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April 29, 2006
April 26, 2006
Crazy
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy - "Original" -- haunting music video with a Rorschach blot theme. (via cwp.)
April 24, 2006
AMF, pt 2
A followup to my previous post, which Skye brings to my attention: Wired News: How Lara Croft Steals Hearts
MMORPGs as Operating Systems
There's a post from Robert Scoble that's been rattling around in my head for almost a month now: Second Life +is+ an OS.
(Rest of the essay behind ye olde jump to keep my RSS feed from spinning out of control.)
The notion is that the "game" Second Life (I'll come back to why I'm being coy about the "gameness" of Second Life in a moment). The blog discussion then devolves into petty bickering about what an OS is, how feasible the idea is, etc. But let's defer that, too -- the core notion is interesting and worth exploring.
First, what is Second Life? It's one of these Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) thingies. However, it differs from the rest of its commercial brethren in that it's not really interested in having do game-like things -- acquiring macguffins, doing quests, leveling up -- and is instead of interested solely in the social angle. One might argue that the "game" portion consists of the economic game -- the act of figuring out in-game occupations which are sufficiently interesting that other players will pay you for them.
These occupations range the gamut. The most discussed, of course, is porn -- there's a thriving and well-documented virtual sex worker trade going on in this environment. But while that gets a lot of press, what's really interesting is the actual world-building trade. Linden Labs, the company behind Second Life, provides tools for doing 3D model editing and texture creation, as well as providing programmability for these in-game objects, so that it's actually possible to become a digital craftsman, creating objects for the enjoyment (or purchase) of your fellow Second Lifers.
In fairness, this is not the first time this idea has come up: the text-based MUDs and MOOs which predated the current batch of commercial, graphical MMORPGs had this kind of functionality, although for the most part the "creation game" was really the end-game. Players who had already demonstrated commitment to the gameworld were rewarded with the title of "Wizard," and given the ability to create new spaces and objects in the world for other players to experience.
The core idea here is that Second Life -- on top of being an visually immersive environment -- also has enough programmability to make it truly customizably immersive environment.
What I find fascinating here is that this opening up inevitably leads to a profusion of content that the original producers don't expect. Second Life is populated with a baffling and fascinating array of neighborhoods and avatars, because the limits are essentially the player's imagination and time. The truly hardcore can purchase "land," and construct fanciful mansions in the sky. And, while my impression is that the digital sex trade wasn't what Linden Labs was counting on for getting attention focused on their game, I doubt that they're wringing their hands too much about how to stop it.
But customizable content is only part of the story. World of Warcraft, the ten-billion pound gorilla in this space, doesn't have customizable content at all, but what it does have is a customizable interface. There is a thriving fan-provided trade in free UI add-ons. The add-ons range from the obvious (laying out the interface differently), to the subtle (providing additional UI affordances for making repeatable tasks easier, like reminding you to re-cast a spell that lasts half an hour), to the bizarrely innovative (full-featured group calendaring applications that run entirely within the game).
It's these applications that fascinate me. In World of Warcraft's case, there's the core game, and then there's what amounts to a mediocre chatting app. The game keeps you interested by giving you interesting repetitive tasks to accomplish, and a way to talk to your friends while you're doing it. The construction of these applications are, for the most part, entirely about figuring out ways to improve both of these meta-games. The gameplay and social angle keep you coming back, and playing for hours at a time, so the social space becomes -- even though it's virtual -- a very real space where you spend a non-trivial portion of your time, and where connect with a non-trivial peer group. And now you're actually customizing that environment -- building or acquiring a library of applications which make your "work," for lack of a better term, in this space more productive and fun.
So are they really operating systems? Well, I guess you could probably set up your laptop so that it appeared to boot up into Second Life or World of Warcraft. They've got login screens, they've got mail and calendaring systems, you could probably even write yourself a nice little word processor. Some guys spend all non-sleep and non-work time in these environments -- really, all they're lacking is a web browser and an AIM gateway. I don't think Apple or Microsoft are in danger of being outsold by WoWtops -- I feel certain there's no percentage in Blizzard going all the way down to the wire of writing OpenGL drivers and disk drivers and keyboard drivers and all the other crap that is, really, what an OS is.
But are they customizable environments where actually people spend their time doing "work" with a variety of "applications"? Absolutely. And that's a little freaky and interesting. The diversity of activity that can be engaged in in these environs is pretty astonishing. WoW currently has six million users -- there's something going on there.
