I wouldn't mind some essays about the history and the making of his work on Outpost 2. I imagine a lot of people here have an interest in game development, and any stories or insight into that world would be of interest to them. Granted, I imagine it would be a bit much to expect details on the programming side of things, which is probably my biggest interest. But the art is also a very important part of that game that shouldn't be overlooked. There's a lot of people that want to program a game, but know nothing about writing the background story or general plot (or how to make many any of the other forms of art that go into a game). I guess, tell what he knows about best, and perhaps a few details on what was going on elsewhere if at all possible.
And who knows, maybe he's bumped into a few of the programmers from time to time, and has some funny stories to tell. After all, with the average social skills of most programmers, I'm sure there's plenty of opportunity here.
I also wouldn't mind a bit of similarly themed stories to Outpost. Perhaps similar works that inspired bits of the story, or works which may have been inspired by the story. Or just generally cool stories with reasonably similar themes. I have to admit, I'm not exactly familiar with his other work, so it might be interesting to read other stories he's written.
Also, I've generally enjoyed the theme of Outpost more so than perhaps the exact story. After all, some of those questions Arklon asked seemed pretty big and fundamental. I understand he was working within a framework. I'm sort of curious as to what would be produced if he didn't have to work within that framework, but still kept the general mood. I took particular interest in his point about "colonization as human destiny". I've found myself wondering, what if Mars had already been colonized, and this was the next phase being the first ship out of the solar system. Only, nobody knew about the meteor until after the ship was launched. Sure, there might be some survivors left on Mars, but if they're just a fledgling colony they're not exactly able to send anyone or anything to help you with your troubles. They'd be worried about their own survival. At best, they'd be someone to talk to over some communications link, perhaps telling you the news of what happened to earth while you were in transit, or shortly after arriving. It'd have the same basic feel of "you are alone on an unforgiving planet", along with "you are the some of the last of your species". I would certainly enjoy a story with that mood, and it would get around the near planet colonization issue. Btw, how much of a difference in the story would it take to be considered non-Outpost? :unsure:
As for themes, I prefer space colonization over artificial intelligence. Being a programmer, I tend to be too picky about artificial intelligence stories. (Yet, I've never found myself complaining about the sound effects during the latest battle scene in Star Trek, despite the lack of a sound conducting medium.) Plus artificial intelligence stories don't tend to have as much variety as some adventure into the great unknown.
Btw, speaking of picky programmers and A.I. stories, I had a prof talking about a showing of 2001: A Space Odyssey with some students, when one of them got up to point out that HAL's memory banks were numbered starting from 1, instead of 0. Tisk, Tisk. (At least I think that was the movie. I heard the story a long time ago. I personally have only ever seen 2010, and that was way too long ago to really remember any of it).
