People often come up to me and say, "Olav, you do realize that Where No One Has Gone Before is a magazine about the Star Trek Collectible Card Game. Right?--- and yet, despite the fact that you have now written a half dozen articles for them, you have yet to actually talk about Star Trek the Collectible Card game." I generally respond with a blank stare and after a lengthy pause, I reply, "What's a collectible card game?"

        The typical response to this is to punch me in the face, or ignore me. But occasionally someone will see through my subtle ruse and say "Olav, you didn't answer the question. You deliberately evaded it, and made me want to punch you in the face for being such a lame ass."  I'll smile quietly to myself and give them a straight answer.

        "You see," I sill say, "Star Trek: CCG is like traffic lights in a lot of ways, and when I read a trade magazine devoted to the manufacture, design and programming of traffic lights, what interests me in the magazine are the articles pertaining to the social life that surrounds the community of traffic light enthusiasts and not deriving the maximum efficiency from the timing of the yellow light."

        If they haven't punched me in the face yet, they do so now. The problem is that no one realizes that I am serious.  ST:CCG is a lot like traffic lights-- it's a subculture that seems totally odd to all outsiders, but to its devotees is quite fascinating. And to boot the game can actually be described in the same finite mathematical terms that are used to optimize traffic lights. Ian Vincent is really quite good at both programming traffic lights and at ST:CCG-- I don't think that's a coincidence, either. Traffic lights are often frustrating -- so is Star Trek the CCG.

-Olav