Name: Ian Mackinder
(NOT McKinder, Mickinda, MacKinder, or Mackinder!)
Nationality: Australian.
Status: Married (Happily!).
Religion: None of your business. Yes.
Writing Credits:
'The Wandjina Theory' - Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society #4 (Steve Jackson Games).
'The Blue Thunder Special In Champions' - Public Liability (fanzine).
'The Federation GSCX [X-Tech Galactic Survey Cruiser] (For Starfleet Battles)' - Public Liability.
'The Federation Destroyer Leader (For SFB)' - Public Liability.
'Project Samson - A TNE Alternate History'.
My Favourite...
Genre - Star Trek.
Movies - Armageddon, The Party, Forbidden Planet, Ruthless People, Lightning Jack, The Abyss, Blues Brothers, The Fifth Element, The Mummy, Serenity, Seven Days In May, Galaxy Quest, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Citizen Kane.
TV Shows - Stargate (both), Firefly, JAG, Frasier, The Pretender, CSI (all), Alias, Bugs Bunny, WKRP In Cincinnatti, McHale's Navy, Red Dwarf (early), Blackadder, Dilbert, West Wing, Battlestar Galactica (original and new), The Piglet Files, M*A*S*H.
Documentary/Science Show - Mythbusters.
'Star Trek' Episodes - The Trouble With Tribbles, Parallels, Who Mourns For Morn, Message In A Bottle.
Comedians - Dave Allen, Rowan Atkinson, Jackie Chan.
Comics - Knights Of The Dinner Table (KODT), Dilbert, Doonesbury, Bloom County, Tom Strong and Phil Foglio's work.
Authors (SF&F) - David Weber, Scott Adams, Terry Pratchett, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Steve Miller & Sharon Lee, H. Beam Piper, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Spider Robinson.
Authors (Other) - Douglas Reeman, Pat O'Rourke, Clive Cussler.
'Star Trek' Novels - The Final Reflection, Doctor's Orders, My Enemy My Ally, Federation, The Final Frontier, Dark Mirror.
SF Short Story - 'Omnilingual' by H. Beam Piper.
SF / Fantasy Novels -
'Fallen Angels' by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle & Michael Flynn.
'Abandon In Place' by Jerry Oltion
The 'Dahak' books by David Weber.
The 'Discworld' books by Terry Pratchett.
The 'Liaden Universe' books by Steve Miller & Sharon Lee.
The 'Callahan' books by Spider Robinson.
The 'Honour Harrington' books by David Weber.
'Patton's Spaceship' by John Barnes (the follow-on books are ... ok-ish).
'The Witches of Karres' by James Schmitz.
'Snow Crash' by Neal Stephenson.
The 'Inherit The Stars' books by James P Hogan (the original trilogy, anyhow - book four is eecchh!).
The 'Harry Potter' books by J K Rowling (quality slides as Harry gets older and the books get fatter).
Fictional Characters - Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle), Detective Inspector Bonaparte (Arthur Upfield), Judge Dee (Robert van Gulik). Detectives all.
Fictional World - Discworld (by Terry Pratchett).
Fictional Alien Race - Klingons (of course!), Ferengi.
Games Shop Of Choice (Sydney) - Napoleon's Military Bookshop.
Role-Playing Games - Traveller, 7th Sea, TORG, Cyberpunk 2020, GURPS.
KODT strips - Agent Of Evil, Dances With Pitbulls.
Board Games - 18xx, 2038, Seven Seas To Victory, Supremacy, Fortress America, Puerto Rico, Nautilus.
Collectible Games - MechWarrior, Pirates of the Spanish Main / Crimson Coast / Revolution / etc..
Computer Games - Patton Vs Rommel, Civilization II, Knights of Legend, EOS, SSN, Railroad Tycoon, Pacific War, Heroes Of Might & Magic II, Battletech: The Crescent Hawks' Inception, 'Star Trek' Starship Creator.
Card Games - Ninja Burger, Illuminati, Chez Geek (and its various offspring), Who's Got The Brain?.
