|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- GET ALL OBLIVIANA--ISSUE 001--PART 1 --------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Get All Obliviana  ||  Issue 001  ||  -------> (Cup OWga001a, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = GET ALL OBLIVIANA ISSUE ONE Thu 7/30/98 * 11:22 PM Welcome to "Chronicle Obliviana", a brand new feature! Well, not exactly. It IS a new name, but it's actually a continuation of the OsoaWeek feature, "Lord of Obliviana", where I gave detailed accounts of everything going on in Obliviana. [[[Note from a few days later--I changed the name of this feature to Get All Obliviana"]]] Since OsoaWeek is now delievered via E-mail, it is necessarily much shorter than the hundreds of kilobytes of previous OsoaWeeks. Therefore, I am starting this new feature, which will reside on the Obliviana website, where size is not a problem. Two days ago I officially launched Obliviana. There's a lot of stuff related to that that I want to relate here. First of all, though, I want to address the recent history of OsoaWeek. basically, OsoaWeek has not been released for many months. This was due to the changing nature of Obliviana leading up to the Launch. BUT--and this is a big but--I have been writing the "Lord of Obliviana" feature CONSTANTLY during the "blackout" period. In fact, I have 276K of writing, spanning from 3/17/98 (around the time of the last released OsoaWeek) to 7/25/98, a few days ago. I will be releasing this very interesting text retroactively as OsoaWeek208. It will be in the OsoaWeek Archive, which I hope to open in the next week or two. This has been a very busy week. Not only did I launch Obliviana, but I saw Tori Amos two nights in a row! Monday night, I went to a taping of the David Letterman show, and saw Tori perform "Jackie's Strength". I went with my wife Denice and sister-in-law Carrie. We saw Tori enter the Ed Sullivan Theater, and she spent well over five minutes interacting with her fans. I didn't talk to her or get an autograph or anything, but I did make brief eye contact with her, which was pretty cool. Waiting on line for the show was quite miserable. We wound up around the block, in from of Studio 54, totally confused. The line was run by a bunch of totally lost college student-type interns. My ticket number was higher than my wife's and her sister's, so the person told me I'd have to go back in line, and if we wanted to stay together, we'd all have to go back. Well, I obeyed at first, but the line got so muddled that I stayed with Denice and Carrie, and I wound up being one of the last 10 or 15 ppeople getting in. If I had obeyed, I wouldn't have gotten in! Once inside, though, it was pretty cool. They taped the audience at one point, and I thought it would be totally awesome if I got on national television on the official Obliviana Day Launch of Obliviana. But we didn't make it onto the show. We were way up in the back row of the balcony, on folding chairs. Oh well. Tuesday night we saw Tori at Madison Square Garden and it was quite awesome. I bought a T-shirt for $27 and totally blew my budget for the week. No Ramones CDs this week! Yeah, I've really been getting into the Ramones. I've had the best-of album "Ramones Mania" for years, and I've listened to it hundreds of times, liking it more each time. So a week or two ago I finally got the two compilation CDs called "Allt he Stuff and More" which collect the Ramones' first four albums. I've been listing the the first CD nonstop--their first album has got to be the best album ever made! Well... I don't know if it's better than Tori Amos' "Boys for Pele", but it's pretty close! Alright. Let me get into some Obliviana stuff here. First, here's a letter I sent out to about 30 people on 7/18/98. I sent it to people who I know, folks who have had Fojnostas in earlier incarnations of Obliviana, and individuals who have recently communicated with Obliviana. Here is the text of the mailing, exactly as I received it: [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sat, Jul 18, 1998 1:13 PM EST From: Obliviana Subj: Obliviana Revival!--from Frank Edward Nora To: Obliviana cc: afhpublish@exit109.com, ALiberty97, asmithee@sprynet.com, cathycon@onyx.interactive.net, deepnotice@webtv.net, DMcDoniel, Fayd2blak, FearAClown, frankpee@compuserve.com, JJE96001@uconnvm.unconn.edu, JTATOR, Kevin_Maher@blau.com, KNOBBM@lcvax.lehman.cuny.edu, LilFyreFem, Matt J. Butcher, meglo@ibm.net, messick@bitstream.net, Mike Etler, MO1918, mobay@thegrid.net, mpmason@mediaone.net, mysterymind@worldnet.att.net, nick@gamma.cc.bellcore.com, papeshow@rocketmail.com, pcjohn@monmouth.com, Sam she is, SETI@concentric.net, Venuzia, Vyolet6, wombat@jagat.com [[[Obliviana has been established in an imaginary place called Little World of Racetracks.]]] Obliviana is at: http://www.obliviana.com Dear Friend, Hi, this is Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana. I'm writing to let you know that after many years of obscurity and confusion, Obliviana is finally ready for prime time! As some of you may know, I've been working hard on Obliviana ever since late 1989, when a magazine I was publishing, "Anything But Monday", went out of business. In July, 1994, after publishing many interesting print "zines", I began the ezine "OsoaWeek"--and that was the first time I tried to get the game of Obliviana going. A year later, in 1995, I started the Obliviana website, and over a year later, I made my second attempt to start the game of Obliviana. Neither of these