Words for the wise from the mouth of a fool.
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The weblog of Seth Johnson -------------- INKSLINGER.ORG -------------- OD ARCHIVES -------------- FEEDS Posts:  Shared Items:
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Saturday, March 16, 2002
Somebody let me know if I ever post something here that would scare off potential dates, okay? (Scary bonus: Someone on Metafilter found the blog of the gentleman under discussion.)
This guy's job is to run a crane that can lift more than 5000 tons! That's 1,000,000 pounds to you and me, and 4,536,000 kilograms for those wise enough to use metric.
In other news, I have now successfully landed a manual combo in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3. The world is my damn oyster.
If you read comics and you're not reading Black Panther, you should be. Without a doubt it's one of the smartest mainstream books on the stands, and great fun to read. Check out writer Christopher Priest's Black Panther site and dig around for a terrifically comprehensive introduction and companion to the series, including a summary of events to date in the series, and a great FAQ.
(Dig deeper into Priest's site and you'll find more great reading, including his infamous Comics Style Guide. In my own stumbling around, I was also stunned to serendipitously discover that background characters in this month's Panther had appeared earlier in a Priest-penned issue of The Ray (from DC, no less!))
Updated to add links to Ray and Panther art
Apparently Hitler loved the circus, and The Smoking Gun, as always, has proof. (Note, however, that he "doesn't care for wild animals acts, unless a woman in danger is involved.")
Friday, March 15, 2002
Everyone I know seems to be jumping into the IRC pool these days. I talked to six different people today--three of them at once, at one point. I'm not complaining; it may drag my productivity down, but at least it doesn't drop to zero like it would with a phone call.
I just wish I could kill the damn sounds on my new installation of IRC. Yes, I know how to go into the preferences. I've even gone and deleted IRC's Sounds directory. But still it keeps giving the the Windows ping! every once in a while, as if to say "I may not be able to make the annoying uh-oh! noise, but I'm going to say something, you bastard!" It's really starting to irritate me.
I have mixed feelings about Phillip Glass, but the interface to IBM's Glass Engine is pretty cool. (Warning: the faster your Net connection, the better the Engine will perform.)
Bezzy has given me a mission; to find and destroy the local owner of a seemingly defunct url. I have located the suspect and he is being watched:
DOOM IS COMING, False Bezzy!
Thursday, March 14, 2002
Why aren't you people posting? I mean, I'm up late writing, and I'm in desperate need of procrastination! My friends are all quiet, the Monkeyfans are silent, Metafilter has squat, Yahoo News has stopped updating for the night....
Thank goodness. Lileks puts up the day's post at the extreme beginning of the day.
Of course, now that I'm done enjoying the Bleat I have to go back to writing. But that's probably for the best, right?
Looking for a new hobby? Why don't you build your own roller coaster? (Of course, you should be wary of brain damage.)
Bezzy is my new hero, for providing a full WMV of the Lewis Black rant I talked about yesterday. So that I don't draw on his bandwith, I'll toss it up for you here. It's 5.27MB, so get it before I remember how much of my webspace it's taking up.
(I note that Black hasn't been playing GTA3 for long--at least in this game; he has less than $10,000, and the Mafia and the Triads aren't shooting at him as he (or, let's be honest, some Daily Show production assistant) drives willy-nilly around Portland.)
In other news, the copy of the Introversion Manifesto I posted here in the office has sparked some good conversations, most notably one this afternoon between myself, JP, and HH programmer Mike Craddick. These have solidified my opinion of the Manifesto--that while there are counter-arguments to nearly everything they say, their heart is in the right place, and I stand behind their intent.
They've also helped solidify some of my own personal opinions.
For one, I think the real next step in games will be better environments in which players help create their own experiences (with games ranging from MMORPGs to GTA3 exploring the crudest borders of the concept) rather than better scripted and polished single-experience games. There are great examples of the latter--Medal of Honor: Allied Assault comes to mind--but that way leads competition with Hollywood rather than a true exploration of gaming's unique strengths.
For two, some of my opinions on story in games and my long-announced essay on the topic. But that will have to wait until I'm free from my current freelance deadlines. Back to work on that.
"This bookstore is hard to find," she said cheerily, "and once you get here it's almost impossible to buy anything."
Next time I'm in the Twin Cities, I am going to that bookstore...
What do you get when you combine cool and dangerous? Nanotechnology. What do you get when you combine nanotech and the U.S. Army? A project to make nanotech-impregnated uniforms that can "block out biological weapons", "heal their wearers", "solidify into a a 'forearm karate glove' ", give the wearers "the ability to leap over 20-foot walls", and act as "molecular chain mail".
