prove the Missing Link (it is “missing,” underlying game.. Figuring out the game after all) either, but scientists seem and improving your gameplay exercises bound and determined it existed. And the same part of your brain you used as some of those same scientists found an infant when you tried to figure out One of the first space games I remember remains of a dwarf-like or hobbit-like how your toys worked. Taking the health playing was Sierra’s Space Quest. I took species not too long ago. So, while it In response to “Kill Your Darlings” bar away is murdering the underlying on the role of … *ahem* Sanitation may be improbable, it’s still possible the from The Escapist Forum: I’m a gameplay in order to get a superficial Engineer in what I assumed to be a denizens of many fantasy realms did dissatisfied gamer. Games are getting improvement by making the game look distant future where space travel was once inhabit our world. stagnant. Surprisingly though I couldn’t more realistic. The value of immersion is the norm. I escaped the hostile-alien- disagree with this article more. misunderstood anyways. While I do get a overrun ship, terribly dismayed at the The point is, they are not inherently now bloodied state of my once clean future, and therefore not completely To use an example Will Wright uses floors. Damn aliens. I made my way in open to possibility and interpretation in when talking about game design, the my escape pod to the desert , and quite the same way space is. Space is overt metaphor of ‘Sim City’ is a city quenched my thirst on the evaporated fertile ground for, well, anything. planning simulator but the underlying water when I got thirsty. Hey, it could Especially games. Which is why we have game is more akin to gardening. The happen … it’s the future. devoted this week’s issue of The game plays by choosing where to plant Escapist, “In Spaaaace,” to games set … your buildings, watching your city grow, See, that’s the neat thing about space in space. Allen Varney writes in about and weeding out slums or anything else games. Because our own experiences one of the most beloved space games of you don’t like. This discrepancy isn’t a are the lens through which we view most all time, Wing Commander. Adam flaw of ‘Sim City’, the point being made things, space games are inherently the LaMosca travels through a brief history is that there is a difference between the future. Yes, we’ve made tiny little forays of space sims, recounting some of the premise of a game (the overt metaphor) into space, but certainly nothing so great ups and downs over time. Also, Shannon and the gameplay itself (the underlying as to require a Sanitation Engineer as Drake talks with the members of EVE part of the game). To put it very simply part of the crew. One might say we’ve Online’s development team at CCP. Find if you remove everything that doesn’t made baby steps into the infinite these articles and more in The Escapist. affect the mechanical decision making possibility that is space, and that process you are left with the gameplay. perhaps the future holds more. Cheers, The thing that bothers me reading this Other genres, well, I can’t prove that article is you can’t have a great game there ever were elves or orcs. I can’t without both an overt game and an sense of fun when I pretend I’m actually We’ll be able to play a “game” on the collapses by then. I’ll take that hat right the main character that illusion is almost console, but then we’ll switch it into back off now, though. entirely due to my imagination - not standby mode and download the more realistic appearances - and moreover portable engine to a handheld device. Optimistic hat. that sense of fun is *not* a game. We can then focus on the same game on the handheld, lowered graphics, but it Crikey. When I think about how much - dosboot will allow us to gain power ups/certain videogames and technology have minerals throughout our GPS range. changed in the years I’ve been playing In response to “Kill Your Darlings” with them, it’s almost impossible to from The Escapist Forum: There When we get to work, we can plug in our predict where things may go. Anything is seems to be a lot of talk about handheld to the work computer, and possible. Around the launch of PS2/XB/ immersion in games of late and I just occasionally click something to continue GC, I made an argument on the interweb wonder if maybe I missed something in mining/crafting/etc. that the hardware itself wasn’t going to what immersion should be. In my provide us with any new experiences, experience of games (RPGs being my We will be completely connected, we which I felt was pretty much unlike most favorite) stats and health bars etc weren’t won’t have multiple computers. We’ll other generational leaps in videogaming really detracting from the game or my have multiple PC’s accessing a single technology. I’m more confused by the own immersion in it. They were just server/computer unit. We may even, issue with this generation. displaying information that was required depending on the advent of Fiber Optics, for me to make a decision which in fact completely lose the hard drive -- save on Taking that forward, I think that immersed me even further in the game. mobile technology and backup. hardware and technology implementation will pretty much lead the way, with the - avocado - phoenixsflame games themselves using that technology in new and exciting ways. It could be In Response to “Sound Off: Where In Response to “Sound Off: Where simple connectivity, it may be the Will We Be in 2020” from The Will We Be in 2020” from The convergence of interface types (glasses Escapist Forum: I honestly think we’ll Escapist Forum: If I put my pessimistic with HUDs and full body controls) or it have a more unified gaming front... hat on, I think we’ll all be fighting a war could even be the realization of the of survival while Western Civilization Hollywood dream (holodecks). Whichever it is, I think the driving force will be vastly different. Also my generation will immersion and intuitiveness; anything grow up used to the net, and it will be that gets in the way of the game, what we expect, and what we’ll be given. regardless what genre it is or what the aim is. Maybe teenagers will have something crazy and different, but we won’t Ultimately, I hope that we actually get back understand. to the purity of “old skool” gaming, but mixed with the technology of tomorrow. - bob_arctor

- hitchhiker

In Response to “Sound Off: Where Will We Be in 2020” from The Escapist Forum: The future will bring a resurgence of the arcade, but in a different way. Experiencing something with others is obviously powerful - look how SSBM or MMOs can turn simple gameplay into a lot of fun. Maybe single player games will become less stagnant, and receive input from other players like Spore.

