The Osbornian One

Another day, another grave

2010-03-17T09:39:00.001-07:00

I had all but forgotten that I had this thing. These days blogging is somewhat passe, but if you want the scoop on what I'm up to these days head over to the blog for my indie game company, citizen12 studio.

3 Minute Masterpiece

2009-04-22T16:14:00.001-07:00

I decided to enter the 3 Minute Masterpiece contest. I didn’t have much time between my return from Hawaii and the deadline (6 days). Not only did I have to get myself a new camcorder, but I also had to plan, shoot, cut, and put visual f/x together. I couldn’t have done it without my family’s support.

I really wasn’t sure if I could pull it together in 6 days. It took probably close to 40 hours of effort, all told, to shoot and cut a 3-minute piece. I feel for those folks out there who do this every week for a 46-minute show. Of course, they’re pros and I’m just a newbie.

It’s not everything I had hoped for, but I think it’s pretty good. Here it is. You can also see the HD version on YouTube.

The End of Lies?

2009-03-31T13:58:00.001-07:00

I have MPD, and so do I.

Ha ha. Old joke, yes, but there’s a new twist. I’m starting to think the age of personae is coming to an end, due largely to the fact that the Internet and social networks have made the world a smaller place. The problem is that some of these networks are starting to overlap in a way that has never happened before.

When you’re in the context of a particular social network or circle, you behave a certain way. You say things in one setting that you might not say in another. This is the definition of the “social mask” or persona. Here are a few of my personae:

(former) Microsoft manager
Creative Writer
Wannabe filmmaker
Super Daddy
Husband
Friend
facebook user
XBox Live player
Blogger
Anonymous Seattle-ite

There are others. Depending on what social context I’m in I unconsciously slip into one of these personae. So do you. It is an effortless thing humans have been doing since we had human relations. Lately, though, it’s been been getting harder. I’ve had to place additional filters and checks on what I say. Specifically, it’s getting harder to lie. For this, I blame facebook. I’m not talking about serious lies (at least not as far as you know). I’m thinking more of the lies we tell that are “variations on the truth.”

Here’s a really simple example. For reasons I won’t go into, some people know me as “James” and others know me as “Jamie.” When I introduce myself, I call myself one or the other depending on a complex set of heuristics that even I don’t fully comprehend. I’ve been doing this for the better part of 15 years and the only time it’s caused confusion was when someone I met in one social context transitioned into another (e.g. co-worker to friend).

Lately, though, there’s been an explosion of confusion as people I have met in various social contexts have become my facebook friends. Usually what happens is someone on facebook will refer to me as “Jamie”, causing someone who has only ever known me as “James” to do a double-take. Then that person starts calling me “Jamie” in a social context where I am known as “James” and pretty soon I got a lot of ‘splainin to do!

A more unsettling example has to do with my recent change of employment status. Again, variations on the truth. In some social contexts, it’s enough to say I was laid off. In others, though, I feel it’s more appropriate to avoid the stigma of saying “laid off” and just say “I left Microsoft.” Which is true? Well, both. I might not mind one of my friends knowing those details, but it’s something I’d rather not discuss with, say, my mortgage broker (hope you’re not reading this, Kathy!).

Maybe this is all for the best. Maybe it’s a good thing to do away with all our personae in favor of sharing our “true selves” with all our social circles. It’s risky, though, and I don’t know if I’m ready for that. Do I really want a prospective employer checking out my profile and learning how much I <heart> kittens and Battlestar Galactica? Of course I could just abandon facebook and go back to the old ways, but there’s a lot of benefit in keeping up with your friends and acquaintances. For now, I’ll just see if I can be a little more… consistent in my interpretations of “the truth”.

More Than This

2009-03-24T21:07:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking about Life lately.

Though it's true I've had some extra time on my hands since Train Simulator 2 was cancelled, it's not simply an effort to fill the spaces between gazing upon my navel and crushing boxes of Thin Mints. See, I've been job hunting-- something I've only had to do twice in my life-- and I've discovered that there are an awful lot of jobs out there I have no interest in doing.

Before I come off sounding like a patrician snob turning my nose up at jobs best left to the unwashed masses, I should establish a couple of parameters. I am an extremely fortunate individual for reasons too many to enumerate, but I'll pick off a few:

I was born and live in the United States where, despite the massive economic stinkpit we're currently in, people have a leg up over our fellow humans in say, Darfur.
I did well in school and have never struggled to learn new things.
My parents provided a nurturing environment for my childhood, then paid for my Ivy League education.
My "trade" is software development, and my services have been in demand for my entire working career.
I am relatively healthy and well-off.
My wife works for Microsoft and earns an enviable wage for her efforts.

Like I said, there are others, but at some point it sounds less like disclaiming and more like bragging, so I'll stop there. The point is I want to talk about self-actualization-- what some people think of as the tip Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, way above food, water, shelter, and dignity.

Back to job hunting. I been working in the computer game industry for the last few years. Computer games are something I enjoy immensely. Always have. Working on computer games is actually more fun than playing them because there is tremendous satisfaction in being the wizard behind the veil who makes the magic happen. Where a game player sees his character jumping onto a platform or a ship exploding into brilliant particles of light, I see the math behind the calculation of the power curve of the jump or the team effort that it took to bring together art, sound, light, and code to make the thing go boom. I love(d) what I do did.

So when Microsoft informed me that my studio was being shuttered and everyone in it laid off, I wasn't worried. I knew there were other opportunities to work on games in Seattle, either inside Microsoft or without. I wanted to continue serving in the same kind of leadership position I'd had on Train Simulator, where I was the Lead Engineer, not because I thought I somehow deserved it but rather because I know myself well enough to know I'm a better leader and manager than I am a coder.

I interviewed for several jobs, three of which I wanted and would have enjoyed doing, and two I didn't really want but felt like I should do as a hedge against unemployment. Some groups I eschewed entirely because they weren’t in games or they didn’t look like teams I would gel with. I didn't get an offer for any of the three I wanted, and I turned down the two "safety jobs".

Monday I handed in my Microsoft badge. I am officially unemployed. Laid off. I am also at a crossroads. One part of me looks at my current status and sees freedom-- freedom to do the things I couldn't do when I was committed to working for one company on one product of someone else's vision. Freedom to make a silly game or a serious game or a short film; freedom to try my hand at another startup; freedom to completely redefine who I am and what I do for a living. The other part of me misses the substantial income and the freedom that it offers. These are difficult times. Who in their right mind would voluntarily forgo a high-paid, steady job when there's so much uncertainty out there? Time enough for self-actualization when the kids have graduated from college. Right?

Maybe.

My parents both died when they were young, from things that could easily be hereditary. So when I think about my life span I don’t think about retiring at 60 or 70 then enjoying another 20 or 30 “golden years.” I feel like I’ll be lucky to if I make it to 50. The clock is ticking and it’s getting louder every day.

For better or worse, I’m not someone who believes in God and Heaven and all that. Frankly, I wish I did because it would provide some comforting answers to a number of difficult questions I have. I also don’t believe that there has to be any intrinsic meaning to our existence. No Master Plan. No fate. Nada. We’re born. We do stuff. We die. Beginning, middle, end.

So, I’m an existential Nihilist, then. Yes?

Not quite. While I don’t believe your life is imbued with meaning due to its mere existence, I think we have the opportunity to create our own meaning through our choices. Some simple, like whether to be kind or mean to someone who wrongs us. Others more complex, like whether to exchange your life for wages at a job that you don’t love. How cheaply are you willing to sell yourself? Will you turn a trick for an easy payout, or do you choose the more difficult and risky journey of seeking your muse then following her to the ends of the earth?

I honestly don’t know how I will answer that question. I’ve just been cast out from the gilded castle, with a sizeable severance in my pocket and lofty goals in my mind. I have yet to take a single step on that journey to follow my muse. Maybe it’ll be a quick trip that takes me right back to making games. Maybe it’ll be something else entirely. Who knows? I certainly don’t, and it would be foolish of me to claim otherwise. I don’t know what it’s like to be truly hungry or destitute. I don’t know how my feelings as a provider for my family will overpower my desire for self-actualization. I don’t know what “my price” is.

One thing I know is this. Nobody on their death bed ever said they wished they’d spent more time in front of a computer screen.

Just what I was looking for

2009-03-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

Nick dug this up. It's a regularly-updated list of programming languages, ranked by popularity.

http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html

Winds of change

2009-03-02T11:07:00.000-08:00

They're a-blowin', but I don't know where they're a-going yet. I'm not ready to write the next chapter for what happened to me professionally after Aces was shut down.

I do, however, want to give a huge "thank you!" to Ron Moore for re-imagining Battlestar Galactica, then doing an incredible job of writing and producing some of the best TV I've ever seen. There are only three episodes left and I feel like I'm about to say goodbye to an old friend.

I can only hope smoking and drinking don't kill Moore before he comes out with something new...

Dude, I'm getting a Dell

2009-02-12T20:11:00.000-08:00

Ordered a Dell Studio XPS 13 today ($1200, shipped). My last laptop was a Dell 600m, which did yeoman service for several years. It went through two hard drives and a mobo upgrade before finally overheating itself into a connectionless stupor.

Laptop with no wireless = doorstop, and really. At some point you just gotta let go.