April 21, 2006
V for Vendetta
In short: I really liked it. I was dubious -- it was adapted by the brothers Wachowski, and while I found much to like in the Matrix 2&3, I have to acknowledge the movies' flaws as well. But here, with a protagonist in a grinning mask of Comedy, they manage to sidestamp camp and affect and cut to the emotional heart of revolution.
I was also struck by the final fight sequence -- there's a kind of neat reversal from the tropes of The Matrix. After all, somebody else needs lots of guns... and actually dodging bullets is so 1999.
April 20, 2006
Trying to get a refund
Trying to get a refund on a video game...or, My policy differs from yours: "Yeah, that's a good policy. However it no longer applies to me. I have my receipt and an unopened game. I would like a refund." (via Kotaku)
Tee hee.
Only Giant Robots Need Apply
One of the things that got me going to a particular local, non-chain video store was the fine selection of anime (the other thing being that it was a local, non-chain video store). That being said, it's been a few years since I've watched any anime -- it all goes in cycles, and I've been in the videogame cycle for a while now. So, recently, I decided to dip my toe back in.
Unfortunately, either my tastes have changed, or the market has. The two things I've rented recently -- whose names I will spare you -- put Evangelion to shame for pointless emo navel-gazing and soulful singing on the background music. Don't even get me started on the literally two minutes spent with one character looking at another, and the camera just panning left-to-right from one guy's eyes to the other. OK WE GET IT*.
* that you're cheap and you want to just draw one cel and pan over it for two minutes, not to mention creatively bankrupt.
On top of this, local video store appears to have sussed out that most of their audience is really there for the tentacle porn, and it shows in their current choices of what anime gets placed "face out." I'm going out on a limb, and figuring most of those DVDs aren't about young, idealistic medical students.
So... yeah. Chris recommended Bleach, and other folks have recommended Full Metal Alchemist but... they're not really what I'm looking for either. To be honest, I think I hit the high point years ago with one of the first things I rented, Duel. Short, cheesy, had giant robots and goofy comedy -- win/win. Surely there's more of that out there?
Update: How did I forget Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex? Oh yeah -- because it may as well be in a different genre, it kicks so much ass.
April 17, 2006
Participant Culture Ate My Dog
From the inimitable scans_daily community (it's Warren Ellis-Approved™), a couple of terrifyingly entertaining videos:
Watch 'em now before they go back in the vault!
April 15, 2006
Adolescent Male Fantasies
I've been trying to figure out what the mass appeal of the Tomb Raider franchise is, and this morning it finally came to me. The game's all about jumping, running, climbing tombs, all while dressed in a variety of stylish women's outfits. Clearly, this game taps into the deep-seated boyhood fantasy we all share of being Eddie Izzard.
Steam-Powered Episodes
They were a plucky young company, with nothing more than a dream in their pocket and a nickel in their eye. They had a vision -- a vision of getting out from under "the man" and making money hand over fist on their own terms. With a couple of modestly successful shooters under their collective belt -- cult favorites about an MIT professor with an attitude -- they were ready to branch out into a brave new world. The brave new world of $20 digitally-distributed episodic content.
The hypegasm for Half-Life 2: Episode One has hit gale force recently, and I -- not being the better man -- was compelled, nay forced, to launch the Steam client and see what digitally delivered delights awaited my decisive declamation of debit card digits.
When last we encountered Steam, we were pretty sad, mainly because it appeared to be all about roadblocks in the way of the CD we'd already purchased. So, this time, I'm trying from the "right" direction. I pre-ordered Sin Episodes: Emergence so that on the day of reckoning, instead of waiting, nay fidgeting, by the phone for my EB dealer to give me "the call," I can simply boot up the machine and get the party started. And, I gotta say, this time the experience was pleasant. They've improved the Steam UI substantially -- now it feels more like a groovy kind of gray, instead of a "Welcome to City 17" kind of gray. And the pre-load experience was much less irritating when I started it, and then proceeded to go play Tomb Raider instead.
The most fascinating and unexpected part was that the original Sin game was included. Man, the things we thought looked awesome back in the day. Wow. Get me out of this crazy time machine!
