sitting hunched over on the couch, hammered on what was truly the most mashing buttons? Not likely. Yes, some important lesson to be learned from the people are making some interesting whole sordid tale, and that was NOT forays into “true interactive motion,” “don’t change the game after launch”, As far as conveying a story, pulling a (Nintendo’s Wiimote, anyone?) And important though that lesson is. By far person into a world and mythos, games others have made some fun attempts at To the editor: I had a gentle reminder a the most important lesson, and one which have kind of a raw deal. Goes against virtual reality (Try Disney’s Aladdin’s little while back on your forums of how is all too often ignored or even denied by what most people think, huh? Oh sure, Magic Carpet Ride at Disney Quest.) But difficult it is to bite one’s tongue and developers, is “don’t release buggy, the potential for blowing every other the ability to gently flick a wrist and remain respectful. I was “discussing” incomplete crap”. Sony and SWG are the medium out of the water is there for achieve the same result as a wide-arced some WoW related lawsuit and near the prize poster children for this lesson, and games. But right now? Not just yet. arm swing, or sitting astride a end of it, I really just wanted to call the game developers refuse to learn this motorcycle seat instead of on a flat other guy out and settle it like (arguably lesson at their peril. The potential is high because of the magic carpet is still not quite there yet. immature) men. However, I remember interactivity of games – how better to quite a few times where undeniable draw someone into a world that to allow The potential is grand. But not everyone’s idiots (maybe I’m one of them) have them to interact with it, affect it, take a visionary, not everyone understands posted on your site and you guys have part in it? But if you attempt to wrap that potential, or even what makes that remained admirably levelheaded. your head around a truly interactive, potential so special. Right now, we’ve just mutable, participatory game or storyline, not reached it – there’s yet so much more I’m just saying that I completely respect you realize the possibilities are endless. to go. And that’s pretty exciting, to work how The Escapist conducts itself with touchy A player must be able to talk to every and be around a field with so much room subjects and opinionated people in an person, must be able to move every to grow and innovate. But along the way, environment swarming with all walks of life. object, even hit any object with any the game industry has made some pretty Very professional… and very appreciated. other object, must be able to go grand attempts at reaching that everywhere. That’s a lot of decision interactivity that can bring alive a Keep on truckin’, Escapist. ;-) trees that need to be written. And coded. mythology of a world. And that’s what And actual fully-designed-from-all-angles this issue of The Escapist, “Moon Chases -- Echolocating 3D models. Oi. Sun,” is all about. Enjoy! In response to “Blowing up Galaxies” And then, there’s the player inputs to be Cheers, from The Escapist Forum: This article considered. Can one really feel involved was actually a fairly good summation of in a swordfight, or a motorcycle chase the disastrous screwup that was SWG scene, or a sneaking infiltration while from pre-launch to post NGE. It even - CountNerfedalot new versions as they are released, I do twisted experimenters that want to see however find them lacking. the outcome. Its more than just fear that In response to “Blowing up Galaxies” grips people, as the mixture of sadism, from The Escapist Forum: I thought I for one AM one of those who does greed, and curiosity play a large role for the article was well written and an mistrust SOE and still feels betrayed at people that have the power to make a accurate representation of the nightmare being sold out, and having all my efforts difference for the better, but decide not to. SOE put its subscribers through. (and subscriber fees) wiped away on the basis of greed. - Darkpen At the end of the day those who, like myself, had been in game since Beta - Beebo Oprek In response to “Will Bobba for enjoyed the challenge that building a Furni” from Then Escapist Forum: I character offered. The diversity that the In response to “The Great Gaming think it is quite interesting to think in 250 point character template offered Moral Panic” from The Escapist hypotheticals and discuss the differences made it a challenge and required careful Forum: This has to be the most and similaries between in game and consideration in order to build a strong depressing article I’ve ever read physical rape, but juxtaposing an online character template. regarding gaming, humanity, folk devils, rape victim with a physical, real-life rape and scapegoats. You always have to victim is sick. I was a Master Swordsman/ Master wonder if people will ever realize these Doctor that was a nearly invincible things, and evolve beyond them. Is Speaking of theories is one thing, but combination of capabilities. It was an evolution even possible at this point of using specific instaces with actual epic accomplishment to unlock the force the human race? Can we, as a society, people, there is no comparison. Not one side of your character and build him up learn to be peaceful? to be easily offended, I am actually a through the Jedi ranks. Aside from the little offended here. treasured reward of unlocking the force Closed societies and neighborhoods are in your character, being able to have a the scariest when it comes to these I understand the possible psychological multifaceted character of your own subjects, and it seems that the same rules stresses online assaults can have. I’m design was what most veterans miss the apply even on the global playing field. not ignorant when it comes to the fagility most. I have been in and out of game at Imagine what will happen when we finally of the human mind. I won’t discredit the nearly every phase of the game and I come in contact with aliens? Or when damage that can be caused by in-game can only say this, I truely do miss the robots form their own society? The actions; however, it is more like original game. I still occasionally play the ignorant and fearful outcry will be fueled harrassment than rape. by greedy headline writers, as well as - Blaxton some degree--when consent is missing? Are we ready to do that, to tell one In response to “Will Bobba for Furni” person ‘your experience of sex without from Then Escapist Forum: Sorry Russ, consent isn’t rape,’ while telling another but this reads like hyperbole to me. person--a person with maybe *less* emotional damage both during the I’m surprised you didn’t scream “Why won’t attack as well as afterwards in the form someone think of the children!” at the end of long-term stress--that theirs was? of it with a picture of Helen Lovejoy... Maybe the issue here is that we’re not I suggest you read Gearoid Reidy’s peace working with a clear definition of rape in and get back to me, because all I see is the real, off-line world to begin with. you contributing to the absurd Moral Panic Isn’t that always the case though? That about video games and the . the real problem with discussion of virtual/digital issues is that the issue is - FunkyJ cloudy in the real world to begin with?

In response to “Will Bobba for Furni” - Cheeze_Pavilion from Then Escapist Forum: Let’s flip it around. Let’s talk about whether phone sex is ‘real’ sex. Or whether in-game, *consensual* sex is ‘real’ sex.