- wyrmwood

In Response to “Sound Off: Where Will We Be in 2020” from The Escapist Forum: I’m going to predict more of the same. With the net as it is I can’t see people expecting something Chicago, summer 1990. The quiet aisles coder. They chatted politely (over the of the Consumer Electronics Show grew deafening music) with the young Origin suddenly loud when employees; now and then, they glanced turned on its sound system. Stirring at the Wing Commander monitors; music, volume at 11, blared across the they departed. trade show hall. The upstart game company, best known for the Trade show officials asked Origin to reduce series of fantasy roleplaying games, was the volume. Booth staffers turned it down playing the soundtrack from its forthcoming until the officials left, then gradually amped starfighter simulator,Wing Commander. back to full. Meanwhile, six Lucasfilm A bank of monitors showed the demo of staffers gathered before the monitors in a Terran Confederation spaceship silence; in silence they departed. cockpit, and its view of beautifully rendered enemy Kilrathi ships diving and The next day, companies in the booths swooping with amazing speed. near Origin’s brought their own sound systems in self-defense. The once- At the LucasArts booth – or Lucasfilm dignified halls of the Consumer Electronics Games, as it was then – a programmer Show turned raucous. That day, the entire ambled away from the demos for the Lucasfilm booth staff, including every imminent Wars: X-Wing starfighter senior producer at the show, huddled in a game. X-Wing was weeks away from tight, silent knot before the Wing going gold, and would easily make the Commander monitors. They watched for a 1990 Christmas season. Like a stately long time. They departed. elk, the coder approached the Origin booth, momentarily surveyed the Wing A former Origin employee recalls, “You Commander monitors and ambled on. could see the fear in their eyes, as they walked by. We joked about how cool they A few minutes later, the programmer tried to look, the faux nonchalance. You returned with another stately Lucasfilm knew they were afraid.” hour days to come up with the rotation and scale routines for the bit-mapped images,” Roberts said in a 1992 interview. “I think the bitmaps were what helped give the game its movie-type feel.”

Like every Origin release, Roberts’ new game aggressively embraced advanced tech: The DOS version required (required!) EGA graphics and a full 640K

graphics and a cinematic storyline; he of RAM! It would barely run on an 80286 loved movies. machine; you really needed a cutting- Wunderkind edge 386 with two floppy drives, and Born in 1968, Chris Roberts had been a With programmer Paul Isaacs, writer Jeff you desperately wanted the high-end professional game designer since he was George, artist Denis Loubet and a team 256-color VGA chipset. 13, when he sold small games in BASIC considered large for the time – 11 and machine code for the BBC people! – Roberts pursued his vision with Former Origin Producer Microcomputer. Origin published Roberts’ focus and cleverness. He decided to remembers the 1990 coming-out at CES. After the trade show ended, Lucasfilm Commodore 64 RPG, , in handle each spaceship not as a polygon- “Chris was personally writing code, Games unexpectedly announced X-Wing 1988 and his post-holocaust RPG, Bad based 3-D model, but as a collection of tweaking the demo as we set up on the required much more work and would not Blood, in 1990. For his next project, sprites (images) that showed the ship show floor. And he took his PC – with the make Christmas. It finally shipped years Roberts envisioned an Elite-style game, from all angles. These looked better and only copy of the demo on its hard drive – later, in 1993. initially called Squadron and then Wing would run faster, because the computer to the hotel room each night of the show. Leader, that would combine arcade-style need not calculate the images in real I shared a room with him, and I can tell That was the debut of Wing Commander. space-fighting, innovative music, great time. “It took about two months of 16- you he didn’t sleep much, just coded all night, every night, making for a different lurking on the Wing Commander fan marketers, was playing Angel, and we storylines told in ambitious full-motion and better demo every day of the show. forums on GEnie and Compuserve. Some had Chris play Jazz. Needless to say, video (FMV), Roberts aimed for a true That was the commitment and madness guys talked about how the character neither of them was a trained Hollywood cinematic space-opera experience. The that made Chris a great developer.” Angel really had something going for the stunt person, so when Jackie threw that games starred , Malcolm hero. I went back to the scripted text for punch, it didn’t breeze past Chris the way McDowell, John Rhys-Davies and (in III) Published in 1990, Wing Commander – Wing I and searched for that scene. I we intended – it socked him right in the porn star Ginger Lynn Allen. changed from Wing Leader for trademark couldn’t find anything that hinted at nose! Naturally, that’s the take we used. reasons – scored a brilliant success. It romantic interest, it was just a scene in Filming in Hollywood with multi-million spawned a six-year, multi-million-selling which Angel described how to fight a “The fans should be pleased to know dollar budgets unprecedented in franchise: Three direct sequels; the particular Kilrathi ship. But after talking Chris literally put his blood, sweat and computer gaming, Roberts directed the companion games Privateer and about it, [director Stephen Beeman] and tears into that game. The rest of us FMV sequences, shooting live actors in Prophecy, plus numerous expansions; 10 I decided to create a full cinematic story, settled for just the sweat and tears.” front of a greenscreen and later inserting novels; and a 1996 animated TV series, including the planned death of a major computer-generated backgrounds; a Wing Commander Academy. character and a love interest.” Roberts’ commitment to innovation decade later, this technique would peaked (this time without injury) in become common in Hollywood. (Wing IV Newly wealthy, Roberts bought four Wing II also used rotoscoping for its cut- 1994’s Wing Commander III: Heart of expensive cars and an estate outside scene animations. Stephen Beeman the Tiger and 1995’s Wing Commander Austin, Texas, named Commander’s Ranch. recalls, “We used people around the IV: The Price of Freedom. In these two office, filming them with a camcorder, hybrid game-movies, with branching II, III, IV ... capturing with a really primitive capture Later games in the series kept pushing card, and painting over the vidcaps in the hardware frontier. Wing Commander Deluxe Paint, frame by frame. II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi introduced spoken dialogue to computer games; the “The best part of the rotoscoping came Wing II Speech Accessory Pack became when we filmed the scene at the end of the first killer app for the Creative Labs Wing II, where Angel punches Jazz. SoundBlaster. Wing II’s story, too, Jackie Chapman, one of Origin’s moved into new territory. Ellen Guon Beeman, the game’s assistant director and lead writer, took a cue from players’ Rorschach-blot interpretations of Wing I’s characters. “I spent a lot of time also used 38 actual sets.) Roberts paid Zurovec (Crusader: No Remorse), he Stephen Beeman observes, “Sketches only passing attention to the games founded a new media company, Digital can be just as artistic as oil paintings. themselves, which were produced and Anvil, in posh offices on high-rent South Everything about Wing Commander – directed by Origin staffers in Austin. He Congress in the heart of Austin. While the plot, dialogue, graphics, action, AI, focused on learning filmmaking. Digital Anvil worked on several games in sound – was a sketch of . Like a publishing deal with , Chris a good sketch, it captured just enough of Spector recalls, “The very first day I met Roberts quickly undertook a Wing just the right details to let your mind fill Chris” – in 1989, well before the first Commander feature film. in the rest.” (Think of the fans imagining Wing Commander game – “he said, Angel’s romantic feelings where none were ‘Someday I’ll be making movies.’” We often forget how recently electronic written.) “There’s a gap between sketches games were invented. In 1996, the and painted masterpieces where the art creative differences with Microsoft. Moving Into Movies commercial field was hardly 25 years old. has too much detail – your mind ‘flips’ and (Microsoft released Freelancer later that Riding high on the success of Wing III Roberts was 28. Imagine a gifted young starts focusing not on the art but on the year to mildly favorable response.) and IV, Roberts left Origin in 1996. creator from the dawn of film who arrives ways it falls short of perfection.” Roberts co-founded a Beverly Hills Together with his brother, Erin in today’s