Theescapist 093.Pdf

his ruined eye (a peeled grape), touched boarding luxury liners, stealing whatever pretend, still fun to put on the eye patch his exposed brains (bowl of spaghetti) isn’t nailed down and occasionally taking and drink grog, fondle the wenches and and shook his cold, lifeless hand (Mr. hostages. And that’s not the only form of order the lubbers off the plank. And the We were all wearing eye patches, there Kingston’s ice-cooled hand in a glove). piracy alive and well in the 21st century. issue of digital piracy is one that won’t were toucans, and we were all singing. After the treasure hunt, Amy Claire’s Digital pirates are far more numerous be settled overnight. Even the toucans joined in. Amy Claire award-winning fondue and a round of “Pin and claim residence on almost every Kingston’s 12th birthday party may not the Tail on the Pirate” (and more grog), it shore, downloading bootleg copies of In Issue 93 of The Escapist, Mur Lafferty have been in the Caribbean, nor on a was time to go home, although we all songs, movies and games without paying wonders whether pirates are an idea sailing vessel, but for a day we were all wore our eye patches out the door and, in a doubloon to the proper rights holders. past their prime, Allen Varney and pirates and she, our pirate queen. my case, for several hours afterwards. Shannon Drake interview men who are Few of us haven’t dreamed of sailing the living their own pirate dreams, and The toucans were actually cockatiels or We know a lot about the life of pirates on seven seas in a stolen ship, casting off making games in which you can do the some such domestic bird, but they the Spanish Main, and it wasn’t always all bonds of lawfulness and responsibility same, John Holowach looks at the Digital played their parts well. There was grog as much fun as Amy Claire’s birthday to be the captain of a merry band of Rights Management (DRM) debate from of a sorts (Hawaiian punch mixed with party, nor as romantic as the stories we pirates, seeking romance and adventure the consumer’s point of view and club soda), booty (chocolate coins see on TV and in the movies, but nothing wherever the wind may take us. Leonardo Pose shares his amazing story wrapped in gold foil) and an honest to ever is. We know that most pirates were Likewise, few of us haven’t downloaded of third world game piracy. Davy Jones treasure hunt in the back murderers, rapists and thieves, and that a song, copied a movie or bootlegged a yard. We were each given a map and aside from the act of stealing a ship in game, taking our enjoyment without We hope you enjoy the voyage, and please, tasked with charting a course around the first place (a crime punishable by paying for the privilege. But most of us no wenching on the poop deck. Yarr! elephant ear plants, monkey grass and death) most had records as long as their realize this is nothing but a dream. That the big elm in the corner to find the wooden legs, and lived brutal, short and the first star on the right will always be giant X marked on the map, under which miserable lives, often dying as they lived farther away than we can sail and that (we hoped) would lay every pirate’s by - the cutlass, pistol or cannon, if they the X, more often than not, marks an dream: a sunken chest. weren’t captured and hanged first. empty hole in the ground. We realize that rules also apply to us, that stealing Amy Claire’s father escorted us below We also know that piracy on the high isn’t a victimless crime and that the decks three by three, where we, seas didn’t cease with the conquering of merry band of pirates will be just as likely blindfolded, met with The Old Pirate The New World; that it, in fact, continues to slit your throat as any one else’s. To The Editor: Ghost. He told us the tale of how he lost to this day. Armed gunmen aboard Superior media regularly wash out his leg and his life fighting a Spanish stolen yachts and cigarette boats patrol Being a pirate, in real life, isn’t all it’s because of a mismatch with the Frigate off of Hispaniola. We each held the waters off the African coast, cracked up to be, but it’s still fun to consumer. Not just media varieties, but forms of expression. To coin a term, I’ll his “No World Order” disc. (At the bottom Railroads and Worlds go through Warfare call it the Coltrane-Betamax Effect. John of the letter I have a link and quote from and Civilizations rise and fall and whole Coltrane pioneered, with a few others the Wikipedia article covering this.) Second lives go to hell in a handbasket. such as Miles Davis, the late sixties/early seventies over-the-top innovations in Closer to our resident Visigoth Gamer is So I love a good story. I love to tell free jazz, perhaps bounded by Coltrane’s the “wild” proposals by Scott McCloud, good stories. I’ve got the content, at OM disc, Pharoah Sanders’s work at the who details the (in the words of his least as much, by golly, as that Frank time, Ornett Coleman & the Art Inst. of newest book Making Comics) Miller fellow with his 300 fallen heroes at Chicago’s music, and Davis’s Bitches “Storytelling Secrets of comics, Manga Thermopylae. I’ve got metaphysics and Brew. Yet, as was observed at the time, and Graphic Novels.” There are many history and the extremes of world this superior and inventive pioneering of many new ways of telling stories, as thought and culture coming out the forms did not have a mass audience McCloud notes. wazoo. But as Kang (wonderful name waiting at the station to greet them with for a gamer!) points out, there is a cheers. I would say that it’s only been a I for one am largely persuaded by the missing audience--of which I am among strange historical accident that an likes of Vincent Kang and Scott McCloud. the missing, ironically. audience has been growing up to it over I’m primarily an educator and a the past 40 years (e.g., Ornett Coleman philosopher, deeply committed to Blame it on the Coltrane-Betamax Effect. could get a Lifetime Achievement award adjective-burdened lyrical texts, but in from Grammy). love with comics, and excited by the - Bruce C. Meyer possibilities of what Kang describes. The Betamax part of the effect hardly In response to “I’d Rather Play a needs elaborating. Often hailed as a But--and here’s the rub, as the immortal Game Than Read A Book” from The superior technology, it failed because of Bard of Avon would say--I’ve never been Escapist Forum: This opinion piece is a accidents of marketing, etc., not because able to “save the princess.” Having new low for unsubstantiated ranting at the of the qualities of the product. introduced my formerly eleven year old Escapist. At least it was mercifully short. son to Super Mario II and Duck Hunt, I One of the first musical products using have seen him turn into a Linux software Because visual media are so different CD-ROM technologies to explore creative engineer professional. But I was never from textual ones, there’s no point in ends was the “failed” work of Todd able to guide Luigi through the maze, comparing them. It comes down to Lundgren of CDi for Phillips, particularly and have stood by and watched Sim