(Ln(x))³

The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.

RSS feeds: v0.91; v1.0 (RDF); v2.0; Atom.

4:20pm on Monday, 12th May, 2008:

Duologies

Comment

At the Indie Games Convention, Brian Green recommended the book Banewreaker. It's basically a standard the Lord of the Rings epic as seen by the (supposedly) evil side. I was quite enjoying it, but sensed that feeling of under-editing that you often get in books that are more than one volume long. Of course, if I'd read the cover ("Volume One of The Sundering") I may have realised this sooner...

So, my problem is, do I buy volume two?

[Warning: minor spoilers ahead.]

The plot of the book concerns a prophecy. The way things stand, at every single opportunity for the prophecy to be deflected or derailed or stalled, it's carried on serenely. From this, I deduce that there is pretty well zero chance of the prophecy's failing to be fulfilled, which means volume two (the final volume) is going to be one almighty train wreck. Knowing that the bodies of all those characters in possession of an ounce of sympathy will be strewn around in pieces, should I buy it anyway? I don't actually want to see it happen, so not reading about it is the wise thing to do, but then there's a faint chance that some may survive, or that there's some kind of redemption, so it won't all be grimness. That said, everyone who's died so far has done so in a fairly pointless manner and with pointless results, so I don't expect things to change there, either.

Oh, maybe I'll just read the other book Brian recommended, The Innkeeper's Song...

Permalink.

4:00pm on Monday, 12th May, 2008:

Back Home

Pictures of Potsdam

Anecdote

I found out that if you deliberately drop broken camera, it can make it take photos again. I also found that it takes only 6-8 photos before running out of battery — and that's if you take the batteries out between pictures. If you leave them in, you're lucky to get 3 snaps before they're spent.

So, at great expense in battery purchases, here are some pictures of Potsdam...

A leaf stuck behind some bark on a plane tree:

Yes, I'm aware I didn't exactly make every shot count...

Here's a windmill:

According to the tourist map, it had to be repaired in 1998 after being badly damaged by fire in 1945.

As capital of the region of Brandenburg, Potsdam has its own Brandenburg Gate:

It also has its own rhinosceros hanging from straps:

These look so bad I guess they must be art:

I took a picture of this street because I thought the houses looked Dutch:

When I looked at the map, it turns out Potsdam has a Dutch Quarter...

The Germans don't seem to regard dandelions as weeds. There are huge carpets of them growing everywhere:

It's Spargelzeit here in Germany at the moment:

"Spargel" is one of those random German words I somehow know, like Zauberlehrling and Zimmer: it (Spargel) means "asparagus". Many restaurants put on a special Spargel menu, with half a dozen different Spargel specialities that are pretty much the same as every other restaurant's Spargel specialities.

Potsdam used to be in East Germany:

I wonder which building the communists constructed?

British Scientologists try to ensnare you in their lunatic cult by offering a free personality test. Not so in Germany:

Remember: the "-ology" part is the same as in "astrology", not as in "psychology" or "sociology".

What happens if no-one ever removes the posters that are stuck on walls?

You could build a papier maché house from enough of that stuff.

Instructions to the masses always work best in English, don't you think?

See this mosque?

Ha! Tricked you! It's actually a pumping station for the local landscaped gardens. I wonder if the Moslem population of Potsdam has a mosque disguised as a pumping station?

The buildings in the centre of Potsdam are all in good order and often very elegant. Walk a bit off the beaten track, though, and you find things like this:

The communists didn't deliberately demolish old buildings, but they couldn't organise the resources to stop them from decaying.

Finally, it turns out I'm not the only person mentioned on lampposts after all!

Permalink.

8:10pm on Saturday, 10th May, 2008:

The Joy of Design

Anecdote

Today, I missed the final third of the Philosophy of Games conference to go to the Media Design Institute in Berlin, which runs a games degree. There, I spoke to about 20 of their students for around two hours, giving them my complete theory of why people play MMORPGs.

That 20 final-year undergraduates had come in to hear me talk on a Saturday morning in a language foreign to them was remarkable enough (especially given the attitude of many of my own students to attending my lectures), but after lunch (cookies and gummy bears) they presented their own ideas for an MMO. There were four of these, but we only had time to listen to three before we were thrown out of the building.