Hollywood ready to tell a story production company, Ascendant Pictures. (Privateer), and Origin Producer Tony using the best techniques from 1915. Sketching and painting are different His partners’ production credits included skills – like game design and filmmaking. The Watcher, starring Keanu Reaves ( score 12%); Half Past The 1999 Wing Commander movie Dead, with Steven Seagal (3%); and the starred Freddie Prinze, Jr. Filmed in firstDungeons & Dragons movie. Luxembourg at a cost of $30 million, it grossed $11.6 million domestically, drew Ascendant’s website claims involvement poor audience reaction and suffered in the production and/or financing of 16 merciless reviews. (Rotten Tomatoes feature films; nine of these have now score: 7%, 21%). His been released. The eight released films directorial career stillborn, Roberts with known budgets had a total cost of returned to Austin and worked (slowly) $202 million; the aggregate world box on an ambitious open-ended space sim office gross for all nine films was about in the Privateer mold, Freelancer. $189 million. Review scores on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic range between In 2002, two and a half years behind 25% and 73%; the average score, if that schedule, Roberts left Digital Anvil, citing means anything, is 48.5%. Ascendant Pictures, 2002-06 CIC modders have created Wing repeatedly pushed the field forward on (M = million; RT = Rotten Tomatoes; The Wing Commander game series spacecraft for Homeworld, X-Wing several fronts, achieved unprecedented NA = not available. “Gross” is total predates these review sites, but you can Alliance, Star Trek: Armada and the success and defined a genre. He proved worldwide box office receipts to date.) make book: Every one of Roberts’ Wing games would score over 73%. Macintosh game Escape Velocity: Nova. a spectacularly gifted creator. Few Most interesting are the new games and designers of comparable stature have • The Punisher (2004) expansions. Among many: simply walked away at the height of their Budget $33M; gross $54.6M Wing Commander Today powers – and to so little purpose. After RT 29%; Metacritic 33% In the years after Roberts left game design, discarded the Wing • Unknown Enemy, a 2003 using seven years in the field he loves most, the Commander property during its prolonged the engine from Prophecy. movie business, Roberts the filmmaker has • Edison (2005) proven – at best – by the friendliest, most Budget $25M; gross 96,742 euros exsanguination of Origin. The last release • Standoff, an ongoing set of mods forgiving standard, an incidental figure. Yet, RT NA; Metacritic NA was Prophecy Advance for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. Microsoft assimilated based on the Secret Ops online though he remains fond of the Wing Digital Anvil in 2005. expansion for Prophecy. Includes a Commander universe, he has expressed no • Lord of War (2005) global ranking system. plans to resume game design. Budget $42M; gross $47.4M RT 61%; Metacritic 62% But fandom lives on. A few hundred fans have sheltered in the copious Wing • Flight Commander, a full-featured Possibly, this is for the best. Possibly, Commander Combat Information Center space engine created by NASA gaming has evolved so far, Roberts would • The Big White (2005) programmer Ed Benowitz. have nothing more to contribute. Given his Budget $18M; gross 81,163 euros and the German site WCRevival. Multiple record, that’s extremely doubtful. We may RT 25%; Metacritic 31% daily news stories, lively forums, an active mod scene – you’d think the ship • Privateer Gemini Gold, a cross- never know. But ongoing fan efforts signify was still flying. In addition to an online platform fan remake of the original Wing Commander’s lasting hold over • Ask the Dust (2005) Privateer with updated graphics. players’ imaginations. They testify to the Budget NA; gross $1.5M encyclopedia and scads of fan fiction, vision of the designer who transformed RT 40%; Metacritic 58% Roberts’ Freelancer also has an active computer gaming, and then abandoned it. modding community at Lancers Reactor. • The Upside Of Anger (2005) • The White Countess (2006) Turn down your speakers before you visit. Budget $12M; gross $27.3M Budget $16M; gross $2.8M Allen Varney designed the PARANOIA RT 73%; Metacritic 62% RT 52%; Metacritic 60% The Price of Freedom paper-and-dice roleplaying game (2004 Sad is the mismatch of aptness and edition) and has contributed to computer • The Jacket (2005) • Lucky Number Slevin (2006) desire. With the Wing Commander games from Sony Online, Origin, Budget $28.5M; gross $15.5M Budget $27M; gross $39.6M series, Chris Roberts the game designer Interplay, and Looking Glass. RT 44%; Metacritic 44% RT 50%; Metacritic 53% When I was 7, my dad let me stay up can’t help but feel saddened by the past my bedtime to watch Carl Sagan’s realization that in-game space flight is Cosmos. I didn’t understand all of what almost entirely absent. Instead, fast- Sagan said, but I was deeply impressed paced shooting, roleplaying adventures by the realization that the universe, if and battlefield strategy are the order of anything, was huge and mysterious the day. You’d think that travel and beyond my understanding. This combat in the depths of space were no impression was reinforced by an more alluring than the prospect of a coach educational poster that hung in my seat on a flight across a few time zones. childhood bedroom for years. It depicted, among other things, a map of the solar It didn’t used to be like this. system, a calendar of the known lifespan of the universe, and a “powers of 10” Elite Speaks sequence of 39 images that zoomed, in In 1984, college undergrads Ian Bell and stages, from a carbon atom to an image David Braben created a massive universe of the entire known universe. within a few dozen kilobytes of data orbiting the center of a single floppy Yet, as a child of the Star Wars disk. Their game was Elite, and for the generation, I was raised on science- space sim genre, it was the big-bang. fiction as much as science fact. My imagination populated the cold, sterile Elite put its players aboard a tiny universe depicted by that poster on my spacecraft and launched them into bedroom wall with exotic alien races and something remarkable: a fully 3-D epic conflicts. I yearned to leave my representation of vast, explorable space. humble planet and explore those Though capable only of wireframe timeless, endless worlds. graphics, its engine provided groundbreaking freedom of movement, I’m still entranced by the thought of and its eight separate galaxies contained glorious exploration and dogfights more than 2,000 for players to among the , yet I look at the visit. At the helm of the Cobra Mk III science-fiction games of today and I craft, the universe was the player’s oyster. Elite’s initial release had no storyline or commercial successes of two major PC titles and their expansions, released up plot. The only explicit goal it presented franchises: Wing Commander and the until 1999’s X-Wing Alliance, sold was a gradual increase in ranking, from Star Wars: X-Wing series. Both focused by the thousands. “Harmless” to “Elite,” earned by on fast-paced outer-space dogfights, but defeating hostile craft piloted by they eschewed Elite’s focus on trade and Not all of the space sims of the era were adversaries including aliens, pirates and exploration in favor of scripted, plot- strictly combat-oriented. In 1993 and bounty hunters. Success in battle based missions. 1995, David Braben and Frontier depended upon purchasing equipment Developments released two Elite sequels and weapons upgrades. In addition to From 1990 until 1998, the Wing that expanded the original game’s space combat, Elite provided the Commander titles captivated gamers features, and in 1993, the Wing enterprising space entrepreneur with a with space-based combat and character- Commander universe produced a robust galactic trade market, each planet driven, interactive storytelling. The buying and selling commodities series’ fourth installment, released in according to its population’s needs. 1995, purportedly had a budget of more than $10 million. The franchise Elite’s massive universe predated eventually spawned an animated modern “sandbox” game design by more television series, a series of novels and than a decade and a half. Acclaimed by even a major motion picture. both critics and gamers, during the mid- 1980s, it was ported from its original The Star Wars universe, on the other BBC Micro and Acorn versions to nearly hand, had been a science-fiction every home computer on the market. It mainstay for nearly two decades when even made an appearance on the NES. Star Wars: X-Wing was released in 1993. In the years that followed, a number of Though not as personality-driven as the unremarkable Elite-style clones tried to Wing Commander series, the X-Wing duplicate the game’s winning formula, but it wasn’t until the following decade that the space sim really came into its own.

