On criticism..

[gridlore]

Recently, in one of the posts on my developing Concordant setting, I received an anonymous comment. It was, in its entirety, one sentence:

Will Blimps v2.0 be a less-obvious ripoff of Iain Banks's Dwellers?

No name, of course.

To the person who wrote this, fuck you. Have the balls to sign your messages, and try to be constructive. The reason I post these works in progress is to get feedback and ideas.

Now, as to the blimps and Mr. Banks. I will freely admit that I haven't read all his books, and since you didn't bother to point out where these "floaters" appear, I can't very well compare what I came up with on my own with what Mr. Banks wrote, yes?

For your information, the idea for the blimps occurred to me while driving. One of the advantages of my job is time to think, and I was thinking about aliens. The idea of an intelligent balloon appealed, and I started mentally sketching in details. Nothing was ripped off. Hell, I was probably drawing inspiration from David Brin and Larry Niven, both of whom have written gas-bag critters before (so, was Banks ripping them off?)

Don't assume that I've read every damn SF novel and short ever written. Some I haven't, and some I read decades ago and they just stick in my head. If I ever directly rip something from a published work, I will announce that fact (such as in the first draft of my setting where I had 2300AD's Kafers as the main alien menace.)

I'm a writer, in my own small way, and I can't do what i do without good, honest evaluations of my work. That is why I post things, so I can catch errors like the size of the blimps, and get feedback on what to call the main government and its ruler. So when I post, feel free to jump on me with both feet if I screw up, but do so honestly and with a better idea in hand.

And sign your damn name.

Comments

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Another point to consider: you're not writing this with intent to publish the campaign setting, are you? This is a personal-use campaign setting; only you, your players, and those of us who read your entries about it will know anything about it, correct?

In which case, who cares? You could bally well have Dr. Who show up with Ace and K-9. You could throw in a Star Destroyer if you really felt like it, and it wouldn't matter a bit. (Aside from utterly wrecking the feeling of realism you're going for, that is, and spoiling the suspension of disbelief for your players, but that's not the point.) Gasbag aliens are not new concepts. Banks' book The Algebraist which, to my knowledge, is the first reference to the Dwellers, was published in 2004, yes? Considering that there are gasbag aliens listed in Barlowe's Guide as having been described by luminaries like Niven, yes, I'd say you're both ripping them off... the difference is that you're not going to financially profit from it.

So, anonymous poster. Care to defend Mr. Banks' intellectual theft now? Or are you willing to concede the point that you're being an ass for utterly no reason whatever?

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

This began as a personal setting, but with GURPS Space looming next spring, I've begun toi think it has potential as an e23 product at the least.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

You know, I just looked up that book.

The Dwellers live in gas giant atmospheres. And may live for billions of years.

The Blimps evolved in the swamps of an Earth-like world, and live for about two centuries.

From a cursory examination, those are only the beginning of the differences.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Floating aliens living in gas giants? Sounds a bit like Jgd-Il-Jagd from Traveller...

[kengr]

And in Anne McAffrey's "The Ship who sang" and probably others in other books.


Hell, floating aliens (though more "dog level" intelligence are found in Heinlein's "Starman Jones". And I doubt he was the first.

[delta-november.livejournal.com]

The only connection I saw between the Dwellers and the Blimps is the societal structure of "interest groups". But the Hiver predated both...

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

And I mostly got that concept from Traveller's Vegans and their tuhir.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Well, that's cool. It's sounding interesting.

As different as your Blimps are from Banks' Dwellers and from most of the other gasbag entities out there, it really isn't going to matter when it comes to publication if they're similar. Similarity to existing fiction is what some gamers enjoy, after all, to people who want to experience their own adventures in settings they enjoyed reading.

The anonymous poster remains a moron.