Speculative fiction author Neal Stephenson is developing a video game with more realistic sword fighting: Clang.

Here is an article about him and his sword-fighting friends: Sword Fighting with Neal Stephenson and His Mongoliad Co-Authors. Here's a trailer for The Mongoliad, a "secret history" of the European resistance to the Mongol invasion.

Here is an article by John Clements, a sword fighting expert, who seems like a jerk: Swordfighting: Not What You Think It Is

I came to that conclusion on my own and was amused to find Ed Yong (awesome Brit science blogger) agrees with me (last entry here):

Classic example of how not to write: this is a fascinating topic (swordfighting) made unbearable. By the end, all I know is how little I know & how much the author does (& how pleased he is about that). It's masturbation, not communication.

I take it Ed is into swordfighting, because here's what he said about Neal Stephenson's game project:

Neal Stephenson's Kickstarter campaign to make the greatest swordfighting game ever. Take. All. My. Money.

Ed's weekly sciencey link list is fun Saturday reading for me lately. I'm not a sword fighter or gamer and thus far have only managed to read Snow Crash (though several other of his fat books are sitting around my houses), but it all looks very interesting -- for someone!

~ Becky in Tucson