attempts went very far, because my game designs were not yet "there". Now, however, my Obliviana game design is fully matured, and it's ready to go! Obliviana is an online game, set in an imaginary place called Little World of Racetracks. Starting this Tuesday--July 21, 1998--you can be one of the first to establish your Fonosta! It's unlike anything you've ever experience before, and it's absolutely free! Just go to www.obliviana.com and follow the link called "Establish Your Fonosta". Some of you have already established a Fonosta, but since I'm starting the game new, from scratch, you'll have to establish a new Fonosta. This is due to the new structure of Fonosta, which is very different. But if you sign up on Tuesday, or soon thereafter, you'll be sure to get a cool, low Fonosta number! Beyond the game aspect of Obliviana, there's a whole lot of cool stuff in Obliviana, like the Hypercup sci-fi novel "Severe Repair", the insane antics of "Zope", and the strangely valid supernaturalness of "Forge of Wander"! So check out Obliviana--the cumulation of nearly of decade of constant work! You won't be disappointed! 11010001ly, Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana P.S. If you know anyone else who might be interested in Obliviana, it'd be great if you could forward this letter to them, or tell them about Obliviana in person! [][][][][][][][][][][] By the way, those brackets are my new way or delineating text that is from another source. I'm using brackets because I use hyphens in the new OsoaWeek, and as I'm going to be presenting the new OsoaWeek in these pages, I don't want to cause any confusion. Fri 7/31/98 * 10:15 PM I am hard at work at data processing and verification and all that stuff with Fonostas. Here is a letter I sent out recently, as I receivec it: [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sun, Jul 26, 1998 11:41 AM EST From: Obliviana Subj: Obliviana Fonosta Verification To: Obliviana Obliviana Fonosta Verification -------- Frank, Thank you for establishing your Fonosta. This letter is to allow you to verify the information you entered, and also to make sure that someone else didn't enter your information without you knowing about it. So, if you DID NOT fill out the Fonosta Establishment form at the Obliviana web site, it means that someone else put in your E-Mail address. In this case, please reply and let us know. Otherwise, check out the information below. All of the information listed here will be published in your online Fonosta listing. If you want to change something, just tell us. -------- Fonosta 1 LordOfObliviana Frank Edward Nora obliviana@aol.com Nutley, NJ 10/3/67 http://www.obliviana.com/nora.html? Creator of Obliviana--I like video games, pipes and cigars, classic video games, Walt Disney World, computer games, being a Republican, being a friggin' creative genius, being a member of the Flat Earth Society. Vegetarian, happily married, if I wanna kick a door open, I do it. -------- In addition to this information, we need for you to choose a password. This is needed so that when you play the game, no one else can pretend to be you. So please reply to this message with your password, and any changes in the data you entered. Thanks! --Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana P.S. I may decide to use a mailing list service called ListBot, which will help me automate this process. If I do, you will get a verification message from ListBot, which you will also have to reply to. Sorry for the inconvenience! [][][][][][][][][][][] It was sent to nine people who had established Fonostas. Since then, I have decided to use ListBot, and let that do the verification. 10:23 PM Now, here is a letter I just wrote: [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Obliviana News -------- Player, Thanks for establishing your Fonosta. I'm writing to let you know that I have decided to use a free service called ListBot to make running the Obliviana mailing list a little easier for me. You will be added to the mailing list, and you will receive a verification message from ListBot. All you have to do is respond to this message, and your Fonosta will be official! You should be getting this verification message very soon, if it isn't already there. Make sure not to throw it out with the spam! The subject line will read "You have been asked to Join Obliviana". All you need to do is respond (you can write "OK" in the message body), and you'll be verified! Once you're verified, your Fonosta will be posted and you will be an official player of Obliviana! All right! 11010001ly, Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana [][][][][][][][][][][] Sat 8/1/98 * 1:31 PM There are a few issues I want to deal with here. First of all, I want to come up with a final name for this feature, because "Chronicle Obliviana" just doesn't do it for me. Basically, I'm thinking that this feature is very much going to be a part of the Obliviana Archive. So maybe the name of this feature should relate to its being part of the archive. Also, I have to decide whether or not to do my development notes in here. In OsoaWeek, I would do most of my development notes in the Lord of Obliviana section, which this features has essentially taken the place of. Ah, I think that I should include development notes, what the heck. This feature is meant to be something that records information and tells the story of Obliviana, with the focus on completeness and fullness, as opposed to being easy to read and entertaining. I do think this feature