If we decide that virtual sex is a form of real sex, why isn’t virtual sex without consent a form of real rape, when the only line between sex and rape is consent? Or are we saying that consent *isn’t* the only line between all sex and all rape? In other words, are we saying that rape is *some* forms of sex--the forms that involve physical contact of Few names are as storied in the hallowed things that I saw in entertainment that halls of game lore as Richard Garriott, or inspired me at the time. Lord British, if you’re like that. The creator of the Ultima series, founder of Origin and I can give you very direct influences of wearer of ruffled cuffs is now working on things that were happening around me an MMOG, Tabula Rasa, which, he hopes, or to me at the time. The cloth maps and will expand gaming’s horizons and bring to time travel that showed up in Ultima II reality his singular vision of making games really were directly inspired by the movie in which morality has meaning and Time Bandits. Similarly, if you look at characters are more than just extensions Ultima I, [it] wasn’t even strictly of the player’s mouse. speaking medieval fantasy. It had spaceships and lightswords; that really The Escapist recently spoke with Garriott was everything from Wars through about his past, his present, his plans for Tolkien crammed into one game. It really the future and why he thinks most wasn’t until Ultima IV that I finally sat games just aren’t good enough. down and said that I now at least believe I can do the physical aspects of making *** a game, I now need to pay much closer attention to the content. Not only do I The Escapist: Tell us about your early want to do a better job of the content, goals for Brittania and the Ultima series. but I want to do content that is my own content. And that is when I began to Richard Garriott: When you use the create and craft the world of Britannia. word Britannia, that of course to me implies Ultima IV. Because, prior to What’s interesting about the creation of Ultima IV, really was the era that I virtual worlds is that there [are] sensory describe as “Richard Garriott learns to aspects, and I’ve pursued that in the program the computer and make games limitations of the technology we see by in their simplest form.” And so the ideas trying to make the world as reactive as that were put into the Ultima series pre- possible. If I see a telephone on the Ultima IV really were a scattershot of desk, it shouldn’t be just a prop, I should be able to pick it up and dial a number, and if I dial random numbers, I should particularly bad other than he just waits Your main character is usually someone Yeah sure, they start you out at occasionally get someone. Or, you know, for you in the final level for you to come who finds himself facing the ultimate one, where you’re physically wimpy and if there is a cannon and there’s a door and fight him and kill him. And in fact, challenge that they’re ill-equipped to you pillage and plunder and kill and and I fire the cannon and it’s a wooden what you as the player do is you pillage, even begin to face because of their lack maim in order to become physically door, it sure as heck should break that plunder, maim and steal and do of personal preparedness. Even though powerful, but I think that misses the door. If I’m going to stop that I better whatever it is you can to do to become ostensibly the story is about point. The point is not whether you have find a steel door to try and resist it, if as powerful as you need to be to come accomplishing the great goal of solving strong enough muscles or big enough you know what I mean. And so I tried to and knock off the supposed bad guy. the world’s problems, the real and guns to win, the issue should be: What make sure that world was very important story is about the main have you learned? What wisdom have completely and realistically simulated to After telling that story myself through character, where that main character you gained from the beginning through the degree that we could. the first fewUltima s, that was another actually has to grow and rise above their to the end that really means you’re now one of those things where I said, “Look, own personal demons, personal the appropriate person to solve the But then there’s the second aspect of we’ve got to do better than this, and I challenges or personal failings to become problem? Why are you worthy, not why what makes a virtual reality interesting believe we can do better than this, and I the person that is worthy and capable of are you tough enough? And most gaming or relevant, which is “Why am I there, believe doing something more solving the Great Problem. And so the is about how you become tough enough, why do I want to be there, why do I care meaningful, something with more depth, Great Problem is really secondary in a not how you become worthy. to be there and why is it important to be would make a truly better game and way. That is what I think most games there?” And so I tried to attack that therefore a game that more people missed out on. TE: When you set out to create this new problem, especially starting with Ultima would appreciate and like.” universe for Tabula Rasa, what was your IV, where I came to the realization or larger goal in that world? decision that a major problem I saw in TE: You mentioned that generic most gaming – especially most fantasy storyline. In the introduction to our last roleplaying gaming – is that they all still, issue on this theme we mentioned “The to this day, have the same general plot. Hero With 1,000 Faces,” the basic story Which is, you’re the hero and you know that all these games and all this that because you’re told so in the literature follows, do you subscribe to introduction. Your job is to kill the bad that or do you feel a different way? guy, and you know that because you’re told so in the introduction. RG: Yep. I am a big believer in what I’ll call the Joseph Campbell version of “The In general, having played those games, Hero’s Journey.” My simplification and the bad guy doesn’t do anything retelling of it goes something like this: sponsored by RG: What’s interesting about Ultima is create a living, breathing, complete contemporary social issue that was that when I first started down this path, reality from scratch, to the depth of the plaguing the world where I lived at the the state of the art of gaming was later Ultimas, but all in one fell swoop. time. But I knew, and I felt it made for a relatively simple, and so the rich and poignant storyline. sophistication of these systems was TE: You’ve described, in speaking about relatively minimal. If you look at the the evolution of Tabula Rasa, what you We filledTabula Rasa with these kinds of intellectual property that you might call “ethical parables.” How do these story threads. We’ve taken a wide variety consider the bedrock of the Ultima series expand the play possibilities over typical of contemporary issues and built story now, that bedrock evolved over 10 or 15 MMOGs? Are they essentially missions arcs out of them. One issue is drugs, years, starting really with Ultima IV, but that give people a chance to examine another major story thread is ecology and all the way through Ultima IX, those both sides of a problem? another has to do with principals of war systems become more and more and when is a war worth fighting? At sophisticated, more and more consistent, RG: Exactly. When I started Tabula Rasa, what cost is it worth fighting? more and more in depth over time. in addition to things like the language, we also set off to build a virtue system very For all of these issues, which are really One of the real tricks with Tabula Rasa much like Ultima’s, but not Ultima’s. We quite contemporary issues, what I’ve [was] that we were really ready to start really broke it down to its individual tried to do is represent them without a whole new world over from scratch. It circumstance