Universal Appeal The 1990s were the golden age of space simulation, owing in large part to the popular Elite-inspired spin-off, Wing brewing in the PC gaming market. It Commander: Privateer. Like Elite, both wouldn’t be long before space flight took Privateer and 1996’s Privateer 2 focused a back seat to other diversions. on exploration, trade and travel, but they also continued the Wing Commander What Goes Up ... series’ emphasis on storytelling. id released in 1993, catapulting the first-person shooter into the limelight. These games and their imitators put Real-time strategy games rose to players at the controls of complex, prominence with Blizzard’s Warcraft in capable spacecraft, and their zero- 1994, followed by the Command & gravity skirmishes demanded far more Conquer series in 1995. Diablo hit in heralded Freespace 2 as one of the finesse from players than previous action 1996. Bolstered by online play and greatest space sims ever created. games. Maneuvering through space at advances in 3-D graphics, an unholy Unfortunately, it didn’t sell well. blistering speeds took practice, and a triumvirate of three-letter acronyms - flight sim was usually a FPS, RTS and RPG - rose to dominate the A similar fate befell the mission-based necessity. Weapons, shields, propulsion PC gaming market by the latter half of the Independence War, released in 1997, systems and wingmen often had to be decade. The last three years of the 1990s and its more Elite-themed successor, managed in the midst of combat. saw the release of appealing, addictive 2001’s Independence War 2: Edge of Situational awareness was critical and games, such as Starcraft, Warcraft III, Chaos. Each had a compelling storyline usually augmented by on-screen radar , EverQuest, and II and characters, but the games’ realistic and multiple camera views. In short, the and III. The space sim was in trouble. spaceflight physics and elegant but genre had a substantial learning curve, complicated interfaces proved to be but given the experiences its games Yet, in the midst of this changing gaming major roadblocks for many players. offered, it was one many players were landscape, the space sim persisted. In willing to overcome and eventually master. 1998, released Descent: Over the past few years, only a Freespace and followed up with a sequel, smattering of space sim games has For a few years, the space sim was a Freespace II, in 1999. The Freespace titles actually made it to store shelves, and of serious contender for PC owners’ time featured streamlined interfaces and plenty those, only a few have garnered any and money. But even as players explored of eye candy, including the spectacle of measure of attention. In 2001, Jumpgate and fought their way from one sector capital ships multiple kilometers in length. delivered Elite-style gameplay in an and to the next, a storm was Both games were praised by critics, who MMOG setting, complete with RPG-style character development and intricate universe, but it drew the ire of genre players would fully enjoy the space sim may be beautiful, but it’s not economic and political dynamics. Despite loyalists for its simplified controls and opportunities they offered. particularly varied or inviting. a slow entry-level grind, it commanded a lack of tactical combat. modest but loyal following. 2003’s To Obscurity, And Beyond Space’s size is also daunting, particularly Freelancer attracted players with its Somewhat surprisingly, there was a single “The space sim is dead” is a common when encountered in Elite-style games. blend of story-based franchise that managed to doggedly pull refrain of late. Given the dearth of new When you’re attempting to find your way and a huge, gradually unlock-able Elite’s sandbox-style paradigm into this titles and the apparently dwindling across something as huge as literally decade. Developer EgoSoft debuted the interest in the genre, it’s a reasonable everything, complex star charts and X series in 2000 with X: Beyond the assessment, at least for now. Ironically, tangled hyperspace routes make getting Frontier, followed by X2: The Threat in many of the very attributes that initially from point A to point B challenging. Add 2003. They even managed a third made interstellar exploration and combat to this the perspective-less freedom of release in 2005, X3: Reunion. With so attractive have proven to be the movement across the six axes space largely ignorable storylines, vast and space sim’s undoing. sims provide, and the universe suddenly varied universes, and possibly the most seems like the empty, disorienting and gorgeous interstellar vistas ever created, As mysterious and awe-inspiring as unfriendly place that it actually is. the X titles offered a ray of hope for space may be, it tends to be populated space sim devotees. Unfortunately, their primarily by variations of the same Joysticks have always been the space complex interfaces and poorly explained distant, detached scenery: flickering sims’ controllers of choice, but for gameplay intricacies ensured that only stars, looming planets, gossamer nebulae gamers raised on gamepad and the most patient and dedicated of and the like. Even the most majestic keyboard-and-mouse controls, they’re a depictions of space and its contents have bit of an anachronism. Most of today’s been familiar takes on the same cold, gamers probably don’t even own a unwelcoming theme. The universe of the joystick, and if they do, it’s likely been gathering dust since the last time they played X-Wing Alliance. The space sim’s persistent focus on ship micromanagement via keyboard controls hasn’t helped its popularity either. Constant attention to engines, shields, weapons systems, camera views, repair bots, radar modes, wingmate actions and more requires levels of patience and attention that the majority of gamers no distributing new content from the ideas schemes. I’ll admit it: Like most of the If the popularity of games like the recent longer seem willing or able to muster. and code of previous titles. There are also gaming populace, I’ve become numb to releases of the Grand Theft Auto and a handful of admirably complex and the novelty of complex realism, Elder Scrolls series is any indicator, There’s a clear trend in recent game beautiful freeware titles, like Noctis and especially when it interferes with my players are still highly receptive to the design that focuses on stripping away Orbiter, which forego combat and trade to ability to play and explore. idea of huge, explorable worlds. And complex, demanding elements that focus entirely on flight or exploration. None although space flight itself may not interfere with an immediately playable of these titles are making money, however. I’m heartened by the introduction of new immediately command a huge audience, experience. Many space sim enthusiasts controller designs, adopted thus far by science-fiction games in general are would argue that it’s these very elements Back to the Future Nintendo and Sony, that seem well-suited certainly alive and well. that made the genre so unique and If there’s any hope for a large-scale, for free-form space flight. I’m intrigued rewarding. Unfortunately for those who commercial revival of space exploration by the graphical and processing For millions of gamers, outer-space still relish such depth, the space sim’s decline games, it will likely come at the expense capabilities of modern hardware that holds its mysterious appeal. So I’m not over the last several years arguably of realism and complexity. And though appears more than up to the challenges going to completely write off the space demonstrates that space simulations longtime fans of the space sim may of rendering complex, beautiful universes sim yet. I’m holding out