is somewhat easy to read, and entertaining as well, but this is not the focus. Let me now include the first issue of the new OsoaWeek, OsoaWeek209. Note that there are a few features which are "OsoaWeek Exclusives". I will not be including these here, since it would defeat the whole purpose of having exclusives. So what is the purpose of the exclusive features? Well, in the case of Xappenshard, it's part and parcel of that game to have Xappenshards spread out in different locations. So if I included the OsoaWeek Xappenshards here, it would very much defeat the purpose of Xappenshard. As far as "Carne's Moisture Detection Friend" goes, I designed that feature with exclusivity in mind--the idea is that if you want to drink in that feature, you'll have to establish a Fonosta. And if you want previous episodes, you'll have to get them from other players. I do feel a little weird not archiving this feature, and I have thought of archiving such features after they have been out a few years. But I am leaning toward keeping them exclusive. [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] [[[ 8/15/98--I have decided NOT to archive OsoaWeek on the website at all! Previously, I had the entire OsoaWeek209 here, minus the two exclusive features. (That explains the comments below). The reason I am doing this is that OsoaWeek fits perfectly into Xappenshard Craze, which I hadn't even conceived of here, two weeks ago. So, if you want OsoaWeek, you gotta establish your Fonosta. And if you want back issues (209 and up--1 thru 208 will soon be available on the Obliviana website), get 'em in Xappenshard Craze! Heh heh heh! ]]] [][][][][][][][][][][] Well, there ya go. It was tough to delete those features, but I had to do it! I do, of course, have the complete originals archived, but the exclusive features cannot featured here. Okay. Here's something else. This is the verification message that ListBot sends out to people: [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Subj: You have been asked to join Obliviana Mailing List Date: Fri, Jul 31, 1998 9:53 PM EST From: v-664F5D5FBB93DF57@listbot.com X-From: v-664F5D5FBB93DF57@listbot.com (ListBot Verifier) To: obliviana@aol.com The list owner of: "Obliviana Mailing List" has entered your address to be added to their mailing list at ListBot. You MUST REPLY to this message by clicking the reply button on your e-mail software in order to actually join the list. This verification message is used to confirm that we are able to get mail through to you, and protects you in case someone forges a subscription request in your name. If you believe this was a forged subscription request, ignore this message and you will not be added to the mailing list. If you are having problems using the reply function in your e-mail client, the address to respond to is: v-664F5D5FBB93DF57@listbot.com ListBot puts you in control, letting you manage all of your list subscriptions from a single web site. Visit http://www.listbot.com/cgi-bin/subscriber if you wish to unsubscribe or manage your list subscription for this or other ListBot Network lists. The list owner has included the following welcome message: =========================================================== Get all Obliviana! =========================================================== Please visit http://www.listbot.com/ if you have more questions about the ListBot service. Thanks! Sincerely, The ListBot Team [][][][][][][][][][][] 2:06 PM So, I'm thinking about the name of this feature. Something like "Archive Blues" or "Archive Madness", but not either or those specifically. I could, actually, call this feature "Get All Obliviana". Wow! Yeah! That makes total sense, and it has a long history with Obliviana! Specifically, I used to end every single Lord of Obliviana feature with "Get all Obliviana". Well, that's it. Now, how about the issue of numbering? And, will this necessarily be a weekly feature? Anyway, let me include something here. This is from the website, in the old Owltoco page. It was "Obliviana News Update", and it listed changes to the website and news and stuff. This function will be taken over by this feature, OsoaWeek, and maybe a new "What's New?" type of feature. Here it is: [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] OBLIVIANA NEWS UPDATE Mon 7/20/98--10:34 PM. Fonosta Establishment is now available. The first of the NEW Obliviana pages are online. I wonder if anyone will establish their Fonosta tomorrow. Wow! Obliviana is finally starting to begin to initally become a reality! Sat 7/18/98--I removed the ListBot link--I put it up a week or two ago as a test. Added text at the top of the main page saying that the game of Obliviana will start on July 28, and that Fonosta Establishment will start on July 21. I sent an E-mail to about 28 people, telling them about the impending Obliviana Launch. Work on the Launch is going well. I reset the LE FastCounter to 0 as of today, and added the "as of July 18, 1998" text. I deleted the previous counter, which last read "This page has been accessed 742 times since May 6 1997". Tue 6/16/98--I changed New Jersey Wild Pioneer to Wild Pioneer of New Jersey. I am working furiously to meet the July 28 deadline for the Obliviana Launch. I'm also working on Forge 2 of Severe Repair (the next 209 Cups). Wed 6/10/98--I totally revamped the Severe Repair main page. Tue 5/26/98--I added the Concise Overview text. Sat 5/23/98--I changed the Revolver Your Fonosta Device back to Halfevil Graphics. This should be the last change