Yeah! Can’t await to get this game!

Cool, cool, cool!

But Tesla?  They couldn’t come up with anyone better than Tesla?

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ll be mentally replacing Game Designer, Rock ‘n’ Roll Icon, and Tesla with Sid, Elvis, and Bill.  You can copyright the names, guys, but you can’t copyright our brains!  Yet.

Hi Larry,

My initial reaction to Tesla was similar, but in case you are not familiar with some of the things he did (and I certainly was not familiar with many of his accomplishments until I had a conversation with our artist), I recommend doing a quick bio check on him.  I liked his choice as a replacement for Mr. Gates. Certainly one can make a case for others, but when possible, I like to incorporate feedback from the people who contribute to our products, and so I was happy to take the recommendation to include Mr. Tesla.

Oh, I know his accomplishments in science were considerable, Keith.  He’s just not that sexy an historical figure, I guess.  For the purposes of notoriety, I would have chosen his contemporary Edison over him.  If a connection to computers was desired, maybe John von Neumann or Alan Turing would have worked.

Oh well, Tesla was a great scientist who deserves to be better known.  He’ll play.  And he’s better than a “science icon”!

Yes, I think all of those gentlemen would be great.  I did specifically look at Edison.  My intent was to present someone who wasn’t as prominent (or sexy as you say :-)) but still made major contributions (if not disruptive in the economic sense) to science.  On a separate note, I used to work for GE in another life.  I was surprised to learn from a fellow engineer there that if Edison had employed the use/knowledge of a chemist when he was working on the light bulb, he could have ruled out over 70% (if memory serves) of the compounds he tested for the filament.

I digress.  I hope if/when you get the opportunity to see the finished product you are happy with the component choices.  Vlaada and the CBG guys did a wonderful job on the game design and rulebook, so we focused our efforts on providing nice components (higher quality cards, player mats, vacuum tray and wooden discs and cubes to help with the admin side of the game).

Keith

Looks excellent, sounds excellent, and the fact that Tesla has a car company (of modern, fast, efficient electric cars) named after him alone, makes him an excellent choice :)

Tesla was a freakin’ genius but he had a lousy publicist or else he’d be better known. He invented the radio(!) and helped to create the AC power distribution system that is the backbone of our modern society.

Tesla is in my opinion the founding father 20th century science.  The fact that he is so unknown in popular US culture, just adds to his allure.

I will be proud to play my Tesla card.

Yay!  Bring me Through the Ages!

Well, judging from the comments, it looks like Tesla was a popular choice, Keith!

When Paul Niemeyer (our artist) went through his accomplishments, some of which are alluded/referred to here, I thought Tesla was a great suggestion.  I am pleased to see there are several people who agree! :-)

Keith

"I will be proud to play my Tesla card.”

Something makes me want that on a T-shirt.  I also applaud the choice.