Subjects - Science Fiction & Fantasy; Gaming (Role-Playing & Board); History (Australian, Maritime, Aerospace, Military / Naval, Alternate, Ancient, Hidden, Weird and/or combinations thereof); Forteana; Current events (esp. military and/or space); Humour.
My Intolerances:
Intolerance (Oooh, the irony!!!). Political correctness and most forms of censorship are included under this heading;
Stupidity - particularly of the group, dogmatic and/or bloody-minded varieties;
The anti-RPG hysteria (all of the above);
The parochialism of many Star Trek fans. 'Classic' devotees trash Next Gen, 'Next Gen' fans trash DS9, everybody trashes Voyager and Enterprise, etc.. I unashamedly and genuinely enjoy all of these shows, and see no point in comparing apples with oranges;
The background for 'Traveller: The New Era' (Do not get me started!);
'Galactica 1980' (not just a kiddie show, it was a show for DUMB kiddies) & 'Star Trek V' (Bill Shatner outsmarts "God" - again);
The third movies in the 'Alien' and 'Terminator' franchises. In both, the second movies were (IMO) excellent. Then come the third movies, and the message in both is that anything positive achieved in the previous movies was pointless. Forget about rescuing the kid, because she will die anyhow - and then lots more people will die as well. Forget about preventing Judgement Day, because SkyNet will destroy most of humanity whatever you do. HMPH.;
The third 'Matrix' movie. I went the distance, barely, because the first was good and the second seemed to be building up to something special. After number three, all I could think was "Why did I bother?".
The "I'm just role-playing my character..." excuse (I'm warning you. Do NOT get me started!).
EX-fan of ... -
'X-Men' [Marvel Comics]. Gave up on the title (and on Marvel in general) after it split into a bunch of lesser "X-titles" in the 1990s. The storylines / metaplot went to #### and what the alleged writers have done to the characters since is bloody well unforgivable. The movies have been good (so far).
'ElfQuest' [WARP Graphics]. Loved the original series and the immediate follow-ons. Then the title was spun-off into several lesser titles ('Shards', 'Jinx', etc.), and none of them ever seemed to get it together. I tried to be positive / supportive / etc. and not make unfair comparisions (honest), but maybe the original was too tough an act to follow. Sorry, WARP.
'Luftwaffe: 1947' [Antarctic Press]. Great art and (mostly) cool hardware, but the entire storyline (a WW2 Alternate History, with multiple sub-sub-variations) began confused and just got worse. Plus, the authors' notion of a "balanced viewpoint" occasionally seemed (IMO) too much like straight-out Allies-bashing. Let me add, Messrs Nomura and Dunn NEVER pretended the Holocaust didn't happen or that Hitler was innocent or any other such sick idiocy - and they were very forthright about this. But, what was labelled "lack of bias" sometimes seemed ... debatable ... to me. The authors also claimed that another comic series they did ('Tigers Of Terra') made the L:1947 storyline comprehensible but ... hey, c'mon guys, really. Seems more like both laziness and straight-out money-gouging on your part. Why not write L:1947 so that mere mortals could grasp what was going on WITHOUT purchasing other products?
'Star Fleet Battles' [Task Force Games]. My love of 'Star Trek' got me into SFB right from the very beginning - the whole idea of commanding Federation, Klingon and Romulan starships in battle was just so cool. I did not mind the plethora of other races.that were added, they were different enough to be interesting. I did not even mind how TFG never adequately proofread or playtested early SFB products, so that each invariably needed 10-20 pages of errata / clarifications almost immediately after purchase. My final disaffection stemmed from (a) too many weird-ass add-ons (ship designs, rules and "corrections") that did not fit the original concept; (b) the entire system becoming so unbelievably complex as to make GAME-playing (as distinct from RULE-playing) downright impossible; and (c) never being able to believe what TFG said about anything . It seemd that standard procedure was to guarantee something, then doing the exact opposite. All things considered, maybe SFB has a solid claim to being the world's first true "collectible" game.
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