to the Revolvers (hopefully). I added a link to the Concise Overview of Obliviana, and created a preliminary Overview page. I'm going to E3 in Atlanta next week, and I made four custom Obliviana T-shirts to wear there. That's the main reason I added the Overview, which will hopefully be done by the time I go. Not that I expect too many people to visit this site from the T-shirt, but it's possible that a few folks will. Wed 4/15/98--Lots of Revolver changes today. Fonosta has been renamed Your Fonosta Device. Halfevil Graphics was removed as a Revolver, and becomes a part of Your Fonosta Device. Devastating Nightscape was moved to Racetrack Hucaway, where Halfevil Graphics had been. A new Revolver has been established, New Jersey Wild Pioneer, in Racetrack Fogoncs, where Devastating Nightscape moved from. Also, I added LE FastCounter to the page, but I am keeping the old counter for now as well. I also fixed a typo below--"four months" was "four moths". Four moths... hmm... interesting... Sat 3/28/98--I added the Obliviana logo, Little World of Racetracks map, and individual Racetrack graphics. Wed 3/25/98--I redesigned this website last night, making it a heck of a lot less confusing. This redesign is the first step toward the Official Obliviana Launch on July 28, 1998--a mere four months and three days away! Obliviana first went online as an ezine on July 28, 1994, available on America Online and one local BBS. Exactly one year later, this website began. Thus far, I have failed to attract even the smallest audience (outside of people I know, and not too many of them are into Obliviana). But I plan on changing this pathetic situation with the impending Official Obliviana Launch! [][][][][][][][][][][] I just had a cool idea--to do an animated GIF of LWOR, with each frame being a different Racetrack "lit up" and identified. Cool! Now, I'll present the "verification received" notice from ListBot: [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Subj: Verification Received Date: Sat, Aug 1, 1998 12:48 PM EST From: Obliviana-help@listbot.com X-From: Obliviana-help@listbot.com (ListBot Help) To: obliviana@aol.com Thank you for replying to your verification email. You have been added to the list. ListBot puts you in control, letting you manage all of your list subscriptions from a single web site. If you ever want to unsubscribe from any ListBot mailing list, please visit http://www.listbot.com/cgi-bin/subscriber and use the login info you provided at signup: E-mail: obliviana@aol.com ListBot Password: [[[Deleted]]] Thanks! Sincerely, The ListBot Team [][][][][][][][][][][] I deleted my password for obvious reasons. Okay. I just remembered that "Get All Obliviana" was the name of a publication I produced! It was the final print publication I did before I began OsoaWeek. There were three issues--4/21/94, 4/29/94, and 5/12/94. 2:45 PM Wow. I checked out the old "Get All Obliviana" in a case I have in my closet--and I also checked out one of the two lunchboxes I have full of old pocket notebooks I used to always carry around to write ideas in. The I dropped the lunchbox and the notebooks fell onto the floor of the messy closet. I think I got them all. Then I started looking through them, and I was very impressed by the material therein. A lot of the entries are very weak--but there are quite a few very cool entries. I even found the entry where I first figured out the date of the 209th day of the year! I'll detail the old "Get All Obliviana", as well as all my other old publications sometime in the future. Eventually, I want the Obliviana Archive to contain everything I can possibly put in it. Now, as far as numbering goes for Get All Obliviana (GAO), I am thinking of having GAO not have a regular release schedule, but rather, allow it to be released when the time is right. Each issue will be numbered sequentially, and the Obliviana weeks that a particular issue is covering will be listed at the beginning. This issue, for example, is issue number one, and is currently covering Obliviana week 209. Well, I have a lot to do today. My first goal is to get the "Play Obliviana" process under control. I have to create prizes for the first Xappenshard winners. Also, I have to create "Conifer Town", the second neighborhood in Obliviana, located in Winter Drink, Arctahojast. Also, I am going to continue building Obliviana School, with several new lessons. 3:12 PM Reading selections! I gotta do this feature! Selections from SR, SU, Zope, etc., each week! One cool idea I read from my little notebooks was for Severe Repair (it was called something else back then, I think). To paraphrase, "two tiny naked lesbians living in his glass eye." 6:02 PM I've been working on the "Bathroom Reader" idea. Here are my notes, leading up to the official name of the feature: [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Obliviana Bathroom Reading Material BATHROOM READER--OBLIVIANA STYLE MADNESS (BROSM) Brosm Bathroom Theater Obliviana Serialized Mayhem Bathroom Reading Material Quick, Fun Weird Cool Quick Stuff to Read Cool Quick Read Cool Quick Reading Fix Duffy the Soapsud Your Weekly Cool Quick Reading Fix Cool Indoor Artifical River (CIAR) DUFFY THE SOAPSUD is the winner! [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] The name comes from my Notepad "DA", a holdover from older Macintosh systems. I wrote that in there, wow, it must have been several years ago. I came upon it and liked it, only realizing a few minutes later the appropriateness of a Soapsud as the "host" of