rebootied

I've been outside. It's overrrated.

Traditionally Outside receives extremely high ratings by those who like to see others play it, and these people are in many cases comfortably ensconced Inside themselves. Outside was released many years ago, it was in fact the first massively multiplayer game, and yet it has always managed to avoid the double-edged Retro tag. In its favor, continual user updates have kept Outside current; there are always new things to see and do Outside. Participants are permitted, to some extent, to modify their own areas of Outside, which is a large part of the fun of the game. However it seems that in the end one is modifying Outside largely for the sake of it, and having done it, there is a distinct feeling of "now what?"

In terms of the traditional target age content metrics, Outside is remarkably high in sex, violence and challenges to traditional values, despite the strong child-focussed marketing it receives. Many would go so far as to say that for a child to develop the ability to cope with Outside is essential, as long as the harm incurred is not too debilitating. Children injured playing Outside are usually comforted by parents, and soon encouraged to go Outside again; this leads to the conclusion that somehow Outside has escaped any and all of the usual moralizing that surrounds the videogaming industry. One might say that Outside gets a free pass from the Jack Thompsons of this world.

That aside, how does Outside actually rate? ( Read more... )

The fact is, I like to be scared out of my wits. I'm one of those wimps who is easily spooked yet generally enjoys the sensation. So ever since I was a kid, I've loved good horror movies -- I'd turn out the lights freak myself out with classics like Halloween, Friday the 13th or The Exorcist.

Yet here's the thing: For several years now, I've found that my favorite horror experiences aren't coming from movies any more. They're coming from games. [full (short) article at Wired]

interstice (plural interstices)
1. (noun form very rare): a small opening or space between objects, especially adjacent objects or objects set closely together, as between cords in a rope or components of a multiconductor electrical cable or between atoms in a crystal. "The part that is not there."
Quotation: (1999) "That he ran the risk of blowing out the stained-glass windows was of no consequence since no one liked them anyway, and the paper mill fumes were gnawing at the interstitial lead." - Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon

Interstitial art is a term first coined in the 1990s, and increasingly popularized in the early 2000s, that refers to any work of art whose basic nature falls between, rather than within, the familiar boundaries of accepted genres or media, thus making the work difficult to easily categorize or describe within a single artistic discipline.

To motivate a character from happiness, take away something that makes them happy, and they will go after it. Make it harder and harder to get. In the end, give them what they really want, not what they think they wanted. But only if they gave up something else in return. No victory without sacrifice. That is the holy math of story. No success without change.

avestal

Media scholar Henry Jenkins recently published an article about residual media–outmoded views of the future from a point in the past. Think of the ceramic spires of the 1939 World’s Fair, or the relentless utopias of 1950’s pulp SF. These futures are now generally viewed as overly silly or optimistic, given our wildly divergent present.
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This recent, growing interest in the paleofuture is hardly surprising. As our unimagined future compresses to a single point, the weight of our memories grows ever more dominant. It’s so hard to create new dreams; how much nicer to relive the warmth of old ones! Subgenres like steampunk and alternative history play to this sense of inverted sensibilities; instead of optimism about what will be, we’re now nostalgic about what wasn’t; with a future devoid of promise, we take refuge in the past.

gameblather