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And when these communities do become Find these articles and more in this issue might be filled with meaning, and so important, is it a surprise that people of The Escapist. political statements and such, but that is feel a sense of ownership over them? just an underlying bonus. It’s the sort of I frequently get letters to the editor in Cheers, thing you read about in a magazine after which people say things like “my The internet is still young and finding its you have played through, and then have Escapist.” When talking to people outside way – often compared to the Old West in a nice sit and think about. of the office about the magazine, I often the United States. We aren’t really sure say “my writers” or “my readers.” When how to govern it and we aren’t really The conformity vs. more conformity I play World of Warcraft, I talk about sure of the amazing potential this argument never really struck me, but it “my server”. And I admire MySpace.com, medium holds. But we are seeing the is a bit amusing. Stubbs is really just a whole business built on “my.” In short, internet has an amazing ability to changing zombies into zombies. Either there’s a whole lot of ownership floating support communities, whether they are around. Where does this ownership come one club in one school, or international from? organizations. This ability will continue to be one of the major functions of the To the Editor: I love reading your Some people feel the internet is internet, even as our “real lives” become articles, and enjoy your open format in impersonal. But that’s only if you let it more hectic and distant from each other. wed design. I recently searched your be. If you want community you can find archives for stories involving MUD’s for I it everywhere and on everything – This issue of The Escapist focuses on am still an active mudder and I would whether on a social network like communities, both real life and internet. love to know where you guys think the MySpace, a massively multiplayer game In “Wanna Be My Friendster?” my genre is going. It could be an interesting like World of Warcraft, or even a Yahoo! writers speak about those communities story. Group on gardening. The ability to reach related to games. After a short vacation -Vhadakhan people all over the world increases the from us, Allen Varney returns to tell us chance of meeting others who think, about casual games portals and the From The Lounge: [Re: “Great Zombie believe and act similarly to yourself. communities (or lack thereof) that Depression,” by Joe Blancato] Very good Many people would not find others with surround them. Mark Wallace shares article. I am a first time reader, brought whom they share so much commonality some new avenues of exploration in the here by Stubbs. The Escapist now sits were it not for the internet. Is it any world of internet security and personal proudly on my rss list. wonder that those who do find such a identification. Bonnie Ruberg discusses group of people with such similar what happens in online communities I specifically liked the part where you interests become tight-knit communities? “After Sex” becomes a common thing. played again at the end. Sure Stubbs way you look at it, it sucks to be the well. As a matter of fact I was bound and I could go on further, but I don’t want to people of punchbowl, at least as far as determined as a child to get my parents bore anyone. Thanks for bring these various forms of expression are to put in a fallout shelter. (They never titles to our attention. concerned. The bottom line though, is humored me, however) And many of us that it is good to be Stubbs. At least he felt the same anxiety, I think. These and the likes of Geometry Wars finally gets what he wants. might just bring a resurgence of these I had much the same reaction to Fallout simple but addictive genres ... if they I found it interesting that the band Cake also. To this day if someone asks my catch on with the general public that is. was specifically mentioned, because this favorite game of all time, I say Fallout -Jeff Staple article read a whole lot like a John without hesitation. It got so many things McCrea interview I once read. Soell and right, that one couldn’t help but to enjoy McCrea have a similar view of their work it. I remember everyone going on about in that they hide a whole lot of meaning Baldur’s Gate the following year (or so), in an artistic package of some sort. What and after playing it thinking “that’s a sets the two apart is their expectations great game, but it’s no Fallout.” of the audience. McCrea expects his audience to see the (often ambiguous) Great article. Really hit home with me. meanings that he has stuffed into his -Jon D. songs, and enjoy his music for the meaning, as well as the musical quality. From The Lounge: [Re: “Retro Like Matt seems more than content if his You’ve Never Seen It Before,” by Pat readers love his game for being an Miller] Now this was an interesting read. excellent game. No meaning is being I’ve been a fan (though not a hardcore forced upon anyone in Stubbs, and for one) of Shmups since I was young, and those that look for it, that makes finding when Ikaruga came out I snatched up a something deeper all the more copy. These games of Kenta Cho are worthwhile. quite superb. I’ve downloaded about -Ninj three already and each one is excellent. I particularly like how their control From the Lounge: [Re: “Duck and scheme is standardized. The learning Cover,” by Russ Pitts] The author of the curve is lower that way. article really captured my feelings as Many online game “communities” feel You get the same vibe off the most like those housing subdivisions spreading popular gaming sites in the English- around every American city like speaking world, the casual game portals: carcinomas on a pancreas. EA’s Pogo, Miniclip, Yahoo! Games, Microsoft’s MSN Games, RealNetworks’ I live in one such suburban wasteland in GameHouse, Big Fish Games and many northwestern Austin, Texas. Milwood has more. These lookalike sites are “portals” no mill and few trees. After five years because they aggregate dozens or here, I know the names of the couple hundreds of casual games from many next door, but nothing about anyone else indie designers. Some big portals are on this street. No one knows anybody. mere front ends for faceless distributors There’s nowhere to meet, and no reason; like Oberon Media or Boonty. the nearest market/bar/bus stop/ anything is two miles away. The streets The portal formula can work like crazy. are twisty mazes, the houses endless On the big portals, at any hour, day or reshufflings of a dozen bland elements, night, tens or hundreds of thousands of their plans generated randomly in some players gather to play Hearts, Spades, nameless architect’s CAD/CAM program. Canasta, chess, backgammon and a A Texas subdivision looks like zillion shareware match-three games. No Connecticut, which looks like Idaho and one knows how big the casual Georgia. Built by developers without downloadable market is, but it’s growing. taste or imagination, these soul-dead RealNetworks just announced record burbclaves ignore the human-centered fourth quarter and 2005 results, design principles in Christopher including year-on-year games revenue Alexander’s landmark A Pattern growth in Q4 of 52%, to $15.7 million; Language. Such ugly, sterile, crass annual games revenue was $56.3 1950s Chamber of Commerce concrete- million, a 63% increase over 2004. asphalt provincial whitebread booboisie Miniclip claims 27 million unique users burgs count as “communities” only if you each month. Club Pogo has 780,000 believe their marketing literature. paying members. Some other companies are growing the same way, like all those precursors, fixing their mistakes, and housing sprawls. Phil Steinmeyer making a clone to try out new wrinkles estimates today’s market at around $200 on established ideas. But more and more million annually. casual look-alikes zoom beyond “imitation as sincere flattery” and Leaving aside the unadorned shopping screech to a halt just inches short of sites, a few portals make cosmetic plagiarism. They’re not clones but attempts at community building: chat, parasites. The portals love them. buddy lists, forums, profiles and avatars. Sometimes, these use off-the-shelf Last summer, an upstart three-person middleware like GameFrame. Grab.com French company, FunPause EURL, made does better, with player blogs and pages an attention-getting business case for of kid and dog pictures. But portal social parasitism. FunPause scored two quick scenes are, at best, low-key. You can’t successes with exceptionally blatant tell one community from another. clones: first,Atlantis , a copy of MumboJumbo’s mega-selling Luxor And increasingly, you can’t distinguish (itself a close imitation of Zuma , which the games they sell. derives from Midway’s 1998 Puzz Loop); next, Fairies, an unashamed point-for- Volume, Volume, Volume! point re-skinning of Raptisoft’s successful Casual games look alike, not just Chuzzle. Each copy took FunPause about because all the portals carry the same two months to engineer, start to finish. games (though they do), but because (Saves time when you don’t have to the portals encourage straight knockoffs playtest.) For Fairies, they even lifted of current hits.

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