I considered getting a MacBook but my primary use for the machine is Windows-based game development, which frankly has been kind of a pain in the butt on my first generation MacBook. The one-button track pad is espcially annoying on Windows.

We'll see how it goes.

All good things...

2009-01-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, the Aces game studio at MGS (of which I was a member) was shuttered. Close to 140 people, including myself, were laid off from Microsoft.

It's actually not quite as dire as it sounds. At the same time they were shutting down Aces, MGS was busy opening up new positions in other game groups. There were about 130 people in Aces, and not all of them will be able to slot in to the new positions, but a good number should be able to find new homes in relatively short order.

Feel odd being on "administrative leave." I'm eager to find a new position and get back to work.

A Crude Awakening

2008-10-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

I watched "A Crude Awakening" last night. I thought it was particularly interesting as seen through the lens of the current economic crisis. Many believe, as I do, that the War in Iraq is more about oil than it is about spreading democracy. We've basically spent ourselves into penury in an attempt to secure more oil for ourselves and sustain our prosperity, but we haven't been successful. Our economy is in shambles and we still don't control the oil.

So what's Plan B? "Drill, baby, drill?" Not likely.

We need to find or invent a new energy system, quick. Something that can keep our prosperity growing even when gas costs $100 per gallon. Thinking about war, poverty, terrorism, global warming, air pollution and many other ailments of the world, it seems like most if not all could be solved by switching to a clean, renewable, abundant energy source like solar.

The alternative is grim, especially for our kids.

A lot of smart people (Warren Buffett included), point out that over time the stock market has always gone up. But it seems like that is only true so long as we have cheap oil. If cheap energy becomes scarce, I suspect the stock market, along with world population and global trade, will "contract." The center cannot hold. Even if I'm not around when that happens, my kids probably will be. What can I do now to help them prepare?

Alice

2008-10-10T13:16:00.001-07:00

From time to time, people have asked me what's the best way to teach their kids how to make video games. Alice is something I learned about in the Randy Pausch lecture. It looks pretty cool. Even better, it can teach kids how to tell stories (and learn programming as a side-effect).

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

2008-10-10T13:13:00.001-07:00

I just watched the Randy Pausch Last Lecture. You want to know what makes a hero?

Just watch this video.

Three Rings of Death

2008-08-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

My Xbox 360 experienced the infamous Three Rings of Death last night, 2 years (to the day!) after I bought it. Having heard about quality issues when I bought it I opted for the Best Buy Product Replacement Plan. So I called Best Buy yesterday. They informed me that Microsoft would replace the unit because it had extended the warranty on all 360's that experience the Three Rings. I didn't think that sounded very fair to Microsoft since I had paid Best Buy $50 for their warranty. The customer service guy then said it didn't matter anyway because my extended warranty has expired the previous day.

*sigh*

Thinking of voting for McCain?

2008-08-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

If you're at all interested in technology issues, you owe it to yourself to watch this video by Larry Lessig:

Interesting comments afterward, too, suggesting that maybe Lessig's numbers are off. Still, just his stance on Net Neutrality is enough to make any responsible technophile queasy.

Braid

2008-08-17T08:59:00.001-07:00

Braid is the most innovative game I think I've ever seen. I started playing it last night and when I looked at the clock I couldn't believe it was 2AM. It's that engrossing. It's a visual feast, has a mysterious and engaging plot, and is just plain fun. Time is used not only as part of the narrative, but also part of the game play. You've got to play it to see what I mean. I haven't had this much fun since Portal.

I wish I had made this game.

I offer one hint-- Do NOT check out the walkthroughs on YouTube. It'll spoil the best plot twist since (again) Portal. If it seems there is a puzzle piece you can't reach, just keep in mind that the game has a non-linear story. ~~You won't "finish" each level in turn as you would, say, Donkey Kong.~~ OK, you can finish each level in sequence. Still, be careful about looking for clues. I made the mistake of poking around and it spoiled the ending for me.

Dinner Tonight

2008-08-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

We had home-made broccoli and chicken calzones from the Best 30-Minute Recipe book tonight. Thumbs up on the recipe and thumbs up on the 2004 Chateau St. Michelle Canoe Ridge Estate Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet Sauvignon we had with it.

It's as if it's trying to tell me something...

2008-08-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

This error message from Windows Vista Backup speaks for itself.

Obama should be hammering on this nail

2008-07-20T22:59:00.001-07:00

McCain and the economy. Great opinion piece in the NYT about McCain's complete economic ineptitude. Could it be that McCain would be as incompetent with our new American Crisis-- the economy-- as George W. Bush was with foreign policy and the "War on Terrah"?

Let us hope we don't have the opportunity to find out.

Cui bono?

2008-07-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

Have you read this?

If not, go check it out. It's not just a rundown of what happened to Bear Stearns. It makes you wonder-- What if it was intentional? What if Bear imploded because someone(s) wanted it to implode? Why would someone want to take down Bear?

I've been thinking a lot about the markets recently. Oil up, dollar down, inflation up, housing prices down, foreclosures up, stock market down. It seems more amplified now than ever before in my lifetime (and I remember the 70's oil shortage). It's all connected, thanks to the efficiency of computers. Think you understand how it all works? Read this then come back and tell me you still think you understand.

Most people believe that the markets are too efficient to be gamed or manipulated; that it's impossible to time it or consistently better the returns without running afoul of insider trading laws. It's all just risk and reward.

But over the last 20 years a whole class of professionals has sprung up-- investment bankers. By all accounts the sharp ones make obscene amounts of money. They're the ones who dreamed up the Collateralized Debt Objects that wrapped risky mortgages in what appeared to be low-risk, high-return investments. Nobody understands these things. Maybe not even the people who created them.

According to Bad Money, our GDP is now made up in significant part (20%) by "financial services." It's the single largest sector of the private economy. These things aren't real. You can't see them or touch them. They're just ways of packaging up debt and credit. Mostly debt.

Who provides the "financial services"? Banks. Run by investment bankers. Smart investment bankers. Some who probably have a really good idea how markets work, and just what would happen if a certain sequence of events occurred to a certain company like Bear Stearns.

Bear tanked, and though JP Morgan bought the remains, it was a shotgun wedding with the Fed holding the shotgun in one hand and a Bible in the other. You can bet that the American taxpayer is going to wind up picking up the tab. The same thing is happening to Freddie and Fannie, and you-know-who is going to get stuck with the bill again.

Maybe these catastrophic failures are just accidents-- unintended and unforeseen. Or maybe not. I don't know, but I think it's worth asking, "Cui bono?"

Two movies that surprised me

2008-07-09T12:57:00.001-07:00

My frist two rentals from Netflix were The Kingdom and 28 Days Later. I won't summarize the plots here because you can just go to imdb or Rotten Tomatoes and take care of that. But I will say that they were both very good movies. Surprisingly so.

I'd seen trailers for The Kingdom back when it was in theaters, but even though the idea of seeing Jennifer Garner shoot it out with terrorists was intriguing, I never bothered to go see it. Netflix featured it prominently in its custom recommendations for me (good on you, Netflix), so I picket it up. I was expecting an action/intrigue type of thing but instead found myself watching a smart "buddy film" with characters I cared about and a story arc that not only moved me but made me think.

28 Days Later also made me think. I was expecting a mindless zombie flick (which I enjoy for reasons I don't even understand, myself). But what I got there was a visually mind-blowing film with good acting, interesting characters going through multiple arcs, and a suprising and satisfying plot twist. I watched the film, then I stayed up late to watch it again with commentary from the director and the writer. Good stuff!

Too bad 28 Weeks Later wasn't nearly as good in comparison.

Freedom from Cable TV

2008-07-09T12:42:00.000-07:00

I recently cancelled my cable TV subscription. Here's why:

After seeing the quality Michael was getting at his house via an HDTV antenna, I pulled the trigger. I bought a small antenna from AntennasDirect and set it up in a window in the TV room. I didn't even have to mount it on the roof. I get the big networks as well as PBS is lovely HD. After paying for TV for decades, it's hard to believe I can get this stuff for free.
Technology has finally reached the point where I can get the shows I want a-la-carte through distribution means other than cable TV. The only TV shows we care about are Battlestar Galactica (which is in its last season) and House, and even House we could do without. We also like to get PBS shows for the kids. Even so, I'm usually open to checking out something new and good, and I don't mind being a season or two or three behind. With complete seasons of TV shows like Stargate, Sopranos, etc. all on DVD I still have access to the shows even though I don't get the cable networks.
There's a neat (but still beta-quality) little app out there that lets me stream Netflix shows directly to my Xbox 360. This was a key feature for me because it opened up the whole a-la-carte TV thing without requiring me to pay for each episode individually. I'm also in a phase where I'm checking out movies from 5 - 10 years ago, which matches the "Watch Now" selection pretty well.

It's a small thing, but boy does it feel good to kiss those absurdely high-priced Comcast bills goodbye.

Ping

2008-06-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

Let's just take as read all the comments about gosh, how long it's been since I posted anything. I'm sure you've heard it all before. Come to think of it, I don't even know if you exist. So there.

Coffee. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. I'm back to something like 4 cups a day, but I almost never finish them so how about 4 * 3/4 = 12/4 = 3 cups a day?

Nick's been posting a some interesting stuff. He also just picked up a new Canon 40D, giving us something new to geek out about.