personal taste, which is the only argument that the author puts forth. He series Discworld. Where the characters in most story-led games can’t either. Too know people that, through the tragedy of likes video games more, therefore video and locations in Discworld are often full often do games seem robotic and forced, having a friend or loved one die, have games are better. That’s the kind of of life and charm, Oblivion’s are mostly and this is partly to do with technical discovered things they never knew and opinion one would expect a grade 2 forgettable. True, Oblivion has a lot of limitations and also to do with the lack of people they’d never met before. Having student to have. I expect better from a things going for it, and the painting imagination that goes into titles. someone who knows them from a paid writer. quest was excellent, but these only different perspective is amazingly stand out because of the limited supply - drunkymonkey refreshing in such times of pain, and - arrr_matey of other *gasp* events. Aeris’ death in deep, lasting friendships have been Final Fantasy is constantly talked about In response to “Strangers in a forged by people that otherwise may In response to “I’d Rather Play a because it has very few peers. There are Strange Land” from The Escapist Game Than Read A Book” from The very few games that you can compare to Forum: It’s a shame there’s no way to Escapist Forum: The comparison was books - Final Fantasy, Monkey Island, expose her to any kids who’ve grown up between “a critically acclaimed” and perhaps Half Life 2 being noticeable with gaming parents. My wife and I are videogame, and a “universally loved” examples, but even games that have both gamers and our kids have gained novel. This is inferring that they are tried so hard, such as Fable, end up all sorts of benefits from early exposure equal in credibility as far as their coming tacked with a clichéd uninvolved to gaming. More encouraging still, the respected mediums are concerned. plot and numerous cardboard characters. mainstream culture they’re growing up in values gaming as a positive trait. The Because of this fallacy - comparing one I agree with the notion that video-games Nintendo DS is the most sought after toy of the best videos of all time to a book can be the ultimate media, but right now in the playground and my daughter had written for a franchise - the argument is they are not, and if we truly want to get a very positive response the day she weaker. Bioware vs Timothy Zahn; an them there, then this kind of optimism took some of my polyhedral dice in to industry leader vs a franchise writer. really isn’t helping. The best books are “show and tell”. Surely it would have been better to full of life and charisma, only a select compare KOTOR to something written by few video games can claim that. The - Dom Camus Iain Banks. time-stop conversations and random babble that NPCs spew out to each other In response to “Digital Footprints” The fact is, you would not compare the in Oblivion can’t, nor can the standing- from The Escapist Forum: The true game series Elder Scrolls and submise around-aimlessly, whilst-repeating- value behind a MySpace page like this is that it is narratively better than the book phrases-every-now-and-then characters that it connects everyone in their grief. I have not noticed each other on the While the comments may never be read street. The parents and family of by the ‘intended’ person, they have someone who’s died can also benefit something that’s both epitaph and from such an outpouring of sympathy, community, a break and a rejoining. emotion, and love. And that’s the best we could hope for. A friend who I had been out of touch with after moving died in a car accident - Evil Timmy a few years ago, at age 19. She was sweet, pretty, and outgoing, and there were no shortage of people who came to the funeral. There was a surprise, though: dozens of people who she kept in touch with (or knew exclusively) online had written in or sent video expressing their sadness and how much she’d meant to them, and a few flew or drove to attend in person. Her best friend had gotten onto her MSN, website, and forums accounts and let everyone know what had happened, and had to compile the overwhelming response. Most people were either smiling or tearing up, many both, as the beautiful, heartfelt prose was read out, and afterwards, some people who only knew each other through her references in conversation were meeting each other and sharing stories. In sumo wrestling, wrestlers work hard three sectioned boxes with ships, I to achieve different ranks, and once a decided it was time to stop. It’s like any wrestler reaches the peak rank, CCG, only worse, since it takes up so yokozuna, he cannot be demoted. much more room. On the MMOG front, However, he is expected to retire if his the upcoming Pirates of the Burning Sea skills falter. Leave at the top, keep your focuses on sea battles. And for those of honor and make sure people remember us who have been used to taking the you as young Elvis. The concept of subway as a superhero, the prospect of stepping down when you are at your captaining your own pirate ship is very peak is admired, however rarely followed attractive. It’s exactly what the pirates (who still enjoys Garfield – really?). enjoyed – freedom from the rule of law and mastering the sea. Pirates are currently at a peak in the social consciousness of the U.S. One only However, I am going to be the bold and has to look at the success of Pirates of say, with pirates at their peak, it’s time the Caribbean (including Johnny Depp’s for them to step down. They’re done. Best Actor nomination) to see how much We’ve been saturated. Anything more we love pirates. We have Talk Like a and we’ll become sick of them, like when Pirate Day, where we, well, it’s one of a good song is overplayed on the radio. those self-explanatory holidays. And of Pirates need to go out in a blaze of glory. course there’s the extremely popular This will likely happen during the third tabletop/collectible ship game from Pirates of the Caribbean movie: One WizKids, Pirates of the Spanish Main more look at staggering Johnny Depp (and all of its expansions). with lots of eyeliner, and then, boom – stick a cutlass in them; they’re done. And hey, I’m addicted to pirates as anyone. I have scores of those little But this culture, especially our geek ships sailing the Spanish Main. The game culture, needs a specialized group to was fun, sure, but I became absolutely cling to, like baby sloths. We need a addicted to collecting and putting fringe group to love. We need to bring together those little boats. After I filled someone else into the limelight. It is the nature of our culture to obsess about sail into the sunset so they can take So I humbly present three dark horse that’s come out recently: Shaun of the something and then move on, only a few their place as number one. But pirates groups waiting in the wings to take over Dead [and] 28 Days [Later].” things really leaving a permanent mark and ninjas have been fighting for so long for the pirates. Three groups that hope (Star Wars and Counter-Strike are I don’t think they would know what to do to be the group to inspire the next Shaun of the Dead provided a different perfect examples). without the other. Once pirates fall from Johnny Depp blockbuster as well as the view of zombies, allowing the monsters grace, their nemeses, with nothing to next Hallmark holiday. I give you: to make some (admittedly limited) Now, I know what you’re thinking: The counter them, will lose their cool factor. zombies, hoboes and Cthulhoid monsters. logical leaps, such as being fooled by Our ultimate enemy of the pirate – the ninja They will melt into the shadows and look Heroes when they act like zombies to – is poised to take over. The ninja waits for another enemy. Or perhaps follow Zombies have been part of our social blend in, and to show ghosts of their in the shadows, waiting for the pirates to the pirates. consciousness for decades. Who doesn’t former personalities by the end of the like a good zombie flick, our motley movie. 