and its individual needs. So regard to my opinion. … We show wasn’t going to be Tolkein-esque; we some of the tests and factions you might [players] both the good from the choice were going to avoid medieval fantasy, engage have fairly deep and sophisticated that they did make, and also what because we’ve done it for 20 years. It levels of interactions, if appropriate, and happens to the people who lobby for or might be sci-fi, but it was not going to others are even a very small thread of an live on the other side of that issue. If be -ian or any other obvious issue to showcase. you don’t end up supporting or favoring touchstone you can pick up. We’re going them, they really will see some loss and to invent our own reality from scratch. When I look back across the whole later we expose that to you. But as games have become more Ultima series, starting with Ultima IV, sophisticated now, we basically had to each game had, [at] the core of its story, In the real world, we’re often kind of accomplish 10 or 20 years of Ultima all some contemporary issue that I would sanitized away from seeing other people’s in one cycle. It’s one of the things that mutate into a medieval setting and put perspectives or the ramifications of our have taken us such a long road to really in the game in a way where honestly I actions. If you do not give to the poor, get things done right, especially here am not sure how many people would you generally do not have to watch the with Tabula Rasa. We really wanted to recognize it as being inspired by the poor starve to death. In our game, if you think the poor have been served well evangelize about one side or the other of TE: Emotion is the buzzword these days. So the ways we build personal enough, and you don’t think it’s any of these issues; the goal is to make How do you think games can be made to attachment to characters and places in a appropriate to pay more taxes or people sit back and notice the bring about more of an emotional response? game has to be done in a more whatever it might be, we will support that ramifications of these decisions and to sophisticated way. I don’t think it’s an decision as is reasonable from certain provoke thought. I’m a big believer in RG: Where and why and how I think impossible way by any means. perspectives, but then we’ll also show you challenging people’s assumptions. [most] games fail has to do with character ... those downsides too. The goal is not to development. If you look at emotion in a A big part of it is some fairly simple linear narrative, it usually comes first of all steps go a long way. Some things like from creating characters and situations making sure the bad guy, instead of just and places that the player, or the reader waiting for you to come kill him in the has a fondness for or is tied to in some final level, gets out into the game and way, and then having a change or mixes it up with NPCs and even mixes it catastrophe occur to that person, place or up with player prior to the finale, to thing. Developing characters that you where the player gets to know them become invested in is the first step for personally and gets to know why they generating any kind of emotion in my might dislike them, or why they’re mind. I’m not sure if that is literarily working against them, or why is that guy accurate, but that is my personal, perhaps worthy of being your opponent, or why is oversimplified take on it. that guy appropriate to be your opponent. The same thing would be true In a book or a movie you can take the of love interests or comic relief or almost time to dwell on a handful of main any of the other kinds of emotional characters who not only emerge over strings that you might want to pull. I and over again in the script, but act think that most people creating games precisely as is written. In the case of are far more worried about the next gaming, you have the additional problem physical puzzle, the next treasure to that the person who you might think of loot, the next creature to kill, … than as the main character – the reader, or they are about doing something more the player in this case – can almost sophisticated, more difficult, but also immediately turn 90 degrees, walk away more worthwhile, which is to take much and go somewhere else or hit the space more care in your story crafting. bar and skip past most of their dialogue. TE: As a designer and storyteller, you other members of the human race is started in RPGs and then moved to incredibly strong. And so, in spite of the MMOGs. Why do you feel that that is the difficulties of telling stories in a best place for you to tell stories? massively multiplayer setting, I think the importance of being in the massively RG: Oh, I think MMOGs are actually a multiplayer setting outweighs the particularly challenging place to tell additional challenge of trying to tell stories. I would not describe it as the stories there. best, or definitely not theeasiest place to tell tales. TE: Do you think you’ll ever go back to working on single-player games? As a game designer, of course there are a wide variety of reasons why you might TG: I would still very much enjoy doing want to play in different genres or play single-player RPGs. By all means, that in different models like MMOGs. For me, would be highly desirable, but it is also the compelling reason to be in MMOGs not necessary for me. If for some vs. solo-player games comes from what reason, after I spend a few years playing I believe is a fundamental human need in the MMOG space, I could easily see to share experiences. my self jumping back into single-player or picking up whatever the next trend is People don’t even do extraordinarily and trying a crack at it in whatever the passive things like going to the movies next new genre is. by themselves, generally. The vast majority of people don’t go to the movies Dana “Lepidus” Massey is the Senior unless they have a friend that they can Editor for WarCry.com and former Co- take with them … even though in a Lead Game Designer for Wish. movie theater, people just end up staring at the screen, so to speak, and [don’t interact] with the friend they brought with them, until the end of the movie. But still, that compulsion to be with your friends and share those experiences with It shouldn’t be so hard – though it seems, defeating the tentacled boss-monster is by all evidence, terrifyingly hard – to create a few sticks of dynamite, and definitely computer games based on the Cthulhu not Stuart Gordon’s gore-fests Re- Mythos horror stories of H. P. Lovecraft. Animator or From Beyond. But fans may recall the 1991 made-for-cable movie You’d think publishers would be Cast a Deadly Spell, and true aficionados interested, because Lovecraft’s work has own the H. P. Lovecraft Historical serious legs. Nine-tenths of the Society’s ultra-low-budget (and silent!) bestselling novels of the 1930s have 2005 adaptation of “The Call of Cthulhu.” quietly drowned; meanwhile, for the last 50 years, this prim, eccentric antiquarian From a game design viewpoint, the gentleman of Providence, who published Cthulhoid vibe includes many neat in fanzines with two-digit print runs and ingredients: cool monsters; vile, died in 1937, has unfalteringly sold degenerate cultists; bizarre texts and better every decade. To put that another magic; vivid alien settings; and deserted way, each of the last four decades was, cities. For computer games, “deserted” is in its turn, the biggest Lovecraft ever always good. Chaosium’s classic 1980 had – and this decade is bigger yet. The Call of Cthulhu tabletop roleplaying critics who dismissed HPL as “sub- game, still the chief popularizer of literary” must now confront three Lovecraft’s work today, has spawned Penguin Classics Lovecraft collections. dozens