hope that, one with flight-sim mechanics are destined to lament such a development, many with an epic sense of scale. And I’m way or another, our games will take us remain niche titles at best. gamers, including myself, would jump at fascinated by the possibilities provided by back to the stars. the chance to explore the universe widespread connectivity across the A cursory stroll around the unfettered by cumbersome control internet - arguably a universe in itself. As a writer and editor for Gamers With reveals that the realistic space flight Jobs, Adam LaMosca has at long last simulator game is alive and well, but not achieved complete self-actualization. He in any commercial sense. Instead, there also maintains a personal website, are numerous and often vibrant Lowspec.com, just for fun. communities dedicated to building and I’m standing in vacuum atop a dead Noctis’ first iteration appeared in 1996, ravine, idly counting the delicate but Alex’s release of the game’s source protrusions of ice that run along the code in 2003 has fueled a growing player opposite slope. This tiny world base and an active mod community. surrendered the last of its formative heat Noctis shares little in common with most to the void eons ago, and the rocks that games, as there is almost no story of surround me have not shifted an inch in which to speak; no enemies, no levels a billion years. The rapidity of my pulse and no end in sight. The player’s sole seems a rude disruption of this most goal is to explore a galaxy of some 70 solemn and still of tombs. billion star systems, each with its own array of planets and moons. Noctis is a But just a few minutes prior, I waded convincing and evocative mirror of a into azure pools beneath a cinnamon true-to-science galaxy and an ambitious sky, while twin stars jostled for attention distillation of our reality into an executable overhead. And before that, I jet-packed less than one megabyte in size. It is across teeming valleys, watching from empirical enterprise given artistic form in a high above as birds flitted among trees way that only the interactive medium of of crystal. And when I started playing games can accommodate. Noctis IV about thirty minutes ago, the first world I set upon was racked by Each of Noctis’ worlds is geographically earthquakes and seas of lava, and a unique. They run the gamut from hostile atmosphere of pressurized acid verdant paradises to blasted wastelands sought entry through the joints of my and range in size from gas giants to space suit. Taken as a conglomerate, mere hunks of rock. Noctis exhibits a these myriad and disparate worlds are lifetime’s variety of terrain, and even a enough to make Rutger Hauer cry all single planet’s conditions can differ over again; to make Keir Dullea turn drastically, depending on latitude. The away in astonishment and head for home. only thing that all of Noctis’ variegated worlds have in common is an overwhelming Noctis IV is a freeware space simulator and pervasive sense of loneliness. In this created by Alessandro (Alex) Ghignola. game, there are no living cities or societies to be found; no friends to mind; in the absence of the latter, the embrace, nor foes to thwart; no former cannot persist. messages to receive or send; no voices to contrast with the endless vacuum. Noctis, therefore, presents certain paradoxes. It is beautiful from the There is an air of tragedy about Noctis — player’s perspective, but ultimately even (and especially) on the worlds with hollow from the player-character’s. Its no atmosphere. There is something worlds speak to the permanence of inexpressibly sad about an entire planet matter, but its sole sentient being is bereft of life, and in Noctis, even those characterized by transience. To play planets that seethe with life lack the all- Noctis is to be torn in every direction in a important characteristic of sentience. As desperate attempt to reconcile these I peer upon world after world from the profound contrarieties. narrow confines of my helmet, my natural excitement at gazing upon As art, Noctis is heir to a history of features that nobody has ever seen ideas; it participates in and reflects upon before is always muted by the knowledge a longstanding dialectic concerned with Enlightenment, Romanticism and the the universe like any other, were given that nobody ever will see them, except what place humans hold in the world, March of History the same treatment as everything else, for me. Even considering all the other which has taken shape over centuries of Coincident with the emergence of the and were asked to assume their proper Noctis players out there, there is only a human discourse. In order to understand Enlightenment in 18th-century Europe role in a world described by reason. miniscule chance that any of them will the game’s full significance, we must was an unprecedented explosion in ever stumble upon the same lonely provide a context to account for its role scientific progress. Having built rapidly But in the early decades of the 19th corners of the universe as I. How in that grand conversation. By placing upon the rudiments of natural century, a vigorous countermovement to wasteful it seems that so much should Noctis within the context of history, we philosophy, scientists presented for the the Enlightenment arose, known as exist, and yet so precious few to shall expose the role it plays in settling first time a testable picture of how the Romanticism. Romantics praised the experience it! What good is nigh-endless one of the greatest problems philosophy universe functions. human capacity for direct intuition of the variety if there is nobody to catalogue it? has ever produced. To do this — and facts of the world and reveled in intuitive What good is beauty if no one is around since Noctis’ chief concern is with From Isaac Newton to Adam Smith, the - and even mystical - expressions of true to appreciate it? The very concepts of depicting the real universe in a believable trend across every intellectual sphere ideas through poetry, art and other “variety” and “beauty” are inextricably fashion — we need to examine how our was to view the universe as a rational, creative endeavors. They objected that bound to the concept of the perceptive views of the universe itself (and our deterministic system, circumscribed by there is no purely deterministic element station therein) have changed over time. inviolable rules. Humans, being a part of at the core of human emotion; that there are no rules to govern aesthetic beauty. By 1830, the battle for the future course will propagate through the species, and advance by preexisting conditions? Many Beauty is real; love is real; free will is of human thought began, with the which will die out. Science in the shadow Enlightenment thinkers were given to the real; and the intellect alone cannot hope combatants on both sides straining for of Darwin therefore became concerned mechanistic view that, in principle, if we to encompass what can only attain truth all their worth. But neither could achieve not with prescribing rigid order to the knew the position and momentum of through intuition. They claimed these any significant advantage over its universe, but rather with observing the every particle in the universe, we could unquantifiable realities existed contrary opponent. In the end, they both fell to a intrinsically random behavior of natural then predict the course of future events, to the Enlightenment paradigm. third, outside participant who pulled the systems. There is a principle of including the behavior of living beings. spontaneity at work in the universe, and Romantics, on the other hand, refused to Darwin touched his fingers to its pulse. believe that all the complexities of human