Whither Online?

 Posted by (Visited 12341 times)  Game talk
Jun 202007
 

This was an editorial that appeared in Game Informer in 2005. I am supposed to be on a plane. It’s already posted on the site, but I figured I’d make a blog post out of it anyway.

Whither online?

Anyone remember what cyberspace looked like a decade ago? There we were, all fresh arrivals in the Metaverse, dreaming of Snow Crash’s virtual bars and William Gibson’s skies like televisions on dead channels. We wondered if the Holodeck would require one of those newfangled 3d hardware video cards or not. If we were really old-school sci-fi fans, maybe we thought about Bradbury’s Veldt or Vernor Vinge’s “True Names.”

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My Vision Doc outline

 Posted by (Visited 22946 times)  Game talk
Jun 192007
 

Here is the full outline of what I have developed over the years as my preferred Vision Doc format. Usually I do a one-sheet before this, which could literally be the first two pages of this. It’s mostly tailored towards largish projects, but could apply to smaller ones as well.

The purpose of this sort of doc is to make sure you have a core reference for “what you’re making” that you can hand to both internal and external folks. Losing sight of what you’re trying to make is a common pitfall on larger projects, and can be disastrous.

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Art! or Art? or Art :P

 Posted by (Visited 8532 times)  Game talk
Jun 192007
 

game, game, game and again game.

So, honestly, it made me think. Certainly there was an overabundance of artsiness, but there was also raw application of game elements to discussing serious subjects. There were moments where I said “this is expressing something serious.” There were also moments where I said “gimme a break.”

Two notable articles

 Posted by (Visited 5942 times)  Game talk
Jun 182007
 

The first one, entitled “Second Earth,” over at Technology Review, is an excellent summary of many of the “metaverse” trends. Mirror worlds, Google Earth, MMORPGs, etc etc — it’s all here. Trivia question for the audience: what MMORPG was John Hanke once involved in?

The second one is Julian Dibbell’s New York Times article “Life of a Chinese Gold Farmer.” (reg may be required). Until Ge Jin’s documentary comes out, this is one of the best glimpses into what the life of gold farming is actually like in China.

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