28 Days Later was much darker, heroes fighting the slow-moving, ever- and the people were never called hungering living dead, dying one by one? zombies, but most fans agree it was a But that does get old: Unlike vampires, zombie flick. Still, those “zombies” were who can have personalities, zombies are fast-moving, terrifying beasts, much fairly one-dimensional, brain-eating harder to outrun than classic zombies. automatons. Only recently has the myth transformed into something else. Mennenga thinks pirates are over, and zombies are already the next big thing. “I think it has to do with the series of “Zombies are fun. They are popular, and shows and movies ... out there that I think they have more staying power aren’t as campy as the old Roger Corman than pirates.” stuff,” said Michael R. Mennenga, director of FarPoint Media, a company that We should apply litmus tests to each produces and develops sci-fi and related group: can we make a good computer podcasts, and the developer of the game out of it, a good tabletop game, Zombie Channel, a hub for internet and can Johnny Depp play in the movie? media dedicated to zombies. “There’re For zombies, we already have several new aspects of zombies that are piquing undead games. Best known would be the sci-fi community’s interest again. Resident Evil and the undead race in There’s just been some really great stuff World of Warcraft. The popular sponsored by Zombies!!! board game has enjoyed a lot clean up her yard. … Another [influence] no computer games featuring hoboes of success (even if the gameplay goes is Hodgman’s 700 hobo names.” Because coming to mind (hoboes as NPCs that about as slow as a zombie can walk). of Frauenfelder’s suggestion on Boing are cannon fodder do not count), and However, I’m not sure if Johnny Depp Boing, over 1,000 illustrations have been only the board game Arkham Horror, would really shine in a zombie movie. added to Flickr, and the site E-hobo.com with the character Ashcan Pete, comes Although, to be fair, he doesn’t shy away was launched. close in tabletop games. from the strange, compelling makeup. The popularity of hoboes also comes Frauenfelder did admit that if hoboes The hobo group is less obvious than the from peoples’ desire to leave their lives can’t topple the pirates, a long shot for zombie, but they need some attention. behind; people get a grass-is-always- the title may be the mythos of HP John Hodgman, author of The Areas of greener view of lifestyles they don’t Lovecraft, what we’ll call Cthulhoid. In My Expertise, has a hobo section in his have. Frauenfelder agrees: “Every once book that includes hobo chalk marks, as in a while people get nostalgic for riding well as 700 hobo names (including Doc the rails, living a life footloose and fancy Aquatic, Drinky Drunky Tom, The Drunk free, and there’s the notion that being a and Dora the Explorer). Mark hobo is romantic, even though the reality Frauenfelder, co-founder of the Boing is pretty grim. It’s the same for pirates; Boing Blog and the driving force behind I’m sure the life of a pirate, 99 percent the effort to get drawings for all of of the time, sucked. But there’s that Hodgman’s 700 hoboes, favors hoboes romantic notion again.” as next in line for the pirates’ spot. Frauenfelder feels hoboes are the “I think that one of the things that might definite favorite for the next big thing. have kicked in the hobo [popularity] was He even thinks Johnny Depp would star the war chalking thing,” Frauenfelder well in a hobo movie, so the Hollywood said. “People use chalk symbols near Wi- angle is safe. Remove the eyeliner and Fi hotspots to indicate an open or closed add a cigar to his character in Pirates of hotspot, and this was inspired by the old the Caribbean, and you’ve pretty much hobo chalk marks that indicated a nice got instant hobo. However, hoboes seem widow who will give you a meal if you to be weak in the gaming category, with fact, his fellow Boing Boing blogger, Xeni bits and pieces and lets you build your Cthulhoids will eat it. But honestly: ‘70s Jardin, has recently blogged about the own horror.” cops [could replace them]. Preferably 70th anniversary of the death of H.P. with huge, bushy, porn moustaches.” Lovecraft. She mentioned how Cthulhu, Honestly, by our litmus tests, the Imagine Johnny Depp starring in Azathoth and Nylarhotep, to name a few, Cthulhoid have the strongest chance that movie. were enjoying more popularity now than against the pirates. As Dansky said, they ever. And everyone wants a baby already have the Depp factor based on Pirates, take heed. Your time of shoggoth under the Christmas tree. Davy Jones’ imagery from the second reckoning is at hand. The zombies, movie. They have tabletop games tied hoboes, Cthulhoids and the (shudder) Horror writer and occasional independent up with the popular RPG Call of Cthulhu ‘70s cops are coming for you. Better Lovecraftian scholar Richard Dansky and the board game Arkham Horror. Call keep you guarrrrrd up. believes it’s time for the Cthulhoids, and of Cthulhu has come to the Xbox as well, he cites Johnny Depp as one of the in the guise of a first-person action- Mur Lafferty is a freelance writer and plusses in his category. “Johnny Depp adventure game. podcast producer. She has dabbled in as has already been in one Cthulhu-inspired much gaming as possible while working movie – Pirates of the Caribbean 2 – and So can Cthulhu and his ilk be the next with Red Storm Entertainment and White he’s already been the perfect Lovecraftian big thing? People have mixed Hello Kitty Wolf Publishing. Currently she writes protagonist in Sleepy Hollow: a shy with Cthulhu, the Jesus fish car magnet freelance for several gaming publications intellectual who faints a lot and goes with Cthulhu and even Christmas carols and produces three podcasts. She lives investigating things he oughtn’t.” (Very Scary Solstice tunes like “Oh in Durham, NC. Cthulhu!” and “Have Yourself a Very Like hoboes, Lovecraftian monsters are Scary Solstice”). We like the fear of the re-entering the consciousness of the sanity lost, we like the prospect of not world. “Lovecraft