heard. These people create and share and enrich others’ lives, collaborating, And as for the future of future racers ... growing, learning while producing fantastic, original content. Most everyone - andysat You know that dream, the one in which can find content on the internet provided by peers that answers dilemmas, incites In response to “Video Vegas” from you can change your environment, your In response to “Formula futurist” laughter or joy, or simply makes one feel The Escapist Forum: As an ex-arcade circumstance, to suit your needs or to from The Escapist Forum: I was the as if they belong. guy who now works in the slot machine make your life better or happier? Staples producer on Wipeout 2097, and the business, I would like to point out the ran with this blissful notion with their producer/co-designer on Quantum These creators of mods, the builders of statement that “Bally leads the market” most recent marketing campaign – the Redshift. It’s great to know that those addons, the designers of new UIs – is incorrect. They are sort of a middling bright red Easy Button. Movies have games were loved as much as they these are some of the digital-age’s player at this point. offered solutions from completely erasing were, so thanks for the article. a person from your mind to having God’s civilian inventors, those who march to their own beat, those who see the box As far as American marketshare for powers offered to you. Science-fiction If you want something new, that still and don’t just think outside of it, they “class 3” (class 3 being games that you and fantasy books sometimes offer views pushes all the future racer buttons, then often live outside of it. And there are would find in Vegas) goes: of future utopias with all problems solved. you should really try my most recent groups who create and throw those title “GripShift” on the PlayStation3 creations onto the internet to join the IGT is the market leader. They had what And then of course, there are those who (downloadable title, only $10). It has chorus/cacophony of other voices, I would call a near-monopoly at one take these dreams and work to make multi-player weapon enhanced racing sharing their talents, giving depth and point during the 1990s. Probably close to them realities – well, at least the general around crazy floating roller coaster texture to all of our lives. And it is these 95% of all gaming (ahem) machines reality of making life easier or perhaps tracks (and at the top end of the game, people, and their inventions and unique bore an IGT logo, mostly due to patents more fun. Someone, one day, decided to it has future racer speeds). pre-slice bread before he packaged and voices on whom this issue of The involving “virtual reels,” which have Escapist is focused. Enjoy! recently expired. However, their sold a loaf (creating a new UI?). It’s now But it also introduces whole new elements reluctance to embrace video slots caught the industry standard for everyday of in-air control, physics stunt skills and Cheers, up with them. They picked up the pieces bread, in the U.S., anyway. And it was all platform/puzzle driving that offers eventually, but due to the fact that the because some guy, somewhere, wanted something truly different. It doesn’t set five-reel video format has no patent to make life a little easier. out to be the icon that Wipeout2097 was protection (and conveniently gets around - but it does set out to offer something the pesky virtual reel patents), it More recently, the internet has given different in the fantasy-driving genre. many more people a voice and a enabled many other companies to get platform from which that voice might be into the business. Still, it seems that IGT probably still holds anywhere between LOT. This allowed everyone else to play books and movies. I don’t think that’s 50% - 70% of the casino floor positions. catch up. the best use of the game medium because, at least in theory, games are Next up would be Aristocrat and Williams Bally sort of fits between the top three capable of so much more through the (now called WMS). and the group of “second tier” players, player’s freewill. which at this point, would include Aristocrat is an Australian-born company Atronic, Konami, and Progressive. AC Freewill can ruin a good story. How many that is known as really bringing the 5 Coin probably goes in this group, too, of us, through the freewill that we reel video format to the forefront. but they are a rather unusual outfit, as express in our lives, end up with a good However, due to some issues with the they are more of a retro-fit type story? The good stories come afterwards core management at the time (early company (they develop top box bonus through a retelling that edits out the 90’s), they were never allowed licenses games on top of pre-existing games), as drudgery and, perhaps, adds sparkle to operate and sell their games in the opposed to a pure developer. with a few judicious lies. (How many larger casino markets, such as Nevada. good story tellers are not liars?) The Which meant that they were only selling Multimedia is a huge player in “Class 2” footage on the cutting room floor far games into the Native American market. (Bingo-based Indian Reservation Gaming outweighs the final edit. Games don’t (They did fix their management issues, and networked lottery systems), I’m have the luxury of that much editing. and as such, now have licenses to glad to see them getting some amount That’s why I think that it’s important not operate everywhere.) of mention. Usually, you only read to get too caught up in the storytelling interviews from the “Vegas guys.” paradigm. It’s too easy to reduce games Which brings us to WMS. Desperate to down to movies or books. It can be break into the market, but with licenses - meeplecheese done, but I don’t think that it’s the best everywhere, they copied the Aristocrat use of the game medium. format and were able to sell it into In response to “Next-Generation Nevada and Atlantic City. So, they wound Storytelling” from The Escapist As much as I like what Warren has to up being the company that Forum: To do justice to the game say, I don’t think that the word “story” is “mainstreamed” the format (while most medium, what we’re really talking about the best word to capture the creative of the other players in the industry is reinterpreting what we mean by the vision needed to surpass the limits of dismissed the video slot craze as a fad). word “story”. Many times, when I hear books and movies. I prefer to think in They were pretty much poised to take about people talking about storytelling terms of alternate world modeling, but over the casino, except for a bunch of through games, I get the image of them maybe that’s a byproduct of the type of software bugs that slowed them down A trying to ape the accomplishments of playing and exploration I like to do. - Nordstrom They resorted to scare tactics, spewing various lies (they don’t search out illegal In response to Playground Piracy gamers, they just try to prevent it with... from The Escapist Forum: I have to well there’s no better word for it than admit, this article brought up some nice propaganda). It is very much aimed at memories; writing this from Croatia, this ‘playground piracy’, as