Yes, yes, I promise I will write “Do levels suck? Part Two” soon.
In the meantime, Terra Nova: How to end a world? discusses the end of Asheron’s Call 2. It calls to mind for me, however, the ways in which betas have ended.
At the end of the UO beta, we had a very lengthy beta event to better explain the storyline. It was one of the few events that I’ve gotten to write for an MMO, and I jumped in with short stories and everything!
Many thanks to Kiyoshi Shin for the first review of A Theory of Fun in Japan!
Looks like you can pick the book up at Amazon.jp and at O’Reilly Japan.
Gotta Love Google translation, btw:
You think in the one which has interest in game design theory whether it was added new necessary book-reading. Furthermore, the place, Japanese, is grateful after all don’t you think? is. He the プレゼン chaos is good, it is is, it is the book to which the atmosphere is transmitted that way (new)
“Hey, look. There’s Santa over in front of the store. You wanna get your picture taken with him?”
“Nah.”
“Why not?”
“That’s not Santa, that’s just some guy in a suit.”
It was a tremendous fall:
From the height of the hay bales,
Stacked two stories high, to the floor
Of the barn and the bicycle that broke
The fall and nearly my neck.
I prefer not to think about how close I came.
The scar, a tiny spot of weaker flesh
Shaped like a distant crescent moon,
Remains, as does the barn;
But the hay bales are gone.
I expected to see them still
There, and myself caught midair,
Pudgy childhood hands, shirt
Flapping and exposing skin tanned
By a reckless summer. Me, suspended
Forever, before the bruise and the poultice
Of stinging herbs.
I’d walk under me, pretend
To catch me, poke at my smaller limbs,
Try to recognize my face
Full of its incredulous joy and fear, even try
To pull me down
From that ridiculous frozen flailing position.
But no proof remains that I ever flew.
Just that once a bicycle stopped my face.
No evidence of anything tremendous,
Except the way my eyes avoid a spot
Precisely 17 feet and 4 inches above the floor,
3 yards from the tool rack’s
Southern edge, right under
The rafter I missed, a spot
Roughly boy-shaped and soaring.
I mentioned in the comment thread for part one of “Do Levels Suck?” that I ought to post one of the old LegendMUD quests I designed and implemented way back when.
So here it is, offered up as proof that I don’t just do sandboxes. 🙂
