Talk:Redmond A. Simonsen

To Do List

What I suggest to be added next are:

1. In the Strategy & Tactics and SPI section, under the text, screenshots showing examples of the graphical improvments by SPI from 1971-1980. I propose (fair use) scans from the map/counters from S&T 29 U.S.N. (1971), S&T 58 Conquistador! (1976) and S&T 86 Cedar Mountain (1980). I can do this no problem.

2. A Theory of Game Design section with quotes and illustrations of the design/graphical features he implemented, much like the article Our View is Better Because We Stood on the Shoulders of a Giant

3. A partial listing of his game designs

4. A Personal section with descriptions of his character

HappyParrot 20:46, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Further development

I think this is coming along nicely. I propose 2 more sections, really the most important ones IMHO, "Physical systems design" and "Game design" both with examples from specific games of some of the concepts he developed (using scans and descriptive text). Also would like a "Personal" section describing his character (there is alot of information available in the references), and a partial list of game designs. Needs to end with his cause and circumstances of his death (*sniff*). I have no desire to make this a hagiography, but RAS was a GOD. HappyParrot 23:43, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Cause of death

FYI, Redmond died of complications from heart problems. See some of the obits and article written by the friend who lived near him. Also, the NYTimes obit is (of course) now fee-pay to read; that doesn't mean it should be removed, however. — jesup 15:57, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Changed wikilinks

1. "graphic artist" now links to "graphic design"; graphic artist is a disambiguation page, graphic design is the most relevant article

2. "board wargaming" now to links to relevant section in article

OK, I'm new here, but regarding the dictum "only make links that are relevant to the context", common wikipedia convention seems to run otherwise. D.O.B. and D.O.D. are ALWAYS wikilinked, though I don't see the relevance of knowing what else happened on the day (ex.) Joan Crawford died. I left those in though because that is obviously standard style. I removed the following wikilinks:

3. removed "1970's" and "80's". There are 9 other links in that opening that are very relevant to the article; these are tangential at best, and distracting.

4. removed "United States Air Force". In that section "Inwood, Manhattan", "Stuyvesant High School" and "Cooper Union" provide ALOT of good background information directly relevant to Simonsen's life (in the case of Inwood he lived there in the same aparttment for 42 years, which will be added later). Air Force detracts from these relevant links; we don't even know what he did there.

5. "KOOL cigarettes"...his other work on Is Paris Burning? and London Records could have been linked as well, and was thinking about doing it since they might not be well-known to the reader but in every case the reader will see graphic images NOT created by the article subject (and the reader can either make a wrong assumption, or spend several minutes figuring it out). It seems you do more harm than good. When those articles have imagery created by, or mention work by the subject, I'd want to link them right away.

5. removed Time, Newsweek and The New York Times. My reasoning is that working as a free-lance photographer does not infer much connection with a media company. It is enough if we can assume the most readers has heard of these companies.

Left "Norway" linked since geographic names are explicitly mentioned in the manual of style.

6. removed "USD". The monetary transaction is discussion is more anecdotal than real (in fact Dunnigan didn't even pay the dollar until many years later). If the sale was for $5.06, I'd put the USD back in.

7. changed "BIX" to link to Byte Information eXchange, which I believe is the relevant article.

8. The last paragraph I had not wikilinked serveral terms, but now I see that it makes sense to. If board wargaming is linked at the top, computer games should be linked at the bottom. Also Apple II and Texas Instruments might be obscure to some readers. Richardson, Texas is a geographic name. BUT I removed "short stories" and "science fiction"

Basically I am trying to mantain a consistent link relevance and density throughout the article. Again, please let me know if I am borderline or just plain wrong. HappyParrot 20:30, 30 January 2007 (UTC)