can be seen where (sixteen years ago) you couldn’t from their various posters in schools. buy an original copy of a game even if you had the money. Back then I thought And as helpless as developers are as Razor 1911 was a game developer! each of their copy protection mechanisms get swatted away like flies, And, yeah, I owe my good (in Croatian I can understand the desperation of their terms) knowledge of the English side. I can understand the reaction to language to computer games, especially resort to fear tactics, but I don’t think Lucas Arts and their fabulous it’s an effective solution. adventures. But originals were nowhere to find, and to my surprise - it was the As Kieron Gillen said, essentially publishers who refused to go to our playground piracy is an act of love, while market. They feared piracy. lying to get people to pay for games is an act of fear (which is an interesting - bazooka_joe duality as the one is a crime, while the second is born of a sense of justice). In response to Playground Piracy from The Escapist Forum: In the The solution for developers, is to accept Netherlands there’s an organization reality as it is and either produce games called BIG (Ban Illegal Games & for free with a Paypal link or bank account software) that aired a commercial with a to allow contributions or go the other way high tech FBI-like team that searched and make sure your game can’t be played out illegal gamers! With sirens and in without being connected to your server black suits with black sunglasses and (with unique key of course). high tech red lasers (why?) they would find all illegal gamers. - Capo Taco If making games was as easy as playing take-over’ scenario,” says the 27-year-old them, we’d all be developers, there’d be Nguyen, creator of the much anticipated millions more games on the market and Out of Hell mod for Unreal Tournament. most of them would suck. One need only “Before I started on Out Of Hell I was look as far as YouTube to prove this theory; really obsessed with the Resident Evil, yes, you’ll find the occasional talented Doom and Silent Hill games, and as a amateur effort (alongside ripped TV shows result I wrote some short stories about a and commercials) but the vast majority of zombie apocalypse.” “user” made content blows chunks. Nguyen, like an Umbrella Corporation of Modding games is no different. For every one, took the seemingly dead Unreal amateur developer capable of turning Tournament and, riding the current out a Hexen or Counter-Strike, there are cultural obsession with all things countless more whose names will go recently-deceased-and-yet-still-living, unpublished, whose levels will go un- molded it into a horrific creation of his played and whose efforts, tireless and own, then added in a few demons “for dedicated they may be, will go the sake of the story,” he told ModDB.. unrecognized. The fact is, making games isn’t as easy as playing them, and “I’ve loved videogames ever since I was although a considerable number of PC 10 and had always wanted to create a games now ship with a generous pack of game one day,” Nguyen recently told The dev tools and most people (with a little Escapist. “With the release of modern effort) can learn to use them, making a games and their tools and editors, game with them isn’t as easy as playing something I had only previously dreamt one - not even close - although this fact about became a possibility. Because I’d certainly hasn’t stopped many modders always vented creativity in one way or from trying. another, whether it was painting, writing stories, drawing comics or making Enter: Long Nguyen. boardgames, this became the next step in that whole process because it’s all of “I’m a huge fan of all things horror, but I the above rolled into one!” especially love zombies and the ‘zombie And twice as complicated, as Nguyen “I hope to release it this summer so that from many of the above-described ills in immediately discovered. Like many I can begin branching out and pursuing spite of his sparse development team, would-be game designers, he had other projects,” he says. But delays and wanted to avoid all that. absolutely no idea how to build one unsatisfied fans aren’t all Nguyen has when he started, aside from a general accumulated over the years. He’s also “I wanted to learn as much as I could in all understanding of how to make zombified an employee of sorts (unpaid) aspects of making a small game,” he said computer-generated graphics. What he in the form of composer Justin Lassen, in a recent interview with ModDB. “I also did have, however, was a vivid whose credits include a stint as a liked having the control over the direction imagination and time. remixer for such artists as Madonna, of the content while avoiding some of the Robert Miles, Lenny Kravitz and NIN; problems that could arise with “A lot of my time … was spent self- he’s also a former employee at Interplay. disagreements in a mod-team setting. teaching,” he says, “reading tutorials and building things from scratch. Because I “[Out of Hell] had everything that I love “The disadvantages (and there are began to develop better techniques for about games,” says Lassen. many) are that it takes way longer to doing things and my art improved, I “Atmosphere, texture, moodiness, rust, create. As opposed to being only a couldn’t help but go back and overhaul decay, blood, resonance, subtle details texture artist or a prop modeler and what I had done previously, a habit that and not so subtle details. I’m a huge fan making only those things and then giving eventually attributed to the delays.” of the post-apocalyptic genre. Plus, I was them to the mapper to put together, I’d floored by the fact that it was created by have to do every single thing myself.” And by delays, Long means “years.” Four one person. The mod community of them, to be precise. Over that time unfortunately suffers from its share of He tells The Escapist that through the the game has gone through several big, bulky teams, and Long is a breath of experience, he’s “gained a more iterations and acquired something of a fresh air.” appreciative attitude toward games/ cult following, with over 9,000 registered mods and the people that make them. users at the mod’s official web forum and Mods, it would seem, ironically suffer It’s a lot of hard work, a totally alien over 25,000 downloads of the game’s from many of the same issues plaguing concept that I just didn’t have before demo, representing tens of thousands of commercial game design, such as because ‘hey, it’s making and testing fans all clamoring, like the undead at the feature creep, group think and games, and that’s easy!’ So I would play door, to know when they can get their unreasonable egos stifling creativity. As a game and just label it as being good or hands on the product of Nguyen’s brains. humans, we bring our horrors with us crappy, go on a rant, and think nothing If Nguyen has anything to say about it, whether we’re being paid or not. Long, else of it. Now I know that a game that they won’t be waiting for long. although his project ultimately suffered didn’t turn out the way the developers wanted was still the result of a lot of and that influenced the game design. I hard work and dedicated individuals had love that back-and-forth.” to go through stress, late nights and crunch-time, despite what I thought But back and forth takes time, especially about it. It definitely casts a new light on when your development team consists of my approach to games and outlook on one full time programmer/producer/ people [making them].” artist/coder/mapper …

