Total Oblivion

"A fast-paced, suspenseful dystopian picaresque, part Huck Finn and part bizarro-world Swiss Family Robinson..."

---Kirkus

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Skinny Dipping

Long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and finalist for the Crawford Award. Title short story listed for the 2000 O. Henry award.

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Goblin Mercantile Exchange

Futures, Options, and Swaps (the weblog of Alan DeNiro)

KoL random update

So Kingdom of Loathing had a major overhaul, and has some really interesting new content, and some fiendish puzzles. Any puzzle that combines one of the traps from the third Indiana Jones movie and Gwen Stefani lyrics is a-ok in my book.

It’s a weird game for me (a very weird game in general) in that I’ve been playing it really cyclically, off and on, for more than 3 years now. I’m sure my account would have been erased from negligence many times over if I hadn’t bought a Mr. Accessory that prevents such a thing. A great investment, in that it allows me to dust off the account every 6-8 months and get back into it. Anyway, if you’re an old or new player, check it out. There’s nothing else out there like it. Our not-so-sikrit clubhouse (aka clan) is Infernokrusher. Anyway, this either makes sense or it doesn’t.

Aaaand, in relation to a lot of the genre discussions of late, I thought this post from one of the head honchos of the game was compelling in a lot of ways (speed ascenders are people who try to run the game like an obstacle course, blowing through it in as quick of time as possible…my own needs in the game are much more…slowcore/shoegazing).

You can go back and play the previous game. Sure you can. Here’s the thing, you don’t really want to. You think you want to because you’ve spent a day with the new content. I know you speed ascenders don’t care about content, but, more content. Let’s not even say that. Content-neutral, you still have so many more strategies and choices, so many ways to get through it, things to cook and wear, it’s… you kept playing this game because you like making those choices, we’ve given you so many more things to play with. You can’t tell me right now that you want to go back to the previous game just because you understood it. You really don’t want to. I’m just waiting for you to find out. I’m not angry. You guys are misguided. If you were brought up playing Pong, how you might find, I don’t know. I almost think… no. No good analogies tonight, what’s going on. If you play Pong against a computer and you start playing Bejeweled or something, you would say, god, this is so hard, it’s so different, I want to play Tic Tac Toe, but you don’t because it’s not as solid a game. We made this game so much better and you will figure it out, it’s better.

Thu, July 5 2007 » Games

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