of scenario books, each a Today, Lovecraft still profoundly stupendous source of plots. There was a influences each new generation of decent CCG (Mythos) and two dozen readers and gamers. People will be Cthulhoid boardgames. These games reading him long after they’ve forgotten bring with them a ready-made audience. (look in your heart, you know it’s true) Well, at least the ones still in print. Ernest Hemingway. In the literature of cosmic horror, Lovecraft remains the Mythos ideas permeate game-geek epitome, the writer to beat. culture, marked by active fansites like Yog-Sothoth.com and, perhaps more HPL’s ideas have also crept into a few telling, by a crawling horde of parodies. films. No, notHellboy, where the key to See, for instance, John Kovalic’s Pokethulhu and John Hansen’s slideshow l The first game in the long-running writer Hubert Chardot. Because all “Tales of the Plush Cthulhu.” (“The Alone in the Dark series had a three games share minor characters, were right again and a band of innocent Chaosium CoC license attached early in some fans consider them a loose trilogy. stuffed animals had released Him into its development, but the connection the world by accident. ‘Uh, oh,’ said Baby was dropped before publication in l A recent low-budget French game, Boy Fluffy Bunny.”) “Tales” stars one of 1992. Too bad, for this pioneering 3-D Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes: The many Chthulhoid dolls, hats and slippers adventure was the era’s closest Awakened, is a “first-person sleuther” from ToyVault. approach to Lovecraft. The player’s that sends the great detective in spooky search through a monster- search of kidnappers whose trail leads So there’s interest. Lovecraft’s works are haunted house turned up a back story into a mystery with a thin, mock- in the public domain. What’s stopping right out of HPL’s novel The Case of Lovecraftian flavor. Though the game is the game publishers? Charles Dexter Ward. Later Alone in tainted by StarForce copy protection, it the Dark installments abandoned the – hey, wait, where are you going? *** Cthulhoid connection for ghost gangsters, zombie cowboys and l The 2005 Xbox RPG Dark Corners of For Lovecraftian computer games, the modern-day private eye action. These the Earth, another CoC license, is this stars have never really been right. Of the later entries inspired, if that’s the list’s real tragedy. The game got okay entries in the skimpy MobyGames word, Uwe Boll’s staggeringly bad 2005 reviews (76% on Game Rankings), Lovecraft games group, the only high- film adaptationAlone in the Dark. Soon despite graphics badly dated by a rated game is Michael S. Gentry’s 1998 Atari will publish, for some reason, crippling five-year gestation. Dark“ – a text adventure. Alone in the Dark 5: Near Death Corners of the Earth is the best Wikipedia’s Lovecraftian videogames list Investigations. (Beware the annoying Cthulhu game I’ve played, and it was is littered with trivial cases, passing Alone 5 Flash site.) clearly a labor of love,” says longtime mentions and feeble pretenders. The CoC designer . high points are few: l Remember the two licensed Call of “Walking the streets of was Cthulhu computer games from a blast. Unfortunately, it was ruined by l CoC designer Sandy Petersen left Infogrames? The DOS point-and-click excessive difficulty.” The assault on the Chaosium for id Software, where he pixel-hunt adventures, 1993’s Shadow Marsh Hotel in Innsmouth was thrilling, worked on the original . The of the Comet and its 1995 sequel, he says, but “it lost its charm after the game’s final boss is the monstrous ? Me neither, but both 20th time.” Developer Headfirst Elder God of fertility, Shub-Niggurath. were scripted by Alone in the Dark Productions entered bankruptcy in sponsored by March 2006, the same week the PC “The real problem with horror games is weird other-worldly colors and “angles port appeared. much the same as the problem with neither acute nor obtuse.” So, text horror novels,” Tynes says. “You can’t adventures aside, graphics are a As in every game genre, there were maintain an intensity of terror across challenge – at least until Microsoft other, aborted attempts: Tainted Legacy many hours. At best, you can alternate releases its sanity-blasting trans- (cancelled); Headfirst’s sequel toDark long stretches of plot with occasional dimensional DirectX APIs. Corners, Destiny’s End (unpublished); moments of fright. The Silent Hill games and, most heartbreaking, a planned have amazing art direction and concepts l Speaking of sanity-shattering, exactly adaptation of Tynes’s tabletop CoC and feel really menacing – for about 15 how does that work? Dark Corners supplement . Now their minutes. Then it’s just endless took a shot: “A loss of sanity can be nullity has spread, like a “Colour Out of bludgeoning of demon dogs and monster represented in many ways, such as Space,” to the entire field. Fan site nurses, and all the mood drains away. If hearing mysterious voices, Calling Cthulhu, “Your Lovecraftian Silent Hill was 20 minutes long, it’d be hallucinating or suffering visual Gaming Source,” shut down in April the scariest game ever made.” impairments (double vision and 2007. Wrote the admin, Nyarlathotep: inability to focus).” It was probably “With Dark Corners of the Earth being Though it enjoys fads, horror may be worth a try. But a convincing released and no other real Lovecraftian fated to remain a niche market. But it’s simulation of insanity, even if possible, games on the horizon, there is no point interesting that the Lovecraftian games may not be desirable. Insanity implies in keeping this site alive.” have succeeded almost inversely to their a failure of perception, a distorted fidelity to the Mythos. The less Cthulhoid sense of available options. A player *** they are, the more the market likes who acts based on false information, them. Why? then suffers a horrible fate, won’t feel The fate of specifically Cthulhoid games insane – unless you consider him mirrors the larger field of horror games. l You’d think a computer game has at insane when he throws his controller at Aside from zombie shooters, they’re least one leg up right away, given that his television. dwindling like teens in a slasher flick. – hurrah! – it can bypass the cliched What do horror fans have nowadays, HPL vocabulary (squamous rugose l Lovecraft’s protagonists aren’t two- non-zombiewise? The Silent Hill and gibbous nefandous eldritch bloop bleep fisted heroes but alienated, antiquarian Resident Evil franchises, F.E.A.R., blup!). But a game nonetheless must intellectuals. (Hmm, wonder why?) A Bioshock, Clive Barker licenses ... depict monsters the author routinely Mythos tale is an investigation, a calls “indescribable,” not to mention painstaking piecing together of clues. “Throwing tentacles into your game Gods who once ruled and will rule again, Clark Kent, and D&D uses a Dungeon doesn’t make it Lovecraftian,” says are not “evil” (a narrow human concept) Master and has levels and hit points. It Tynes. “His terror is interior. The fear but inscrutably alien. Humans can’t is mired in its own hobby-dom, the comes from sudden comprehension of comprehend them, and the attempt realm of those more interested in it as a hideous truth, not from a monster at brings madness and death. a subject than as a marketing plan. And, the door.” This makes for, shall we say, all things considered, I’m OK with that. rarefied gameplay, not to mention poor Yet in a computer game, you want to re-playability. comprehend and gain influence. By some Lovecraft’s message will never be definitions, that’s the entire point of popular, either in computer games or l One key Lovecraftian theme is playing a game! Futility may be a fact, society. But like Jeff, we