Now these students had only been working on their ideas for about 4 weeks, so things were a bit patchy. They'd gone into lots of detail in some places and less detail in others, so often they couldn't see what the consequences would be on later parts of the decisions they'd made in the earlier parts. As a designer, I could also sense they had conflicts between what they wanted to express and what they were expressing; for example, they might want a sandbox world, implying great freedom, but then impose unnecessary limitations on what the players could do in some specific aspect of play — an obvious tension to me, but one they wouldn't necessarily pick up on themselves until they'd spent lot more time on their designs. I think this was basically down to their not yet trusting their instincts: all the projects had elements to them which had come from other virtual worlds, but they hadn't yet figured that they were allowed not to put those things in if they didn't fit. So, they mainly had a lack of self-assurance, but that will definitely come.

Oh, and they were all blissfully unaware of the devious, scheming nature of some players, and the susceptability of their designs to griefing. I suggested they might want to consider how they could break their own designs (which is actually a good exercise anyway, because it means you get to understand your designs more). Hmm, maybe should have asked them to try to break each other's too, come to think of it...

If this were all there were to the day, I'd have returned a happy man. I love talking to people who are willing to listen, but also willing to challenge; who can be effortlessly inventive; who become excited by ideas, and can convey that excitement through their designs.

That wasn't all there was to the day, though. There was something else that was, alone, worth this four-day trip to Germany just to experience. One of the teams had an absolutely beautiful — that's beautiful way of handling religion. In the nearly 30 years I've been working in virtual worlds, I've never come across it before. It was stunningly elegant — I'm almost welling with tears here just thinking about it. It was one of those moments of designer joy that can't be expressed in words, that, I don't know, perhaps only 20 people in the whole world would fully appreciate, but is just awesome if you're one of those 20 people.

The students who described it liked it, and knew it was good, but I don't think they knew quite how good it was. That's as it should be: they included it because it said something they wanted to say, and the fact that it was a brilliant mechanic was just a bonus. It was there because it needed to be there, but my oh my, it was sweet.

Yeah, I know, you want me to tell you what it was they came up with so you can judge for yourself how good it is; sadly, I don't feel I can tell you. In part, this is because if you're not one of the 20 people who'll go OH MY GUCKING FOD when you hear it, you'll either take that as an insult or as evidence that I'm an addled old timer. However, the main reason I'm not repeating it is because it's not my idea to repeat. It would be like telling you how a magic trick works before it was performed. I'd prefer to give the magicians chance to show you the trick first — they deserve it.

Jeez, though, why has no-one thought of it before?

This is why I'm a virtual world designer.

Permalink.

7:30pm on Saturday, 10th May, 2008:

Curious Facts

Weird

Roughly the same proportion of German people think English people watch Dinner for One on New Year's Eve as English people have never heard of it.

An innocuous riverside café in Berlin can serve Vienna Schnitzel that tastes better than the ones you get in Vienna.

All German T-shirts made for teenaged girls have words on them in English. If those words are: "I'm a fucking princess", that isn't apparently a problem.

The bridges over major roads look exactly the same design as the bridge over the A12 near where I live. The same blue arches, the same white support struts — they're identical.

German radio stations in taxis can only play songs sung in English, even if they're being sung by Germans. This includes the jingles.

If you accidentally turn your bag upside-down when getting out of a car, causing your camera to fall a metre to the ground, it can stop said camera from being able to take photographs. So, no pictures of Potsdam tomorrow...

Permalink.

11:11pm on Friday, 9th May, 2008:

Pay Attention, Essex University

Comment

This is what a university campus should look like:

Permalink.

11:09pm on Friday, 9th May, 2008:

My Name in Lights

Weird

It's a little odd to see my name everywhere:

It must be on every tree and lamppost in Potsdam:

Permalink.

10:38pm on Thursday, 8th May, 2008:

Some Things I Learned Today

Anecdote

Unlike every other major city in Europe, people live in the centre of Berlin and commute to work in the suburbs. Normally, it's the other way round.

The Danish language has two genders, both neutral.

If you don't mark taps so people can tell hot from cold, then they can unknowingly drink water from the hot pipes that they really shouldn't be drinking.

There are laptops out there with a 6-hour battery life. That's 5 hours more than mine can manage...

Americans pronounce the surname Crowther with the first four letters having the same sound as the bird, "crow", rather than rhyming with "cow" as they do in the UK.

Post-modernism only gets worse.

