Good Morning Silicon Valley

Some people in the news today:

* When you’re playing hardball in business, you score extra points for hiring someone who not only meets your needs but depletes your rival’s talent pool. So full marks to Facebook for luring Google exec Sheryl Sandberg into taking its COO job. Sandberg is responsible for online sales of Google’s ad and publishing products, and that’s just the background Facebook needed. “She has just about the most relevant industry experience for Facebook, especially since we need to scale our operations and scale them globally,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “And we also share the same values.” In moving to Facebook, Sandberg will join ex-Googlers Gideon Yu, now Facebook’s CFO and Benjamin Ling, who leads Facebook’s developer platform, among others.

* The Dungeon Master has left the building. Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, died this morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He was 69. “I don’t think I’ve really grokked it yet,” said Mike Mearls, the lead developer of the upcoming 4th edition of the game. “He was like the cool uncle that every gamer had. He shaped an entire generation of gamers.” Reaction is piling up on the forum at Troll Lord Games.

* According to sources talking to TechCrunch, producer Steven Spielberg is developing a new social network for people interested in sharing paranormal or extraterrestrial experiences. This is a subject close to Spielberg’s heart, not only because such phenomena figure large in his body of work, but also because he has reportedly run into more than one ghost himself. The project itself is back from the dead, says TechCrunch, having been originally associated with Yahoo but killed before launch.