is enjoying a wonderful being killed in battle, but having all of renaissance in all sectors, academic, mankind devoured. We’re really commercial, you name it,” Dansky said. masochists, I suppose. “[Because] tentacles are cool, and because there’s so much room to When asked who would take over if it maneuver within Lovecraft. He doesn’t weren’t the Cthulhoids, Dansky said, actually describe anything; he gives you “Whatever the next big thing is, the While others chase the Tolkien-ripoff His first company was related to these dream, one MMOG company cast its eyes late-night hobbies. “My first company to different seas. Three Rings went a was the commercial text MUD Yehuda different route, producing a game Simmons and I started in 1990, Avalon. steeped in sea lore that caters to the It ran out of the back room of my mum’s puzzling crowd. They followed Puzzle house.” Avalon used “eight phone lines Pirates with Bang! Howdy, another and 2400-baud modems that would unique spin on a genre. Bang! Howdy periodically melt and fail, necessitating put the traditional Three Rings humor in me shuffling the dead ones to the back a world of cowboys and steampunk of the line. The game ran on an Acorn robots dueling on turn-based strategy Archimedes, an old RISC computer, with ground usually occupied by complicated a 286 as the multiplexer. We had some (and serious) Japanese titles. Their next terminals, and my friends would come project is Whirled, “a web-based social over and play until 6:00 a.m., when they world for chat, games and player-created had to leave, lest my poor mum awake content,” though, hopefully, without the to discover them bleary-eyed in the flying penises of previous efforts. At the dawn light.” center of it all is Three Rings’ CEO and Designer, Daniel James, known for his 1992 brought what he calls “Hostplay.” by Shannon Drake unique vision and piratical apparel. He describes it as “an Avalon PC-Baang [with] 14 phone lines and 14 terminals, He says his background is “mostly before going on ye olde internet in 1994. start[ing] companies. I started MUDding We had a 64KB leased line, which cost on Essex MUD — the one written by Roy over ₤1,000 a month. We used to Trubshaw and Richard Bartle — in 1982. charge $0.50 an hour, and suddenly, we It used to run on the university DEC 10 went from break-even to quite a between 1:00 and 7:00 a.m. On the profitable business. It’s still going now, weekdays, I would get up around 5:00 but I’m no longer involved.” a.m., before school [to play]. On the weekends, I’d stay up all night. I made Money from that allowed him to “narrowly Wizard and wrote my own MUDs with avoid getting a real job — or, as was the friends on the school BBC Micro network.” case, signing on to unemployment benefit along with all my mates after graduation.” Puzzle Pirates “started with pirates,” With the idea and mechanics nailed Some of James’ projects during this time James says. “I was invited to a pirate down, they started building the game included “a 3-D game developer [called] party, and it was ridiculously fun. itself. “Puzzle Pirates was built by six D3 that folded when its Japanese Everyone knew what to say and the people: three engineers, two artists and publisher got shut down, and a web outfits were awesome. I knew I had to me. It took around 18 months to get to company, Sense Internet, that’s doing make a pirate MMOG, to [call it] closed alpha testing.” Alpha testing took really well 11 years later, still run by one Yohoho!, but I was lacking the core them from an online population of 10 up of the four co-founders, Aidan Cook. game mechanic. You had to sail around to 100 over nine months, and during Funnily enough, Sense is about the same on a ship together as a crew, and beta, that climbed to 1,000 simultaneous size as Three Rings.” everyone had to be doing stuff that players. “We probably could have started wasn’t whacking a monster … but I charging with a mid-alpha version,” In 1996, he developed a new fixation, wasn’t going to have a clickfest like bad James says, “but we were building a which was “the idea of doing The Lord of MMOG crafting — click the wheel, drag subscription game, so we felt that we the Rings as a 3-D MMOG — though the the slider, click the … Oh, God. had to get up over the $10/month ‘cliff.’” term had yet to be coined, this was pre- anything much graphical except for “Then, Bejeweled shipped, and my During that development time, he says Meridian 59. The literary rights owner girlfriend at the time, Brooke Pannell, they were “funded by Michael and I and and I had a deal that nearly got signed, and I got addicted. She deserves a credit a few friends and family. Nobody would but instead, negotiations dragged on for on Puzzle Pirates for beating me at have funded us back in 2001/2002; two years, and Sierra Online woke up Super Puzzle Fighter at the dime arcade angels, publishers, VCs, nobody. Things and stole it away. Precious. So, in 1998, on our third date.” On one particular day, are different now, kids! Because of this I came out to work for them in the “I left her playing on the laptop in bed, relative financial freedom, and the lack mountains o’ California, a nice change and came back five hours later. She was of a fiasco-oriented external factor” - from London. That project didn’t go so still playing. The pieces fell together; their motto during this time was “Nobody well, and three years later, I washed up bling bling! Puzzle games had a flow of can *@!# this up but us” - “we were in Berkeley watching the dot-com boom intensely fun concentration but left you able to take our time and have a very collapse over the Bay. It was then that feel[ing] like you’d wasted hours. smooth development cycle and launch. Puzzle Pirates and Three Rings MMOGs had the long-term achievement We did work very hard, though, fermented with co-founder and CTO and social dynamics but lacked a fun especially Michael, who deserves Michael Bayne.” core game mechanic.” Adding the pirate (another) prize.” aspect gave it a “strong accessible theme,” which seemed like sure success. Overall, it has “worked very well. Over are separate servers, so people tend to what makes a Triple-O game, but you two-thirds of our revenues are from stick where they got comfortable.” will definitely see some different things Doubloons. That said, we have a lot from us. We’ve only made two so far, more players on the Doubloon servers, Three Rings’ latest release, Bang! Howdy, after all. Maybe the next one will be and overall revenues per new user are also embraces the micropayment model, very, very gray and serious.” I’m not too comparable. Revenue per individual but they weren’t just trying to make a sure about that, though, especially after customer is much higher, because sequel to Puzzle Pirates. It stemmed from he adds, “We’ll get the Ministry of Silly Doubloons allow a smaller group of well- “a number of ideas for a sequel to PP — Walks right on it.” endowed players to subsidize the play code-named SOY for ‘Son of YoHoHo’ — experience of the vast majority of free but Michael was keen to not do another In future games, they’d