Folklore is an indie from a new company, but yes, the game sounds very White Wolf: The Silliness.

There's definitely a difficulty with cooperative games to make them feel like you're all acting as individuals, rather than just cogs in a group-decision machine.

What Samantha said, plus this year I made an effort to spend more time in the dealers' hall, trying upcoming releases. Some of the choice there simply came from what was available for demo and when.

The problem for me is, if you can open a door with lockpicks or a tactical nuke, with the exact same difficulty and the exact same lack of repercussions, most gamers are going to take the tac nuke most of the time, because it's more exciting and dramatic. And that's a problem in a game that's more aimed at lock…

Did you see Steve Heisler's AVC column about revisiting the game as a grown-up? I was never a Magic person, but I found this one fascinating.

BTW, Boing Boing has posted the first seven chapters of the book: bit.ly/1kFMmZB

I read another article about Frozen today that touched on how much darker the "original Grimm fairy tales" were, and a commenter cited evidence and studies that the Grimms actually inserted an awful lot of the gender bias into their recorded versions, warping the actual folk tales considerably in recording them. In…

What? It's a line repeatedly played for pathos. Snif.

*snif*

Or Kevin's, for that matter?

Huh. That summary sounds pretty promising, thematically, given what's gone on in the series previously. Color me cautiously optimistic.

I'm a King fan and completist too, and I feel the same way; I'm not out to stop you reading it, but it might be wise to adjust expectations accordingly.

It surprised me too, largely because it's virtually free of analysis; it's a lot of plot summary and some praise. I expect more depth and insight out of her. A lot more. Then again, I'm always dubious when prominent authors review other prominent authors.

You have a link for that one? I'm a bit dubious. He uses the author's note in Doctor Sleep to take another dig at Kubrick's Shining, specifically saying that people praise it as one of the scariest horror films they've ever seen, and he has no idea why.

Blind Assassin may well be her best, but I'd also recommend Alias Grace, The Robber Bride, and Cat's Eye, in that order. I've been less impressed with her earliest novels and her short fiction, but as far as her recent novels go, she's one of my very favorite authors.

Well… she isn't necessarily drawing on it if she's so entirely unfamiliar with it that she believes comments like that talking-squid one. Just because other people did it earlier doesn't mean she's aping them, if she's never read one.

My poor little elephant backhoe now feels so under-equipped.

I did too! Mine was "elephant backhoe." It's on my fridge at home, where it's drawn a lot of comment. What's yours?

I got one from David at a convention, where they do Machine Of Death readings — they poke you with a red pen to simulate taking blood, feed your sample into a machine, and pull out a card. Mine says DREAM COMES TRUE. I'm just hoping it isn't the giant-spider dream, because that one was awful.

"Starvation" was my favorite from the first. That ending still haunts me, and it's so unexpected and cruel.