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Donald X. Vaccarino Exists
Is this news? Apparently it is to some BoardGameGeek users who speculate as to whether he exists or whether he’s a pseudonym for developers Dale Yu and Valerie Putman. Feeling a bit silly, I put the question to Rio Grande’s Jay Tummelson, who wrote this in response, “He is a real person, whom I met at Origins two years ago when he showed me his Dominion prototype and I decided to publish it. He is QUITE real.” Tummelson sent along the following photo as further evidence of Vaccarino’s existence:
His existence settled, one question remains: Does he have a head?
Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jul 6, 2009 at 09:00 PM in Game News, The Industry at Large / 3065
Comments:
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OMG. He looks nothing like me!
Posted by Dale Yu on Jul 6, 2009 at 09:21 PM | #
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Ahhh, that’s the confusion, I’ve been calling that guy Valerie at all the conventions. Posted by Jason Matthews on Jul 6, 2009 at 09:28 PM | #
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BTW, Eric, I always new Board Game News had the courage to cover the stories the other news blogs were afraid to cover. Here’s the hard evidence. Posted by Jason Matthews on Jul 6, 2009 at 09:31 PM | #
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My follow-up question is, does Rick Heli actually exist? Posted by Larry Levy on Jul 6, 2009 at 10:38 PM | #
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And when will this line Designer: “Donald X. Vaccarino” (pseudonym of Dale Yu and Valerie Staton, 1st win) from http://www.spotlightongames.com/list/sdj.html be updated since it is oft quoted as the source of the rumour that Donald doesn’t exist :-) Posted by Fraser McHarg on Jul 6, 2009 at 11:12 PM | #
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I can add further confirmation that he exists. I played in one of the first games of “Castle Builder” (which was later renamed to Dominion) at Origins two years ago with Donald teaching. Valerie was in the game and I can attest that she was truly smitten. I believe it is safe to say that it was love at first sight. We also played a couple of his other games as well which I also enjoyed. Posted by Ken Hill on Jul 6, 2009 at 11:51 PM | #
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I’m pretty sure on the Twitter feed that it quoted Jay as saying: “He is a real person, whom I met at Origins two years ago when he showed me his ... prototype.” I took this to be an indication that Donald X. Vaccarino is, in fact, an android. Of course the follow-on question then becomes: “Does he dream of electric sheep?” Posted by Jeffrey D Myers on Jul 7, 2009 at 12:39 AM | #
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Yes, I ellipsed the word ”Dominion” in the tweet due to the character limit. I felt that got the point across, with this expanded note adding pictorial proof. Next, blood samples! Eric Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jul 7, 2009 at 12:41 AM | #
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"[Vaccarino] isn’t a fake,” [Eric] said. “Unless reality is a fake.” This is getting too deep for me. I think I’d better go break out my copy of _Dominion_ again.... Posted by Jeffrey D Myers on Jul 7, 2009 at 12:57 AM | #
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There is no spoon. pk Posted by Patrick Korner on Jul 7, 2009 at 02:47 AM | #
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I saw Valerie, Dale, and Donald at the same place at the same time… but there wasn’t a godlike halo shining forth like they were the new holy trinity or anything… it was just a flashlight. Posted by William Baldwin on Jul 7, 2009 at 04:12 AM | #
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OMG, he looks just like Harry Wu! ;) Posted by Rob Cannon on Jul 7, 2009 at 07:46 AM | #
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Hmmmm. Harry doesn’t have a beard. Posted by John Bohrer on Jul 7, 2009 at 09:08 AM | #
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And I suppose it’s a coincidence that this is exactly the image I get when I composite pictures of Dale and Valerie in Photoshop. Posted by Jay Bloodworth on Jul 7, 2009 at 03:37 PM | #
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Incredible! I would have never guessed that Valerie could grow that much of a beard. I know that I can’t! D Posted by Dale Yu on Jul 7, 2009 at 03:52 PM | #
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Rick Heli retracted his accusation - http://spotlightongames.com/muse/39.html. I totally assumed it was a nom de spiel, rather like Michael Tummelhofer for St Petersburg. It’s not like this is the first time Jay Tummelson has done this and anyway, let’s be honest, Donald X. Vaccarino is an exotic name, to say the least. Posted by Iain Cheyne on Jul 9, 2009 at 01:41 PM | #
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