It's been a few months since I've written anything new, and a few years since I've produced a live short. I'm feeling the creative itch. Allan's been pushing me to do something new, too. It's good having friends like that.

Beautiful day in Seattle. There have been too few of those this year. And what am I (supposed to be) doing right now? Sitting inside writing reviews for my Microsoft reports. You owe me, Ballmer.

Is it just me, or are we going insane?

2008-01-18T20:54:00.000-08:00

This morning I was listening to an NPR segment on the upcoming Republican primary in South Carolina. Every person they interviewed was gushing about how they just absolutely had to have the most "Christian", most "righteous", most "faithful" candidate.

"My belief in Jesus Christ tells me..." etc etc etc

I kept waiting for the segment to continue with something about how unfortunate it is that so many people cast their vote based on their religious faith rather than on real issues that affect all of us, like educating our kids or feeding the hungry or helping others in need around the world.

The segment said nothing of how our democracy is stumbling ever-closer to a theocracy. Or how faith-based (read: anti-reality) thinking has gotten us into quite a scrape these last few years.

Nothing.

I think it's totally fine that people have their various faiths and it's great that they have found these foundations upon which to live their lives, but can't they just peek out from behind their righteous parapets for a few moments to make a decision like electing a President on some grounds other than religious fervor?

Is it just me?

Oh coffee, my coffee

2008-01-18T20:38:00.000-08:00

Three months ago, I decided to give up french fries because I decided they represented an affront to my self-control. That is, I often found myself eating them despite intentions to eat healthier. It's been going quite well.

I've had a fry here or there. Maybe three fries (not servings mind you. actual individual sticks) in as many months. I'm calling it a success.

Today I decided to tackle a much greater challenge-- coffee.

I don't think coffee is all that bad for me, at least not as bad as fries. But I have on too many occasions found myself caffeinating my way through the day, and to be honest I don't much like the way it makes me feel. So I decided on a whim to have a coffee-free day.

So far so good.

I don't intend to give up coffee altogether. I enjoy drinking that one special cup in the morning. Instead I've set a goal to stick to one serving a day. Oh, and I'm done with latte's. Too many calories and sugar. I've switched to americanos or just plain old drip.

Extra-less films

2008-01-14T16:43:00.000-08:00

Saw this on Boing Boing. Wow.

Get more info here: http://kk.org/ct2/2008/01/extraless-films.php

Wow-- Take 20 minutes and watch this video

2008-01-04T15:17:00.001-08:00

I have become much more aware of where my "stuff" comes from. It all began a couple years ago when I began to notice that nearly everything I was buying was made in China. Feeling like the frog being slowly boiled, I decided to seek out products that were specifically not made in China, just to see if it was possible. It's become harder and harder, but can usually be done.

But this video provides a pretty compelling argument that just being aware of where your products are made is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to being a mindful human being.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Insurance

2007-12-19T20:13:00.000-08:00

At lunch yesterday, Allan pointed out a flaw in the logic of the "Global Warming" video I posted in my blog a few weeks ago. Basically, he pointed out, the argument goes:

If we do nothing about (insert big risky thing here), then something terrible could happen. Therefore we should do something about it rather than sit back and wait for the worst.

Sound familiar? It should. It's your insurance salesman's bread and butter. In the case of the video, the crisis is global warming. However, the case could be made for an asteroid colliding with earth, global cooling (anyone remember the 70's?), or even a fire in your home. Effectively we're being asked to buy insurance against global warming.

There's no problem with that, per se. I'm insured up to my ears against things that seem reasonably risky (car, fire, quake, life, disability, health, liability). But the interesting point that Allan made (and that I failed to see until he pointed it out) is that the argument made in the video can be reduced to "buy insurance!"

And that's not enough. We should all spend our money wisely, so when someone says "buy insurance" it's worthwhile to ask why.

Allow me to illustrate:

Global warming is a grave and gathering threat to life as we know it. We have done the research. We know that carbon emissions are directly linked to the increase in temperatures that have resulted in massive changes in the environment. Polar ice caps melting. Sea levels rising. Mass starvation. We must act and we must do it now. We do not want the incontrovertible proof of man's environmental impact to come in the form of the extinction of our species.

If you're a Liberal like me, you read that and say, "right on!" Now try this on:

Saddam Hussein is a grave and gathering threat to freedom as we know it. We have done the research. We know that Saddam is directly linked to al qaeda and has been trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction. We must act and we must do it now. We must attack Iraq in order to prevent the terrorists from attacking us. We do not want the smoking gun to come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

Doesn't feel quite as convincing, does it?

As noted by many, there's still some room out there for interpretation about the "real" risk of climate change (or as another friend puts it, whether climate change is even real). We don't know enough about what's going to happen to the planet as a result of our misuse. So until there's enough proof/consensus/political will-- whatever you want to call it-- that global warming is a real threat, there's room for debate about what, if anything to do about it.

Don't misunderstand. I do believe global warming is a real threat. I don't understand why skeptics don't see it, but I respect their right to differ. I just hope that enough skeptics can be swayed by facts. Unfortunately, that is something of which I am quite skeptical, myself.

Well, when you put it that way...

2007-12-14T06:05:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I was asked to take a Microsoft summer intern candidate from Dartmouth out to dinner. I have fond memories of my time at Dartmouth and I've always been one to perpetuate the strength of the alumni network, so I gladly accepted.

I took John (not his real name) to McCormick & Schmick's in Bellevue to sample some representative Northwest fare. Unfortunately, what we ended up sampling was the insane crowds that coalesce around Bellevue Square this time of year. One of the hostesses politely informed us that the wait for a party of two was somewhere around an hour and might she recommend Manzana as an alternate just down the street. "They have a much larger dining room," she explained.

I've waited for an hour or more to get a table before, and I've been turned away before, but I've never been told by the hostess of one restaurant that I might want to try another one nearby. In fact, in all of my restaurant experience it has been as if the restaurant I'm standing in is the only restaurant within ten thousand miles of my current location:

Me: Hmmm... an hour wait? Can you recommend somewhere else we can go for (sushisteakfishetc)?

Host/Hostess: Hmmmm...... no. No, I can't think of anything. Sorry. So, what name shall I put down?

I'd actually been to Manzana before and thought it was pretty good. I figured that since John was under 21 we could swing three courses without blowing the $100 expense cap I'd been given. We walked into Manzana and were seated right away at a comfortable booth adjacent to the kitchen.

John seemed like a smart kid who, as expected, was still not entirely sure what he wanted to do with his life. I grilled him for information about the current state of the Computer Science program at Dartmouth (CS 5, 15, and 18 are still the first year staples of the program). They still have the fundamentals covered like data structures and algorithms, linear math, operating systems. They've fully separated from the Math department, too. No tears shed about that.

Though I went into this with the intent not to be the "old fart alum" who waxes poetic about Dartmouth of yesteryear and doles out sage advice about how to live a meaningful life, I did find myself sharing snippets of stories of what I've done since I graduated from college-- working at Apple, Amazon.com, Microsoft, starting my own company, spending a year trying to break into Hollywood, working in a restaurant kitchen, hanging out on the set of Sheena, living in OC, Bay Area, and Seattle, sailing the Med, travelling to Turkey and Cyprus, shaking hands with the dictator of a rogue nation...

At one point, John said, "Wow. You've really lived an interesting life." (or words to that effect).

To be honest, I wouldn't have characterized my life as particularly interesting. I mean, I wouldn't have called it boring but it's not like I've travelled the world, cured cancer, been a Hollywood mogul, or lived in Bora Bora. But John made me stop and think about it. As I did I started to feel pretty good about The Story So Far. I hope I keep it that way as I make my way through Life's Second Act.

We had a good time (I think) and I didn't bore him too much (I think). It was great for me to get a glimpse of how the old alma mater is doing (pretty well, it seems). I hope John got something out of it, too.

What's the worst that could happen?

2007-10-09T23:38:00.000-07:00

A compelling argument for taking action on climate change:

Phil and Jamie's West Coast Road Trip, Day Four

2007-10-08T21:31:00.001-07:00

Day Four (223 miles)

The final day of our Odyssey. Our triumphant return to Washington occurred at 10:40AM on Day Four. Washington greeted us in the customary gray skies way.

If you look really closely you can see the ocean... or at least Phil's gaping maw:

Our last detour was to visit the state capitol:

Truth be told, I lost interest in taking pictures after this. Four days was plenty long to be sitting on my butt all day long. We returned home, bid adieu to our trusty companion, the NaviHo, and returned to our regularly scheduled lives.

Phil and Jamie's West Coast Road Trip, Day Three

2007-10-07T23:21:00.001-07:00

Day 3 ( 462 miles)

This is the second time I wrote this entry. The first time Windows Live Writer cunningly led me to believe that I had saved my post, but when I went to upload it I discovered that everything I had written was gone. Lovely.

Wednesday, September 12 saw us set out from Eugene after breakfast. We decided early that there was no point in trying to make it to Seattle in one day. Instead we'd enjoy a leisurely jaunt through Oregon and end the day wherever we found ourselves at 7PM or so. We headed north on 101 through Redwood National and State Park and then through the Smith River NRA. The morning weather wasn't so great, but things got better as the day progressed.

