8/4/05 - Today is Simon's 5th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIMON! I love
you.

Tuesday will be this month's Post Mortem gathering. It is an
important topic for the industry so I have included the entire post:

Murder, Sex and Censorship
(and Why You Should Care) - Brenda Brathwaite, Cyberlore

In the last year, over a dozen bills targeting video games were put
before state Assemblies and Senates throughout America. In other
countries, video games were banned outright. Legislators seek to
control their sale and their distribution while big box retailers
indirectly influence their content. And all this before Hot Coffee.
Now, we face irate politicians and the FTC... again.

What does this mean for us as game developers? What should we do? How
will the legislation affect us? Who's calling the shots?

If you make or play video games, this Post Mortem is a must for you.
Find out:


*Who says The Sims is an 18+ violent video game
*Why sports games can't be sold to minors in Illinois
*What heroin has in common with Mario
*Why you only think you have creative control

As a 23-year veteran of the video games industry, Brenda Brathwaite
is currently a senior designer at Cyberlore Studios. She has worked
on 20 published titles including the award-winning Wizardry series of
role playing games and the award-winning Jagged Alliance series of
strategy role-playing games. Most recently, she was lead designer on
Playboy: The Mansion for Cyberlore. Brenda was also a host of
the "Sexuality in Games" Roundtable at the 2005 Game Developer's
Conference, the founder and moderator of the IGDA Sexuality in Games
mailing list, and the founder and chair of the IGDA Sex SIG. Brenda
is also a member of the International Game Developers Association.