Manifesto Propaganda

Greg Costikyan's Manifesto Games has launched its beta. It aims at being an independent online game publisher. It started as a rant and it became a business plan.

I registered today as "bloo" and got a free download of Plasmaworm.

His blog is pretty insightful and worth a gander or three.

Who will be first against the wall, now that the revolution has come?

The revolution will be downloaded.

Top or Bottom?

Ok, people. It's getting to be rigoddamndiculous. Pick one: Top or Bottom!

A Top looks like this:

And the horse you road in on!
-Bar

> Foo said:
> This, that and the other thing

A Bottom looks like this:

> Foo said:
> This, that and the other thing.

And the horse you road in on!
-Bar

If you're a Switchhitter, just stop using email altofreakingether, ok? All you're doing is making a mess. Here's what happens with a switcher gets involved.

First, a nice 'All Bottoms' exchange, with chronological (numbers) indicating order in time:

>>> Foo said:
>>> This, that and the other thing. (1)

>> Bar said:
>> And the horse your road in on. (2)

> Foo said:
> Help me find me keys and we can drive out! (3)

That's what she said! (4)
-Bar

Now with swishy switching:

That's what she said! (4)
-Bar

>>> Foo said:
>>> This, that and the other thing. (1)

>> Bar said:
>> And the horse your road in on. (2)

>> Foo said:
>> Help me find me keys and we can drive out! (3)

Bar set the pattern with an initial Bottom approach. Foo followed suit. Then bar swivelled on his swishy ass and went Top.

Now make each exchange two or more paragraphs and have a couple of interstitial responses, add one Switchhitter and watch them make an email discussion HORRIBLY BROKEN!

When you switch, you're telling me that nothing discussed below is important or relevant anymore. You might as well not include any previous text so that I won't have any idea what you're talking about and I can jump right past potential confusion and start ignoring you immediately.

Blog or Brant?

I don't think I'm cutout for this blogging thing. It is just talking in a vacuum mostly, and I do enough of that in my own head - most of which is not for publication.

Hypothetically, I could start making outrageous statements all the time, to get people to look, and have a lot of ads and affiliate programs and the like. Some people are able to make a little money at that. But...eh. Why bother?

Some popular blogs, particularly related to gaming, are really just weBRANTs against others. "Look how special I am, 'cause I tell you how other people are asshats!"

One often encountered element is the 'creative' insult. Usually seen in the form of verbose new combinations of insulting phrases and cursewords, which I can't be bothered to give examples of at the moment. While appreciation for a good insult is often seen as a trait of the intellectual elite, and maybe it is, it is also a pretty cheap path to go down. Take one thesaurus, grind sprigs of Wilde, Shaw and other 19th century British wit in a mortar, a dash of vinegar and bile, a pinch of pepper, simmer over envious heat, serve piping hot.

But after Stephen Fry's indictment of Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code" as "so much loose stool water" and "assgravy", the bar has been set too high for amateurs.

Muddied Waters

Yeah, so, 11, 12 days without an update? Can this even be called a 'blog'?

Nothing major I want to post on really. I have been playing around with Mud 1, a bit. But more in my head than in the game. Going back to the old school, has really got me questioning a lot of game design, or maybe it's world design. And a lot of specific ideas that might be interesting to do in a game have been coming to me lately. Many hasty chicken scratches on notepads. Something's stirring, but it isn't soup yet. Just muddy water with some shiny stuff in it.