Talk:Lou Zocchi

Where's the Biography?
Am I the only person who finds it odd that in eight-paragraph article about a person, five of the paragraphs (including all the longer paragraphs) are devoted to a single product of his company? This article lacks even basic biographical details. Yes, I get it, the reason Lou Zocchi has a page in Wikipedia is because of his involvement in the game industry, but the article doesn't really say too much about that. How did Mr. Zocchi get started in the game industry? Did he ever work for other game companies, or just his own? How did he get his company off the ground? Did he work in other industries between World War 2 and Gamescience? What about his military experience, which is alluded to? Is he a combat veteran of World War 2? What theater did he serve in? Where was he born? Where does his military knowledge come from? Did he attend a college or university? If yes, did he graduate from it? What did he study? Where was he born? Where does he live now? Does he have a family? Are any of them active in the gaming industry? Obviously, I'm not in a position to answer these questions or I would simply do that. But as currently written, this article reads more like an advertisement for Mr. Zocchi's dice than an encyclopedia article. Hopefully someone out there can do better.

Darkstar8799 (talk) 15:33, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

4-Sided Dice
horusfalcon 21:18 6 Mar 2010 {CST}

I am sitting at CoastCon 33 with Mr. Zocchi, who reviewed this article with me and asked me to make the changes regarding four-sided dice which I have made. Please feel free to contact me via email if you need further confirmation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Horusfalcon (talk • contribs) 03:18, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Military rank
If Lou is a sergeant, why does this name tag identify him as a Colonel?

http://www.diffworlds.com/images/gencon2004/040818-3-gencon-tadashi-louzocchi.jpg

Marc W. Abel 21:11, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Lou Zocchi is also in the Mississippi State Guard which is basically the reserve to the national guard. It's comprised mostly of retired military. Lou holds the rank of colonel in that organization. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ehatem (talk • contribs) 20:26, 14 September 2007 (UTC)


 * He's not in the State Guard, he's in the State Defense Force, which is as much as a "reserve" to the National Guard as the American Legion is. It's a bunch of old fat dudes (of which a few used to be in the military) pretending to still be soldiers.  Zocchi's use of the rank of Colonel outside of the MSDF is a joke, and an insult to all armed forces members.  He's not a Colonel, nor has he ever been one in any recognized armed service.  The man is a sergeant (and just as deserving of respect as if he had actually been a colonel, were he not lying about his "rank"), and should not represent himself as anything such.  98.232.219.86 (talk) 21:02, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

horusfalcon 06 Mar 2010 12:31 {CST} As a counterpoint to this, Mr. Zocchi states:

"I originally served in the Mississippi State Guard, and later transferred to the Alabama State Defense Force. The ALSDF is commanded by the Governor of Alabama, and activated to provide disaster relief after hurricanes such as Katrina and Georges. After Katrina, we distributed MREs, ice, water, first aid, and other disaster relief services to the survivors.  We also assist National Guard and local authorities to provide traffic control for special events such as visits by public officials.  Most of our members are retired military with twenty to thirty years active duty behind them, and we are all unpaid volunteers.  We are not a combat organization, but we provided manpower to safeguard the physical assets of state armories when National Guard units were activated for duty overseas.  After serving eighteen years with the ALSDF, I was promoted to the rank of Colonel on September 13, 2004." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Horusfalcon (talk • contribs) 03:41, 7 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes, but the ALSDF is akin to the American Legion or the Boy Scouts/Explorers. The Salvation Army also issues ranks to it's members/staff, but we don't recognize those ranks as a title to address them by.  98.232.219.86 (talk) 14:17, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

the same person, or father and son ?
I'm a little confused. Certainly "Lou Zocchi" may be short for "Louis Zocchi" -- this "Lou Zocchi" article implies they are the same person. However, http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_05_16_05.html mentions that "Louis Zocchi" did a lot of high-precision work during WWII, but his son "Lou Zocchi" retired from the Air Force, designed the game Battle of Britain, and founded the company Gamescience to make high-precision dice. --68.0.120.35 01:13, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Spelling of the company's name
I see everywhere in Wikipedia the company spelled as Gamescience, with a lower case s, but on the company's web page the camel case form GameScience is used. I therefore induce that the spelling has changed, possibly recently. I changed the article accordingly. Wipe (talk) 01:14, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Lou Zocchi, son of Louis Zocchi
This is to confirm that Louis Joseph Zocchi the game designer and magician is indeed the son of Louis Alexander Zocchi the engraver who put the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin to demonstrate his unparalleled precision with an engraving machine. Many people don't know that he also engraved the Lord's Prayer on the pointed end of a pin. Because it was such an uneven surface, he measured the pin point with a micrometer, drew a circle on the head of a pin the size of the point and then engraved the Lord's Prayer within that circle! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cmdrpowers (talk • contribs) 17:42, 7 March 2010 (UTC)