We saw lots of trees (this picture is through the lens; no Photoshopping):

Some weird stuff, too:

The sun finally came out around noon:

And we made it to the border at 12:44PM.

Kathy had suggested that we make a side trip to Crater Lake. Phil was skeptical after our last diversion had resulted in less than satisfactory results, but if there's any time to do something foolish, then do it again, it's on a Road Trip.

Armed with a trip plan from the trusty NaviHo, we set off down I5. I did feel a shade queasy as we followed I5 south to 234, but I had faith that this time things would be different. And they were.

When we got to the entrance to Crater Lake, we had what turned out to be our Second Close Encounter of the Female Kind. This time, we found ourselves chatting it up with two cute park rangers, one of whom (the one leaning out the window) was wondering if we happened to be headed south to Yosemite. For a minute I wondered if Phil might kick me out of the car and say, "As a matter of fact, I am!" Lucky for me (but too bad for him), he did not.

We soon found ourselves gazing out upon Crater Lake, and what a sight it was!

The photos can't possibly do justice to the magnificence of the view. It wasn't just the sights but also the sounds, the purity of the air, the clearness of the sky. Everything was just... sharp.

Two goons spoiling an otherwise marvelous view.

Another angle on the lake.

While we were there, I practiced some HDR photography. I haven't gotten the results yet (it takes a lot of tweaking in PhotoMatix), but once I have some pictures I'll post them in my gallery. We probably only spent about an hour at Crater Lake, but it deserves a lot more. I hope to come back some day when I have more time to relax and enjoy all this work of Nature has to offer. I suspect the night sky in this place is just as amazing as the daytime vistas.

Back on the road, we were getting a bit worn. I was hoping we might be able to call it a night in Corvallis, the setting for a novel by S.M. Sterling that I read recently. But the logistics didn't work out. We would meet the day's end in Salem, OR.

We saw a whole bunch of red farm houses on the way to Salem.

Sunset came at 7:31PM.

Phil and Jamie's West Coast Road Trip, Day Two

2007-10-04T21:35:00.001-07:00

Day Two (383 miles)

I went to the California Palace of the Legion of Honor while Phil had lunch with a friend on the other side of the city. The LoH is not very big, but it's got some of my most favorite works, including:

Rodin's The Thinker

Makovsky's The Russian Bride's Attire

Bougereau's The Broken Pitcher

Attire and Broken Pitcher both hang in the same room of the museum, directly opposite one another. The former is a huge painting, probably 10' across. I could just sit in that one room and state at those for hours. But I'd done that before, back when Kathy and I lived in the Bay Area. So this visit I wanted to catch some of the things I hadn't yet seen. I toured the entirety of the museum in about two hours-- probably one tenth the time I could have spent there if I had had more. I snapped some shots of some of the things that caught my eye:

Above is a statue of Columbus as a Boy, by Gulio Monteverdo

Paul Mounet, by Lous-Maurice Boutet de Monvel

don't know who this is

Dorothy Spreckels Munn, by Dali

A ceiling in the Rodin sculpture room

A Rodin tableau

I love this bust of Voltaire, by Jean-Antione Houdon.

Another impressive bust by Jean-Jeacques Caffieri

Cool ceiling in the 15th century room.

All too soon it was time to get on our way. It wasn't very far from LoH to the Golden Gate Bridge:

While I was driving Phil snapped one of my favorite shots from the whole trip:

This was taken through the sun roof, going about 40MPH. I love the composition, contrast, and color. He's a genius!

Much to Phil's later regret, we decided to follow Route 1 north of San Francisco to hug the coastline. At about 2:30PM we reached Muir Beach, where we paused for some Scenic Vista photo opportunities.

We noticed a pair of young (as in our age) women also snapping some pictures. We swapped cameras and wound up with one of the few shots of Phil and me together from the entire trip. As they were leaving, one of them said to Phil, "We're headed to Bolinas. Maybe we'll see you there..." That sort of thing never happens to me, and definitely never happens to Phil. Of course, I'm happily married so after a couple of "road trip"-themed scripts ran through my brain the thrill was gone. The stories all ended with Kathy standing over my mutilated carcass.

Phil, however, is unhappily single. This called for a great deal of discussion about the relative merits of an unscheduled detour to Bonlinas as we proceeded north a few cars behind the girls. At last the moment of truth arrived when they turned onto Olama Bolinas Rd. In what I'm sure is one of those defining moments of a lifetime, we continued on and left behind any chance of encountering them again.

Phil spoiling an otherwise good photo.

One of the mystery girls from the lookout.

Instead of partying with a couple of hot British babes, we went to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. I had fond memories of the Point Reyes National Seashore which turned out to have some wild inaccuracies. For example, while my recollection of the drive from Route 1 to the lighthouse was that it was a quick half-hour detour, in reality it took us more than an hour each way. Most of that was spent expecting the lighthouse to be just over the next hill. Another falsehood in my memory was that the lighthouse was so cool it was worth the trip. It was cool, but definitely not worth what wound up being a three hour detour.

I'm sure the lighthouse would have been more interesting if it had been open to the public the day we were there. This was the closest we could get.

Phil's expression here reads something to the effect of, "We came all this way for THIS?"

Maybe not the most successful life saving station...

Finally back on the road, we made it to Gualla by 7PM for dinner at the Oceansong restaurant. Phil ordered the steak. They were out of steak. He ordered a Pepsi. They were out of Pepsi. At least the bread was warm.

In what was a foolish plan in retrospect, we made for Eureka after dinner. It was dark. We were tired. There were lots and lots and lots of switchbacks. I was driving and didn't mind so much, but Phil was definitely an unhappy camper for the next few hours. We finally arrived at the hotel at about 1AM and collapsed.

Phil and Jamie's West Coast Road Trip, Day One

2007-10-02T20:50:00.001-07:00

About a year ago, Kathy's brother, Phil, and I decided it would be fun to take a road trip from Southern California to Seattle. I had never done such a long trip, and I'd heard that the trip up the coast was particularly sweet. We tried to schedule it a few times but always something else came up. A couple weeks ago, we finally made it happen.

Our friends, Tan and Kin, were getting married in Dana Point on Sunday, September 9. I decided I would fly down to SoCal for the wedding, then Phil and I would drive back up to Seattle over the next four days.

This is our story.

Day One (462 miles)

We rented a car from Hertz and set out from Phil's apartment at a bright and early 9:15AM on Monday. We had the two of us, a bunch of snack food and water, some clothes, and about a dozen bottles of really good wine, which Phil had been holding on to for us after Kathy and I moved from Dana Point to Seattle. Wine was strictly for transport. Phil doesn't drink.

Our plan was to make it to Sunnyvale (San Francisco Bay area) by dinnertime.

Our rental car.

We headed up the I-5 and hoped we'd make it through LA before dark.

We resisted the urge to visit Disneyland.

This ain't no disco. This is LA!

A Billboard

Bye bye, Hollywood!

The dial trended higher as the days went by

There be fire in them thar hill! Don't worry, though. It's just a refinery.

12:12PM on Day 1. Boredom begins to set in and I start in taking silly pictures of myself.

Meet our trusty traveling companion and guide, the talking navigation system we affectionately dubbed the NaviHo.

Price gouging is alive and well in King City, CA, where we had to stop for gas:

Funny name for this place, considering it's really just a remote outpost of Hell. I base this claim purely on the evidence at hand.

Exhibit One: The gas prices.

Exhibit Two: Cilantro. Never in my life have I been to a place so inundated with cilantro that the smell fills the air no matter where you go (including the men's room). In fact, King City must be to cilantro what Gilroy is to garlic.

I don't think any other arguments need be made.

When we finally got back on our way I wondered if perhaps I could have made better use of the gas station to make the world a better place-- by lighting it on fire-- but alas it was not to be.

Our next stop was in Solvang to acquire pastries. We got them, and ate some. We paid for them. We remarked how expensive they were. Back on the road.

By about 5:00PM we made it to San Jose. We had time for a short, pleasant visit with Uncle Big Nick and family. I ended up leaving with Nick's spare iPhone, which I planned to give to Kathy as a surprise gift.

~~Zipped~~ inched our way up to San Mateo in the grueling US101 traffic to catch dinner with Kathy and Phil's brother Robert, and his wife Kristen. They took us to a lovely little Italian eatery where we didn't eat because they were closed for a private party. Instead we went to the Kingfisher restaurant where we ate wonderful food and drank expensive wine.

We stayed the night with Robert and Kristen then set out the following morning to go San Francisco.

Security in the Twilight Zone

2007-09-06T22:40:00.001-07:00

I went to visit my mom recently. She lives near Portland, Maine, which shares a lot in common with Seattle—same latitude, similar summertime climate, and same ocean-side situation (yes, I know Seattle sits on Puget Sound and not on the ocean, but your average American doesn’t so let’s just keep it between us). What they don’t share is a direct flight path, and that’s kind of a drag because it’s quite a long way from Seattle to Maine, meaning if you want to go from one place to the other you need to:

a) burn a whole day flying
or
b) burn a whole night flying

Whereas my calendar is wide open between 11pm and 6am, my days are pretty booked up. So naturally I chose the red-eye. I was a bit hesitant at first because the last time I took a red-eye to New England I was unceremoniously dumped in Chicago at 4am with a canceled connecting flight and not a single sympathetic customer “service” agent to be found. They claimed it was mechanical failure but I’m pretty certain the pilot had just slept in like I should have. Nevertheless I decided to give the whole “let’s fly instead of sleep” thing another try. What’s the worst that could happen?