a bathroom reader. By the way, here is picture of Duffy the Soapsud ----> o Or... Duffy the Soapsud ----> o <----Duffy the Soapsud Sun 8/2/98 * 2:39 PM Yesterday I completed two issues of Duffy and uploaded them. I also created 30 Fonosta Names for Conifer Town, Winter Drink, Arctahojast. Today, I have before me several tasks. I had wanted to continue work on Obliviana School, but that may have to wait, since I have some more pressing matters. First of all, I need to write OsoaWeek210. As part of this I need to do Carne's 2 and Xappen 2. These two are not too hard, but another thing I have to do is a little hard--the Donext list. I guess specifically, the tough part is figuring out what to do about the winners of Xappen1. That is, do I want to reveal the answer yet? And beyond that, what is the prize for solving a Xappen going to be? For the answer to that, I have to continue work on the nature of the game objects! Tue 8/4/98 * 10:07 PM Well, it's the second week of the Obliviana Launch. Today, last night and today, I have been a little discouraged about several things. First of all, my attempt to enter people into a ListBot mailing list have been somewhat fruitless--I believe that people are deleting the verifiaction message by accident, or just misunderstanding what its meaning is. So, after 15 people established their Fonosta, I added a link to ListBot at page 5 of the sign-up procedure. This will take a person right to ListBot, where hopefully the process of signing up and verification will happen at the same time, as well as cutting another step in the Fonosta Establishment process as far as manual labor for me goes. A larger problem is the sad state of the "Play Obliviana" page. Beyond the fact that it's vague and confusing, there really isn't a whole lot to do in Obliviana right now. There is a lot of good news, however. I have four lessons in Obliviana School now, as well as two issues of "Duffy the Soapsud" completely done. My next major hurdle will be to create a "true" Play Obliviana page, which will link to Donext listings, have game news, etc. For tonight, however, I am going to work on a few more lessons for Obliviana School, as well as doing some foundational work on the Racetracks, which still need defining in some areas. Thu 8/6/98 * 11:12 PM I need to create more stuff for people to get into at this level. People keeping their own Fonostas--I don't think this is going to happen too much. The full Obliviana system, as I have conceived it, will require CGI scripting and web-based databases. Unfortunately, I am nowhere near implementing such a system. So, with the need for simplicity in mind, and the old "1968/1938" idea, which says that Obliviana much be the sort of thing that would have been doable in the far past, I need to rethink some of the current system. Or do I? Shall I press forward will all the aspects of Obliviana? Of course. But I think I might be able to introduce an interim system which could maintain interest and buzz during the time that the whole system is not functional. So, what shall this system be? I would say, competition among players, maybe something like Xappenshard, with a central screen showing who is where, and all that. Yes. I do need something simple and compelling. I need to keep people interested. I need a makor new aspect of the game which I do not yet have on the drawing board. Circuit was a kind of "emergency" thing, which I designed to give people something, ANYTHING, to do. But Circuit by itself is not going to maintain a person's interest. Thus far, Xappenshard has been the most compelling thing. I think I will use Xappenshard as a conceptual launching pad for the new thing. Sat 8/8/98 * 9:45 PM I am in the process of creating a new element of the game of Obliviana. It is so new, that I don't have a name for it yet! The working name is "Xappenshard Plus". (I just made this name up.) The idea is that Xappenshards, and other "sharded" material will be randomly E-mailed to Obliviana members, who can then trade the material with each other. The medium for this game will be a message board--and I am thinking of having it be a free for all! That is, I think I can implement this game without a lot of restrictions. The idea is that there are answers to shards, and that the first posting with the right answer wins that particular thing--that is, the valid Fonosta whose name appears with the answer wins. This means that while anyone on the Internet could answer, a player needs a valid Fonosta in order to win! Pretending to be someone else will not be as much of a problem. In this, unlimited guessing will have to be allowed, so that one player cannot post a fake guess with another player's name on it. I do plan on having Xappenshard puzzles, but also, other "collectible" pieces of text--and maybe even collectible images! Yeah--trading cards--gif files--sent to one person, to be used as barter! Cool. Now I'm going to play the Obliviana Boardgame for the first time in like maybe a year or something! Sun 8/9/98 * 8:10 PM Yeah, I tellya, that's a great game. I did play it once a few months ago, I remembered. But pretty much it's been dormant. During the third or fourth game, at about 2:00 AM, we started creating a song. My sister-in-law Carrie is an aspiring folk singer, and I had written th lyrics to a song about three months ago, called "Some in the Woods". Well, we stayed up till about 6:00 AM, and the song was created! It's awesome! I was writing in OsoaWeek before, and it has a very somber tone. I wrote about