like to “make players. This is facilitated by our support full MMOG right away. ... Instead, we spaces that actively facilitate people for transactions between the attention/ decided to take a stab at Bang! — a reaching full potential. This has creative, time currency — Pieces of Eight — and Korean-style ‘casual’ game — and develop spiritual, intellectual and sensual the Doubloons (hard currency).” our experience with 3-D and the pay-for- aspects,” though before he reaches full- item model. Bang!’s actual design blown Visionary, he heads back to Earth The launch and success of Puzzle Pirates Virtual currency and item sales have emerged from Mike’s experiments with and adds, “That said, mostly, I’d like to servers didn’t keep Three Rings from numerous detractors, but James strategy game designs that avoid the make some fun games. I think our future trying new things. They’ve been one of “believe[s] that the virtual currency and ‘build up for 30 minutes, battle for five, leisure-lover will have a giant brain the the few developers to make a successful associated ‘item’ sales model is the then wait 30 minutes to be crushed’ size of a planet; if you can make go of the micropayment model. On some future model for the online syndrome of most RTS games. The theme Puzzle Pirates servers, Three Rings sells entertainment industry,” primarily fell out of a group brainstorm; we couldn’t Doubloons for in-game items in lieu of because “it provides the commercial resist steampunk cowboy robots.” charging a subscription fee. “We wanted relationship that people will expect with a new model for Puzzle Pirates that a virtual world; it’s another country with Indeed, Three Rings’ games always have would have an easier conversion path a currency that can be exchanged. that sort of whimsical element to them. than a $10 a month commitment,” Developers will make money by renting Puzzle Pirates’ swear filters turn James says, adding that they’d or selling real estate, items, taking a obscenities into hilarious sailor slang. considered several different options, “but rake on the exchange, etc.” As for his James was too coy to lurch into windy we very much wanted an indefinite ‘Free own players, he says “the Pirates have vision statements when I asked what to Play’ offering. Around the end of not moved a lot between Doubloons and makes a Three Rings game, saying, 2004, we settled on the Doubloons Subscriptions. Certainly some have, but “Hah! We’re just a bunch of dorks. I’m model we have now.” the subscription and Doubloon oceans not sure that I’d care to put a label on something fun for them, you’re rocking there was something in those old MUDs from a men-in-tights game, so perhaps all of the above.” He was tight-lipped that encouraged experimentation. we’re the crazy ones.” about how they planned to do that, but “Maybe it’s because we got our goblin- would say 2007 “should be an interesting bashing grinding out of our systems back Speaking of crazy, the Three Rings crew year.” Some weeks after we spoke, Three in the mists of ye olden times!” he — James included — has been known to Rings announced Whirled, which may cracked, but it is undeniable that Three indulge in little bits of madness, be it just challenge Second Life for the player- Rings is chasing a different sort of player making a casual puzzle MMOG or, well, created content throne. than most MMOG developers. dressing as a crew of pirates. While he won’t name a favorite in-game They’ve also been busy working on free “We set [out] to make Puzzle Pirates for swashbuckler, saying, “Cleaver can’t be software. There are several free the classic U.S. ‘casual gamer’ audience, playing favorites. The wenches will get programs on the company site for that is, mostly women in their 30s and upset,” Calico Jack Rackham is his enterprising programmers to take up. We also thought we’d do well with the favorite real-life swashbuckler, “because advantage of, and they count MMOG players, but we didn’t want to aim of the Tintin books and his fraternizing contributions to FreeBSD and MySQL for that audience. This has worked out — with two legendary female pirates.” He’s among their accomplishments. On top of we attract about 50/50 male/female, and forthright about the reasons for his that, they also run the Game Gardens a very broad spread of ages. We’ve got a occasional outing in the rags of an old program, where they offer free tools and lot of teens playing. It can be hard to sea dog. Why dress like a pirate in an hosting to a community of budding game integrate the two (or three) audiences.” industry that can be very serious developers. “Game Gardens actually business? “Because we can! Yarr!” And if emerged from our practice of having As for the typical MMOG crowd, he there’s anyone who can get away with potential engineering hires devise a describes them as “absurdly over- the unexpected, it’s Three Rings. ‘challenge’ game,” which Three Rings catered-to. There’s a plethora of free pays for if they hire the person or not, MMOGs, along with gorillas like WoW. “using our tools. We wanted somewhere The publishers who are investing tens of Shannon Drake is a Contributing Editor to put them.” millions of dollars to compete by making for The Escapist and changed his name yet another whack-a-goblin game, in my when he became a citizen. It used to be James comes from a distinguished group humble opinion, are crazier than us. I Merkwürdigeliebe. of former British MUDders currently busy believe that MMOG players are looking pushing the envelope — KFR from for new and innovative experiences like RedBedlam and Paul Barnett from Mythic Puzzle Pirates,” though he adds, “We being two more — and I wondered if probably would’ve made more money I’ve been a third-world pirate for almost were defective half the time. There was 20 years, starting when my father no place in the country to buy an original bought the first PC we had, a game for the C128 or anything else, mostly Commodore-128, continuing up until last due to the terrible inflation that followed weekend when the Mule completed the the overthrow of a military dictatorship in download of the latest expansion for a 1982, which made importing things like popular RTS full of Marines and Orks. I PCs almost impossible. don’t necessarily like being a dirty pirate, stealing thousands of man-hours of That was the beginning. programming and hard work. I would love to own boxes and manuals. But I By 1990 we were over the C128, and we can’t, and in the past, it wasn’t even a got ourselves an IBM PS-1. The first viable option. This is my story. game we got was Prince of Persia, a pirate copy bought at a perfectly legal Around 1986 my father bought the C128 computer shop … that didn’t have from a guy that “imported” them from original games. Then came F-19, Battle Brazil. Personal computers were Command, Flashback, the LucasArts something really new in Argentina, Adventures, System Shock and Ultima where I live, and almost nobody beside Underworld. All pirate copies, because it large enterprises owned them (not even was the only way to get them. the government had them; they kept – and in some