Now I know what you’re thinking, and no. My plane didn’t crash in a flaming ball of death, thank you very much. But something strange and unsettling did happen. It went something like this:

It’s just past 10pm as I go through security at SeaTac. No pat down this time, but I’ve got plenty of time so if they want to run my suitcase through the scanner a third time just for kicks, feel free. Make my way to the “N” terminal where I just missed my last chance for a bite to eat. Woot.

No problem, though. Kathy packed lots of snacks for me so I munch on some dried fruit and a cookie. From my seat near the gate it doesn’t look like there’s too many people waiting around. I’m thinking 2/3 full. I take a good look at the people around me. Mostly a sea of forgettable faces, but a few stand out. Some elderly folks, two thirty-something couples with young kids (hope they sit in the way-back), a couple of teenage girls who look like they’re headed back to college. Another girl, no wait—guy? Hmm… bad long hair, big earrings (girl?), lots ‘o tattoos (guy?), black ratty top, goth poofy skirt with black and red striped leggings (girl?), combat boots (guy?)—whatever.

A middle-eastern-or-Pakistani-looking guy in a rumpled “security” uniform talks loudly on his cell phone a few feet away. A friend joins the conversation, followed by a smiling woman in a burqa (maybe the guy’s mom?), then another squat woman wearing with a head scarf and a huge backpack. Finally an attractive (middle-eastern-or-Pakistani-looking) twenty-something woman in western clothes completes the group. They’re all chatting it up a few feet in front of me. Loudly. So I decide to stretch my legs.

I return to the gate when the call for boarding finally comes over the loudspeakers around 11pm. Turns out I was wrong about the flight being only 2/3 full. The place is now packed. The gate agent speaks those dreaded words—“This flight is completely full!” Yuck.

They’re boarding by group, one to four. Please check your boarding pass.

Mine says "4."

I wait for most everyone to board then dutifully join the other stragglers. As I shuffle forward I notice one person near the gate who isn’t making any pretense at joining the queue. Late teens, blonde with bright blue eyes, she’s sitting there like she’s expecting her yoga instructor to show up any moment. She catches my eye and I’m taken aback by the intensity of her gaze. My anti-dirty-old-man programming forces me to look away.

Once I’m aboard (17C-- aisle, if you're wondering) I see the blue-eyed girl pass by again. This time I make an effort not to look directly at her. A basilisk, that one.

Everyone’s aboard, but there’s still an empty seat next to me. I figure it belongs to one of the loud middle-eastern-or-Pakistani group, who seem unable to decide who goes where. In turn, they’re sitting down, then getting up, swapping with someone else from the party, then getting up again. An announcement, “ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats for an on-time departure” doesn’t seem to move things any faster.

Finally the twenty-something western-ish woman drops some belongings in the seat next to me. I notice some handwriting in Arabic on the top piece of paper. She goes back to what I’m now assuming is her mother and gets a couple of bags which she proceeds to stuff into various overhead bins. Finally, she sits down. She's the last passenger to do so.

I’m expecting the usual procedures to follow next, but nothing happens. Everyone’s patient for about five minutes as flight attendants and other airline personnel go about their business up and down the aisles.

Then something completely unexpected happens.

Two flight attendants back slowly up the aisle, moving from back to front. I see their gazes lingering on each passenger’s face. Then I see the teenage blonde girl with them, herself scrutinizing each passenger as she goes. She stops right beside me and points to the woman next to me.

“That’s her,” she says softly to the flight attendant.

The flight attendant thanks her and sends her back to her seat. To the woman sitting next to me, he says, “Ma’am, could you please step into the aisle?”

The woman shakes her head that she doesn’t understand. I do, so I get up to make way for her. Finally she complies. The flight attendants instruct her to identify which carry-on bags are hers. She points out two bags which the flight attendants retrieve.

“Can you please come with us?” says the male flight attendant. The woman doesn’t seem afraid and angry. She doesn’t look anything. She just does as she’s told as she’s escorted off the plane.

I look around at the people around me to see if anyone else finds this whole thing a little odd. Apparently not, though. Others in my row just go about their own business.

A flight attendant comes on the loudspeaker. “Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for the delay. There’s just been a little mix up with some baggage and we’re working as quickly as possible to sort it out. We appreciate your patience.”

Now a new face appears on the plane. A man. Early forties, overweight. I see from his tags as he passes that he's a "customer service manager" for the airline. He goes back to talk to the teenage girl then heads out.

A new voice on the intercom. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain. Looks like we’re going to have to sit tight a little longer while they take a look down in the baggage hold. Evidently they're looking for a particular bag, so we don’t know how long it’ll be. Hopefully no more than ten minutes or so. Sit tight and thanks for your patience.”

I laugh out loud this time. Apparently I’m the only one who finds the comments less than comforting. I’m wondering what the hell is going on with the woman they took off the plane.

Mr. Customer Service Manager comes back in and now asks the missing woman’s mother to please get her bags and come with him. She, too, is led away with her bags in tow.

My former seat-mate comes back on board with one of the flight attendants and points out a bag in yet another overhead bin. The flight attendant pulls down the bag and says to the people around her, “Does this bag belong to anyone? Does anyone recognize this bag?” No one speaks up and soon the flight attendant, the bag, and the woman are gone.

Mr. Customer Service Manager comes on the loudspeaker.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I can see that there are some anxious faces out there, and I just want to reassure you that everything is fine. Your safety is our number one concern. We’ve had some confusion about some bags we have on board so we’re now taking those bags off the plane, and everything will be just fine. Your safety is very important to us and we appreciate your flying United.”

Yes, I’m feeling very safe right now. I am completely reassured that everything is just ducky.

Ten minutes later they close the doors.

A final announcement, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been cleared for takeoff so please fasten your seatbelts, stow your tray tables, and put your seats in their upright and locked positions. We’ll be departing shortly.”

That’s it. No more was ever said on the matter. Two empty seats on a full flight with no explanation. I want to say that I confronted one of the flight attendants and demanded an explanation before we took off, or that I casually wended my way to the back of the plane to ask the teenage girl what she had seen, but I didn’t. I was chicken or tired, or both.

I don’t know what chain of events led to those people being pulled off the plane. I probably never will. But even if what happened was for "my own safety and the safety of those around me," I feel that I played a small roll in contributing to the erosion of our civil rights. What kind of world is it where someone is pulled off a plane with no explanation and the people around just go about their business as if nothing has happened? Can domestic government-sanctioned "disappearing" be far off?

Is it already here?

Further proof...

2007-08-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

...that Matt Damon is a real actor (and Ben Affleck is not).

I saw the Bourne Ultimatum last week. Never read the books and didn't even see the previous two movies, but I figured that wouldn't really be necessary to follow along. My friend, Nick, gave me a quick summary of "previously on Bourne..."

Bourne Identity: "Holy crap! I don't know who I am but I sure do kick ass!"
Bourne Supremacy: "Still don't know who I am but I killed all the baddies so I'm gonna settle down and enjoy my new girlfriend"

I'd summarize Bourne Ultimatum as "Dammit! I want to know who killed my girlfriend and screwed up my life."

Lots of car chases and fight scenes. Kind of like a lengthy episode of Alias without all the talking. I'm pretty sure there's exactly one scene in the entire movie where Bourne isn't moving. It was exactly what it was trying to be, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Despite the lack of real story depth, Matt Damon is able to portray a character that has complexity and pathos. I completely believe that his character is capable of doing the things he does. He gets hurt. He gets scared. He carries his pain from one scene to the next. No expression is wasted.

No, Affleck isn't in this movie. Yes, I admit I have it in for Ben Affleck, but I can't imagine Ben having come anywhere close to delivering the kind of performance that Matt does. Look at Daredevil. Look at Pearl Harbor. Look at Gigli... No. On second thought don't do that.

Sorry, Ben. You're rich. You're famous. You've got props for your Hollywood babe conquests. But as an actor, you got nothing on your buddy Matt.

Wiktionary

2007-08-01T09:50:00.000-07:00

Ah, more goodness from the folks who brought us the wikipedia.

http://en.wiktionary.org/

OGDC 2007

2007-05-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

Overview

This is the first year for the Online Game Developers Conference. It was organized almost entirely by Peter Freese, a lead programmer at Hidden Path Entertainment. Because I have a longtime professional interest in online/multiplayer gaming, and because it was local and only $340 I went to the conference in hopes of discovering some useful insights and developing some industry contacts. I'm happy to report that the conference was a success for me on both counts.

Sessions

The conference spanned two full days and four meeting rooms. The rooms were pretty small compared to GDC (which has no affiliation with OGDC). I estimate that it was attended by about 500 people, some of whom came from as far as Southeast Asia. Overall the sessions were less technical than I had hoped, but still worthwhile.

Day One

Writer: The Redheaded stepchild of the videogame world

Jess Lebow is a lead writer at Flying Labs Software, a local game company founded by an ex-'Softie-turned-multimillionaire. Their current title is "Pirates of the Burning Sea." Jess's talk focused on the age-old issue of writers not getting much respect in the games business (nor in the entertainment industry overall in my experience). With the room packed full of writers, everyone nodded their heads when he said that games need better stories. Though I agree with that sentiment, I asked him why. After all, many mega-platinum titles seem to soar despite their trite storylines. Would better stories really make games more successful? Answer: we hope so.

