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Post by increment on Feb 6, 2017 12:44:57 GMT -6
<sigh> I'm all for footnotes (it's a good idea) but this level of scrutiny regarding the historical accuracy of what Fred wrote from memory in a brief introduction in the late 80's is simply not appropriate to include within the document. Nothing he wrote should be ever be changed or marked up with all kinds of corrections. Misremembered history is a historical artifact itself, firstly, and secondly it's not appropriate to tear apart a dead author's writing within the pages of his own work, especially since the exact accuracy of these details are hardly germane to the body of the work. The point of Fred's World is the gaming word of Freds World. A mere note saying something along the lines of "The exact years and certain details as remembered by Mr Funk's are not considered to be completely accurate by game historians." should be sufficient. Having glanced at this, I think I agree, basically. |
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Post by kuthayn on Feb 6, 2017 13:44:13 GMT -6
Thank you all for your input. Soon I will have the final image I commissioned for this edition, and then I will call the memorial edition completed.
-Glenn
[aka Kuthayn]
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2017 7:50:38 GMT -6
<sigh> I'm all for footnotes (it's a good idea) but this level of scrutiny regarding the historical accuracy of what Fred wrote from memory in a brief introduction in the late 80's is simply not appropriate to include within the document. Nothing he wrote should be ever be changed or marked up with all kinds of corrections. Misremembered history is a historical artifact itself, firstly, and secondly it's not appropriate to tear apart a dead author's writing within the pages of his own work, especially since the exact accuracy of these details are hardly germane to the body of the work. The point of Fred's World is the gaming word of Freds World. A mere note saying something along the lines of "The exact years and certain details as remembered by Mr Funk's are not considered to be completely accurate by game historians." should be sufficient. I agree with this! That said, I don't have a problem with an appendix, I think it is much preferable to footnotes in this instance. The point that aldarron makes and I placed in bold for emphasis The point of Fred's World is the gaming word of Freds World. is the same point I tried to make up thread. I am not a writer or historian and neither was Fred. To try to hold me or Fred or anyone like us to the standards of a writer and historian are simply not appropriate. Now if I was going to write up my recollections in this day and age, I would try to get the dates right (and hope that I would not be crucified if I got something wrong), but we have a lot more resources to check those things than Fred did, this community did not exist back in that time period nor did any of the books about the history of gaming and D&D. |
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Post by Hawklord on Feb 12, 2017 14:34:19 GMT -6
<sigh> I'm all for footnotes (it's a good idea) but this level of scrutiny regarding the historical accuracy of what Fred wrote from memory in a brief introduction in the late 80's is simply not appropriate to include within the document. Nothing he wrote should be ever be changed or marked up with all kinds of corrections. Misremembered history is a historical artifact itself, firstly, and secondly it's not appropriate to tear apart a dead author's writing within the pages of his own work, especially since the exact accuracy of these details are hardly germane to the body of the work. The point of Fred's World is the gaming word of Freds World. A mere note saying something along the lines of "The exact years and certain details as remembered by Mr Funk's are not considered to be completely accurate by game historians." should be sufficient. I've seen too many blatant errors copied and recopied throughout the history of games (role-playing, video, and otherwise). Adding a note like that isn't going to stop some hack writer from stumbling upon Fred's World and using it as a primary source for facts about RPG history. I don't mean to change Fred's words, of course. I am just tired of seeing yet another history of games state unequivocally that Gary Gygax is the sole inventor of D&D, that Nolan Bushnell first played Spacewar! in 1965 (not 1969), that Charles B. Darrow is the inventor of Monopoly, that Gun Fight was the first microprocessor-based arcade game AND the first to have human characters, etc. These errors get copied and published both online and in books written by people who should know better (no, I am not talking about Jon Peterson!). |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2017 11:51:12 GMT -6
<sigh> I'm all for footnotes (it's a good idea) but this level of scrutiny regarding the historical accuracy of what Fred wrote from memory in a brief introduction in the late 80's is simply not appropriate to include within the document. Nothing he wrote should be ever be changed or marked up with all kinds of corrections. Misremembered history is a historical artifact itself, firstly, and secondly it's not appropriate to tear apart a dead author's writing within the pages of his own work, especially since the exact accuracy of these details are hardly germane to the body of the work. The point of Fred's World is the gaming word of Freds World. A mere note saying something along the lines of "The exact years and certain details as remembered by Mr Funk's are not considered to be completely accurate by game historians." should be sufficient. I've seen too many blatant errors copied and recopied throughout the history of games (role-playing, video, and otherwise). Adding a note like that isn't going to stop some hack writer from stumbling upon Fred's World and using it as a primary source for facts about RPG history. I don't mean to change Fred's words, of course. I am just tired of seeing yet another history of games state unequivocally that Gary Gygax is the sole inventor of D&D, that Nolan Bushnell first played Spacewar! in 1965 (not 1969), that Charles B. Darrow is the inventor of Monopoly, that Gun Fight was the first microprocessor-based arcade game AND the first to have human characters, etc. These errors get copied and published both online and in books written by people who should know better (no, I am not talking about Jon Peterson!). I agree about things that are actually intended to be serious works of scholarship. Unfortunately the people that write history and do not want to check their facts or have an ax to grind is not something that is going to end anytime soon. Example: how soon do you think an accurate history of Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison will make it into history books that are used in schools? |
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