Scott Ellison II

(image taken from Flickr of a similar instance)

Ever since I started working for my employer, I’ve walked across the train tracks behind our building out of convenience over driving a short distance from where I live. You would too, right?

Well today, that ended that as a Union Pacific Police Officer stopped me as I was only walking along the tracks at the time, before I had even gone to cross over. He immediately wanted to arrest me as he informed me that the dirt behind our building and that goes along the tracks is private property and is a Felony in California. I was able to talk myself out of it due to the fact that I was unaware of this, there was no signage posting saying that it was private property, and also that I am a former Marine. Call it luck, him being nice or whatever - I got off without being arrested or at the very least, a citation. The Officer also collected my information from my Driver’s License and said he never wants to see me around here (being the train tracks and private dirt) again.

So it is unfortunate that this is being enforced when there is no wrong-doing being done and we’re all just crossing the tracks to make our trips to work expedient. I understand the law is the law, but when it suddenly is being enforced and there is nothing showing you what you’re doing wrong - it is hard to follow the rules.

It’s obviously worth noting that the picture I’m using is on the same set of tracks I was stopped by. There was no presence then.

Excerpt from my story:

“I asked a very simple question on Twitter that sparked healthy conversation between friends and acquaintances regarding my feelings about Double Fine starting a project using Kickstarter, a secure, crowd-source funding platform. Though I’m clearly in the minority for my thinking on this. A friend even stated I was being “mean spirited”, which is not my intention – I know it is a narrow focus of discussion, but it bothers me. I am a huge fan of Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions and have nothing against them or the idea of getting funding from fans to start a project that would otherwise never exist.

Let’s first take a look at how Double Fine got here (detailed in their pitch video). The most frequently asked question to Tim and the team is when they’ll make a classic point-and-click adventure game like that of Grim Fandago or Day of the Tentacle. If Tim approached a publisher with the idea to create a new point-and-click adventure game, they would be immediately rejected. It is noted that there is a lack of control when a publisher or investor is involved in the game design process. So they took it to the people directly, by using Kickstarter – so they would have the creative control to make the game they wanted to make while involving the fans throughout the entire process.

That’s a fantastic idea for game development. Except that, to me, Double Fine is beyond needing to use Kickstarter as a platform. I made the joke saying “Tim Schafer could sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves”, to paraphrase from Tommy Boy. It’s mostly true, except instead of a ketchup popsicle it is a point-and-click adventure game.

Continue here: http://www.savingcontent.com/2012/02/double-fine-using-kickstarter-bothers-me/

(Source: spaceweather.com)