Five attempts at saying the word "cinematographically" isn't enough for me to get it right.

For me, French is the opposite of art. I can understand French but can't generate it; I can generate art, but can't understand it.

Using slides as an aide memoire is now old-fashioned. All but one of today's speakers presented slides but read directly from their printed notes. One didn't even notice that her slides weren't showing until someone pointed it out.

There are 72 channels on the TV, all in German except BBC World (which is on twice).

It's possible to have an Internet connection that will open an ftp connection but won't transmit data on it. That's why the QBlog index page has disappeared...

Permalink.

1:54pm on Wednesday, 7th May, 2008:

Strange Words

Weird

I've heard people with bad speech impediments before, but the man sitting in front of me on the bus this morning sounded like a wookie. His wife understood him just fine, though.

The people doing the security checks at Stansted were talking to each other in French, which was a surprise. Normally, when they talk among themselves, it's in some language from the Indian subcontinent.

My 3-egg omolette with bacon at Frankie & Benny's was supposed to come with hash browns, fried bread and grilled tomato. It actually came just with the hash browns. When I queried it, I was told that the menu was wrong (although apparently not the part with the price on, of course).

Permalink.

8:40am on Wednesday, 7th May, 2008:

To Potsdam!

Gamers and Politics

Comment

I finally got around to making it:

Hmm, do you think I should maybe drop the Republican/Democrat thing?

Meanwhile, it's available on apparel...

Permalink.

8:52am on Tuesday, 6th May, 2008:

Trivial Details

Comment

Remember how I spent a few weeks of last year writing trivia questions? Well, the game that uses them is finally being launched this Wednesday — Wits and Wagers.

OK, so my questions don't appear until the expansion pack(s) and I don't have an Xbox so I can't play it myself, but hey, it's not often I get to work on a game and am allowed to say so in public. This one I am, so that's what I'm doing!

Permalink.

5:15pm on Monday, 5th May, 2008:

Overhead in Tesco's

Weird

Tesco member of staff speaking into in-store radio: "no, I can't tell you if that's on a need-to-know basis".

I guess the information as to whether it was on a need-to-know basis was itself only available on a need-to-know basis.

Permalink.

12:37pm on Sunday, 4th May, 2008:

I Am the Ruf

Weird

A bumper crop of Observer references today...

OK, so the Observer has a long-standing piece in the sports pages called "You Are the Ref". The idea is that you send in some obscure but theoretically plausible situation that might face a football referee, and the reader has to guess what the right course of action is. A real referee then gives the correct interpretation.

Here, for example, is this week's YATR:

Being interested in games rules and all, I thought I'd give it a shot, so a couple of weeks ago I concocted a suitable odd series of events and submitted them to the YATR people. I received an email telling me that my query had been passed on to Keith Hackett, the referee who provides the answers.

Now, none of the three questions posed this week are mine. Look at the winner of the "best question" award, though:

Someone with a name really close to mine won? Or my name was misspelled and associated with the wrong question?

It's a spooky world we live in...

Permalink.

12:25pm on Sunday, 4th May, 2008:

Superior Art

Outburst

More from today's Observer...

Somehow dimly aware that Grand Theft auto IV is critically-acclaimed, the Observer decided to spend a page commenting on whether or not it was art. It invited three non-gamer critics to do the job. Here's an excerpt from what Bidisha, "author and critic", thought:

Why would anyone working on GTA IV even remotely consider pitching a TV show?! They're working on GTA IV! There are millions of people who would love to have that job! Why would anyone give it up to make a show for HBO?

Maybe it's some kind of coded reference that I've missed. Perhaps HBO shows are famed among critics for their poor dialogue, and the implication is that GTA IV's scripts are so bad they're only fit for HBO — I don't know. Given the perplexing reference to playing her "Dungeons & Dragons board game" on her own, it's hard to figure out what's irony and what's ignorance. However, the fact that she didn't italicise Dungeons & Dragons doesn't bode well...

Permalink.

Latest entries.

Archived entries.

About this blog.

(Ln(x))3

Duologies

Back Home

Pictures of Potsdam

The Joy of Design

Curious Facts

Pay Attention, Essex University

My Name in Lights

Some Things I Learned Today

Strange Words

To Potsdam!

Gamers and Politics

Trivial Details

Overhead in Tesco's

I Am the Ruf

Superior Art

(Ln(x))³