life could reduce down to Darwin’s insights in the field of biology determinism, and insisted that the were soon followed by similar revolutions human will is prone to spontaneity in a in the physical sciences. By the close of way that no data could ever predict. the 19th century, the illusion that science could present us with an infallible mirror- Noctis seems to come down in favor of image of the real world had been hard determinism. Its galaxy is one in mat out from beneath them. And so it thoroughly shattered — and science was which planets ceaselessly orbit their was that in 1859, Charles Darwin stronger for the change. But the courses parent stars; in which moons and rings published On the Origin of Species. of science and art are wildly divergent; revolve about their planets; dumb plants and whereas modern science must and animals grow and live without The theory of evolution did not originate contradict the simple Enlightenment ambition; and rocks rest in total vacuum with Darwin, but what distinguished him conception of the world, games like upon the edges of ravines, unmolested from earlier evolutionists, and what Noctis are free to embrace such notions since the day of their formation. It is a cemented his status as among the most and explore their consequences. galaxy very much like our own: vast, important scientists ever to have lived, beautiful and almost totally devoid of was his unflagging emphasis on blind Noctis and Free Will consciousness (and therefore, free will). chance as the significant motivator for As people wrestled with Enlightenment Aside from the player, Noctis has no evolutionary change. Although he and Romanticism, there lurked always sentient life — the only exception being couldn’t explain how organisms evolved, beneath the surface a broader some extremely ruins of a forgotten Darwin noted that when succeeding philosophical problem: the existence of civilization (of which the player is generations exhibit physical changes, no free will. Are we free to choose our own ostensibly the last known survivor). But natural laws determine which changes actions, or are our acts determined in these ruins are only the remnants of buildings, and through their isolation you to catch your breath. The thrill of With each new planet, Noctis reinforces only drive home the point that the the experience is like that of a in the player’s mind just how small and galaxy is now empty of creative spirit. rollercoaster: It is enjoyable precisely fragile humans are. But the inevitable because it is terrifying, and we who consequence of that realization is a The most ardent determinist could not partake of it must first overcome our newfound appreciation of how precious have crafted a better exemplum of her better judgment otherwise. We harbor we are, too; how starkly and beautifully theory than Noctis. Even the very worlds deep-set fears of our own mortality, we contrast with the overwhelming of Noctis — all trillion or so of them — transience and ultimate majority of stuff in the universe. Noctis are generated, not randomly or by inconsequentiality, and sharp exposure encapsulates nearly everything that design, but procedurally, in accord with to the Noctis’ determinism does nothing exists, but what little it omits is the most rote mathematical algorithms. to assuage them. Indeed, for all the important stuff of all. strength and perverse appeal of Noctis’ Sentiency, Sanity and the Limits universe, we must, in the end, recoil Phillip Scuderi writes for Gamers With of Belief from it even more forcefully and seek Jobs, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. The allure of determinism is utterly desperately to achieve terms of peace in philosophy at the University of South intoxicating to the human mind. I feel its with a universe that seems unremittingly Florida. Beyond this, his loyalties pull on chill autumn nights as I scan the inclined to wage war upon human sanity. remain uncertain. wide heavens with binoculars and ponder my own insignificance. I can sense the Any world that operates without free will, imponderable engine of the universe, and in which sentience loses its distinction pounding away at its own pace. Thought from mere matter, is insane. We cannot and emotion slip away, and all that’s left contemplate it while retaining any kind of of the world are objects in motion and grip on our own minds. We cannot believe objects at rest. For a time, I exist outside it without entering into an alien state of myself. I am Tennyson, gazing at the tree. mind, and even when the hallucinogenic power of Noctis convinces us to believe in Any who have never experienced this a determinist universe, we cannot sustain mystical mode that I describe, need only that belief for long before returning to our play Noctis to feel it arrive in force. normal way of thinking. Determinism, in the long run, is untenable, and anything But it will only remain with you for a we cannot believe, in the long run, cannot short time before fading away, leaving possibly be true. Galaga all take place in space, of course, infinite repetitive grid of black with a few but the, uh, size of it all, it just kind of stars scattered here and there in the gets lost amid the scrolling screens of background, and it’s doubly huge when enemies and gigantic battleships and I’m the smallest, most insignificant little Mark Hamill. blip on a radar screen that I could be. My life is subject to the whims of whatever I try not to repeat myself too often, but ill-tempered battleships or unluckily- Space, huh? today I’m going to tell you about another placed pirates that happen to be around, trend-setter that made its way onto the and if I’m playing on Strict Mode (no Space is pretty cool, I guess. Ships, you Macintosh long before anything like it reloading saved games), that puts me in know. Guns and aliens and cargo was seen elsewhere. This one goes out my place pretty quickly. I’ve had a few smuggling and intergalactic rebellion and to Escape Velocity, the only game I’ve close calls, of course: There was this one all that. Not a bad place for a game to ever played that made me begin to hostile-looking Corvette a few hops away take place. At least space is pretty easy realize exactly how darn big space is. from Sol that had my name on one of its to draw. missiles ... but I digress. To go back and play Escape Velocity, in But you know, there’s an awful lot of it. any of its incarnations (vanilla EV, EV: The headiness of this sense of infinite People kind of forget that, I think. Games Override and EV Nova, respectively), space is virtually impossible to describe like X-Wing and Wing Commander and now is like playing interstellar Grand to the layman. It’s that moment where I Theft Auto, but of course, simply calling look at my ever-expanding star map, it “Game X in space” doesn’t do it which started out with maybe two or justice. I begin my space-faring career three star systems and grew to over with a brand new shuttlecraft - the 200, and I think, wow, this entire world bottom of the totem pole - a handful of lives and breathes on my computer. credits, and not a whole lot else. I am Discovering an alien race for the first my own Han Solo; buying low, selling time, stumbling across a new kind of high, running errands when it pays (and ship design or watching a large CPU- mining asteroids when it doesn’t), controlled battle between two political running away from pirates when I’ve got factions; despite so many games taking cargo to deliver and sneaking by the place in space, not one has managed to local authorities when my cargo is less replicate the sense of awe and than legitimate. Space is huge in its amazement at space’s sheer size and complexity. Screw the internet and begun