This isn’t news to Justin Lassen, who’s “Out Of Hell has gone through numerous worked on his share of mod projects. overhauls throughout the years and ended up taking much longer than I had “I have always supported the anticipated,” says Nguyen. “Though independent game development scene,” there were many factors involved, I he told The Escapist. “I’ve modded and believe the biggest issue was just that I worked in teams doing various roles for was never happy or content with what I just about every engine. … I tend to act had created. Because it was all a as a creative producer in mod projects, learning process, each time I found a part biz, part design. Out of Hell is one better way of doing something, I would of those rare gems where I didn’t have decide to go back and bring everything to do either. Long’s totally got his act else up to par with the current work. together. This let me focus on composing, and it was really refreshing. “[But] the visuals weren’t the only aspects that I kept overhauling. … “I got one of my favorite collaborative Initially, Out Of Hell played very much experiences with Out of Hell, where the like a standard FPS in that it was a music and art end up influencing each straight-through, linear presentation. … other in a kind of dance. For instance, I I’ve recently implemented a new idea was initially inspired by the screenshots, where the game will follow a set story but then I started adding ambient effects arc, with other maps that you could in the tracks that gave Long ideas about choose to play in-between in order to what might be causing those sounds, replenish supplies. Though this has gone back to a more linear presentation as was originally intended, I hoped the memorable an experience as possible. … decision would add just a bit more Though I’ve committed a lot of time and variety than the standard method, and resources to Out Of Hell, I have no I’m happy to say that it all finally works.” regrets on what has gone into the project because I’ve loved (almost) Which should mean it’s time to kick the every minute of it. It’s an investment in baby out of the nest, right? Not so fast. that I hope it will make a strong enough Out of Hell is, after all, a labor of love, portfolio piece (this is the sort of work and Nguyen still has a lot of love to give that I eventually want to get into) to get it. After four years, three story arcs, two my foot in the door, but it will only be a engines, a professional score and a huge bonus because I just like doing this brutal course in the school of hard kind of thing for fun anyway!” knocks game design, Long Nguyen has paid his dues by any accounting, but will the game be any good? Only time will Russ Pitts is an Associate Editor for The tell, but even if it plays like Daikatana Escapist. He has written and produced and looks like ass, Nguyen will be for television, theatre and film, has been satisfied that he at least did his best and writing on the web since it was invented had a great time doing it. and claims to have played every console ever made. His blog can be found at “I kept thinking to myself, ‘Alright, enough www.falsegravity.com. is enough, people won’t wait forever so let’s just release it and release fixes and improvements with patches over time,’” he says. “But despite this and the friendly prodding of many people who wanted to see this project come to fruition, I always came back to the same conclusion that kept me from just letting it go.

“I have to make sure ... the full version justifies the long wait and is as like The Name of the Rose, except with into the community, giving it definition fewer gay monks and exploding libraries. and a collective purpose. No longer are IF Boy, was that reviewer wrong. fans simply survivors from the Infocom days. The contest has helped to establish Set in a 15th century monastery beset a community independent - or, at least, by the plague, Vespers follows an abbot separate - from its Zork-infused past. driven increasingly insane as he watches his feverish monks perish one by one. That makes sense to Stephen Granade, It’s a nauseating, deeply frightening founder of adventure gaming website game, like survival/horror without the The Brass Lantern and organizer of the survival part, and it clings to me like a IF Comp since 1999. “Back in 1995, bad nightmare I can’t shake. I’m when the competition started, people thoroughly grossed out by it, physically, were still saying, ‘Do you think we’ll ever emotionally and morally. be able to write a game as good as Infocom?’” he says. “That’s just not a Vespers is one of the best games I’ve criterion anymore.” ever played, text-based or no. *** But I should have expected that. The IF Comp, an annual contest to see who can Once upon a time, as the story goes, a little write the best text-based game, offers a gaming company called Infocom hit it big. vast treasury of interactive fiction, and In the days before 3-D modeling or sprites It’s 3:00 on a particularly bright, sun- As I stare at my laptop, I think I’m going many of the entries over the past 13 or anti-aliasing effects, Infocom made dappled afternoon. Outside, a few birds to throw up. years are truly fantastic. Some, like games solely in text-based form. Their chatter amongst themselves, and at my Vespers, are lit-geek works of art, putting titles were famously addictive, and their feet, my dog snoozes lightly. The I’ve just finished playing Vespers, a text- the bulk of commercial games to shame. library covered every genre imaginable: coffeepot gurgles tunelessly in the based adventure written by Jason Devlin hard sci-fi, swords & sorcery, romantic kitchen. All in all, it’s a cheerful, that won the 11th Annual Interactive Over the years, the IF Comp has fantasy, detective noir, even sex farce. peaceful, quiet Tuesday; the kind best Fiction Competition (affectionately transformed from a small Usenet-based Some of these titles, like A Mind Forever spent napping in the sun, where nothing known as the IF Comp). From the competition to the largest event in Voyaging and Trinity, are still considered bad or unpleasant will ever happen. description I found online, the game interactive fiction circles. It’s easy to see among the best games ever written. sounded fun: A story about a monastery why: The contest has breathed new life For a few short years, Infocom had it all, TADS, two programming languages idea languished on the boards for many perched atop the infant gaming industry, designed specifically for text adventure months without effect. That is, until 1995, distributing grues and zorkmids to the creation. Those tools allowed enthusiasts when Kevin “Whizzard” Wilson, himself a masses. But one failed business venture to continue writing games, independent text adventure author, seized upon the - a database package named of any commercial venture. Additionally, idea and decided to organize the first Cornerstone - sowed the seeds for the later that year, fans formed the Usenet Annual Interactive Fiction Competition. company’s financial ruin, leading to an newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction (RAIF), Wilson’s logic was clear. “IF as a hobby eventual buyout by Activision. By 1989, dedicated solely to the discussion of cannot survive,” he wrote in his original within 10 years of its founding, Infocom playing and writing text adventures. An announcement, “unless there are people had shuttered its doors for good. infant interactive fiction community was out there writing and playing it.” solidifying, slowly but surely. The end. Or was it? Wilson instituted only one rule that first In 1993, Graham Nelson, part-time poet year: All entries had to be solvable in After Infocom’s demise, text-based and mathematician, released Inform, a under two hours. The “One Rule,” as it gaming itself seemed to face the same programming language reverse- later became called, was implemented to quiet, forgotten death. The gaming engineered from the virtual machine attract as many games for the contest as landscape had changed irrevocably. Infocom had used for its games. possible, as well as judges to manage it. Consumers, appetites whetted by games Eventually, Inform would surpass its To further entice authors, Wilson opened with sexy graphics like those offered by predecessors in popularity, becoming a the contest up to TADS entries, too. Sierra and LucasArts, finally lost their kind of lingua franca for the text patience with text adventures. The genre adventure world. But back then, Nelson’s Just 12 entries were submitted that first also seemed hopelessly old-fashioned to language was just one of many lost in year, many of which were clear knock- younger gamers, who were lured by the the mix. To showcase Inform’s power, offs of the Infocom style. For example, burgeoning home console market. Nelson released Curses (still considered Andrew Plotkin’s A Change in the one of the IF classics) in 1993, and the Weather, the winning Inform entry, But fans of the genre refused to let it game met to wide critical acclaim. But relied heavily on time-sensitive puzzles, die. Text-based gaming went Inform still needed greater exposure to which required the player to restart the underground via the internet, where, in gain acceptance. game over and over again until she those days, textual environments like found the exact sequence of commands MUDs and BBSes still reigned supreme. A poster on RAIF suggested that Nelson necessary to win. In 1987, David Malmberg and Michael J. hold a game writing competition to bring Roberts respectively released AGT and attention to his new language, but the sponsored by However, the contest managed to attract duties to David Dyte in 1998. Dyte also Some experimentation with fancier prose the attention of Activision’s Laird found the IF Comp to be too much work, and philosophical themes did occur, such Malamed, then technical director of so he handed it off to Stephen Granade, as Lucian P. Smith’s 1997 winner, The Zork: Nemesis. Excited by the who has managed the contest ever since. Edifice, a monkey-makes-good tale competition, Malamed arranged for about human evolution. But even Smith Activision to include the top three games *** struggled with the idea that interactive in both categories onto the 1996 text fiction was a function of its puzzles, adventure compilation, Classic Text Response for the contest was rather than the other way around. Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom. (The overwhelming, and plans quickly company did get something in return: solidified for next year’s event. Rules It wasn’t until Photopia, the 1998 winner, Many of the authors lent Activision their tightening judging and entry procedure came along that authors had the pristine, mint-condition Infocom feelies were enacted, and the division between precedent they needed to break free of to scan for the game, since the corporate the two programming categories was the this idea. Adam Cadre’s melancholy, supply, suffering from heavy wear and dropped. In its second year, the IF Comp beautiful story of a young girl as told by However, despite the game’s warm tear, were mostly second- and even attracted more than double the number the people who loved her most was an reception, Photopia was still a little too third-generation copies.) of entries than it had previously, and by obvious choice for first place. The writing linear and experimental. It’s no surprise 1999, that number had more than alone surpassed most of what Infocom that the next year’s winner, Winter Wilson administered the contest for two tripled. A new tradition had started, and had ever released. But startlingly, Wonderland, was a return to the Infocom more years, before time considerations people were taking notice. Photopia offered no puzzles whatsoever. archetype: a lighthearted, epic forced him to pass along management Instead, the game was essentially an adventure complete with fetch-quests Despite the IF Comp’s growing popularity, interactive short story; Cadre’s and complicated maps. however, authors still struggled to extremely linear narrative carried the reconcile the games they were writing player along, like a twig unable to Still, authors continued to experiment, with the legacy Infocom had left behind. influence the stream in which it drifts. No and over time most of the community Titles like Graham Nelson’s The Meteor, one had ever written such an has agreed that the best games are the The Stone and a Long Glass of Sherbet unapologetically linear game before and ones that strike an even balance (the second year’s winner) were stylish had it so highly regarded by the IF between puzzles and prose. Titles like and enjoyable, but they also borrowed community. Photopia proved that Slouching Toward Bedlam and Vespers heavily from Infocom games, mimicking interactive fiction didn’t need to rest on skillfully mesh both action and words, their dungeon-crawling atmosphere and its puzzles to work. gameplay and narrative. “There have complicated puzzles. been a lot more consciously literary games, but that’s not to say that every game is an exercise in high-art techniques,” explains Granade. “Some In addition, the IF Comp’s popularity As I think back to Vespers, I believe him. authors craft the best puzzle games they means authors have less incentive to Infocom never would have dreamt of can. Some try to tell stories. Some play create longer games, titles that might take making a game like this; after all, only with the medium and try to push what 20, 30, even 40 hours to complete. Games so many possibilities were available for a can be done.” longer than the two-hour, snack-sized company that needed to keep its lights contest limit have almost gone extinct. on. But more importantly, the fans never *** “Imagine writing an Infocom-length game would have thought of it either. It took and no one playing it or talking about it,” almost 10 years for the community to These days, explains Granade, the IF says Granade. “Nearly 10 years ago, I break out of the Infocom way of Competition has blossomed. “[It] has wrote an Infocom-length game. I wouldn’t thinking, but thankfully they did. Games become a