how my original ideas for the game of Obliviana can't be implemented fully right now, and that I'm going to introduce a new element of the game next week called... well, I haven't actually named it yet! The code name is Xappenshard Plus. Okay. I gotta work on this idea. Basically, one aspect that I didn't mention above, the other day, is the idea of the "overall image". This "overall image" is some kind of image file--probably an animated GIF--which would should the progress of Xappenshard Plus as a whole. There will be parts that need to be filled in, with the Fonosta names of the winners of various parts. What I need here is a paradigm. That is, like a structure that is being built or torn down, a tunnel that is being dug, etc. "Xappenshard World"? Hmm... One thing is for sure--this sub-game has to fit into the overall context of Obliviana. So it makes sense that this Xappenshard World (the new working name) would be... would be embodied as a location in LWOR. So, any of the building or revealing that's going on would happen in that location. XW (Xappenshard World) is indeed a big idea. It's going to take a decent amount of time to implement. I think that right now, it should be my top priority! One thing about XW is that no verification is needed, since there is no penalty for a wrong answer. Excessive guessing might be a problem--I could ask people to follow a code of behavior--a code of common decency. "Xappenshard Park"? Mon 8/10/98 * 11:11 PM "Xappenshard Craze". That is the official name. I thought of it on 41st St., looking over at the skeletal beginning of E-Walk. (E-Walk is an entertainment complex being built on 42nd St., on the northeast corner of 42nd and 8th Ave. It is set to open in Spring 1999. This is New York City I'm talking about, if you hadn't already guessed.) My plans for Xappenshard Craze (XC) are still a little sketchy, but here is what I have so far... [1] Traditional Xappenshards. (amazing that something only two weeks old can be traditional...). The Shards will be made available in several different ways. As well, some Xappens will have their full set of Shards available to players, whereas some will be harder to get. [2] Message Board. The action will take place on a message board, with additional action taking place in E-mail. Specifically, players can announce what they have, help each other solve Xappenshards, etc. on the board. Trading and private deals can be done in E-mail. [3] Random Winners. Some (most?) XC material will be distributed one or several players via E-mail. These players will be determined by a random method (Storm Codex cards, most likely). This is where the real fun will begin, since trading will be encouraged. And who knows what kind of crazy deals, double-crosses, and other hijinks will occur? [4] Trading Cards. Obliviana Trading Cards will be distributed primarily through the Random Winner system, as GIF E-mail attachments. The Trading Cards will be content unto themselves, but certainly, Xappenshard clues might refer to them (heh heh heh). I am thinking of creating an HTML page which players can download. The page would links to all Trading Cards in a particular series. The player would download the HTML file to their hard drive, and then put the trading cards in the same folder with it. The page will not be able to completely load until they have a full set! Heh heh heh... I know this might be a technical hurdle for some people, but it's just too cool. I have the sontent for the first series of Trading Cards (or should it be "Crazing Cards")--the 40 Codingseeds, which I created several years ago. I also have 32 Zope characters I drew on one page from 1988, and 64 cards I drew on a real deck of blank cards--and I forget right now what it was called. So I have three possibilities for Trading Cards right now. I will start with the Codingseeds. I think the cards will be pretty small--maybe 66x114. [5] "Thing To Open Up". I am still working on this. It will be an image on the website which will show the overall progress of Xappenshard Craze, with "compartments" representing Xappens, and the name and/or number of the Fonosta of the winner of each particular Xappen. So--is this the overall system? Xappens and Trading Cards? Should I have anything else in there? I think I should--since it's a "Craze"! Other card series: Photos of me, Obliviana products, the first 64 players (when and if there are this many). So--what else? What other elements can there be? Ot should I stick with what I have? Well... there could be a text thing which "just" has to be collected. That is, it will not be a puzzle, but just something that has to be gotten. It would need to be something which could be easily presented on the message board. This would be similar to the Trading Cards. Should it be part of the Trading Cards? Maybe the cards could have codes on them? Hmm... Tue 8/11/98 * 12:04 AM I am thinking of bringing back the "Quanxactive Teams", and maybe also "Antebellum" to facilitate a betting system whereby players can both put up ante in the form of Shards. I do like the idea of bringing back stuff from OsoaWeek001. When I write the word "idea" above originally, it came out as "life". Wow. [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] 15 QUANXACTIVE TEAMS Quanxactive 1: Team Blade Quanxactive 2: Team Chaos Quanxactive 3: Team Checkmate Quanxactive 4: Team Dragon Quanxactive 5: Team Drifter Quanxactive 6: Team Fusion Quanxactive 7: Team Ghost Quanxactive 8: Team Hound Dog Quanxactive 9: Team Inferno Quanxactive 10: Team Laser Quanxactive 11: Team Paradox Quanxactive 12: Team Predator Quanxactive 13: Team Spacefarer Quanxactive 14: Team Supreme Being Quanxactive 15: Team Unicorn [][][][][][][][][][][] I've just been going over Antebellum. It's really good! I wonder if I can fit it into XC? Quanxactive is also a definite possibility--with Quanxactive games happening every week... to wager on... So, the major gameplay aspects of Xappenshard Craze: [1] Xappen (puzzles) [2] Trading Cards (collecting) [3] Quanxactive (wagering) [4] (text collecting?) [5] Writing reviews? Writing challenges? [6] E-mail games, between two or more players, for ante of Shards? [7] Antebellum Fights? [8] "Afternoon"-type game? Tur 8/11/98 * 8:53 AM I haven't presented OsoaWeeks 210 or 211 here yet. I'll have to do that soon. I'm thinking of also having a separate archive for the new OsoaWeek--but I really want it to be something that is primarily E-mail based. OsoaWeek211 is the first issue I used ListBot to send out. It worked very well. I had to send a separate edition to folks who haven't been verified on ListBot yet. So far, about a day later, one person out of nine has been verified. So I worked on the Trading Cards today. I realized that there are 56 Codingseeds, not 40. 56 is very close to 64, and I do have a good deal of art from that time period, and there are certainly 8 that are good enough to include. So the first set of Trading Cards will have 64 cards. I did really want to do 66x114 as the size, but it really is too small for Codingseed, and, I think, for other themes as well. I don't want to totally exclude the smaller size, but I think that 132x228 is going to be the size. Looks like the 20th person just signed up today. I really gotta get Xappenshard Craze moving! Tonight, I must get the specifics of the "thing that opens"! 11:32 PM I added 5 Fonostas to Shack Bluff, for a total of 12. Eight people still have to join ListBot. I had something... something in OsoaWeek once... which was an idea for a game... and it was about "Bowling, Trading Cards, and Religion"... Well, the bowling part does bear some resemblence to the "thing that opens" idea. Religion? Well... the Quanxactive idea... sport teams... I don't know. So what is "that which opens"? It MUST be something in LWOR! Opening up... and something is inside! Something people want to see or know... XAPPEN GATES. New term. This is a thing that is closed and identified with a Xappen. The Xappen gate is opened when a player gets that Xappen, or, the gates could be non-connected with Xappens, so that any Xappen can open any gate. Neighborhoods competing? Maybe behind "the door" is a prize which is gotten by a neighborhood? More on Gates... an open Gate will absolutely bear the Fonosta ID of the Fonosta that opened it. XC Board entries--players should ID their Fonosta in all postings. Number too? That which opens... Wrench... random Storm drawn just now... Wrench... One idea I have had for a long time is to have something like a giant Pac-Man board, which would take many people months to clear. I do like this idea in general. I think that the general nature of "clearing" should be at the heart of the "that which opens" thing. CLEARING. Maybe different "Clearing Gates" could contain different kinds of objects to be released. For example, Trading Cards, Xappenshards, etc. So I should have more object types. WRITING CONTESTS. Given a challenge, write a short bit of text, which will be judged... Juxtapositions... bring together five very disparate things... Baltimore Ravens, art sand, hadrons, commodity market, The Incredible Hulk. Maybe not... But what is being cleared? Wed 8/12/98 * 12:11 AM The kind of thing that is being cleared is very important. It could be like... leaves, stones, lava, whatever, blocking... what? Mazes? Yes... mazes or something mazelike... Floors of a building? This is like the Video Devil Jr. idea. There could be several buildings... Xappenshard Craze Campus... Xappenshard Craze Campus Mount... Thu 8/13/98 * 12:51 AM Yes! Obliviana Trading Cards, Series One: Codingseeds, is done! They look great! They look awesome! And... and... and... I HAVE "THAT WHICH CLEARS!" Okay. I made a new Codingseed out of elements of... okay, let me tell you the whole story. I decided to use Codingseeds as the theme of Series One. I had 56 Codingseed from December 1993 to August 1994. I also had a bunch of "in progress" potential Codingseeds. So I took those and mad the final eight Codingseeds for the set. I made some changes on a few of them. I took the graphical element of one with the type "The Walled City" under it, and combined it with "Slow-Dayes". I also took a purely graphical logo and repeated and rotated it until I had something totally new, and I dubbed it "Sign of the Malls", since it reminded me of a mall logo. So, I made an HTML document to look at all the cards I had just made, and I was looking at them, and I was thinking of the "That Which Clears" problem, and I thought, MALL! I immediately thought of the Weasel VIllage Mall. Then, a few minutes later (a few minutes ago now), I decided to create a new mall... Sign of the MALLS. So, there will be a mall devoted to Xappenshard Craze. And I will name it using Weasel Village as the basis of a name convention. The first word will be a member of the weasel family. The second will be... well, I'll leave that a little bit open for now. So, what member of the weasel family are there? Off the top of my head... Stoat, Ermine, Mink, Wolverine?... Okay, I'll go online. 