April 14, 2006
Tomb Raider: Legend
When I went in to pick up Katamari, I wandered by the PC aisle, and found the recent advertising hype for the latest Tomb Raider game washing over me in an irresistible wave. The last time I touched a Tomb Raider game was a decade ago -- after having finally gotten on board with this whole crazy "3D card" revolution, I tried out the demo of the first game, and found myself hopelessly lost and confused.
The series has had a strange history -- the notional game is hugely popular, but every recent game has been considered mediocre at best. So, as time has passed, my curiosity has grown as the series has declined. So now, finally, comes an entry that not only is supposed to be good, but is also designed for the so-called next generation of consoles -- how could I resist?
I have nothing to compare against, but so far I'm finding the game quite enjoyable. I'm probably a third of the way through, and I've found the gameplay all I'd hoped it to be. The core of the game is exploration and puzzle solving, and the puzzles have all been suitably satisfying and epic. The platforming elements are entertaining and well done. The scenery is breathtaking -- the most recent level I've played shifts from scaling up a waterfall to scouring the innards of an ancient temple in a suitably cinematic way. The game employs a depth-of-field technique to great effect, and gets little details like water spray right.
The game's not perfect, by any stretch: gunplay is diverting but simplistic, the camera can be frustrating, and the console mechanic of save points is, as always, infuriating. It can be especially infuriating during the occasional motorcycle sequence, sequences which are brutally unforgiving to poor steering. But these faults, while irritating, aren't dealbreakers. Ultimately the game's action movie sensibilities win out over the imperfections -- there's a sense of adrenaline-fueled pacing that pulls you to the next sequence quite effectively.
One last note on the cinema angle: the cutscenes take a page from the Indigo Prophecy school of interactivity. It's not as involved or distracting as in IP, but it hooks right into that same idea of breaking down the empathy wall and making you believe you're a stakeholder in what's fundamentally a canned action scene. It's great.
Me & My Katamari
I picked up Me & My Katamari (for the PSP) a few days back, because it was one of those games I'd been waiting for forever to show up on a portable device.
And it's very Katamari.
I'm not sure there's much more to say about it beyond that, other than that it puts the PSP's lack of dual analog sticks into stark relief.
April 12, 2006
Blizzard has a sense of humor
First, see this FoxTrot strip. Then see this item that Blizzard added to the game recently.
(Yes, I just got one. HOW COULD I NOT?)
April 10, 2006
Typecasting
Some boxes of type seen in an antique shop:
OK, Flickr might do as a photo sharing platform.
April 05, 2006
Most baffling backlash ever
So, Bethesda (makers of Oblivion), have unveiled for-pay downloadable microcontent for the game. What's interesting is how it has played out: "Swell. Stupid Oblivion Horse Coming To PC" (Kotaku).
Basically, there's a ton of people out there who are very very angry that Bethesda would charge money for new content. Since, as we know, once you buy a piece of software, you are entitled to all follow-on work inspired by that software for ever and all time. This is why developers enjoy releasing software, by the way -- they enjoy entering that period of pure art for arts sake where they simply work on free, open-source versions of software that -- having been sold once -- can never be ethically sold again.
But I digress. What I think is weird about this uproar is that it's over a $2.50 (or $2, depending on if you are an XBox 360 or PC player of the game) piece of content that is essentially a bit of in-game bling. Something that's effectively no different then buying a face plate for your cell phone, or an action figure for a show you like. Or, maybe, a book based on your favorite Joss Whedon show. Did Joss screw you by releasing some content in a micropayable add-on optional form (eg, a comic book or book) when -- if he was a responsible content provider -- he would have just tossed that storyline into the show proper? I rend and gnash my teeth!
Sorry. This whole thing rubs me the wrong way. First off, it's $2. And, unless you're watching old John Cusack flicks, $2 is not something for one to get strung out over. Second off, it's actually a nice little add-on, if you're into dressing up your horsey, and since RPGs are ultimately about dressing things up and then setting them on fire (in whatever ratio you desire), it seems worth it. Should Bethesda have OMG finished the game and included the horse free of charge? To be honest, sometimes you have to stick a fork in it and ship the sucker. And I can't fault them for trying to think of clever little add-ons to try to jump-start this experiment in commerce. It's not like they haven't already completely opened up the mod architecture so that no end of people can make free add-ons of their own. Also, later promised add-ons look like they're even more interesting, and still the same price. And, you know what? I'd pay $5-$7 for actual story content -- I already pay that for story content in other media.
They just want their $2.