grins.

Zardoz laughs.

Jezz laughs

Jezz says, "if there are no more questions.."

Bella says, "would mean floating exchange rates"

Bella says, "possible autarky"

Freya says, "I have a question"

Occy says, "even disney has tried their own currency... it didn't work either"

Bella says, "the printing presses running day and night - rampant inflation"

Jezz smiles, "please go ahead Freya :)"

Freya asks, "Why does it always rain in Manchester?"

Bella looks at freya

Zardoz thinks Disney is a Mickey Mouse outfit.

Cloudbase says, "no question from me, but I would like to say something"

Bella says, "ah - i'm glad you asked that"

Jezz says, "Because that's close to where I live and I never wash my car because of it."

Bella says, "when weather control is introduced, the rain that people don't want has to go somewhere - Manchester England is the obvious place"

Jezz nods

Freya laughs and laughs

Bella asks, "Cloudy?"

Cloudbase says, "I would like to thank Bella for his hard work in making FED what it is and I hope he continues to do so for many years to come"

Zardoz seconds Cloud's thoughts.

Jezz smiles

Cloudbase exclaims, "or even her hard work!!!"

Mindslip says, "here, here1"

Munabilo agrees

Jezz says, "well then.."

Bella looks even more modest than usual (Bella is proud of her modesty - she practises in the mirror every morning)

Cloudbase sniggers

Zardoz chuckles.

Jezz winks, "Thank you, Bella, for a most informative Meet and Greet.. and for all your dedication to keeping Fed space going all this time.. and thanks Cloudy for stealing my lines ;)"

Cloudbase blushes

Jezz grins

Zardoz laughs.

Munabilo applauds

Bella smiles

Cloudbase looks round for a stone to crawl under

Jezz asks, "could we please have a warm round of applause for Bella?"

Zardoz chuckles

Cloudbase applauds Bella

Jezz grins

Meijerman applause

Zardoz stands and applauds.

Fletcher appluads

Jezz applauds loudly

Dinger stands and applauds

Cloudbase and applauds Jezz for yet another job well done

Shrevo bows and applauds

Zardoz smiles at his overachieving wife.

Jezz grins broadly

Fletcher yet again mis-reads applause sign and sends Jezz applesause for a job well done.

Dinger says, "Thank you Bella, it's been great playing your game for all these years and look forward to many more"

Bella says, " think thanks to meteu for letting Jezz and me take over his usual job are also in order"

Cloudbase says, "I second that, and Zardozs alts 100th that lol"

Bella says, "there should have been an 'I' in front of that"

Cloudbase grins

Zardoz applauds Meteu.

Jezz says, "thanks for coming everyone.. the transcript will be published soon so that everyone can see what was said"

Zardoz applauds Cloudbase.

Jezz grins at Meteu

Dinger says, "no, not a hundred is there? hehehe"

Cloudbase cheers Zardoz

Zardoz grins.

Jezz smiles, "thanks Met :)"

Bella watches the cleaning droid removing everyone's chairs

Jezz laughs

Zardoz didn't see the cleaning droid, and tries to sit down, but lands on the floor with a resounding thud.

Bella clicks her fingers and a universe control unit appears

Bella turns a dial labelled 'sunshine' up to a mark that was 'warm and sunny'

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