Building Games for the Mass Market

I met Mike Goslin (Disney Online) at GDC a few months ago when he was part of a panel discussing another pirate-themed MMO, "Pirates of the Caribbean Online." He's a good public speaker and I encourage you not to pass up an opportunity to see him present. This talk was less about PotC and more about his studio's learning about the Mass Market via their previous MMO, "Toontown."

The Mass Market, by the way, refers to everyone who's not an 18 -24 hard-core gamer. In other words, most of the people in the world.

Some key points from his talk:

The Mass Market is diverse, most especially in their commitment to your game. I thought this was one of the best insights in the session. Some people will immerse themselves in your universe, but others will only have peripheral interest. What's more, they don't want to get more involved. If you ignore this group of casual-commitment customers you will miss out in a huge portion of your potential market. Disney Online's strategy for serving the minimal-commitment segment is based on respecting the fact that those people want to "just be friends" rather than trying to get them converted into the hardcore segment.
Figure out what the min spec is for your title, and then lower your sites by about 20%. According to Mike it's almost impossible to underestimate the min spec of their target market—kids. Main reason is that kids tend to get the hand-me-down computers from their parents. Not just last-year's hardware, but the year before that. I think this insight is particularly applicable to my project, Train Sim 2.
Make part of the game free. This is more than the classic "first hit's free" strategy. It's making some part of the experience free for as long as the user wants. The key here is figuring out how to make the free part satisfying enough to engage the customer, yet leave them wanting more and willing to pull out the credit card.
You only get one first impression. Mike likened this to moving in to a new neighborhood. If you arrive and are welcomed by everyone around you with gifts and goodwill, then you're likely to be "hooked" straight away. Conversely if you arrive and are egged, tagged, TP'd and burgled on the first day you're not likely to stay. You (the developer) will likely never get another chance to make a good impression on those people, or their friends and family. This sentiment was echoed repeatedly throughout the conference—if your world is welcoming people will stay. If you allow "bad apples" to spoil the experience for others you're doomed. 99 gallons of wine + 1 ounce of sewage = sewage. Etc.
One specific innovation in ToonTown that helps keep it "friendly" is that chatting is done via a restricted set of menu items. No free-form text (meaning no l33t-speak and no "come meet me at the park"). Shortcuts enable chatting with the restricted grammar almost as easy as free-form typing. Of course, this strategy isn't universally appropriate, but it is a tradeoff that works in their case. PotC will not have restricted chatting.
Theme is powerful. The color palette in ToonTown has 16 colors in it, including black and white. The idea is to tune the colors, sound, shapes, etc to your target demographic. This is especially important to the Mass Market, where über-realistic dystopian scenery isn't as cool as much as it's repelling. Can you imagine a soccer mom enjoying being immersed in the Blade Runner universe?
After the first impression it's important to get players to the fun quickly. In other words, be respectful of their time. This philosophy drove them to add "teleporting" to the PotC world. If the player wants to go play a game of poker, let them jump to a saloon whenever they please. Don't force them to sail their ship for 40 minutes for the sake of realism. It's a game. The point is to have fun. Anything that goes against that is arrogance by the developer.
Mike shared some thoughts on how Disney builds loyalty to the game. Pretty standard stuff where about events, new content, and expanding the game beyond the edges of the screen. Most interesting tidbit was that they realized that many of their customers (6-10 year-olds) lost interest in the game, not because they didn't enjoy it when they were playing, but because they simply "forgot" about it in the face of the hundred other ways they could entertain themselves. Disney found that by simply sending a monthy printed ToonTown "newsletter" about the goings-on in ToonTown they not only kept kids engaged but they also reminded the parents that the $6.95 a month they were spending had some kind of tangible value.

Automating Online Game Balance

Talk was given by Christian Force (great name, almost as good as Royal Winchester) of +7 Systems. He prefaced the talk by noting that +7 has a product that does automated game balancing, but said "this is the last time I'll mention it." I was pleased that the talk did not, in fact, turn into an infomercial. This mostly applies to MMOs but there are definitely aspects that apply to any competitive multiplayer environment.

Central thesis:

Player retention is critical to success of an online game
Perceived balance is more important than actual balance (rock, paper, scissors is perfectly balanced but not fun)
Traditional attempts at balancing game play result in a "Player vs. Designer" meta-game that in the end is not a successful way of retaining players (see nerfing); instead the meta-game must be "Player vs. Player" in order to keep maximum number of players happy.

A lot of background on game balancing was covered—too much to go over here. In a nutshell, people interested in this area have realized that without balance, players learn what dominant strategy works best and adopt that to the exclusion of all other diversity in the game. Only newbs pick the other strategies, and then get picked on for their obvious and offensive lack of skilz. You can read more at the +7 website.

The interesting idea here is that you can balance your game without making it completely boring. To do so, create ways of balancing that enable dominant strategies to ebb and flow over time. Also, create "gems" of imbalance that are only revealed through thorough analysis. For example, you might have objects in the world that have their own balanced attributes alone, but when combined result in an advantage that is greater than the sum of the parts. This advantage can only be discovered by those who take the time and effort to try many different combinations of gear. Your newbs and casual players can enjoy the diversity of content that you worked so hard on, and the dedicated hardcores can gain a small edge on their competitors if they invest enough time.

+7 claims they can do this balancing automatically. In fact, they suggest that the only way to eliminate the PvD meta-game is to make the balancing automatic. Players may rail against the designers for changing the rules, but they're unlikely to rage against the machine. I do think they're on to something with the idea of changing the meta-game from PvD to PvP, even if it's only for practicality of scaling. The problem seems similar to the traditional content scaling problems for e-commerce sites like Amazon.com. Though they had staff editors in the early days who would rate and review products, that died away long ago. It simply didn't scale with the rate of growth in their product catalog. Instead, they created an ecosystem where users could rate and review the products offered for sale at the site. They also added a system where the ratings could be rated. The result is a totally automated, self-policing, and incredibly useful system that's extremely cost-effective. A game balancing system that's automated and self-policing would be cost-effective. The only question is how useful it would be in practice.

Concurrency Keynote

Herb Sutter (Microsoft) of The Free Lunch is Over fame gave an interesting talk on the future of computing with regard to concurrency and parallelism. Bottom line is that the number of cores will continue to grow (32-128 in the next few years), but more interestingly the kinds of cores you have will change. Big Pentium-like cores for some tasks and smaller "agent" cores for other things like futures.

Herb's a good speaker and the topic was both engaging and germane to our industry, but it was highly technical. I think the vast majority of people in the room had no clue what the hell he was talking about. I asked Peter about his choice for a keynote. He defended the choice vigorously, but I think he missed the mark. Would have better served the whole group if this had been one of the sessions.

Herb's blog

A Psychological Approach to Decreasing Cheating & Griefing in Traditional Games

Bill Fulton (Shadowrun game designer) is quite a character. He wins the award for Most Prolific Use of Naughty Words in a Formal Presentation. Good speaker, too. His passion for his work really shines through.

According to Bill, Bad Behavior is the #1 threat to your revenue for a multiplayer game. As I mentioned before, this theme resonates with the message from other speakers at the conference. Coming from a usability background, Bill brought some playtest videos to illustrate his point. Wow. A normal person + anonymity + a forum = (in Bills words) fuckwad. You should check out Bill's playtest videos if you get a chance.

As the title of his presentation suggests, Bill advocates a psychological approach to dealing with the problem, rather than a traditional enforcement approach. The problem is similar to the real-world drug/crime problem. Some advocate a "more police on the street" approach while others feel that the only way to solve the problem is to find and fight the root causes (poverty, education, etc). Bill is firmly in the root cause camp (at least with respect to cheating and griefing). He also put his money (or more appropriately, FASA's money) where his mouth is by making specific design decisions on Shadowrun. For example:

Shadowrun has no persistent rankings. No persistent rankings mean no incentive to cheat your way to the top of the leader board.
When you voice chat, your player ID is shown prominently in the UI. Less anonymity.
When you play multiplayer, you continue to play rounds against the same set of people. The longer you're with a given group, the theory goes, the less anonymous you feel and the less likely you are to grief.
No chatting with the other team during the game.
You're penalized more for hurting your own teammates than you're rewarded for harming the enemy.
Your "score" is a factor of not just how many frags you have but also factors in other ways in which you helped the team. I think this is a particularly interesting one because I have heard many, many people say they stopped playing game x because they "sucked at it."

Bottom line is that in every competitive match at least half the players (read: your customers) are going to be losers. Your challenge as a game designer is to make losing acceptable, and even fun.

Xbox LIVE on Windows and 360

Brendan Vanous is a Dev Lead in Microsoft's Game Technology Group. His presentation was an introduction to Xbox LIVE for Windows and 360. He walked through how LIVE might be integrated into a fictional FBS (First Bovine Shooter) called Cattle Battle. I'm not going to spend a lot of time covering this one because a lot of other tutorial material is available online. The only thing I will point out is that LIVE is not something that can wait until the end of the project to integrate. You really need to think about LIVE at design time.

