Heard from reliable sources that Tektonic Studios has cancelled 9th Domain, and the entire team was looking for work at GDC.

I was really only paying attention to this title because Chris “Stormwaltz” L’Etoile was working there up until the close, and Ragnar Scheuermann and Andrew Southwick had been there until they bailed last winter. Shrug. Cross one more MMOG off your development list, for those who keep them.

My parents came over for the weekend. Among other things, they helped me move a couch and a bookcase from a Goodwill in the next town, up to my apartment. After getting hosed down with Oxy Clean and Febreeze, the couch no longer smells like old cat. I spent part of the day transferring my books from the boxes that have been strewn around my empty living room to the bookcase.

I then take the empty boxes to the dumpster, and what do I find?

THE EXACT SAME KIND OF BOOKCASE. The one I paid $30 for, and waited a week for help moving it to my apartment. Someone was throwing it out! Granted, it was upside down and the shelves had been removed for some reason, but it probably would have been just as good as the one in my apartment.

Freaking people. I might take it if I could move a six-foot-tall bookcase up to my second-floor apartment.

I told Lum that Battlefield: Vietnam could very well be the first war protest game. Not that it’s especially un-fun, but it succeeds in illustrating the futility of war. It’s a faithful update of Battlefield 1942, which had its own sense of futility, but perhaps the model works better with a war that didn’t really end the way anyone expected.

DICE probably crammed more artwork into any FPS yet made with its depiction of Vietnam’s jungles, and crammed even more information and commentary about the time period. The game points out how the North Vietnamese claimed several times the casualties of U.S. soldiers, and points out the element of public relations and media involvement that changed the public perception of war forever. (The comments stop short of suggesting that the U.S. could have won the war had it not pulled out, and it also leaves out the factor of time — nine years is a long time for a country to put up with an armed conflict, the morality of the war notwithstanding.)

DICE also makes grand use of Vietnam-era music, including several war protest songs. It’s not quite as pervasive as Vice City, but each new map has its own segment of a song to play while it loads.

Lum is sort of an expert on war games, so he pointed out I was wrong about BF:V being the first war protest game. That probably goes to Chris Crawford’s Balance of Power, from 1985. “The game irrevocably leads you to a nuclear exchange which is just a black screen with the words, ‘No bombs or explosions, we don’t reward failure.’”

So it was a Cold War protest game. Lately it’s hard to look back and see which was more pointless, that war or the one we’re on now. I’m sure we were all feeling better about the state of the world 20 years ago, though, even if there were supposedly nuclear weapons pointed at our heads. I’d rather have Commies than Terrorists, myself.

My parents are supposed to call me in another four hours. They called me at work eight hours ago. Have I got any sleep?

Popped in my DVD of Fight Club to watch. Maybe it was just because someone dropped the rumor on the SomethingAwful forums earlier this week that Chuck Palahniuk, the edgy author I sometimes rave about, is in fact gay. I’d already been acquainted with Fight Club’s over-arching theme of emasculation, but watching it again, I realize it is not only gay, it is really, really gay.

So, other being nihilistic as all fuck, including lots of emotional climaxes as well as shit blowing up, all with the music-video glitz of a David Fincher flick, why is this six-year-old movie so special to me, given that I am not, in fact, as gay as this movie?
Continue reading Near-life experience….

[20:03] [j] I'm still reading "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk.
[20:03] [j] I'm actually reading it right before I go to sleep.
[20:04] [j] It involves four very weird characters traveling the country in search of a certain page of a book, that contains a poem that if read to a person, it makes them instantly die.
[20:04] [j] Dark comedy ensues.
[20:07] [sancus] j: So kinda like a Finger of Death scroll, huh?
[20:07] [sancus] I've got 5 of those in my bag of holding.. want one?

Continue reading Can’t sleep….

One of my favorite forums to talk in, Waterthread, recently moved. This wouldn’t have been a problem had the forums, the reason why I came at all, come along for the ride.

Shrug. I’m not coming with. Waterthread is off my links list (which should tell you something, given how often I update it), and replaced with Anyuzer, which has a completely unfamiliar crew of misfits, but Ian Reid, Anyuzer himself, knows how to rant, and rant often. His report on what’s happened since the move covers everything I’d want to say.

Anyway, if you want to read my comments on the issue, read Anyuzer’s boards.

Edit: OK, better give props to The Corporation for getting G.Bob to write a look-back piece on his history working for EA (he used to be a community rep for UO2,) and some thoughts on the closing of Earth & Beyond. (Me, I wish I knew what happened to Niobe.)

Anyway, the Corp’s had a long on-again, off-again history, but it has an ever-expanding staff of good writers who used to be prolific, but have trouble coming up with material every day of the week. (Don’t we all?) It’s in the links list now, too. Oh, and Mr. Poppinfresh is annoyed with Joe, too. (Aren’t we all?)

Just got back from the matinee of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was a good movie.
Continue reading Forget Me Not…

I’m sitting at work, and this is happening. The newspaper where I work is expanding its physical plant, which is a fancy way of saying they’re putting in an addition. Once that’s done, they’ll move the paper storage over there, then put in a new press where the old paper storage used to be. Then they’ll take out the old press and probably sell it off, leaving room for their increasingly busy commercial printing business.

The construction is making the whole building vibrate. Not in a loud or erotic way, but in an ominous way, like parts of stained ceiling tile will liquefy and rain down about my head.

Lately I’ve been looking forward to the late hours when the construction guys go home.

The award for best use of an ELO song goes to Focus Features for the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind trailer. (Longer versions are on the official site, in Quicktime and WMP.)

This could be a really cool flick. Charlie Kaufman is turning out to be the new Phillip K. Dick of our age, with all his stories forcing us to question our own reality and look inward — and Michel Gondry could just have put Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in a 90-minute White Stripes video.

But it might be cool. The video’s cool. And be sure and visit Lacuna Inc. for more.

Sun is shinin’ in the sky
there ain’t a cloud in sight.
It’s stopped rainin’
ev’rybody’s in a play.
And don’t you know
It’s a beautiful new day
hey-ey hey

Runnin’ down the avenue
see how the sun shines.
Brightly in the city on the streets
Where once was pity
Mister Blue Sky
Is living here today!

Got this in my e-mail box just now, “Email account utilization warning”:

Dear user, the management of Damnedvulpine.com mailing system wants to let you know that,

Some of our clients complained about the spam (negative e-mail content)
outgoing from your e-mail account. Probably, you have been infected by
a proxy-relay trojan server. In order to keep your computer safe,
follow the instructions.

For more information see the attached file.

Cheers,
The Damnedvulpine.com team http://www.damnedvulpine.com

I didn’t open “Document.pif”.