center of gravity around which dream of doing that today.” like Vespers are the result. the community orbits,” he says. While other competitions like the XYZZY Still, overall the competition’s popularity Leaning back on the couch, I figure that Awards and the Spring Thing exist, the has been a boon for the small IF now that I’ve finishedVespers , I ought IF Comp is undeniably the largest and community. Granade estimates that to test out the 2006 winner, Floatpoint. most popular event of its kind. Regularly these days, each contest entry gets I’m not sure what to expect, judging by it attracts attention from Slashdot, Blues downloaded between 1,000 and 2,000 how spectacularly wrong the description News, even the New York Times and the times. That’s not much in Steam or I found for the last game was. But one Wall Street Journal. Gametap terms, but for a genre that thing’s for sure, Toto: I know I’m not in most gamers believe died 15 years ago, Frobozz anymore. In fact, so much attention is lavished on such a response is astronomical. the contest and its entries, says Granade, Lara Crigger is a freelance science, tech that games released outside the event are The community itself has evolved, and and gaming journalist whose previous generally ignored. “That’s terribly many of the newer gamers don’t work for The Escapist includes “Mind Over disappointing, to spend all this time struggle with the same Infocom-related Matter” and “Searching for Gunpei Yokoi.” writing a game and then to have no one hang-ups that older authors faced. Her email is [email protected]. talk about it,” he says. Therefore, fewer “Infocom has been dead for 20 years. people release games outside the We’ve got young members of the competition, and many of the entries community who weren’t alive when shoved through to the judges are nowhere Infocom was a going concern,” explains near ready for public consumption. Granade. “The community has matured.” for each patch and continually added new Now imagine that scenario occurring features. That is, until the fall of 2006. with each mod. A product is released, it’s buggy, and the creator must correct the Lozareth disappeared. problem. In an organization as big as Blizzard, that’s not insurmountable. But No explanation. No news post. No what if the organization is one dude whisper on his forums. Just gone. sitting in his basement, wearing tighty- whities, drinking Dr. Pepper and coding I call it mod burnout. The job becomes until 4:00 in the morning? No one mod is too big; the responsibilities too ginormous. used by every WoW player, but, if In the winter of 2005, a World of With thousands of people depending on download statistics are a measure, the Warcraft player with the handle Lozareth one individual, some mod authors just more popular ones have hundreds of released a UI add-on for the game, cease. They evaporate into the interweb thousands of users. While authors which he called Discord Action Buttons. vapor, never heard from again. depend on their users for bug reports, The add-on let the user replace Blizzard’s not every dude on the internet is a great default action bar with one infinitely Think about it in terms of scale. The QC tester. Some commenters make more customizable, and thousands of early days of WoW were marred by its impossible demands at best, while a users downloaded the mod. Lozareth own success. Blizzard didn’t have vocal minority can slander or insult the soon wrote Discord Unit Frames, Discord sufficient servers or bandwidth to author. If something doesn’t work, it’s the Frame Modifier and finally Discord Art. support the huge number of players author’s fault. That stress can break him. With these tools, informally called the jumping through Azeroth. But the Discord Suite, World of Warcraft players company, flush with new money hats, The WoW UI add-on author is a rare were able to sculpt their user interface was able to hire more workers and buy human being. Usually coders of some into any shape imaginable. A vibrant new hardware to compensate. Within a kind as their day job, they find community grew at Discordmods.com, few months, most of the problems were something in game that bothers them, where users could share and rate others’ ironed out. WoW’s backside looked and they fix it. What can start as a side interfaces. Loz dutifully updated his mods presentable again, if not starchy stiff. project, though, can quickly eat up gobs invest so much that you could have humorless people didn’t take it well. The spent on other things, you don’t want to ethics of an addon performing an action just quit and make all that effort seem on behalf of an unaware user was like a waste of time.” questioned, as well as inane parental complaints that “Mazzlegasm” sounded a Mazz released his package in February of little too close to “orgasm” for their 2007. Response was mixed. While most young child’s fragile ears. people liked it, there was a vocal minority who criticized MazzleUI After he put so much into the relentlessly. “I’ve had lots of really compilation, Mazzlefizz felt betrayed by negative experiences with users on the the community. It wasn’t pleasant having forums,” Mazz said. “People posted with such a small issue be the most discussed criticisms of everything under the sun portion of MazzleUI. “There’s just so including, believe it or not, whether I many young, immature kids, so many thanked people fast enough after they bloated egos and such a high degree of of time. “Over the last 15 months, I made a donation. Post-release, I’ve had self-entitlement. Complaining and have literally spent thousands of hours some very negative experiences as well. criticizing are just the status quo,” he working on UI development,” says A lot of it is the normal variety, but some said, before adding that not every Mazzlefizz, author of a complete mod of it was a bit odd, like the whole experience he’s had with users was package called MazzleUI. Mazzlegasm fixation and all the unfair awful. It’s just “the negative aspects accusations that went along with it.” have outweighed the positive aspects He goes on to postulate why someone lately and have caused me to … question would devote so much time to modding, The Mazzlegasm refers to his mod auto- the time and effort I put into developing the hobby within a hobby. “Part of it is sending a “/yell” in game after my add-ons.” To date, MazzleUI hasn’t letting down users and part of it is completing the setup of MazzleUI which had any significant updates. MazzleFizz ‘protecting’ the time [already] spent on read, “I just had a Mazzlegasm!” It was a keeps busy collecting bug reports and it. It’s like WoW itself,” he said. “You cheap throwaway joke, sure, but some has gone back to just playing the game. Not all authors, however, escape without apparently it wasn’t.” The modern review his work and make sure let the mods die. Forum denizen Mud real harm. Gello is the venerable creator computer nightmare had come true for “protected” functions weren’t called. dutifully posted band-aided versions of of ItemRack, Recap, TinyPad, Gello. “I basically abandoned the email Fortunately, there was an extensive beta Discord that functioned with WoW 2.0, TrinketMenu and many others. One of address, formatted my pc, ditched the