The Blind Man: Blog

The new scoring system was implemented last night. In one fell swoop Game World went from 8.10 to 7.42. I'm not impressed and I suspect other authors will not be impressed by this move either. I wish SOL and Laz would leave the scoring system alone. In fact I wish that the scoring system reflected what readers really thought and not what Laz wants. It won't happen though and it's probably a waste of time complaining about it. Still I'm pissed that people who write serial stories are being penalized because 'the man' thinks that the stories are being scored to high. Reality is on this planet that if people like something they support it and if they don't they ignore it and playing with the numbers will not change that fact.

Anyways there's my rant. Now to post the next chapter and watch the score fall some more.

Just thought I'd drop a thanks for reading note to you the readers. I don't usually get to replying to feedback except in my blog. Usually I'm either typing or editing the next chapter to get it ready for submission. I also found when I wrote my first story on SOL I was spending more time responding to people than I was actually writing. I find using the blog once a week more practical. So once more, thank you for reading and thank you for sending feedback on Game World.

I'd like to thank Parthenogenesis for pointing out the misspelling of 'crenelated'. The word showed up in Chapter's Seven and Eight. I had 'crenulated'. Amazingly my verison of Microsoft Word did not have 'crenelated' in its dictionary. I had to add it because MS wanted to change it back to 'crenulated'. Don't we all love Microsoft.

Anyway the chapters are fixed and reposted.

Thanks again to everyone and there will be a new chapter Monday morning.

I like to thank everyone who sent me feedback on "How far should I go?" I received a lot of positive feedback and advice and most of it was consistently the same. Keep Charles human and if he does stray, make it happen over something extreme that impacts directly on him and then bring him back so that he can finish his mission as the person that he is and not the person the alt-worlders would like to make him into. With that said, I'll keep everyone's suggestions in mind and hopefully Charles will prove himself better than the world that he's been dropped on.

Thanks,

I have a moral question for the readers of Game World. One element of Game World is the fact that living on the planet for any length of time dehumanizes the person. Kola who was born on the world sees Charles' actions through eyes of a person who lost her first husband within months of mating with him and her parents shortly after that event, all before she was even sixteen. Caitlin and Rory are outworlders who spent five years and some on Game World as slaves. They saw their parents die when then were but ten years old and while their time as slaves wasn't as bad as it could have been, it certainly wasn't pleasant. They see Charles' actions as normal and necessary and even heroic. The same could be said about Nimue and Tagus. Both have lived in environments that were cruel and at times humiliating. All are on Charles' side and are hoping that he succeeds in his mission and many are hoping for revenge.

The question is how should Game World affect Charles? So far he has been detached and indifferent to having to kill people on a regular basis. He absolves himself of any guilt by reminding himself that he didn't throw these people into his path and make them attack him. In his eyes the success of his mission outweighs the collateral damage that occurs along the way. His shift to diplomacy with Lord Tailem and Lord Barnabas happened because he had become tired of the slaughter and wondered if another course of action could be followed.

Now to be honest, I'm currently writing Chapter Twenty-Seven of the story so I'm much further along in things following Charles' visit to Oak Hall and in the events that have unfolded after that stay, Charles ends up killing a lot of people from all three groups of antagonists. During these events, I've been tempt to make Charles a little crueller in his behaviour towards others. I don't want him becoming villainous but there have been times where I've felt torture or rape might be employed. I haven't resorted to any changes as of yet but I was wondering how far should I go and how would such a change in personality affect the readers of Game World. So I'm open to thoughts and comments. As I've said, Charles hasn't changed in the chapters that I've written and haven't posted yet, but the temptation has been there to make him a little edgier.

Thanks

My thanks to Diederic Rask for picking up on a couple of typos in Chapter Two and Three and pointing out my small physics error. These have been fixed.