should be OK corruption of the self. The narrator is but it isn’t fun. with that. The insight embodied in the shocked and horrified to discover he’s stories will still keep really a , possessed by the *** attracting disciples with its one Great Race, etc. How would the fundamental, undeniable strength: Like gaming audience greet this revelation? Game designer Jeff Grubb observes it or not, it’s true. We remember great “Cool! What powers do I get?” about Cthulhoid lore, “Nobody makes writers because they convey what we any money off this stuff.” He means, not call “timeless truths”; Lovecraft That last point highlights the deepest, reprints of Lovecraft’s work, which can unblinkingly conveys truth, with its awful and perhaps fatal, difference between be lucrative, but new pop-cult Mythos implications for humanity, on a time pure Lovecraft and pure gaming. spinoffs. Jeff speculates: scale of thousands, millions of years. Gameplay is about, not “powers” as The insight embodied such, but agency – the ability to actively I don’t think we’re ever going to hit And just as in Lovecraft’s stories, the influence the environment. Lovecraft’s that sweet spot, that over-the-top truth – unlike his doomed protagonists – in the Cthulhu Mythos investigators actively seek answers to moment where Cthulhu rises over the survives. stories will still keep mysteries, yet this usually brings them western ocean like Pokemon and turns to a terrifying realization of ultimate into a national craze. Instead, I think it Allen Varney designed the PARANOIA attracting disciples with futility: Humanity’s reign is temporary will enter our popular culture of the paper-and-dice roleplaying game (2004 and must inevitably fail; in the immensity “things people know without really edition) and has contributed to computer its one fundamental, of space and time, we are powerless and knowing,” that Sheldrake/Gaia level games from Sony Online, Origin, trivial. The Mythos entities, the Elder where everyone knows that Supes is Interplay and Looking Glass. undeniable strength: Like it or not, it’s true. Ever have a game just stick? One where From Battlestar to Wing Commander: you grimaced as the credits rolled, Hard Light Productions knowing you’d never play anything like it Originally launched in 1998, ’s again? Imagine it didn’t end there. For first-person space simDescent: some people, those old games to which FreeSpace - The Great War and its 1999 you’ve said goodbye are just as alive, and sequel FreeSpace 2 were the spiritual in some cases thriving, as they were when death of games of their ilk. While critics you walked away to bigger, newer things. picked up on what the game had to offer, neither game sold especially well. Of the Gaming’s “fringe cults,” those who’ve people who did find their way to the elevated a game to the status of a Freespace universe, few wanted to leave. modern deity, exist to make sure other people hear the stories their favorite “Aside from the impressive graphics, I games tell. Typically insular communities really enjoyed the ambience of the on old-school message boards and game,” says Alex “Kalifreth” Avery, WordPress blogs, their ranks rehash Operations Manager at Hard Light gameplay tips, find ways to manage Productions, a bustling FreeSpace fan download servers and create mods on community based around modding the old software, all to keep themselves and game. “Volition had clearly put a lot of perspective converts interested in games work into making everything work that, by all rights, would’ve been together nicely, from audio effects to the forgotten by time years ago. interface and flight mechanics in game - it all merged together well.” I spoke to representatives from three such “cults,” whose fanatical dedication Hard Light, Avery says, formed in 2001 to the games they love has bloomed into because they “noticed something of a a huge niche scene, one of the niche gap in the FreeSpace franchise most feared message boards on the coverage revolving around a place for and even a player-run massively modders of the games to congregate and multiplayer online game. Their stories pool resources.” And they’ve filled that are different, but the message is the niche incredibly well. Hard Light’s same: It’s the community, stupid. community, 4,300 strong, has either participated in or collaborated on three FreeSpace 2’s end-user license “Who knows where we’ll be in five major products - The Babylon Project, agreement, the company stated, “You years’ time?” based on the Babylon 5 TV series; Wing may make copies of the Software for Commander Saga, a re-imagination of your personal noncommercial home Internet Curmudgeons with Hearts of the Origin’s Wing Commander games; entertainment use and to give to friends Radioactive Gold: No Mutants Allowed and , based on the and acquaintances on a no cost In 1997, the videogame world trembled new series - and a noncommercial basis.” And in 2002, they as a titan was birthed from a nuclear host of other, smaller user-created mods released FreeSpace 2’s source code, apocalypse, and lo, the legend was and campaigns. “It’s truly quite which opened the door to things like The named . The brainchild of Leonard incredible to compare the original Babylon Project and Beyond the Red Boyarsky, Jason Anderson and Freespace 2 engine and what we’ve got Line. Avery believes Volition’s open- of Interplay, Fallout’s mix of incredibly available for free download right now.” mindedness has given the game dark humor and terrifying wasteland “fantastic drawing power, as what you What’s most impressive about can basically get here is a game that’s FreeSpace, though, is the 10-year-old still seeing a lot of active development game’s following is growing. “On any one from some very talented people. Best of day there’s typically over 150 people all, it’s free! “ stopping through,” he says. And on April 15, 2007, The Babylon Project It’s also guaranteed the community will announced it served over 100,000 be around for the foreseeable future. “If downloads of the demo, just two weeks you had asked me a couple of years ago after releasing it to the public. whether I could imagine the community still being together and putting active Of course, they’ve had some help from work into the games, I wouldn’t have Volition along the way, albeit indirectly. been sure,” says Avery. “But things are The company always had a progressive still going strong and show no signs of way of doing business: In an age where stopping. It looks like Volition has companies are afraid to release games created a great set of games for us, as without crippling malware and online CD well as the tools and opportunities to key verification, Volition opted to use the make what we want of them, and it’s “sneakernet” rather than fight it. In really a pleasure to be working on that. setting captured the heart of everyone release was forthcoming (there were two offered you the choices, and had the who sat in front of a computer in the late start-ups that were cancelled game world react to those choices.” ‘90s. Its sequel, Fallout 2, though it before Van Buren [Black Isle’s Fallout 3 didn’t quite bear the mark of the first’s tech demo, hosted on NMA]). “Also,” says Lenartowicz, “the character creators, enjoyed even more widespread creation and development system was appeal, but the franchise endured nearly “Now, we’re mostly evangelists of friggin’ sweet.” a decade of bad cash-ins and worse recreating the original Fallout experience. attempts at humor until recently, now We try to convince the media and In terms of the NMA community, all that the storied Bethesda has thrown in publishers that there is a viable niche three admit that while it has grown every its hat to give a true third edition of the market for