period where authors could test their albeit with limited performance. Still no the problems of being so prolific is the mod and didn’t look back.” mods with the new API. response from the author; the release of need to translate mods into other the Burning Crusade passed with nary a languages. “I had spent a couple very On December 5, 2006, Blizzard released After a few months of silence from peep from Lozareth. intense months working on the World of Warcraft patch 2.0 which used Lozareth, a new post appeared localization of Recap,” Gello said. “It got a new version of LUA (the programming December 2 on the front page of so I could understand combat logs in language mods are written in) and Discordmods.com which simply read, German.” He eventually convinced introduced many API changes that “DISCORD MODS WILL NOT BE native-language modders to finish the rendered popular mods obsolete. READY ON 12/5.” That was it: a clear, job. “It was just causing way too much According to Blizzard, the capabilities of succinct message that Loz had stopped stress and time for something I would certain mods had exceeded what was coding. It’s still there today. But the never see or use.” good for the game. Blizzard veterans at Discordmods.com wouldn’t spokesperson Tyren stated in October, Soon after that, two French users “Essentially, we don’t want UI mods to demanded that Gello localize WaterBoy, make combat-sensitive decisions for a mod that helped mages summon and players and as such, we’ve made some distribute water for raids. He refused to changes that block functionality that we spend so much time translating again feel is counter to the spirit of these and asked that they mod it themselves. philosophies. As such, AddOns and “Then the flame emails began,” Gello macros can’t make decisions on who to recounted. “When I stood by my position target or what spells to cast.” (probably not in the nicest terms), they continued in earnest. I got an email with The practical upshot was that everyone’s an attachment I thought was safe and mods were broken. Each author had to The commandeering of another author’s but the notorious commenters on Curse. with his community will help Lozareth mods is a common practice in the com soon overwhelmed him. “The get interested in modding again, to community. If the original author burns feature requests and bug reports piled reinvest himself into making the game out, it’s likely another will pick up the up too high when I had too much real he loves more enjoyable for the code and start squashing bugs. For life stuff on my hands, I stopped writing hundreds of thousands of people who example, there was huge fallout after publicly-released addons for a solid depended on him. WoW 2.0. “I have picked up two add-ons year,” he said. “Things have been much that were abandoned by other authors. more easy to handle this time around, in Greg Tito is a playwright and standup Specifically, I think it was the 2.0 API large part thanks to [the Ace] community.” comic residing in Brooklyn, NY. He is changes that really pushed them to the currently splitting time between World of edge,” Shirik, co-author of RDX.cid, said. In the past, Lozareth wouldn’t allow Warcraft, a new D&D 3rd edition campaign anyone else to modify his code, but and finishing one of his many uncompleted Most authors allow and even expect recently his thick candy shell has begun writing projects. He also blogs semi- other writers to review their code for to crack. He has become more of a regularly at onlyzuul.blogspot.com. memory leaks or inefficiency. The Ace presence on his forums, creating a tiered community grew specifically with this moderator system and posting joke purpose in mind. Ace is a common set of threads entitled “I suck. Discuss.” He has libraries a large group of mods share in offered links to .zips of his code on the order to conserve memory resources. forum, both for transparency and Since so many mods rely on it to evidence that he is in fact working on it. function, the people working with Ace He sees others as resources and have become a tight-knit network. inspiration instead of as threats.

Having such a community has helped As of press time, though, Lozareth still burnt out authors get back to coding. hasn’t released his new meta-mod, Nymbia wrote a very popular mod called, Discord UI Builder. But it’s possible imaginatively, Nymbia’s Perl Unitframes, opening up a bit and getting involved The art and game worlds, virtual as they Rebecca Cannon and Julian Oliver run both are, share a great deal in common. Selectparks.net, a website that acts as a They have fanatical devotees and yet gallery of game art and art mods. They tend to scare off as many as they attract. have written on and spoken about game Both are fascinated and driven by new art for years and produced some of the technologies of display but haunted by most interesting game art in the their past lives. Their connection is meantime; Cannon’s The Buff and the increasingly complex, as the lines Brutal of 2002 is a machinima soap between gamer and artist increasingly opera between the often gay and always blurs. Some hook up PlayStations to emotionally conflicted characters of electrodes to shock bad play in fighting Quake III: Arena. Which doesn’t seem games (Tekken Torture Tournament, odd for a single second if you have Mark Allen and Eddo Stern, 2001), or played first- or third-person action perform art-style interventions in online games and wondered why the games, like speaking the names of dead costuming, dialogue and acting is U.S. marines in America’s Army (dead-in- straight out of hardcore pornography. iraq, Joseph DeLappe, 2006-present). The line between tradition and Game art and mods also have their own modification really begins in classical dedicated curators and academics, history, as the Latin word modificare, working to link institutions together to meaning to measure or limit in a make public showings possible, promoting contract, suggests a mod is not always the best works and getting into arguments just an add-on. The measure of a game with the art world where necessary. The is just as important; modders change Australian Centre for the Moving Image is rules rather than add them, or even just one of a growing number of art delete game data to offer players a new institutions that have permanent game art experience. The reason this is such an spaces, showing mods alongside themed important distinction is clear when we exhibits of famous independent and enter the very surprising and fascinating commercial games. world of art mods. then drawn the facial hair on, ostensibly always been intricately bound together. Early Players as a mere joke. Even in 1919, however, Before Spacewar turned heads at science Art has a long tradition of its own in questions about Leonardo’s sexuality and shows, visual screen hacks of varying modification, going back hundreds of the identity of the sitting woman were degrees of use(lessness) had been years, as artists were commissioned to broad public controversies which taking over the million-dollar machines, articulate classic themes in new works. A Duchamp was able to tap. Most of all, much to the amusement of the scientists rich patron often wanted a portrait in