You know how news reports frequently claim that the average American has serious trouble with basic math? Well, it applies to some very intelligent acquaintances of mine as well. I was forwarded an interesting petition by two people whom I think very highly of. Read the opening paragraphs below and see if you can spot the problem… ;-)

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a “We Deserve It Dividend”.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.

PS. Unlike the original $700B bailout plan proposed by President Bush, the $85B bailout of AIG appears to have the approval of most analysts (or so it seems from what I’ve read, anyway.) Part of the reason: we, the taxpayers, get 80% of AIG as condition of the bailout, in addition to a relatively high interest rate on our $85B loan to the company. By most accounts, it sounds like we may very well turn a profit on our “investment” in AIG.

The word “postmortem” assumes wry overtones when preceded by Scrabulous, the once-popular Scrabble clone on Facebook. The latter, as you’re all no doubt aware, is basically dead now — snuffed out by Facebook at the requests of Hasbro and Mattel. More than a few people have written about this, but I was looking for a thorough summary of the facts/issues and couldn’t find it, so I decided to write one of my own.

Shortly before Scrabulous was terminated, it had 500k active users a day according to TechCrunch. (I’ve seen other articles citing up to 700k daily actives at one point or another, but it seems that those numbers may have been temporary spikes associated with spikes in press coverage.) Interestingly, this suggests that Scrabulous’ growth was starting to fade, as the game already had 500k daily users back in December 2007. So, while it’s probably safe to assume that Scrabulous had more room to run, it’s optimistic (at best) to believe that the game was anywhere near the bottom or middle of its S curve. But this isn’t really the point I’m hoping to make; I just thought it worth noting that some of the Scrabulous hype (“they’re on the verge of 1m daily users!”) had gone a bit over-the-top.

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Like most crises, this one was foreseen well in advance. Note: I certainly don’t agree with Ron Paul on everything, but I’m impressed with the clarity of this succinct speech!

Raph liveblogged Lane Merrifield’s lecture at AGDC. It’s an educational and even inspiring talk on the subject of customer service, from the founder of Club Penguin.

I really like Scott Adams’ (aka creator of Dilbert) blog. He’s often quite funny, and every once in a while he says something relatively insightful. In a post called timing is everything, he speculates that 9/11 basically killed the sales of his book God’s Debris. I believe it. Timing is everything in the game industry, too. It’s interesting how many publishers are willing to ignore that truism (to the detriment of their games’ sales) because they feel compelled by internal politics and/or Wall Street analysts to release a game by an arbitrary deadline. (And speaking of, do you think I should ask my publisher to delay the release of my book? Between the election and the economy, November really doesn’t seem like a great time for a debut!)

A friend emailed me this interesting article about how boring physical environments can actually stifle brain development. No surprise, but interesting to see it proved out. If you work in a cubicle farm (especially a drab one), watch out.

I’m so excited to see interesting games coming out of GAMBIT! One of the latest is called Akrasia. From the GAMBIT blog: “The team decided to make a game about INNER DEMONS and coming to terms of who you are. It would take place in the mind and the mind would be symbolized by a maze – a common metaphor but through its spatiality particularly well-suited for a game.” It’s a free download — check it out!

Chris Avellone was telling me about a panel on writing that he attended at Comic-con which devolved into an interesting conversation about circumventing writer’s block. That’s a challenge I struggle with all the time, so I asked him for his notes on the panel, and he was kind enough to share them with me. And now I’m sharing them with you. And you can share them with someone else, if you like. Ain’t sharing grand? PS. Many of these tactics seem as applicable to game design as they do to writing.

• Go buy three magazines (games) you don’t normally read (play), then flip through them and free associate.
• Grab a Gideon Bible, open it randomly and then see what it sparks.
• Have three creative projects going at once so you can switch off when you get stuck with one. (For games, they shouldn’t have to be large in scope; how about having a pet flash, XNA, or mod project on the side?)
• Do something else creative that doesn’t involve writing – doodling, sketching, painting, whatever.
• Go workout for 30-40 min with no music and no TV, and then let the endorphins do their work.
• One guy said that “writer’s block happens because you’re writing something you’re not excited about or interested in,” and he suggests that when that happens, take a step back, ask why, then charge into it in a different direction that does excite you.
• Keep a collection of works that excite you. When you hit a block, go back to this library, re-read them, and remember why they excited you.

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The following is a test of the Emergency Bullshit System:

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”

This was a test. Had this been actual bullshit, the statement you just read would have been followed by additional bluster, viciousness, and cynical appeals to your sense of patriotism. This concludes this test of the Emergency Bullshit System.

I was very, very tired when I wrote this. And, umm, it didn’t actually turn out to be a test. I’ve given up hope of ever seeing political issues debated with intelligence and clarity during my lifetime. How depressing.

(I’ve been sitting on a bunch of posts, being too lazy and/or preoccupied to clean them up, insert hyperlinks, and publish them. I finally summoned the will to get them out this morning. Here’s the first.)

If you haven’t already done so, I recommend checking out Kongai, a digital trading card game designed by David Sirlin and publicly released on Kongregate a couple months ago. David, for those of you who don’t know him, is the guy rebalancing Street Fighter for XBLA/PSN (and a very thoughtful designer, in general.)

Kongai is a well-designed card game, but what’s remarkable about Kongai is not necessarily its gameplay, but how Kongai is positioned within the larger context of Kongregate. Kongai cards are awarded the same way LIVE Achievements are – in reward for accomplishing explicit challenges in the various games found across Kongregate. (Actually, Kongai cards are more like Pogo Badges, because Badges are awarded for time-limited challenges, unlike LIVE Achievements, which are hardcoded to a game prior to its release and which never expire.) Having played Kongai for a while now, I can personally testify to the allure of virtual awards that have concrete value in a playable metagame in addition to the “status value” of normal Achievements!

There are quite a few portals and networks claiming to offer “Achievements 2.0″, but Kongai is the first thing I have encountered that feels even remotely advanced enough to merit such a claim. Gamasutra published an article on the design of Kongai, if you’re curious to learn more.