places keep– using typing By this time, the routine was I’d take the machines). The box included a couple of bus with a couple of friends on Saturday games (one of them was F-15, manual afternoons, travel around an hour to get included, which my father and I played to a pirate joint we found in a newspaper for months). When we got tired of those ad, armed with five or 10 disks each (we my brother and I went to the only would pool disks to buy Wing computer shop we could find and bought Commander II, for example), pick a more: Giana Sisters, Green Beret and game and wait while the Pirate Lord Ghost N’ Goblins, which of course copied the game. Then, we would go weren’t originals, just black disks with back to my house, install all the games the names written on them. The disks we had bought (pizza break included here). Finally, I would give my disks to Microsoft. Only top-tier enterprises like and the boxes decorate my home office. aware of how damaging piracy can be, the other guys, and they would repeat Ford and the like were using legal My wife calls them “dust collectors.” especially for small studios, and I feel the process on their PCs over the software - and even then, not all of it guilty for what I have to do to play weekend. Many times there would be an was legal. (Eventually, even Microsoft We now trade 3-to-1 with the dollar after games. Game studios don’t really take error in one of the disks; insults would relaxed on this, because so few people our currency was devalued in 2001. Argentina - and other third-world fly, next Saturday we would go to the could afford the cost of the software.) Argentina has been improving financially markets - into consideration when Pirate Lord again. Ad infinitum. Every other user, gamer or not, used since then, but imports are again quite balancing their budgets, but it still feels pirated software. expensive: I would need to spend around like I’m trying to justify my actions. I Then, one day the Pirate Lord 10 percent of my middle-class salary to buy just wish there were a way for me to disappeared. When we got to his house, After our guy disappeared, it became a single PC game. Additionally, the darker enjoy my hobby without taking food out one neighbor said he had stuffed really difficult to find another den of side of capitalism rears its head when of people’s mouths, but a lot above me everything (family and furniture) into a piracy, but things finally cooled down a retailers - aware that people in the upper- would have to change. I hope it does truck the week before and never came little, and we found this downtown upper-class will pay whatever they charge someday. back. The last game he copied us was gallery filled with pirates. Among them for games - price games well beyond the the first CD game I had:Rebel Assault. was our guy, who still remembered us exchange rate. Since a broadband Leonardo Pose is a student who lives Times were changing. and gave us MechWarrior II for free. But connection costs around one third of what (and pirates games) in Argentina. now the CD was in vogue, and by the one game would, I go that way. In 1991 a new president was elected, time Baldur’s Gate came out, it was and one of his first actions was to cheaper to buy the original than to pay All of this is because I’m completely establish that from then on, our national for five copies. addicted to PC gaming. I can’t let the currency, the Peso, would be equal to the hobby go. Ironically, since I’ve become U.S. dollar in value. Imports were on the Around the same time, my family and I more knowledgeable about the inner rise, electronics were booming, were visiting Miami, and on our last day workings of the game industry, I’m more Argentineans were traveling all around I bought some games at a place called the world and the first genuine PC games Electronics Boutique. With the peso equal were appearing, supported by the first to the dollar, games were cheaper in the anti-piracy measures ever. The anti- U.S. than in Argentina (this ridiculous piracy campaign was actually requested policy finally caught up with us). Those by the software companies coming to original multi-CD titles are my most Argentina for the first time, like appreciated game-related possessions, John Scott Tynes, longtime designer and creation team and hired 10 people to publisher in paper gaming, wrote a staff it up, done a lot of business monthly column, “The Contrarian,” for development, and eventually became early issues of The Escapist. (See, for producer for the entire project.” instance, “Nintendo is Doomed,” “Fight the Future” or “Growing Out of the Stone That won’t surprise anyone familiar with Age.”) “I had a great time writing that John’s career. At 19, while still in college column,” he says, “but ended it because in Columbia, Missouri, he started an I just got too busy. It’s funny to look at it excellent gaming fanzine, The now and see how wrong I was, which is Unspeakable Oath, supporting always great comeuppance for a pundit.” Chaosium’s Lovecraftian tabletop roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu. John has earned his enlightenment at Forming a company, Pagan Publishing, Flying Lab Software, working on an he edited and published many amazing independent massively multiplayer online RPG books, notably Delta Green. Best game (MMOG) he calls “something of a described as “John LeCarre meets H.P. contrarian position”: Pirates of the Lovecraft,” Delta Green makes CoC Burning Sea. This summer, soon after players part of an illegal conspiracy the release of Disney’s third Pirates of inside the U.S. government that fights the Caribbean movie, Flying Lab’s MMOG Mythos corruption. Originally published finally launches – after four years,four as an Oath article in 1992 – long before years, in development. The X-Files, please note – Delta Green appeared in book form in 1997. Four years! What has that been like? Powerfully conjured, amazingly useful, it “It’s like I went to the best grad school in remains one of the roleplaying field’s the world,” John says. “I’ve done tons of best regarded campaign books. game design, learned the basics of 3-D modeling, learned enough programming John also designed the surreal “New Style” to code our first mission system, created RPGs Puppetland and Power Kill and (with sound effects, tracked down and hired an Greg Stolze) the highly regarded Oscar-winning sound designer to replace postmodernist horror RPG Unknown the crap I made, founded the content Armies. Working freelance for Wizards of the Coast, he edited a version of the CoC asked if I’d be their guest at dinner. It John started low on the project, writing rulebook using Wizards’ d20 system. John’s was like hiring a celebrity impersonator missions. But on a small team, as Pirates book line, Armitage House, published Chris to entertain, except it really was me. had at the time, nobody does just one Jarocha-Ernst’s useful Cthulhu Mythos Running my own little starving-artist thing. John’s previous paper game work bibliography as well as his own Delta Green company, I was in no position to turn called for many skills: editor, art