Welcome Eric Nickell

A while back we announced that we had added Nic Ducheneaut to our authorial ranks, as part of a strategy to take over the brainpower of the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) but pay nothing for the privilege. Since we already had Nick Yee on our non-payroll, this was a moderately-implausible but amusing story. I can now announce the next stage in our takeover strategy, by announcing that we are collectively delighted to welcome Eric Nickell to the blog. Eric is a computer scientist in the Computing Science Laboratory at PARC, with a B.S. from Caltech, an M.A. from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a wealth of experience as a video game designer, and computer programmer/analyst developing high-speed imaging software and task management software. More important than this though, he is one of the principals behind the PARC PlayOn project, which is collecting and analysing and thinking about MMOGs.

Eric and Nic Ducheneaut and Nick Yee all claim credit for the amazing MMOG results that PARC continues to generate, while at the same time suggesting that the other two are total hacks who wouldn't know an avatar if it came up an bit them (Nic Ducheneaut was particularly vehement in his comments, and it turns out that it is true that some Frenchmen cheerfully use words that would be gravely offensive if translated into English). We are fairly confident that, in fact, Bob Moore is the brains behind the operation (Bob, if you're reading this, give me a call). But since we were uncertain about who was responsible for all the good work, we decided to grab as many of them as we could. Especially those who, like Eric, are big fans of Jane Austen, have spent years living in Southeast Asia, and who hold the conviction that every American 13 year old should be packed off to live with a Third World family for a year. Eric is particularly interested in quantititative methodologies of research in MMOGs.

So, welcome Eric! Glad to have you aboard. And please, no fighting with Nic, ok?

Comments

[Richard Bartle]

1.

Hi, Eric!

So, does our PARC contingent outnumber our SL contingent now?

Richard

[Endie]

2.

Dan said:
>> ...as part of a strategy to take over the
>> brainpower of the Palo Alto Research Center...

Are you sure that this isn't a subtle, infiltrationist reverse-takeover, with the cadre of PARC attempting to sieze the controls of the awesome behemoth which is TN?

Richard said:
>> So, does our PARC contingent outnumber our SL
>> contingent now?

If so, I look forward to frequent responses to functionality suggestions of "you can already do that in PARC".