to recognize me. I have ascended virtual public space; Escape Velocity the ranks; I’m rocking the hottest gear gives me more than enough frontier. appropriate for my political affiliations; maybe I’ve got my own planet or seven. This is all how it feels until I can scrape My Rebellion has won, with me at its up enough scrilla to put together a ship head, and all the alien invasions have that’s big enough to boss other people been successfully repelled. But you around. Sure, I can pick fights with know, once you’re at the top, the only whoever I want; I can start my own place to go is down. pirate fleet and prey on the legitimate business-beings, and I can even carve So, maybe I’ll take a break for a while. out my own domain out of the star-map, Go outside, read a book, eat some ice if I’m big enough. But after a few big cream. But the beauty of Escape Velocity victories, my reputation will start to is that I can always come back, start spread. Maybe I’ll catch the attention of over in my shuttlecraft in some a few well-connected people who could backwater nowhere in the Milky Way, use my help. Some of them are Good and work my way back up from a small plethora of fairly easy-to-use, code-free Guys, and some are Bad Guys, but it’s fry to a big fish. And maybe this time I tools and a fairly strong modding very rarely that clear-cut. want to be the good guy. Or the guy with community - tell my own story to others the particle beam instead of the cloaking if I feel so inclined. our own space than our previous homes Now, I have my own role in this intricate device. Or the one with the alien ever were, all by virtue of having shaped space opera; it is my ship and my technology. This is open-ended gaming Escape Velocity is more than just set in it however we see fit. And no matter abilities that dictate who wins what, done right, and it’s up to me to decide space; it is in love with space. It’s not how many times we conquer our new whether planets are Rebels or what I want to be this time around. obsessing about cool ships and new worlds, we will always search for more Confederates or simply blasted to rubble, Perhaps I’ll decide that I don’t want to weapons, or flying missions, or anything new frontiers to explore, and each time whether people live or die. I can exercise come back to this galaxy, and I’ll find so gauche. It is the frontier vision we we will look at our expanding star maps my agency on this world, leaving my another one instead - one inspired by wish we had in our real lives, where we and think, “Wow.” mark on that which had, long ago, felt so Star Wars, or Gundam, or maybe just could leave everything behind and set incomprehensibly massive, so strictly the product of someone else’s out anew into a world far more Space is big. innumerable. I start to recognize certain imagination. And if I’m feeling expansive then we could ever hope to people bouncing around the universe, particularly inventive, I can - thanks to understand, and slowly we come to Pat Miller has been doing this for way and they - for better or for worse - have an easily expandable game design, control it and make it ours, make it more too long. Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned deep markings into the way we approach and written about EVE Online again, game design,” he responded. “CCP’s goal earning more accusations about illicit is to create games that are different, so I activities and shifty exchanges involving must say that being in Iceland is an space bucks and haulers full of exotic advantage for us.” EVE definitely doesn’t dancers when our intentions are pure. bow to convention. Skills train over time, Despite my hilarious antics crashing our even while logged out, rather than on a first corporation into the metaphorical per-fuzzy-animal-whacked basis. Instead sun, every single one of us has returned of being locked into a specific role from to the game, and on any given night, character creation, players can learn any you’ll find us shouting obscenities at each skill and fly any ship in the game, other on Teamspeak as we play Internet provided they are willing to spend the Spaceships. We talk about EVE because money and time to learn it. The majority we, as a collective hive mind, feel CCP is of the game is free-fire PvP, and roving one of the few companies that get it. We bands of pirates frequently penetrate talk because we love too much. into “safe” space to destroy the peaceful miners and haulers other games are built But what is their secret to wowing a around. group of jaded gaming hobos? We have a theory. CCP is about as far from the He credits this approach for EVE’s rising norm as you can get, as it would be hard subscription numbers, just about to find a point farther from the Los unheard of for a three-year-old game, Angeles Gaming Industry Mothership than saying, “The players have a much their headquarters in Reyjavik, Iceland. I stronger sense of reward for their actions put it to Magnus Bergsson, CCP’s Chief in EVE, as it is simply harder and more Marketing Officer: Does developing in a complex to [succeed] in EVE than in vacuum — far from the rest of the industry most other games. EVE is a game where and its conventional wisdom — influence the strong survive, and the players know the way they design their games? it and value it. On top of that foundation is a game that is simply getting better “Being stuck on an island in the middle with age and not the other way around. of the Atlantic Ocean definitely carves … [And] with more users, the game simply gets more dynamic and fun.” but we of course are trying to make it a Those who venture beyond the station actually did it. “We believe we should Nightly numbers on the Tranquility bit easier for them. The first version of and the advancement model find a wide- provide tools for players to mold the server range from 17 to 20,000, with a the new player experience was released open world awaiting them, one where world, for them to tell the story and current record of over 25,000 people in Exodus (EVE’s first expansion), and they can blow up NPCs, try to become control their destinies. This can’t be done playing at once. we have a team that is working on the richest miner in the universe or in a guided approach.” version two that will take that concept become a roving trader and builder. Or, Players coming from the “whack fuzzy further. EVE was never supposed to be a given the game’s freedom, they can do “How can you tell someone that he animal, get better” world are often six-million-subscriber game, and we are all of that. One recurring theme in should start an alliance with 3,000 flabbergasted staring at the austere perfectly happy with how things are right talking to Magnus and the rest of CCP is people and conquer the outer regions of space station, wondering how to get now. Personally, I will choose a rapidly freedom. I asked why they push for space? Or that he should be the leading better at the game without an expanding core of loyal players rather openness when many developers build a trader of [cruiser class ships]? Be a experience system. The tutorial is than the more supermarket style of world first, then try and cram players mercenary? Then, add that all together rudimentary and covers maybe a 10th of newbie churning.” into the molds they’ve built. multiply that by about 120,000 times. It the game itself. Have they ever just doesn’t work. We can’t create considered making it easier? “We will heroes; only the player who has the never water down EVE simply to passion and willpower to become a hero accommodate the new players, can do that. Whether he’s being his own hero or for everybody else in the universe doesn’t really matter, as long as he’s satisfied with what he’s achieving.”