director, novel, Rules of Engagement. down a free gourmet meal, even if I’d graphic designer, webmaster, business had to jump out of a cake.” manager. Working like that, he says, Finally, though, 12 years of cash crunch “You go through a sort of mental wore him down. In a 2002 Gaming Hitting it off, John and Flying Lab worked expansion where you lose all fear of Report interview, John announced his together to adapt Delta Green as a scrambling up yet another learning retirement from paper gaming; he called videogame. “We spent a year building curve. When our lead programmer said, publishing Call of Cthulhu supplements prototypes, but no publisher was willing ‘OK, learn this language and code our “a labor of love, not a reasonable to commit to the project.” (The Delta mission system,’ I sort of gulped and business endeavor.” On his blog, he Green website is fossilized but still up.) dove in. I was a terrible programmer, of announced plans to write movies. He and “We decided our next game needed to be course. But I could get the work done a partner even sold a horror screenplay, something we could control and even and keep things moving, because I’m Red Zone, which was never produced. publish, and Pirates was born.” just not afraid of work in any form. Yes, he was preparing to work in the one Spending a decade as an entrepreneur other realm that treats writers almost as *** means you face the world every morning badly as paper gaming: Hollywood. and think, ‘Bring it on!’” Set in the Caribbean in 1720, Pirates of Fortunately, as it has rescued other the Burning Sea makes every player Hardscrabble gumption, fostered in penurious talents from the paper world, captain of his (or her!) own ship. Players paper gaming, helped John thrive in the computer gaming rescued John Tynes. can play not only pirates, but also naval cushier environs of computers. Over officers, privateers, traders and three years, he took on more and more He joined Flying Lab in 2002, shortly smugglers. The Pirates features list varied tasks at Flying Lab. In early 2006, after the Seattle-based company shipped includes tactically rich player-vs.-player aged 35, he became the Pirates its first game, Rails Across America. ship combat, swashbuckling battles, an producer. “I’m now running a team of 63 “They were big fans of the work I’d done extensive loot system, a player-driven people. As producer, I interact with every at Pagan Publishing,” he says. “One of economy and interesting realm-vs.-realm team on the project all the time, and I them was having a birthday, so Russell strategic conflict involving English, pretty much know what every member [Williams], the CEO, e-mailed me and French, Spanish and pirate factions. of our staff is up to. It’s a lot like the jack-of-all-trades thing, in that my work “We started work on a pirate MMOG well RuneScape or Neopets. The MMOG as producer is hands-on and before the [first] DisneyPirates of the business has blinders on. At this rate, the interdisciplinary. But unlike Pagan, there Caribbean movie came out,” John says, game that kills World of Warcraft won’t are dozens of people I can delegate to.” “just because we thought doing yet come from a traditional MMOG company. another elves-and-dwarves game was a After sailing the barren waters of terrible idea. And it was a terrible idea “There isn’t a game publisher in the world roleplaying for a decade or more, John indeed – for everyone except Blizzard!” that would have paid us to spend four has finally found in online gaming a years to develop Pirates of the Burning sheltering, if not yet safe, harbor: “This He hopes Burning Sea and its piratical Sea. Flying Lab is self-funded by the is the best job I’ve ever had. While the companions, if they succeed, will confirm founders.” (Lab CEO Russell Williams was last four-plus years were long ones, I’ve online games can find an audience an early Microsoft millionaire; he wrote learned so much I don’t regret a single outside fantasy. “City of Heroes already code for Windows 95 and Microsoft Golf.) day. I am glad every day to work on a did that, happily, so it’s up to us to prove “It’s kind of like working for Batman – project like this: different genre, they weren’t a fluke. I really, really want international playboy race-car driver by different gameplay, different art direction more genre diversity in online games. day, computer game mogul by night. and stable, independent financing. There’s absolutely no reason why an MMOG has to conform to existing “But that doesn’t mean we eat caviar. “On the other hand, it would be great if tabletop RPG genres, which is pretty We’re going to deliver Pirates for a very my next project didn’t take four years!” much where they’ve been so far.

*** “Sometimes I think about a This Old House MMOG – a team-based game While Burning Sea burned slowly toward where you’re crafting and building stuff beta, the Pirates of the Caribbean movie together, experimenting with different made pirates cool again. Now we can spy technologies and tools, trying to make a packet, if not a flotilla, of imminent the coolest house ever. It’s an extreme swash-and-sail games: not only Burning example, but why not? MMOGs really are Sea, but Disney’s Pirates of the team games, and the varieties of human Caribbean Online and a Korean import, collaboration are endless. Fantasy sports Tales of Pirates. All join the pioneer in leagues are interesting, and yet it’s like these waters, Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates. they don’t exist to MMOG people; ditto other web-based multiplayer games like reasonable budget, and we have no excuses if we fail. Nobody in a suit managed our growth carefully. Even two has been telling us what to do. years into the project, our staff was only about a dozen people. The key is to “That’s the dream of Caribbean piracy, prototype cheap, iterate cheap and don’t after all. Pirate ships were the first true go big until you really, deeply know just democracies the world had seen in what game you’re going to ship.” centuries. Pirate crews drew up articles of cooperation and voted for their Even more than he did running cash- officers. They ensured the maimed were starved Pagan Publishing, John reveres compensated and everyone got a fair good financing. “I wantPirates to be share. They weren’t under the iron fist of successful enough that we can keep doing a national military or corporation, so it a long, long time, and also start a they had to find their own discipline, second and a third project down the road, their own motivation and their own on our terms. In business, money means courage. Pirate crews succeeded or failed freedom. Look at the botched launches of on their own merits, and if they other MMOGs to see what happens when succeeded, they had the resources to studios don’t have the freedom to do it keep going, keep striving. That’s what right – and ‘freedom’ means ‘payroll,’ we’re doing, and if we succeed, we’ll keeping those people working and keep on doing it. I hope to be here iterating and making things better. Only making great games for a long time.” money gives you that freedom.