Fallout-like games that has year, it does suffer some pitfalls of age: game a proper showing. been under-serviced for years.” Primarily, the folks there have refined arguing down to a brutal science. “I And through it all, No Mutants Allowed Acting as a non-profit, grass-roots PR dislike a bit that this sometimes means was there. and marketing campaign for the better there’s too much (sometimes enforced) part of a decade speaks to a zeal not consensus on anything concerning Started on Geocities nearly a decade ago often observed outside of holy crusades Fallout, and not always enough freedom by a Serbian named “Miroslav” (who only and message board flame wars. What is for creative thought,” Beekers says. left the site due to the Bosnian War), it about Fallout that inspires people to “What I dislike a lot more is that our NMA has built a reputation as the definitive, continually sing its praises? often abusive attitude always attracts a and most vocal (read: kinda mean), lot of ne’er-do-wells and ill-thinking pre- Fallout community on the web. And to hear Philipse says, Fallout’s world felt more, adolescents. … I think those types also Thomas “Brother None” Beekers, Sebastian well, worldly than anything that’s come contribute disproportionally to [our] bad “Silencer” Lenartowicz and Sander Philipse before or since. “There are many games reputation.” - NMA’s administrators - tell it, they’re today that offer you sandbox-like not going away any time soon. “With the gameplay, but very few of them also However, the good far outweighs the times, our goals have changed,” Beekers make you feel the consequences of the bad, according to Lenartowicz. “Our says. “Originally, we were formed to be choices you are offered. If you muck visitors are an educated and wholesome as supportive as we could be of Fallout, something up, you’ll have to play with it. bunch, [that makes] this community and this was great between Fallout 1 and Most games either stop your game, or worth our time. There’s a lot of expertise 2, before Tactics’ release dashed our offer you an odd explanation as to why to be gained here, I should know first hopes of a good spin-off and no new things did work out anyway. Fallout hand. Having joined the community fairly late (around the time Van Buren was However, regardless of what the future win-loss record just didn’t take. By 1998, cancelled), I have really benefited from it holds, Beekers remains optimistic for VIE had lost its funding from parent in terms of Fallout and gaming lore.” NMA: “Considering we’re still that active company Virgin, and the SubSpace on a set of decade-old games that were license went un-purchased, leaving the In terms of the future, all three share never enormous hits, I don’t think we’re remaining community with little support. reservations about Bethesda picking up going anywhere, anytime soon.” Interplay’s ball. “Part of me is happy that Players were able to create their own the franchise didn’t die with Black Isle Heirs to an Empty Kingdom: The servers, but without a unified developer Studios,” says Beekers, “but for the most Continuum Team to patch the game in an official capacity, part I realize Fallout is only a name, and Released in ‘97, Virgin Interactive cheating ran rampant, which pushed the the fact that Bethesda’s Fallout 3 is Entertainment’s (VIE) SubSpace was a game even further underground. If called Fallout 3 doesn’t mean anything victim of its novelty. Just barely scraping SubSpace was going to survive, it unless they make it a Fallout game. If the traditional MMOG qualifier (64 or needed something bold to happen. Enter they don’t, I’m guessing I and other fans more players on one server), the top- Priit “PriitK” Kasesalu. Kasesalu, who will be about as upset as we were with down space combat game - along with would later go on to design Kazaa and the release of Fallout: BoS [Brotherhood Meridian 59 and Ultima Online - laid the Skype, reverse-engineered SubSpace of Steel].” foundation for online gaming. The game and renamed it Continuum, the version played a bit like Counter-Strike or Team of the game most people play today. Since Fortress, only with spaceships: Players then, Kasesalu maintains a few servers, battled over flag capture points and for but has handed over the day-to-day bragging rights, and thanks to a robust responsibilities to the community he saved. chat system, people didn’t even need to log out to torment their victims. One of the leaders in the community is Scott “ PoLiX” Binford. A nine-year However, in 1997, those ancient times SubSpace vet, Binford runs SSCentral. Before Broadband, back when some com and acts, in a way, as the game’s people were still paying by the hour for publicist. “I am a lone man in some ways flaky internet access, the idea of paying ... keeping what I can together while an additional fee to log into a virtually trying to get a new face and grow the non- with little record of site again.” Binford says he, like many your existence beyond a name and a other of the game’s diehard fans, grew up playing SubSpace. “I’ve known many easier jumping leap than any other does put emphasis on the game, but “on of the players I consider friends since the game, as so much more programming is the verge of sounding quite sappy now, time I began, and some I have worked needed, and you’re starting literally from but it honestly has to be the people. I’ve with for years now building the websites.” bare scratch in many places.” not seen any other community where so many people have put so much hard Sometimes, all the work he and the rest Whatever the marketing outcome, Binford work into a game that - in all honesty - of the team does can be exhausting and is extremely confident in the team’s isn’t likely to see a sequel.” frustrating. Binford admits he’s thought lasting survival. “Honestly, this game will about giving up his responsibilities “a never die as long as we keep playing it Joe Blancato is an Associate Editor for few times. It has gotten frustrating being and enjoying it, so I see it lasting until The Escapist. He quotes Wayne’s World the last general site for the game … but I our 20-year anniversary and beyond.” and Dr. Strangelove too much. But still keep the sites up and running and someday, it will be funny. Oh yes, it keep my active user base happy. I know Go Tell It on the Mountain will be funny. I am the media for the game, and without The one question I had when I first our websites, we would slowly die.” reached out to these community spokespeople was, “Why?” In a medium But the death of SubSpace is the last where anything is a dinosaur after its thing on anyone’s mind. Even they were fifth birthday, dedicated, hardcore gamers hit hard by World of Warcraft’s arrival, are spending huge amounts of time on but the team plans on rolling out the PR something most people won’t be able to wagon to draw new people to the game. run on a modern computer in a few They intend to focus on how varied the years. What keeps them so committed? game can be - “In what other game can you go from playing an Unreal Everyone’s answer settled on three Tournament-style game to an Infantry- things: The game resonated on a special, style game?” - as well as how working nostalgic frequency; overwhelming on a collaborative development can lead confidence in the game’s staying power; to paying jobs within the industry. “Many and they’ve grown close to the people of our players … have now gotten jobs in who feel the same way. “There is no programming, or designing,” he says, alternative if you love this kind of game,” “and have said they found Continuum an says NMA’s Philipse. Hard Light’s Avery Taito’s 1987 classic Rastan Saga (or story; “I succeeded in obtaining the simply, Rastan) begins in the best consent of the