Just got word that Imaginary Realities (to my knowledge the only webzine covering muds in any serious manner) has reprinted a couple of items from this website. They also reprinted Marian Griffith’s essay on mud critique from the MUD-Dev list–definitely worth checking out.
On the music front, the CD is mixed but not mastered.
More news once it’s actually done! 🙂
So we’re at the mixing phase on my CD, and I’ve gone ahead and put up a rough mix of one of the tunes. You can hear it under Music/What I Play, and read the lyrics there too. I also put chord forms for it (not full tablature, sorry, don’t have the time just now!) under Music/Guitar Stuff.
Let me know if you learn it, if you like it, if you think I should never be heard in public again, or whatever, on my Guestbook…
In other news, I am off for the next few days to Chris Crawford’s Interactive Storytelling conference at his home in Oregon. Should be a lot of fun, and a welcome break. I’ve got some thoughts I recently articulated on Usenet about the forms that “plot” takes in online games, complete with a 3d grid… I’ll have to post it once I get back.
The essay on Video games, or online worlds, as art is finally up. You can find it under Gaming/Misc Writings. I’ve already started wondering in my head what snippet the VaultNetwork will excerpt, since they seem to visit this site with disturbing regularity. 🙂
(Guys, I suggest paragraph four)…
For those few of you who visit because of the music section– I am in the studio! I’ve got a CD’s worth of basic tracks recorded now, and will be doing overdubs over the next few weeks. I hope to get some friends of mine in. The material ranges from fingerstyle instrumentals to blues and folk rock, with basic tracks done “live in the studio.” Stretch Williams is producing. Once it’s done, I’ll see about putting up MP3s on the website. I’m pretty excited, and it’s made a great break from just doing game design all day.
Brief aside:
Sometimes having a website can be a bit disturbing.
To wit, recently I was asked permission by someone affiliated with a UO fan site to have images and material from this site used in Windows wallpaper. About me. For public distribution.
Scary. Not sure I have much more to say about that, other than it made me rather uncomfortable and I asked that the wallpaper not be distributed…
I’ve reproduced a recent interview on online community building that I did for the VaultNetwork, with their kind permission.
Along the lines of the above, the blurb at IGN.PC said it was an interview with “one of the legends of online game design.” Eep. Do those guys happen to be affiliated with the above UO site? Anyway, the interview is under Gaming/Interviews.
Haven’t written the essay on “computer games as art” yet. Bruce Sterling was encouraging me to do it at the museum talk, and then Littleton happened, and a whole slew of new issues arose that I wanted to talk about involving censorship of games and social responsibility in their design… so who knows when I’ll write anything about it. There’s enough commentary about Littleton without adding my two cents.
Lastly, my wife Kristen has posted a whole bunch of new pictures of our kids, you can reach them thru the Bio section.
I’m giving a presentation entitled Virtual Worlds: A Live Interactive Presentation as part of a monthly series of programs organized by the Austin Museum of Art. It will be taking place at On the Avenue (823 Congress Ave) this Thursday, April 22nd, at 6pm. You need tickets, but I don’t know the details of this or if it is patrons only or what.
This does mean I will miss the regular UO House of Commons chat! 🙁 I will also see about putting up an essay form of what I’ll be talking about (“computer games as art” anyone?)