“Money doesn’t guarantee success – rich Allen Varney designed the PARANOIA people make stupid mistakes every day. paper-and-dice roleplaying game (2004 But it at least means you can succeed or edition) and has contributed to computer fail on your own merits, not because you games from Sony Online, Origin, shipped six months early when the Interplay and Looking Glass. money ran out, or the publisher needed something shipped to shore up a bad quarter. We’ve spent four years making the game we want to make, and we have I confess, I’ve never bought anything task of de-authorizing the music and from iTunes. I don’t own an iPod, an MP3 reauthorizing it on another system. player, or even have a CD player in my car. I mostly listen to music on my There is a workaround whereby you computer, occasionally disrupting the could burn the track onto CD and then neighbors by blasting Muse at 3:00 a.m. rip it back in an unprotected format, like MP3, but this degrades the sound quality I had never before considered and is a hassle, even if you had a CD-RW purchasing anything from iTunes for one to burn with over and over again. reason: DRM (or digital rights management), an acronym that has Then, on April 2, industry-changing taken on Orwellian significance in online words were uttered by a music executive communities. It elicits everything from from one of the most lawsuit-happy utter hatred to disinterested acceptance. companies under the RIAA umbrella: Many web commentators, like Cory “We have to trust consumers.” Doctorow at BoingBoing, have made it part of their life’s mission to rid it from EMI became the first of the “Big Four” all digital media, including games, DVDs music labels (made up of Warner, EMI, and downloadable videos. While I’m not Universal and Sony) to drop DRM from quite as vicious as all that, I wouldn’t their catalog entirely. And, not only that, ever buy something that was DRM’d. but Apple would be selling these DRM- free tracks at a higher bit rate, making it For those not in the know, DRM is a the best-sounding offering in the online technological lock on a digital file that music arena (save for some rare prevents it from being used in a way that “lossless” sellers like Magnatune). the content provider (like a record label) wants it to be used. In the case of Apple’s My first reaction to this news was utter DRM – FairPlay – it restricts you from and complete shock. Having been playing the music in anything but iTunes researching this issue since I first heard or on iPods, and from transferring it to the term “DRM” uttered back in 2003, as more than five computers. To change the well as the labels’ insistence that it was computers, one has to go through the necessary to protect the future of content from piracy, it came as a really change that, and it can only “Video is pretty different than music HD-DVD, two formats built with DRM in surprise that a major label would increase sales for the struggling EMI. For right now because the video industry mind, have recently been cracked. suddenly decide to just drop that instance, I wouldn’t feel any qualms does not distribute 90 percent of their protection entirely. about purchasing from them. content DRM free; never has, and so I But what about games? Game-makers think they are in a pretty different have been some of the ones most I suppose this was a long time coming, There was something curious that situation and so I wouldn’t hold the two concerned with piracy, and have often though. After all, DRM is completely happened during the Apple/EMI in parallel at all.” implemented very complex and onerous ineffective. For example, music that announcement: Steve Jobs, founder and systems in order to try and prevent it. appears on iTunes, even exclusively The nastiest of which is Starforce, which encoded with DRM since its inception, Allen Varney covered in great depth in a ends up on the P2P networks within 180 past issue. To summarize, Starforce, a seconds. Despite insistence that it’s product of some dark PC magic in necessary and only fair from the RIAA, Russia, created great problems for MPAA, BSA and advocate organizations gamers, sometimes making their CD/ like the PFF (Progress and Freedom DVD drives utterly useless. The copy Foundation), it didn’t change the fact of protection dug its claws into their its uselessness. systems and refused to let go. And the company that produces it, Protection After hearing about EMI’s decision, the Technology, is quite sleazy. When PFF’s James DeLong, a longtime advocate Galactic Civilizations 2 went without DRM of using DRM to weed out “free riders” or copy protection of any kind, PT railed from not paying, wrote, “If the new against them for being foolish and even format quickly turns up on the P2P sites, posted links from torrent networks that and if sales start off high and then fade could let people illegally download it. away as the songs spread virally from iPod to iPod, then we will have learned Thankfully, most companies shirk using something.” This, of course, is silly. DRM StarForce nowadays but are still left with has never prevented files from ending up head of Apple, had to back-peddle a bit. This is a change from his “Thoughts on trying to make DRM work for them. on P2P networks. Even iTunes-exclusive Asked by a questioner whether Jobs Music” letter where he stated, Valve tied Half-Life 2 to their Steam content that has been DRM’d from the would now advocate for DRM-free pointblank, “DRMs haven’t worked, and platform, requiring an online activation get-go ends up on the networks. The fact videos, like those from Disney, of which may never work, to halt music piracy.” before people could play it. Often Steam there’s another format to share won’t he owns a major stake, he responded, Same for video, Steve - both Blu-ray and wouldn’t load, or it would take an interminable amount of time to auto- Ragnar Tornquist, creator of The Longest not unrelated. Imagine walking into work update. Despite the protection, however, Journey, wrote on his blog, “I’m not for two weeks and then, when it comes HL2 arrived on the P2P and torrent defending StarForce, but there’s no way time for your paycheck, to be given a networks the day of release, available we can justify the cost of making a shrug and a promise that your work was without the restriction of Steam. single-player PC game without given more exposure. mechanisms in place to battle piracy - Looking up similarly protected games, we’ll just lose money.” Unfortunately, I’m not going to sit here and tell you I’m like those with StarForce, turned up the DRM and copy protection don’t seem to perfect in this regard; far from it. I was same type of situation. Despite what the be accomplishing the task of combating there with Napster in its heyday, right developers are trying, it hasn’t worked. piracy. As Steve Jobs wrote, “there are alongside everyone else booing Metallica many smart people in the world, some and wishing horrible diseases on Lars I sympathize with them, I really do. with a lot of time on their hands, who Ulrich. It’s been a slow, gradual Working in film and music, I understand love to discover such secrets and publish realization, but people deserve to be how difficult it can be to see something a way for everyone to get free (and paid for their hard work and not have it you slaved over for months or years be stolen) music.” Or movies. Or software. indiscriminately posted and downloaded. distributed freely without your consent. On this, James DeLong and I see eye to And the arguments for piracy don’t really But DRM is not the answer. It only eye: If you want to play it, listen to it or fly either, I’m afraid. Increased frustrates and angers legitimate consumers watch it, you should pay for it. While exposure? Maybe, but more likely just a who have already purchased the content. there’s a certain satisfaction in giving the bunch of people getting stuff for free. It But, if you must, why not take a note from finger to The Man, you’re also giving that doesn’t make an impact? I think it does. Steve Jobs and EMI and offer DRM and finger to everyone who works under him. As an example, I was in a group that DRM-free versions of your movies and Even then, there usually isn’t a Man to released an album on CD Baby, iTunes, games? Give people a choice. Who knows, battle, because you’re harming indie Amazon and several other places. This it might just be the thing that makes you studios and directors. Having worked on was a Creative Commons group, which stand above the rest. several film sets in different capacities, I allows artists to release their work freely know what a complicated, expensive and to be downloaded, shared and remixed Tom Rhodes is a writer and filmmaker taxing endeavor it can be. To see all that among people without restriction. It currently living in Ohio. He can be time and energy disappear in a melange lasted for awhile without being ripped, reached through [email protected]. of torrents is heartbreaking. selling quite well, but as soon as someone did, sales petered off to mostly nothing. These two events were certainly 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 Mur Lafferty Leonardo Pose IT Director Tom Rhodes Jason Smith Allen Varney

Issue 93 © 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