Princess of the Kingdom tradition of Robert E. Howard’s Conan ‘Ceim’ to exchange the dragon’s head for series; the hero drops out of the sky and all the treasures in the Empire. I started trumpets blare a Wagnerian tribute to on my quest to the dragon’s lair.” The gore. Within seconds, lizardfolk are genius of this passage being in past screaming and disintegrating beneath tense is that an otherwise simple game the hulking arm of Rastan, our is suddenly turned into a type of eponymous hero. The horizontal swing of manifest destiny. I am the King the arm is accompanied by a shrill creak recounting his victory; of course I am of the sound controller that was the going to insert more coins to grease the closest thing to the actual sound of a storyteller’s palm! sword’s clash arcade gamers had heard. Paint It Red Yet even though a handful of screens The original music by Naoto Yagishita offer only the barest narrative refrain, and Masahiko Takaki is so distinctive and the epic tone of Conan is imparted with powerful that you instinctively knew this one of fantasy’s most enduring images - was fantasy for men, in the Howard the protagonist-King recounting the tradition, broadswords and baby oil events you’re about to witness from his rather than Tolkein’s magical elves and cold throne: “I used to be a thief and a hobbits. A nanosecond after the game’s murderer. Otherwise, I could not survive theme completes, the monitor fades up in such difficult times. Sit beside me and to reveal your falling hero landing on a listen to my story of days filled with stone platform; behind him is a wall adventure.” This screen also features as painted from the same texture. His past the game’s teaser mode the King on his is literally closed off; only the bloody throne without the text, the title screen path ahead remains. The background is appearing with a sword clash, and then a mottled blue carved open by 12 seconds of silent gameplay. treacherous peaks. As the song builds drama near the end of the first level, the Only when you dropped a coin into the sky turns blood red. In 1987, this was a machine would he explain the rest of the revelation – real thought had gone into the world, a visceral, muscular fantasy Nothing in the arcades of 1987 could The World of the Dark One the capabilities and the triumphs of men painted red. compare to the presentation and Robert E. Howard’s “low fantasy” is who are completely free to chart their grandeur of the cabinet, with grim-faced never going to be mentioned in the same own destiny.” Where Tolkein had the Perhaps none of this would have bats and dragons surrounding the screen breath as Tolkien’s “high fantasy.” heroes of the realm respond to a great mattered or ever impacted arcade window. Games were facing a Whereas the latter specialized in rich threat, Robert E. Howard’s heroes are culture the way it did if the original generational problem, as the audience worlds with deeply emotional narratives self-motivated outsiders come to make Rastan Saga cabinet was not one of the enjoyed films (especially the swords- steeped in history, Howard’s scenarios their mark and tell their own story. The loudest arcade machines of all time. The and-sorcery genre that lit up with Conan were brutish, bloody, and very alpha- worlds they inhabit are different in scope input screens can usually tone down the the Barbarian) that were more gory, male – what language the lizardmen in order to make this possible; the volume, but no such luck for arcade more epic, more dangerous and nasty spoke was never an issue. These two Fellowship responds to a threat to the operators in mid-to-late 1987 who had than ever before. The big arcade hit at approaches of high fantasy and sword- status quo; Conan, well, he’s come to to contend with a machine that made as the time was Taito’s Bubble Bobble and-sorcery sit on sides of a spectrum cut off the status quo’s head. much noise as its hero. (released 1986), and even though horror best described as that between destiny and fantasy games like Gauntlet held the and free will. The Howard mythos is an exaltation of the fort, they lacked the teenage-boy individual talent; King Kull screams, “By psychopomp that was rampaging Joseph A. McCulloch writes, “The heroes this Axe, I rule!” smashing the table which through the rest of popular culture. Enter of sword and sorcery become the true represents the law. Heroes have no real the dragon slayer representatives of free will, and through origin; they come from a distant land, their stories, readers are able to imagine raised by wolves. The very last words of Howard’s story In the Forest of Villefère are the perfect example of his heroic brutes looking after their own skin: “Fearing madness, I snatched up the thing’s own sword and hacked it to pieces. Then I flung the sword away and fled.” Which is incredibly telling but hardly has the pomp and circumstance of the ending lines of The Dark Man: “I am King Turlogh of Bal-Sagoth and my kingdom is fading in the morning sky. And therein it is like all other empires in the world – dreams and ghosts and smoke.” Everybody gets to make his mark. As long as “everybody” is Magic is the work of politicians and lives and from history. In each game a white male barbarian with a penchant mumbling law-givers – hardly the since Rastan that features swords and for decapitation. muscular world-breakers Howard idolized. hulking muscle, I rename the characters Even in death, the mythic element Rastan; the quest continues across The sun-baked earth, the grim-faced emerges: Rastan slowly disintegrates platforms, across eras and across enemies of nameless races; they’re just from the feet upward while bellowing; he companies. His rage is immortal, all background information. What matters is is simply too tough to merely bleed or because of a haunting, driving main that our heroes - Conan, Kull and the stumble, only a mysterious force can take theme and simple refrain you hear on others - are free to forge their own little him away from his task. the first level. The music may have been epic narrative. While Rastan has no official technically rudimentary, but to me, it connection to Howard’s writing, the lineage After each outdoor area, the game was blood and trumpets.. is not a simple genre mash-up with cute becomes more of a platformer, where music. Rastan is not even homage; it’s an the rabid Conan fan might imagine Arnie Christian McCrea is a game writer, interactive love letter to the grim world of moving through caverns and swinging academic and curator based in Conan and its antecedents. from trap to trap. Yet for all the greatly Melbourne, Australia. He submitted this mythological gameplay, it’s the aesthetic article with the threat to “drive his Silver Coins for the Storyteller and aural touches that elevate Rastan editors before him and hear the The monsters ahead begin simply into the realm of myth. With mood lamentations of their spell-checkers.” enough; a static grimacing lizardman carefully planned and distinguished, the armed with a club and an assortment of mental glue cools and players weave a bats that require timing to effectively mythological fabric more detailed than smack out of the air. The third enemy the 8-bit game could ever push out. In type, however, is some sort of Vedic Rastan, moving the player around was nightmare, a Hindu god come to life, secondary to head banging and whistling spewing fire. Luckily, they’re just as easily to the music and getting far enough into put down as the lizardmen. You bounce the game to experience the sunset. Such from platform to platform, occasionally as it was, it became a more perfect love finding a new weapon or power-up. Of letter to Howard’s world than the Conan course, this is taken from the world of film on