Everything but the Game

Bob Mitchell (Sony Online Entertainment) gave a good talk about all the things that you need to worry about for your game that aren't the game itself. The list is MMO-centric but still applicable for most multiplayer games:

Patching—you're going to want to fix bugs, update content, add new features. Used to be that customers would tolerate a little complexity in the patching system but no more. Don't forget about patching your servers, too.
Chat—text, voice, video. Talking, shouting, whispering. Community can only be built via communication, and if you want to build community (you do, don't you?) then you've got to give your customers the tools they need to communicate. Don't forget about ignore lists and friends lists, not to mention lawful interception and snooping.
Persistent messaging—your customers want to communicate but they're not always going to be online at the same time. You need persistent messaging but watch out for all the fun headaches that come along with it (like the utility that will be inevitably written to make your persistent messaging system a backend for a desktop virtual filesystem). Also, spam is not fun.
Localization (L10N) and Internationalization (I18N)—It's more than just text. It's numbers, currency, IME (input method), sorting. Even icons and other visual elements can have regional implications.
User Authentication—The foundation for persistence. Do your users a favor and help them protect their accounts by hiding their login id from everyone but the user. Openly displaying a user's login id to others diminishes their security by half. Don't forget to handle parental controls, lost password (and user ids) and shared accounts.
Billing—Forget it. Don't even think about doing it yourself. Go and buy a (good) off-the-shelf solution. This is my advice, too.
Transfer tools—This is MMO-centric, but there are all kinds of good reasons why players move between servers. Make it easy for them and for you.
Customer Support Tools—If the player can do it, give your CS reps a way to do it (and undo it). Have a way to determine with certainty whether or not a player has done "it." Provide tools for reporting bugs and abuse. CS can make or break a game (and even an entire company).
Logging—If it's at all interesting (for debugging, summarizing, mining) log it. Make it easy to automate and parse. You'll save a lot of time in the long run.
Reporting—Logging++. Get a pager and hook it in to your logging system. You don't want to find out the servers crashed last night by your boss dropping by and asking, "So, what happened to the servers last night?"
Security—Worthy of many, many talks, but just remember the following quote and you'll do OK.
"Never trust the client. Never put anything on the client. The client is in the hands of the enemy. Never ever forget this." --Ralph Koster
Testing and debugging tools—this should be a "duh" but unfortunately we often find ourselves with not enough time to build these tools. But the investment in good debugging test automation tools has never failed to pay off in the end.
Community tools—forums, blogs, leader boards, etc. It's all about community. You do want to build a community, don't you?

Day Two

Adventures in Middleware

Joe Ludwig from Flying Lab Software gave an interesting talk on how they used middleware in their Pirates of the Burning Sea MMO (shipping soon). I'm not aware of any other company that invested so heavily in middleware to bring their game to market. By Joe's account it's been successful. Here's a rundown of what they use:

Alchemy graphics engine (Intrinsic). Dead technology now but they got the source code when the vendor tanked so they're doing OK. If they had failed to get the source they would have been hosed. Not recommended (and frankly, you couldn't get it even if you wanted it)
PathEngine for AI. Has great support and documentation. Under $20K for license with full source code. Overall recommended.
AGEIA PhysX for physics. Fast and stable. Free if you support their hardware. Some installer issues. Overall recommended.
Miles Sound System for audio. Fast, stable, feature rich, cheap. "The standard by which other middleware should be judged." Highly recommended.
SpeedTree for (yes, you guessed it) trees. Poor Maya support, complex integration, artists were never satisfied. They ended up pulling it from the game. Joe observed that if he had it to do over again he would include the art team in the evaluation.
Promethean FX for special effects. Difficult to integrate but better than starting from scratch. Recommended.
Cryptic Engine Updater. Launcher from City of Heroes is good, but not available for sale. Why is there no commercial middleware for auto-updating?
Xtreme Toolkit Pro for creating MFC-based production tools. Use it if you have MFC-based tool needs.
ZLib for file compression. Fast, easy, free. A no-brainer.
MySQL for server-side database. (note to reader, I am not a Lawyer) Cheap and easy. Mostly. However, if he had known how cheaply he could get SQL Server, he would have gone that route.

Joe's slides have more details than I give here, including information on pricing (which is harder to come by than you might expect). He also provided some advice on how to evaluate middleware:

Get the source. If you can't get the source, consider walking. If you can't get symbols at least, don't bother.
Find out about the vendor, its funding, its technical roadmap, and its other customers. Are they going to be there for you when you need them?
Get more than just developers involved. How about your art team and your ops team? Are they stakeholders in the build/buy decision? If so, involve them.
Give yourself enough time to evaluate the product. Consider your eval a sunk cost, too. Don't go with a vendor just because you've already invested $10K in the evaluation process.
Don't believe the hype (or the marketing copy). Make your decision based on what's there now, not what the sales rep promises will be there "in the next release."
Lastly, don't be afraid to say "no."

I'm looking forward to see how it all comes together in Pirates.

Joe's blog

Building a world class MMO while building a company

A decidedly non-technical talk from VP of Product Development, Joe Ybarra (Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment). He bootstrapped the company to develop an MMO around the Stargate IP. Interesting story worth reading if you're thinking about doing a startup.

LagTalk

Simon Hayes, CTO of BigWorld, gave one of the best crash courses I've seen on managing bandwidth and latency in a networked game. A lot of folks at the conference (including Joe Ybarra, above) are using BigWorld's tech for their MMO so it seems like it's worth a look if you're planning on building one.

The talk was MMO-centric but I believe that much of what was covered is applicable to networked games in general. The slides are worth a look, but here's the bullet:

To scale your networked game, you have to make your network stack aware of data priority and variable quality of service. You need to have controls that enable you to control bandwidth utilization and be able to logarithmically decrease data flow rates.
Data LoD (level of detail). You should be informed if a player 10 meters away is waving his hands, but you don't care if someone 50 meters away is doing the same. Conversely, if either is shooting at you, you need to know no matter what (assuming you're within range of the weapon).
Movement Filtering—you don't need to know the exact movement of distant entities; dead reckoning and interpolation can be applied
FPS Corrected targeting— To help correct for targeting errors due to latency and disjoin client views, BigWorld uses hit boxes that expand when the player moves
Disguising lag—use animations and other techniques to disguise the lag inherent in any server-side business logic (e.g. picking up an object)
Client-side prediction—traditional methods for predicting outcome and then undoing things that are nixed by the server
Server-side predetermination—for things that the server will need to calculate, begin that calculation as soon as you know (or even think) you'll need to do it. Simon used a tossed grenade as an example. Dave Weinstein (Microsoft Security) thought that may not be the best example
Predetermination with Prediction—combination of the above techniques

Keynote: Games Industry 2012

Erik Bethke, CEO of GoPets, gave the second-day keynote. He's another colorful speaker, pointing out how proud he is that his four-year-old son plays WoW a couple hours a day and already has hundreds of kills under his belt. I've got a link to his slides below. To entice you to check them out, I offer some sample points:

The pirates (no, not PotC or PotBS) have won. Shrink-wrapped software is dead.
There are 4.1 billion Internet users and guess what? They don't live in the ole' US of A.
By the way, nearly all of them are connected to the Internet via thick pipes.
Use of the word "virtual," as in "virtual worlds" will seem quaint.
7-Eleven and PayPal will introduce cash payment cards that feature age verification and anonymity. The porn industry doubles revenue almost overnight.
Active games become the preferred path to fitness
Games (finally) take a prominent role in learning. (Johnny can't advance his monk to the next level until he solves his trig homework.)
The Developer/Publisher model is dead. Retailers become disintermediated.

The slides don't really convey the story with the same enthusiasm and energy that Erik does.

AutoAssault Postmortem

Scott Brown of NetDevil did the only postmortem talk at the convention. Their game, AutoAssault, is a "Diablo in Cars" MMO that has a loyal following but hasn't yet achieved much commercial success. There's a link to the complete postmortem below, which I highly recommend. Again, here are the key lessons:

Polish as you go. It's better to have fewer features working 100% than to have a ton of features that are all half-baked.
Play your game! Early and often. If your team isn't playing the game every day, it's because your game is not fun and you have a problem.
Prototype, prototype, prototype.
Build one great experience (i.e. a single level, a single tech tree, etc.) first. Then repeat.
Good is the enemy of great.
Embrace change—and make sure your contract with your publisher does, too. The milestone = payment structure almost invariably provides disincentive to making a great game.
Performant + Easy + Pretty = fun. Scott touched on the performance thing several times during his talk. You can't have fun if your game is slow and laggy. I can back this up with our experience on the RTM of Flight Sim X, too. We had the second two ingredients but not the first, and we were punished for it.
Sufficiently complex and no more. Sounded like they overdesigned their tech tree and wound up confusing and repelling players instead of engaging them.

The people at NetDevil learned a lot from their experience. I hope they get another chance at bat.

Conclusion

I didn't have very high expectations going into this conference. It was the first year, the sessions were almost entirely non-technical, and attendance was relatively small. However, despite being mostly non-technical the sessions I attended were quite informative and all the speakers did a good job with the material. What I thought was a negative (few attendees) actually turned into a positive because it enabled me to more easily network with the presenters and other attendees. I know that it took enormous about of personal dedication on Peter Freese's part to make this happen, so a second-annual OGDC is not a certainty by any means. But I hope to see the conference come again. It serves a need and (I believe) will continue to do so for a long time to come.