Okay, Jon, how much would that cost in Champions?
Are you enough of a comics geek to know why I'm worried that "Kyle Richmond" is running for office in Madison?
These days I usually see the Links of the Day on Blue's News elsewhere about a week earlier. So I have no idea how I missed a story called "Monkey thoughts control computer".
Wednesday, March 13, 2002
I keep intending to post some of my reactions to the Introversion Manifesto I posted yesterday, but Bezzy and JP have really covered that ground for me. Stop reading my blathering for a moment, go read their responses, and then stop sucking.
In case you missed the link in today's Penny Arcade, here's Lewis Black on video games. Unless you have some sort of hoodoo magic on your computer that allows you to actually view consecutive frames of RealPlayer streaming video, you'll have to just enjoy the audio and the occasional slide like I did. But it's still good fun.
Wow! Collect enough frequent filer miles and U.S. Airways will send you to space!
Oh, and howsabout playing some text-based Pong? Or creating a police sketch of your grandmother?
Still busy, but here's a nice, printable version of the Introversion Manifesto, suitable for framing. Enjoy.
Tuesday, March 12, 2002
Stopped by to make a post of my own, and I was shocked to discover that CRADDICKWATCH! is still alive and kicking! Stop by for some good, clean, Craddick-watchin' fun!
Problems on all fronts--email, FTP, Blogger--but I have persevered in order to get the following text to you for your consideration. I will update later with my own thoughts (almost 100% in agreement) once I am able and have time. But now, the Introversion Manifesto, which came to me on the Uplink bonus CD that I received in yesterday's mail:
What is wrong with our industry?
The games industry is ruled by the ego of the programmer
This is fundamentally a bad thing. Programmers are engineers - which is why we see every games company making their own engine, every company spending 90% of their time writing engine code when they should be writing games. Game design is done by these engineers, or people with this engineering background ("so they can understand what is possible and impossible") - which goes some way to explaining the glut of copies that the industry is suffering. It also explains the domination of established themes - space Sci-fi, sword/sorcery fantasy etc, since the programmers grew up with these niche genres. With the programmers responsible for establishing what is possible and what is not, the artist is immediately restricted in the worst possible way.
The programmer is ruled by the money of the publisher
Game developers often have good intentions but require the financial assistance of publishers, and have no protection against them. The majority of this money is used simply to re-invent technology that already exists. This also puts the game design in the hands of Corporate opportunists who are considerably more interested in profit than artistic expression. This unfortunate fact leads to the destruction of the last elements of creativity.
The publisher's primary aim is to produce an endless stream of revenue generators
Their interest in creating a good game is insignificant in comparison. All that money spent creating another generic copy while a more creative company is "consolidated" for daring to do something new.
The Games Industry stands on the verge of becoming an established artistic medium - one day maybe the greatest, yet at the same time it is in terrible danger of being swallowed by the Corporate world that supports it.
What is wrong with our games?
Fundamentally, Games do not need jaw dropping graphics.
Graphics that WORK are much more important - graphics that fit the theme or concept. We are not here to show off our skills at 3d engine programming. Again, the programmers ego has pushed the Games industry in the wrong direction.
90% Technology, 10% gameplay
It takes two years to write a game, and in most cases about 10% of that time is spent on game design, usually at the start and end. This is the wrong way around, since the game engines are fundamentally all the same and the games themselves are what is supposed to be different. The fact that every games company under the sun has written their own particle engine, or their own skeletal animation system, or their own physics library is symptomatic of the problem. THEY ALL DO THE SAME THING. They also all cost a fortune and take months to implement.
The common assumption "Above all else, a game must be fun" is FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED
It is also one of the reasons why the current "cutting-edge" games are still viewed as children's entertainment by the popular media. To say that any creative art form "must be fun" immediately limits the scope of any project attempted, and removes the possibility of games that have any real emotional depth or resonance - since this depth stems from conflict and drama, which are inherently negative emotions.
95% of the games available today could have been implemented using a very small number of established technologies and engines, requiring considerably less programmer time. They might not have looked quite as good, but they would have cost half as much and taken half as long to produce, freeing up time to concentrate on less trivial issues such as creativity and gameplay.
This is not a statement of intent
It is a statement of belief
It is a statement of our philosophy
This is our manifesto
Monday, March 11, 2002
Sorry if I don't have much to say today; busy upgrading and reinstalling software on my computer.
Sunday, March 10, 2002
"Ours are the people of dessert," said T.E. Lawrence picking up his fork.
More fun reading, where the Alias game (u:thewatcher/p:bypass) and espionage research collide: the CIA Interrogator's Checklist.
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