I asked if they’ve found the holy grail of “Simple,” he responds. “We just thought many MMOG developers: Player-created that the free-form approach of EVE content, rather than developer-created would be more fun, more rewarding and content, using the guys at The Escapist’s more challenging. It is the game triumphs, tragedies and successes as an mechanic that we wanted to play, so we example. “Absolutely. The players should just did that.” This is a common theme be in charge of their destinies and the when talking to everyone at CCP. They actions of the players should have a sound like one of those “We should make major impact on the game. That is our a cool MMOG!” teams so common among vision for gameplay and that is what we fans of the genre, but in this case, they will continue to do.” But a vision has to come from more evolutionary approach to trying to somewhere. I asked what some of the do something other than fantasy.” team’s influences were. Ultima“ Online was certainly one of the most dominating Like any industry watcher, Magnus also factors, in addition to Elite. In fact, you has his eyes on Asian developers. “The could say that it started out as a mix of those two,” and the conversation wanders toward business, as we talk about the other games the CCP crew plays.

“We have people that play almost all of the big MMOGs, but I can’t really say that they have had a direct effect on big Asian players are also coming in full EVE, since the setting and framework of force with new games and genres, and MMOGs hasn’t really been a revolution, there is some really amazing stuff but more of an evolution.” There’s the happening within their walls.” He Defying just about everyone else in the all-but-obligatory tip of the hat. “This continues, saying, “They already have Western MMOG space, CCP doesn’t rely isn’t a bad thing -- we strongly believe in the funding and solid operational ground on boxes for sales. There’s no wailing evolution and consider World of Warcraft to experiment on, so watch that space and gnashing of teeth about the death of cow for MMOG developers. This is as a prime example of how MMOGs have (no pun intended).” retail from CCP’s end. “EVE was initially because, he says, “We simply believe evolved into mass appeal.” distributed in stores,” he says, referring that charging for expansions and then for “It’s too early to tell,” he says, assessing to a launch-time partnership with Simon a subscription is double-charging the “The really revolutionary stuff is the industry as a whole, “but these are and Schuster’s game publishing division. player, and therefore, we don’t feel we happening in the smaller games, which certainly interesting times, and now is the However, “When CCP acquired the should charge for expansions.” can allow themselves to experiment. opportunity to revolutionize the future of publishing rights back, we then decided Puzzle Pirates, Second Life, A Tale in the MMOGs. Fantasy games have established that model was a dying one, and have That’s not to say they’re sitting around Desert, and, of course, Ryzom with their MMOGs in the minds of many gamers, but stuck with a pure digital distribution flying their spaceships. CCP is actively Ring are all good examples of MMOGs we’re nowhere done yet, and the Western strategy. Digital distribution allows us to working to expand. “We will be going taking another path, while games like market hasn’t come close to what’s be in control of our own destiny, much directly after some new markets very City of Heroes/Villains, Auto Assault and happening in Asia. World of Warcraft is the like the players in EVE, and that is what shortly with localized versions of the Pirates of the Burning Sea are trying a first true global MMOG success, but they we value.” They also don’t charge for game client, and the next one will be a certainly won’t be the last.” expansions, possibly the biggest cash German version,” Magnus says. the safe bet for game developers and, Basically, we want to give players the with the high cost of development of a ability to access their accounts remotely. new MMOG, this is where investors want Following that will be other languages You will, of course, not be doing any fleet to put their money,” Magnus says. “It is and linked marketing campaigns. “We battles on your mobile, but you can access clearly much more challenging to create will maintain our single-server design, as skills, markets and other station services a sci-fi MMOG than a fantasy-based that was our vision and there is no from your phone. This is, of course, the MMOG. Fantasy has been the traditional reason to change from that.” With one first version, and we will continue to form for this genre and amazingly the future and, of course, we will not be exception: China. “China is a special expand on this in the future.” We also enough it continues to be so, even a single game company. Still, we are case, due not only to rules and regulations saw some artwork and cards for the though sci-fi has been traditionally much dedicated to continue at full force but also internet connectivity issues.” upcoming EVE CCG, and they are more popular in other mediums.” developing for EVE and its brand name. absolutely beautiful, though combining the It would be foolish for us not to use all Existing EVE players will also find addictive potential of MMOGs and CCGs “Earth and Beyond wasn’t for everybody, the talent and experience we have themselves drawn further into CCP’s might be more of that Icelandic evil. and EVE certainly isn’t, either. There are gathered to create other games. That is web. They have plans for a handheld upcoming space titles which are slated to about as much as I can say as I know client for portable devices, so players Shifting the conversation to the setting, I be more mainstream and have more my fellow CCP’ers will read this, and, I can work the station markets from work, ask why they chose space. After the mass appeal and it will be interesting to didn’t like the last tar and feather school or possibly the Moon (assuming demise of Earth & Beyond, EVE is the see how they fare.” treatment I got!” they get reception). “It started as a test only large-scale, space-based MMOG on which grew into a much larger project the market. The answer is, partly, In the end, though, it’s not all about Shannon Drake likes commas and when we realized the potential of it. business. “Fantasy has in the past been EVE. “CCP has very ambitious plans for standing out in the rain. EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editor Layout Artist Associate Publishers Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Jerry Godwin Russ Pitts Gregory Lincoln Lead Web Developer Contributing Editor Whitney Butts Director of Advertising JR Sutich Susan Briglia Web Developer Research Manager Erik Jacobson Chairman of Themis Group Nova Barlow Thomas S. Kurz IT Director Contributors Jason Smith Shannon Drake Adam LaMosca Pat Miller Philip Scuderi Allen Varney

Issue 54, © 2006. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the United States of America. To contact the editors please email [email protected]. For a free subscription to The Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com