Oh, and the food was awesome.

ISO Recorder

2007-05-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

A CD/DVD copier should have been included in Vista, but isn't. This helps.

He has versions for XP etc, too.

Housing Prices Roller Coaster

2007-04-10T23:09:00.000-07:00

Here is another reason to love games (and editing as game play). It's a graph of US housing values from 1890 to present rendered within Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. Show someone a graph like this:

and you're likely to get a mild "wow." Show them the video and you get something more like "Whoa... that's scary." There's a world of difference.

That someone could do this-- take an existing game and use the in-game editing tools to create a message (tell a story!)-- elevates games as a medium to a new level. Dare I call this level... art? What is art, after all, but a means of stimulating the human mind? I don't think anyone would call the chart above "art." It's a visual representation of information. So, too, one could argue, is the Speculative Bubble roller coaster. Yet I maintain that one is art and the other is not.

My reasoning goes something like this:

art = things that are designed to stimulate the mind, "heart," or senses
Stories = art
books, movies, plays, etc = telling of stories (excluding textbooks, instructional videos, etc)
Speculative Bubble video = a movie which tells a story

You might ask what story the video tells. After all, a roller coaster at a theme park may have a theme but that doesn't mean it has a story. I think the story is this:

Beginning in 1890, housing prices were low. Over time they went up and down, trending generally up but never monotonically increasing. From time to time bad things happened that caused prices to decline steeply for a while, before eventually recovering their previous heights. The time between the start of WWI and the end of WWII was the worst decline, but even then there were localized ups and downs.

Then something happened.

In the mid '90s the rules seemed to change. Instead of mild ups and downs, prices shot up steeply. No downs. Just up up up. They've been going up higher and longer than at any other point in the last century. In fact, as you reach the end of the coaster (today), you can gaze back down into the valley and see that everything that has come before looks trivial. What were mildly thrilling ups and downs in the earlier ride seem completely flat now. The coaster is at an almost unimaginable height. It defies all reason to think that this height can be maintained. This can't last. It never has before...

Nail biter, no?

To be fair to our friendly chart, the narrative I lay out above is in there. The chart tells you everything you need to know. But you need to apply your own imagination to see it. The coaster movie shows you the story. The creator has applied his imagination to help you see things the way he sees them. "See! The world is like this!"

If that's not art then I don't know what is.

GDC 2007

2007-03-16T22:26:00.001-07:00

A little backstory

The last Game Developers Conference I attended was in 1996. Back then I was working at Apple and leading the development team for the Game Technology Group. Some of you may not remember the Apple of the ‘90s. Imagine John Hodgman (aka PC Guy) trying to play the role of the Mac in the PC vs. Mac commercials. Decidedly not cool.

We were making an effort to get games on the Mac (cool). Apple funded the Game Technology Group whose charter was to produce a Mac game platform (Game Sprockets) and help developers port their games using it. The trouble was the ROI didn't make sense for developers (not cool). A publisher could make more money on less investment by localizing a game to FIGS or Japanese than doing a Mac port. It didn't help that Microsoft was doing a great job evangelizing DirectX, a Windows-only platform. Apple imploded in '97 and the Game Technology Group was no more (not cool).

EXT. SAN FRANCISCO - PRESENT DAY

I went to GDC '07 wondering how it would be different from my last visit. I'd heard that it had "been commercialized," so I was imagining lots of sessions "brought to you by..." Perhaps some presentations heavy on flash and light on content. People at the lunch tables divided into Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo camps.

After some initial stumbling around Moscone South and North I finally found West, which hadn't existed last time I was there and which happened to contain the registration tables. A $3 bottle of water and $2.50 bagel later I was ready for my first session-- "Controlling the Entire Theater of War: The Development of Supreme Commander".

I'm not a fan of RTS in general (I'm one of the few gamers I know who never really liked "Age of Empires"), but I enjoyed the epic mayhem that was "Total Annihilation" (Chris's first RTS). Trailers for "Supreme Commander" had impressed me enough that I am considering a return to the genre. Rumor has it I might get a copy for my birthday from my former TA-sparring buddies. I was looking forward to getting the inside scoop on its development.

Turns out I didn't get that. Chris Taylor is an interesting guy and he spins a good, colorful yarn. But the session was a lot less about "Supreme Commander" than it was about his personal journey to make it on his own terms. The most memorable take-away from the talk was an admonition to have a life. Don't let the industry suck up every waking moment. Don't pay for the success (or more likely, failure) of your product with your marriage, family, health, or friends.

I can pretty much guarantee that no one was saying anything like that in GDC '96. It was a message I wholeheartedly believe in, and I left the session having forgotten all about my initial concerns about the commercialization of GDC.

I skipped CliffyB's presentation on "Gears," opting instead to listen to another industry titan (and Microsoft employee), Peter Molyneux give a talk on yes, the dog from "Fable 2." I don't think I could do justice to the topic. I was skeptical. I was rolling my eyes. Peter knew I was skeptical. He knew everyone in the audience was rolling their eyes, but he also knew something we didn't-- that it works. It really, really works. As Peter portrayed it, there are three levels of character interaction:

The AI character responds to you

The AI character cares about you

The AI character wants you to care about them

Peter passionately and desperately wants to make you cry when you play his game. As a huge fan of story and character-based games, I laud this ambition and I hope he can pull it off. I've never played "Fable." Haven't heard good thing about it, to be honest. But you can be sure I'm going to check out "Fable 2."

After poking my head in on the work that Chris Hecker was showing off for character animations in "Spore" (more awesome stuff-- you haven't lived 'till you've seen the all-Spore chorus line dancing to Britney), I went on to Shigeru Miyamoto's keynote.

Did I say I went to it? What I meant to say was that I left Moscone West and headed to South with the intent to go to the keynote, but instead I queued up in a line. I wasn't really sure at the time what the line was for. I thought it might have been for the keynote, but that wasn't for 45 minutes and it seemed a bit extreme. Still it was a big line and I figured I'd be better off just getting in it and waiting to see what happened.

It was the line to get into Miyamoto's keynote and it wrapped AROUND THE ENTIRE BUILDING. MORE THAN ONCE. Susan and I tried to figure out our relative positions in line over cell phones. Good thing our bosses weren't there to listen in on the conversation. How many developers does it take...? if you know what I mean. For the record I was about 500 people ahead of her.

Miyamoto gave a great talk. Again, more of a story about his lifelong goal to drive up the wife-o-meter (you had to be there) than a "Nintendo" is so wonderful pitch. He also delivered the message that you have to have a life and that you have to get the job done with the resources you have. "Too bad" he said, if you need more devs/artists/etc. Just do the best you can and hope your best is enough.

One interesting tidbit that you wouldn't know if you weren't there is that Miyamoto doesn't speak much English. So he would talk while an interpreter would translate into English. I've never seen such an effective setup like that. The interpreter was able to capture (and deliver) slight nuances and humor in Miyamoto's speech. It was almost as if Miyamoto was speaking himself. What an interlocutor!

Why I love GDC

By the end of the keynote I had captured it. The thing that makes me love GDC and want to keep coming back. You can't put it to use in any direct way. You can't capture it in a trip report or get it from reading the proceedings (or anyone's blog, including mine). It's like we live our game developer lives of schedules and features and risks and deliverables far off in some remote land where we plug into a tiny current of "community." But when we go to GDC, we're plugging directly into the source of that current. Pure, powerful, and eye-opening.

It's not about whether some sessions, technology, or tutorials are incredibly relevant to the work we do. It's about living and breathing the best of what the industry has to offer. We're among the titans of our industry and the as-yet-unknown future titans. We're at the center of the universe. For those who love games and love game development there is no substitute.

Khaaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!

2007-03-16T09:57:00.000-07:00

Live Spaces sucks. Or maybe it's IE7. Or perhaps it's Passport nee Live ID. Problem is I can't tell because all these technologies are so Big and Complex and intertwined. What I do know is it's a crap shoot whether or not I get to log in whenever I try to access my blog on spaces. In fact, just now I had to resort to logging in with Firefox just to access my account there. Not that I don't like Firefox. It's fine. It's just that I want to be a good Microsoft shareholder and use the products.

But come on!

I had to use Firefox to access my spaces account because IE7 kept barfing when I clicked Sign In!?!?

I'm disappointed.

Forwarding address

2006-11-24T21:04:00.000-08:00

Pretty lame when your first update in months is a message saying "I have moved," but... I'm moving my blog. Reason goes like this:

1) I work for Microsoft now
2) I own Microsoft stock (and get grants of it free from time to time) and want to see it go up
3) I don't own any Google stock

Even though I like Blogger just fine, I felt that I should support the blogging system that is run by the company who writes me a paycheck every couple weeks. So, if you're looking for my so-called blog, you'll find it here. I even promise to do at least one post over in the new digs to make it worth your while.

See you at to http://osbornian.spaces.live.com

Do Over

2006-10-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

My blog was recently hijacked by a spammer. Net-net is that all my old entries are gone (as is the spam page that you might have seen if you checked my blog in the last couple of days). The blog is back online. Just needs a writer. :-)