the Duchamp was sending up how art sitting at the consoles. Experimentation same pose as a Roman emperor, or a assigns worth; why was his version any with hacking visuals often led to letting portrait of a mistress using the same less valuable? All of these issues had people control them. In these early, pose his wife chose in an earlier painting. come to a head in a simple child-like act weird arty hacks, computer games had With the advent of mass production, of vandalism, the classic mod. their primordial soup. however, artists had to switch things up to stay relevant under the onslaught of By the time the Pop Art movement had In the 8-bit days of the Commodore 64 and cheap images. come along in the 1960s, such ZX Spectrum, pirates and hackers often modification had its own tradition, and distributed copies of games with non- Enter the grand modder himself, French the wry irony of the age meant riffing on interactive demos and intros, displaying artist Marcel Duchamp. Already reputed popular topics could always win an their mastery over the technology. as someone who would exhibit monocle- audience. Andy Warhol took industrial popping nonsense, Duchamp unveiled his designs like Campbell’s soup cans from Meanwhile, the “proper” (or professional, L.H.O.O.Q. in 1919. It was a small, the world of advertising, repeated them if you like) art world began to show poorly-printed image of a sitting woman on a silkscreen and sold them as his projections of digital art, and some art with a pencil mustache and goatee, own. Roy Lichtenstein took the Benday shows in Europe had arcade machines which would have been fairly Dots technique from mass-produced between the works to contrast the unremarkable if it weren’t the woman comics, traced images to begin his most collapse of high and low culture. from The Mona Lisa sporting the facial famous works and ended up with giant hair. He had modded the most famous canvas explosions straight out of 1960s But as mods began to impact computer painting in history, and you could hear boys’ own adventures. game culture in earnest, artists took up the dropped champagne glasses around the reins as quickly as those looking to the world. It didn’t take long for artists to see the sneak their way into the game industry. opportunities computers gave them for This is mostly because the art world is Duchamp had taken meticulous care to exploring the changing media world. In an industry, too, and works using produce a poor version of the image, and fact, computer art and games have modern technology have always been own model, use the system of the game, great for business. make it playable.

Where mods add costumes, levels and deRez_FXkill < Elvis; of 2004 is a plug-in alternate scenarios, art mods often strip that uses the Karma physics engine, things away to bare essentials or even less, originally used to generate grisly death or reassemble the game engine around an sequences in real-time, to make multiple artistic statement or idea. The varieties of versions of the king of rock ‘n’ roll twitch art mods are as varied as the games that and shiver in a very weird floating influence them. Art mods are sometimes pink afterlife. hacked, sometimes simple plug-in extensions and sometimes real-world add- White/Picnic/Glitch of 2001 is a series of ons to a computer game that permanently 12 highly modified situations withinThe change the way you look at them. Sims with heavily distorted character models, acting out bizarre parodies of Selecting the Players the suburban dream. Kids twitch in glossolalia in a park, while the father- Brody Condon’s use of games in many of character flips burgers with his massive, his artworks fulfills all the requirements oversized arm. to be called both modding and art, and usually questions the nature of both in Condon’s mods, like those of many game the process. modders and game artists, aren’t usually downloadable but playable only in a 650 Polygon John Carmack of 2004 is gallery setting or viewable on video. precisely what it claims to be; a model of While this can seem to be antithetical to John Carmack as modeled by the Quake the whole point of mods, keeping the III engine, but produced to scale in the work confined to a gallery is as much a physical world with polyurethane. statement as anything else. Perhaps one Technically not a mod, it still extends the of the famous art mods, Waco logic of the game in important ways and Resurrection of 2003 (by Condon and an works with the same logic; build your art collective known as C-Level) used the Torque engine and some C++ coding to let players resist the destruction of their for control and power over the game sublimates is quenched by weird cult’s compound with special powers and universe we think is so normal and basic deviations and weirder possibilities. a range of weapons. The game was is pulled like a loose thread. presented to players and gallery-goers with a David Koresh mask, made in So, if anything, art mods limit and Christian McCrea is a game writer, polygon-derived form. To really play measure games, drawing the players academic and curator based in Waco Resurrection, you had to don the and viewers to the little questions - “Hey, Melbourne, Australia. mask before you took to the keyboard. don’t you think it’s odd to have a ‘sexy’ voice option in UT2004?” “Don’t you feel Cory Arcangel has been taking another weird when you curb-stomp someone in route with art modding, delving into the Gears of War?” - questions gamers are hardware to end up with almost all too familiar with, and may otherwise existential results. For example, Super have no place to be answered. Mario Clouds of 2002 deleted all the game information from the original NES What surprises so many is these works cartridge, but kept the passing clouds are radically popular with gamers on first and sky. His Space Invader of 2004 contact. It could be because it is narrowed down the hordes of attackers intensely satisfying to see our much- to only one alien. Lonely business, that maligned medium getting complicated invasion racket. and legitimizing itself. What’s more likely, however, is game art speaks What seems to bind all these works directly to the gamer psyche. together is they strip away some of the games’ basic elements and ideas, rather By the same token, we constantly than adding on or multiplying the things daydream alternative plots and scenarios you can do. In that sense, art mods pull for games that go far beyond fandom or back the technology a little to reveal the idle mental drift; they are the little human decisions we take for continuation of the mind playing on granted. Violence is slowed down, without us. So it is that game art affects exaggerated and poked fun at. Sexual us immediately on an instinctual level. In politics in games are examined, mocked the case of art game mods, the thirst for and re-organized. The ingrained mania chaos and anarchy the game industry The process of imagination drives our Final Fantasy X, we see Tidus’ pilgrimage culture’s most compelling narratives. Be from start to finish, but only have brief it Lost, The Wheel of Time, or Star Wars, glimpses of Braska and Jecht’s. In a these stories convey enough information sports game, we play our team’s games, to