Category: Blog

I Would Play It If…

Saw the following meme/game thingy at MMO Gamers and thought I’d jump on the band wagon since I have nothing else to write about at the moment. The goal, according to Bio Break (where this little game originated), is to finish the following statement with a simple response, substituting different games into the sentence:

“I would play [TITLE OF MMORPG] if…”

Here are mine, listed in random order:

  • I would play World of Warcraft if it didn’t require as much time as it does to keep up with my always-raiding friends
  • I would play Ultima Online if I travelled through time back to 1998, or 1999, or 2000, or 2001, or 2002. And maybe 2003.
  • I would play Eve Online if it were more like Elite, and if you could fly seamlessly between space and individual planets
  • I would play the Wheel of Time MMO if it actually gets made and released, no matter the quality of the game itself. I am a WoT fanboy, after all.
  • I would play City of Heroes/Villains if I could only come up with a decent design for a superhero/arch-villain
  • I would play EverQuest 2 if I hadn’t already played a trial version of it, during which I found out that I hated the visual style of the game
  • I would play Runescape if I was 12, or if no other MMO existed
  • I would play Warhammer Online if it didn’t look and feel like a slightly twisted version of World of Warcraft (yes, I see the irony there…)
  • I would play Lineage 2 if not for nightmares of horrible, horrible GRRIIINDIIIiing
  • I would play Lord of the Rings Online if I ever should feel like having a mug of ale in The Prancing Pony
  • I would play Darkfall if I hadn’t already had my fill of getting ganked by random PKers ten years ago – and if it was actually for sale

In other news, round 2 of our (mine and Babak‘s) little blogging contest starts on the 17th/18th of May and will as usual last for one month. We use this as a method to “force” ourselves to put on our blogging hats more often, and hopefully it will lead to a whole bunch of new blog posts from the both of us.

World Builder – the movie

Woah. I just finished watching World Builder, a short film about a man building a realistic-looking virtual world using holographic tools from inside a “holodeck” of sorts.

World Builder by Bruce BranitWoah. I just finished watching World Builder, a short film about a man building a realistic-looking virtual world using holographic tools from inside a “holodeck” of sorts.

You should watch the entire thing; not only is it a quality production from start to finish, with an innovative approach to how world-building can happen in the (hopefully near) future, it also tells a surprisingly good and emotion-stirring story despite only lasting for 9 minutes and 15 seconds.

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(World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.)

It was created by digital effects artist Bruce Branit, who co-created one of the first short films (405) to get distributed widely on the Internet back in 2000 and has since had a finger (or ten) in visual effects everywhere from movies like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sin city and Serenity to TV-series like Moonlight, Lost and Pushing Daisies. Watch a reel of his work here.

One to watch, most definitely!

I’ve been challenged to a duel!

Last Friday I apparently agreed to enter into a “blogging-duel” with a co-worker of mine, Babak Kaveh. This duel only has one rule: Whoever posts the most words related to game-design or game-development over the course of a single month (the deadline is at 14:35 pm on the 20th of March) will win a free pizza from the losing part.  I’m not sure what was going through my head when I agreed to this, but in my defense it sounded like a good idea at the time. Despite the fact that I don’t even like pizza all that well (yes, color me crazy, but it’s true).

Anyhow, it’s now been two days since this thing started, and not only have I not posted anything yet, but it also seems that I’m already behind by over 5 500 words (rough estimate). Or 10 pages in Word at font size 12, if you prefer.

In an attempt to alleviate this word-deficiency I’ll be taking on Raph Koster‘s Laws of Online World Design, going through them one by one (skipping as few as I can get away with), covering them from every angle I can come up with.

Continue reading “I’ve been challenged to a duel!”

No Keyboard Detected

I’ve now replaced the temporary blog name (“Xoduz’ Blog”) I had earlier, and I feel that the new name reflects accurately what both I and this blog are all about. At first I considered using the original Guru Meditation-error as banner, but the bright red on black graphics didn’t really fit along with the rest of the blog. After long hours of tweaking, cursing and banging on my keyboard angry-german-kid style, I finally came up with a customized version that I think works nicely.

I’ve now replaced the temporary blog name (“Xoduz’ Blog”) I had earlier, and I feel that the new name reflects accurately what both I and this blog are all about. At first I considered using the original Guru Meditation-error as banner, but the bright red on black graphics didn’t really fit along with the rest of the blog. After long hours of tweaking, cursing and banging on my keyboard angry-german-kid style, I finally came up with a customized version that I think works nicely. Also, thanks to Matt aka Eolirin for continuously giving me feedback on my banner tweaks.

Why this name for the blog? inquiring minds might ask. Call it a tribute to days long gone, if you will. Or the result of a random search on the Internet for catchy phrases, even (the Random Article-link on Wikipedia can keep me going for ages). Here’s a short list of some of the other names I considered, but ultimately rejected:

  • Rational Choice Theory
  • Flabberghastly Ideas
  • No Keyboard Detected
  • Abort, Retry, Fail?
  • Kernel Panic
  • Ford N Series Tractors
  • Does Not Compute
  • 404 File Not Found
  • 206 Partial Content
  • List of rivers of Bulgaria
  • Approximation algorithm

In the end, Guru Meditation was chosen on the grounds that I’m an old Amiga-user and have always been fond of that particular error, which often popped up for no apparent reason while I was trying to play some random game back in the day. It’s also the 12th greatest error message of all time, according to this article.

Press F1 to continue.

Huzzah – I’m blogging again!

After having taken a nearly two-year long break from blogging (in English, that is), I’ve finally figured it’s time to get my blogging-hat back on and take this website for another spin around the block.

Lots have changed since my previous blogging-period, which lasted from March 2003 until March 2007. For one thing, I moved to Oslo last year (in the end of March). For another, I got a job working as a designer for Funcom, on their MMORPG Age of Conan. Yes, those two points are connected – the main Funcom offices are in Oslo.

I’d also like to pretend that I’ve matured a bit, that I’m older (true) and wiser (still up for debate) now, that I am more prepared for the kind of commitment running a blog actually requires. Of course, this could just be me lying to myself in an attempt to justify re-opening the blog (and a much improved version of it, thanks to WordPress and various plug-ins for it!), and in reality I will end up updating it as in-frequently as I did with my previous blog – but I’m hoping that won’t be the case.

As with the previous incarnation of the website, this one will also be host to some of my drawings, works of light literature and possibly even some of my photos. New this time around will be a heavier focus on computer games, both when it comes to playing them and when it comes to actually designing them. To this end, I might also put up tidbits of game design-knowledge that I (hopefully) manage to pick up, both from my own experiences and from what I can learn by crawling across the multitude of designer/developer blogs that exist out there.

Wish me luck, I’ll probably need it.