which it capitalized so well. Robert E. Howard, so the magic potion sometimes hurts you, and the damned Myths are not stories; they are living, healing potions barely do anything at all. playing, bleeding memories - from our Sophil gazed out across her once proud Mythology is the stories a culture tells realm, desolate and silent now, no longer about itself. Their choice of gods, heroes teaming with the life and laughter of her and the struggles they face speak people. Once these halls rang with the volumes about the society’s ideals, triumphs and despairs of hundreds of dreams, fears and understanding of the her kin - Terkon the True, Golvar the world. Norse mythology speaks of its Wise, Branchel the Strong. They were all people’s struggles against the elements gone now, all gone forever. and isolation. Greek mythology, while in many ways no less brutal, speaks of a Sophil knew she’d had a hand in this. If complex social structure, exemplified by only she’d been more accepting of Trozl. rivalries and conflicts within the If only she’d been more tolerant of his pantheon. Egyptian mythology is peculiarities, he’d have been less inclined fractured and sharp-edged, with a focus to side with the hordes when they on the sun and death, the two arrived. But when the hordes stormed inescapable facets of desert life. the gates, Trozl turned on all his old friends, driving each of them away, one Gaming communities tell their own by one. Eventually, even Lolkats, ever a stories and build their own mythologies, source of light and joy, could withstand too. Each is unique, yet each shares the onslaught no more and fled. Now common themes with the others. And there was only Sophil, and after today, while ancient mythology can certainly not even she would remain. One last add depth and resonance within a game, speech, one last indictment against the it’s the modern mythology that surrounds banality that ruled the day, one last the game that truly captures gamers’ bitter tirade, and she too would leave. imaginations and sparks their passions. From now on, it would be up to Google and the Wayback Machine to recall the When we become members of an online former glory of the realm she once ruled, gaming community, we are free to ignore her old gaming message board. the constraints of our everyday reality. We choose what aspects of ourselves recognize some of these pantheon we’re going to share and what roles members. Perhaps you’ve even played we’re going to play. It doesn’t matter so one of these roles yourself. much what our self image actually is, only what we wish it to be. Our The Allfather. This god is rarely very interactions take on a mythic cast. The active in the community, but when he roles we choose and the selves we does speak, he’s greeted enthusiastically project speak volumes about our culture. by the elder gods. He often stops in for official announcements, either about the The elder gods arrive first. They are development process or the community typically the hopeful, the dedicated itself. While he may not always be an followers of the studio or the genre. employee of the studio, he is usually They bring with them an optimism and responsible for the official web site and faith unmatched by all the minor deities forums. who follow, at times unmatched even by their forebears, the developers themselves. The Arbiter. This god is often a forum It is these first comers who determine moderator. Sometime he is someone the mood and size of the pantheon. affiliated with the studio, other times he is merely one of the first levelheaded These pantheons need not be limited to community members to prove himself to a single game, or even a single studio. the Allfather. Regardless, his even Often they outlive and outgrow the temperament is respected by the other product or team that gave them birth. gods, even when they don’t agree with They’ve even been known to migrate to his decisions. their own Asgards and Olympuses when the realms they previously inhabited are The Wise Elder. Iconoclastic, witty and struck down. Regardless of size, location willing to dispense the lessons learned or strength, if you’ve ever participated in from a long life. The Wise Elder often an online community, you’re sure to does not want the hassle of official involvement in the community, preferring topic threads. His use of sarcasm and There are also Placaters, Hopeless to remain an unofficial authority. If irony is often so subtle as to be Dreamers and the Disconnected. anyone is going to post long, drunken transparent, and he delights in leading Whatever the game, however large the philosophical ramblings, it’s the Wise the hot-headed on a merry chase. If community, each message board hosts a Elder. Although he can provide great anyone is going to open the gates to the mythic band of erstwhile gods, forming insight, he’s often acerbic or obscure and enemy when Ragnarok arrives, it will be alliances that eventually fall apart due to prone to fits of extreme grouchiness the trickster. Even when the pantheon is misunderstandings and entropy. when faced with disrespectful behavior. amused by the Trickster’s wit, their suspicion runs deep. But until they do, remember: The gods The White Knight. This is the god most are watching. So the next time you stop concerned with noble behavior. He’s often The Warrior. Unlike the White Knight, by a message board to ask about the first to communicate with the other the Warrior simply likes to fight. Direct, hardware requirements or release dates, gods via instant message or e-mail. lacking in subtlety and arguing in show some respect, or at least some Betraying a tender heart, he’s the first to straight lines, the Warrior steadfastly good old fashioned fear. After all, you’re ask you if you’re alright when your posts clings to his beliefs on anything and in divine company. seem a bit cranky, and the first to call everything, regardless of opposing you to task if you’re being mean. The evidence or logic. The Warrior is often Corvus Elrod is a storyteller and game White Knight is often loved and respected the most fanatically dedicated of the designer who is working on bringing his by all members of the community. entire pantheon, lacking the judgment 16 years experience into the digital needed to question or temper his beliefs. realm. He has a habit of taking serious The Fool. The fool can’t seem to get He may be dedicated to the game or things lightly and frivolous things anything right. He posts old news and studio whose realm he inhabits, or he seriously, a personal quirk which can be false rumors; he tells bad jokes. Despite may be dedicated to another game witnessed on his blog, Man Bytes Blog. never quite fitting in, he is rigorously altogether. Most of the pantheon finds defended by the rest of the pantheon. the Warrior tiresome even when on the same side of an argument. Only the Remember: The Trickster. It can be easy to confuse Trickster delights in his presence, the Trickster with the Fool at first. Unlike steering him in directions sure to result The gods are watching. the fool, this god revels in the confusion in maximum carnage. he creates with nonsensical jokes and off EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editors Lead Artist Account Executive Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Rebecca Sanders Russ Pitts Layout Artist Chairman of Themis Group Contributing Editors Jason Haile Thomas S. Kurz JR Sutich Shannon Drake Lead Web Developer Whitney Butts Research Manager Nova Barlow Web Developers Erik Jacobson Contributors Tim Turner Corvus Elrod Dana Massey IT Director Christian McCrea Jason Smith Allen Varney

Issue102 © 2007. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the 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