be interesting and entertaining but but the other teams play their own hide enough information to encourage games, which have their own results just fans try to fill in the missing parts. This as much as the player’s games do. They can take the form of theories on must be imagined, however: Perhaps message boards causing lively debates; that Atlanta 9-0 start in the 2008 season fan-fiction, which deliberately fills in means Michael Vick has finally reached those gaps; or another story, later his potential? - I wouldn’t know; I’m released, which answers those questions. playing as Denver. These stories are generally fantasy and science fiction, which makes sense, in A select few games reach the level that these genres are the closest thing where they demand the player to use we have to modern mythology. her imagination. I tried to narrow down what games these were; what qualities Videogames, due to their scope of made them special. What videogames creating an entire universe within a have I played that made me imagine the single storyline or narrative structure, story of the game? What qualities drove have the ability to provide both the me to do the gaming equivalent of information required to move the direct writing fan-fic? I knew the games - they narrative forward and to populate the were the ones where I muttered to game-world with back stories. The myself while playing; writing the history, player’s story is the most overtly imagining conversations between important story, but the game universe characters, acting as pundit. In one contains its own implicit stories and memorable case, Rome: Total War, I histories. A roleplaying game follows the wrote e-mails to a friend on the rise of main character on her path, but the Pontus as a Mediterranean power. A antagonist has her own history, part of more complete list of these games turns which is generally revealed, but not as into a murderer’s row of all-time directly as the player character’s. In classics: Rome, Diablo, Civilization, Jedi Knight, Championship Manager, God of the collapse of the Han Dynasty and the Championship Manager, I would find War, Jagged Alliance II, Dynasty machinations of various warlords myself wishing for more historical Warriors, Wizardry VIII, The Sims. replacing it. The lower level is the background, or announcers to describe precise detail of what is happening; the what was happening. However, since I I found some interesting similarities click that causes the character to attack didn’t have that context, I would invent it between all these games. They are, by a skeleton, or to sell a shield in order to myself, murmuring in an English accent genre and platform, very different buy a bow. The missing level of narrative about the astounding turnaround at Aston games. The traits most commonly in these games is the middle level, that Villa since I took over - my imagination assigned to videogames - genre, of narration. Dynasty Warriors is based was filling in the gaps to create a more platform, marketing clout - vary widely off the popular Romance of the Three fulfilling and personal experience. within the list, so clearly the answer Kingdoms novel, and while it uses the cannot be found within conventional same plot, characters and a few events Here, then, is a challenge for game boundaries. God of War was a very from the novel, it does little to provide designers: Don’t give everything to the recent console-based big-budget, high- the larger context of the story. However, player. Take away parts, important parts, tech, hyper-violent, heavily-marketed there was something there, a story I of your games. Take away the hit. Championship Manager is a strategic was missing, and I quickly sought out protagonist’s speech telling squadmates soccer simulation series in which the the novel from a library. what to do, so the player mutters orders player acts as club manager. There’s and the squad moves from cover to cover. virtually nothing in the way of graphics Paradoxically, as in the case of my or sound, and the games are not well- experience with Dynasty Warriors, the But in order for these cards to be taken known in the U.S. - quite the opposite of games are technically weaker because away without the house falling, there God of War. they are missing mid-level narrative. must be a strong foundation: the lower Even though I consider Diablo II to be a level. The player must receive So what, then, is the commonality better game than the original Diablo, the consistent, strong feedback for every making these games similarly great? original captured my imagination, and my action taken. In Civilization, every These games are all missing a chunk of playing time, far better than its possible choice is explained in detail. the story! A game narrative takes place technically superior sequel. Diablo II’s Specific information, such as the amount on multiple levels, upper-level, mid-level storyline was so much more significant to of production available from any piece of and low-level. The upper level is the plot, the gameplay, the goal of the game was land, or the specific bonuses of any the overarching story. In Diablo, it is the to finish and see what would happen building choice, is readily available to the story of the assault on the town of next, whereas in the original, the player. When the details of the lowest Tristram; in Dynasty Warriors, the tale of gameplay itself was the goal. In level are clear like this, frustrations and guesswork are eliminated, and the sense at the lowest level, and motivates player’s mental energy can be spent her at the highest level, then she will tell constructing a personal narrative within their own story. Game designers who the game’s setting, instead of a narrative aspire to create games that become about how the game isn’t working right, obsessions for their players can use doesn’t make sense or is too difficult. these concepts as a guideline. Creating gaps, for the player to fill in with her Having a strong overarching story at the own imagination, is the key to having a highest level is equally important for game they’ll be telling stories about for a mentally preparing players to create long time. their own story. The game universe must be compelling enough for the player to Rowan Kaiser is a freelance writer for want to fill in the gaps herself. The The Escapist. strongest universes are in the real world, which is why sports games or historical games have an instant advantage – we already know the characters, the styles and the music. Games with strong licenses have an intrinsic advantage, as well. We know Star Wars for its characters and styles, as much or even more than any historical game. A more fictional game can succeed, but the pump is primed more for historical or license games, because we as a player already want to be part of that universe, and do not require as much convincing.

In the end, the removal of the game’s narration follows one of the oldest tenets of creative writing: “Show, don’t tell.” When the player is in a game that makes 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 Lara Crigger Rowan Kaiser IT Director Christian McCrea Jason Smith Russ Pitts Greg Tito

Issue 95 © 2007. 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