• Russian Laws, KGC questions

    Hours Categories Game talk
    Comments 2 Comments

    Did you know that the Laws of Online World Design have been translated into Russian? Courtesy of Dmitry Nozhnin.

    I forgot that the KGC organizers also asked us to answer some interview questions so I’ve added that to the Interviews page.

    What do you expect a revolutionary change or a paradigm shift in the global game industry in five years time? Also, what would be a hero or a driving force for that?

    I think that we are experiencing that shift in the game industry today. Everyone is hitting the wall of rising costs and technical barriers, and the responses we are seeing are many. Sony and Microsoft are emphasizing online and microtransactions. Nintendo is moving towards new forms of control, to try to break out of the hardcore game market. The Serious Games movement in North America is gathering a lot of steam, with more attention than ever being paid to ways in which games can teach or train. The independent game movement is also a major new trend, moving the industry (finally) onto the Internet for real, embracing digital distribution chains and unique gameplay. Europe has become a hotbed of games scholarship, developing games studies into a true academic discipline. And Korea, of course, continues to demonstrate the cutting edge of a true gaming society, where the legal issues and cultural issues of mainstream gaming are confronted on a daily basis.

    More at this link.

  • Snapshot by Linda Barnes

    Hours Categories Reading
    Comments 1 Comment

    I finished Snapshot by Linda Barnes last night. I gotta wonder, why is it that female detectives in Boston must all be seeing a shrink and involved with a guy connected to the mob…

    That said, good as the last Sunny Randall book was, there’s something gritty about the Carlotta Carlyle mysteries by Barnes that seems to capture the vibe of a decaying Boston much better. There’s a surprising number of mentions of how often cars get stolen, for example — and my memory of Boston is of seeing bicycle rims everywhere, still chained to bike racks, while the rest of the bike is missing.

    I first tried this series out because the detective plays steel guitar (and in fact, that was the name of one of the books in the series)…

    You know, I also have to wonder how many people are a bit taken aback by how many series detective novels I consume. 🙂 Well, the next book on my vacation stack is an Andrew Greeley generational saga, so we’ll see how all the game geeks cope with that…!

  • The Sunday Poem: Soul Food

    Hours Categories The Sunday Poem
    Comments 1 Comment

    If we are what we eat then dogs are kibble,
    All bounding grains and some
    Substantial portion of lamb.
    And us? Walking past a park we are all

    Gangly asparagus and sly cabbage,
    Chicken more often than we’d like,
    All too often greasy fingered from fast
    Eatings, while time takes away time.

    Society ladies folded and folded over
    Canapés, some revealing dustbin leftovers
    And a tasteless heart, others housing
    A surprise of flavor within complexity.

    Powerful men made of the juices
    Of dried up things, raisins and plums,
    Often sniffed and judged wanting, with
    All the taste in the bouquet.

    Working men, beefy and blood red
    Hearty from the day and from the dirt,
    With a dash of potatoes behind their ears
    And a dash of hops to keep their heads up.

    Last, a surprise, the girls from both coasts,
    Willowy to haggard, caught in their seasons,
    Rose and primrose, orchid, dandelion,
    Haughty, wondrous gaudy, tasteless flowers.

    – July 8th, 2001

  • r u redy 4 txt?

    Hours Categories Reading
    Comments 4 Comments

    Just the other week, while I was in Korea, I faced the interesting task of explaining to Korean native speakers the phenomenon of “texting,” asking whether there was imilar jargon and slang being used in korean Internet-speak. They said that yes, there was, but they were intensely amused by the linguistic distortions inherent in the best SMS and l33t.

    And now I see that the classics are getting translated. I dunno, as a former English major I ought to be horrified, but instead, I find charm in these:

  • Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” which describes hunky Mr. Darcy as “fit&loadd” (handsome and wealthy).
  • the ending to Jane Eyre — ‘MadwyfSetsFyr2Haus.’ (Mad wife sets fire to house.)
  • Hamlet’s famous query, “To be or not to be, that is the question,” becomes “2b? Nt2b? ???”
  • John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost” begins “devl kikd outa hevn coz jelus of jesus&strts war.” (“The devil is kicked out of heaven because he is jealous of Jesus and starts a war.”)

    • In particular, color me unsurprised that Bleak House reduces down to a couple of sentences. That’s Dickens for ya.

  • On vacation!

    Hours Categories Misc, Open thread
    Comments 4 Comments

    Blog posts may slow down somewhat. I intend to read, visit family, play guitar, and sketch, not necessarily in that order.

    The Making Light blog does open threads every once in a while. Consider this to be one. Post whatever, have a conversation amongst yourselves. Argue politics and religion.