1:33 AM Okay... (Sea) Otter Badger Ermine Ferret Fisher Marten Mink Mustelid(ae) (Dime Lust Mall) Sable Skunk Sly Mink Stoat Weasel Wolverine Idea: Marten Villa Mall. (I gre up in Martinsville, NJ). Knim is cool... Sat 8/15/98 * 12:26 AM Xappenshard Craze Mall. Last night I drew a Mall Directory of Section A. I also did all the new Storm Pelter gifs. There has been a spontaneous artifact event! At work I talked to my friend, Mike Etler, owner of Video Game Connections (www.videogameconnections.com). I'm going to a meeting tomorrow night (technically tonight, this being Saturday already). So I figured I should print out something to give to people at the meeting to let them know about Obliviana, especially with Xappenshard Craze right around the corner. So I had, like, ten minutes left before I had to go. I used a font I just got recently, ITC Highlander Bold. I really like it--it's the official font of Xappenshard Craze. I had no idea what I was gonna do, and I got discourage and almost didn't do it. But I did typeset: Check out: www.obliviana.com To play the coolest online game ever--Obliviana! That was it. No logo, no nothing. I repeated it so that there were 22 copies of it on the page, and I printed it out. I went to the bathroom, looked at the laser print, and decided to print out one more copy, although I had to leave in a minute or two to get my bus. So I grabbed my second laser print and left. So, like a half-hour ago, I showed my wife the printouts, and said I was thinking of using my laminator, which I bought way back in 1994, and never really used. She suggested I make them into keychains with books rings that I had. It was a great idea, and now she's in the other room making them. There will be 44 in all. I signed, numbered, and dated each one. Wow! The first Obliviana Artifact since the Obliviana Launch, and it happened totally spontaneously. At the time I printed the pages out, I was thinking of just handing the paper slips out, or attaching a pipe cleaner to them, or something. Now, the idea has become Artifact! Very cool. 12:55 AM I just had a great idea! Each of the Mall Stores will have a prize (I already had that idea)--but the prizes will be of all different sorts! Here are the prizes I am thinking of now: [1] Trading Card--winner gets a random trading card emailed to them--perhaps two! [2] Artifact--winner gets an actual Obliviana artifact (such as the keychain)--mailed to them. We're talking an actual physical object here! [3] Fonosta Listing Upgrade--Fonosta name typeset as a gif, Fonosta Device, picture of player, animation, etc. [4] Xappenshards--one or two random Xappenshards emailed to winner. [5] Writing--I will write something, like a little story or something--about the player. Or maybe the player will "appear" in Duffy or Carne's... 1:12 AM You know, right now I'm gonna admit to some ignorance. Regarding FTP, I was under the assumption that it was a one-file-at-a-time kind of thing. Perhaps this is because I started off useing the extremely user-hostile AOL FTP "client". Then I switched to Fetch, and I continued to do it one file at a time. On several occasions, I have sat there and clicked "put file" over and over again for 20 or 30 files. Talking to my friend Mike, he mentioned that most FTP clients have batch uploads and downloads. So I checked Fetch, and indeed it does this! Yes, I was ignorant of that. It was something that got by me. I feel quite foolish. And I am not afraid of sharing this with you, dear reader. Last night I was dead tired and uploaded 21 files the hard way. Well, it's a good feeling to know I'll never have to do it this way again! Unless, of course, the files are all in different directories... hmm... can it do THAT? 1:27 AM Wagering. Am I gonna implement it? The ante is in the form of Xappenshard Craze data, such as Xappenshards and Trading Cards. With this idea, I want to provide people with several avenues of getting stuff to trade or wager with. That is, I don't want someone to have to sit and wait until they become a daily winner. To this end, I have several idea: [1] Friends will most likely share Craze Objects (new term). So, if you have a circle of friends, or a "Craze Object Pact", if anyone in your Pact gets a Craze Object, he or she will forward it to you and you will get it. [2] Solving a Xappen means that you can open a store and get the prize(s) stored within, which will sometimes (most of the time?) be Craze Objects. [3] Craze Objects will be hidden in obscure parts of the Obliviana site. Perhaps a Trading Card will be made available for 15 minutes somewhere. Or, a Xappenshard could be hidden in the source code of an HTML page. So, a little snooping around will dig up tradable Craze Objects! [4] Solving a Xappenshard (not a whole Xappen) is tradable data to a player who needs the answer. "Xappenshard 12.3? I got the answer, wanna trade me for your "Caxopy Group" card?) [5] Photo contests? Players send in photos? Or drawings? Winners get prizes? [6] URLs of secret Obliviana pages, along with the times they will be up. [7] Players write brief, funny stories of weird stuff that happened to them? These will be judged, and winners will get prizes. Similar to photo contest. The idea here is that creativity and effort can result in getting Craze Objects. 2:13 AM Gotta go to bed. Xappenshard Craze... gotta get it movin'! 2:13 PM Wow. That's weird. I didn't plan that at all. Wow. I'm serious! Exactly twelve hours later... Xappenshard Craze. Most of the infrastructure already exists. I have to keep on developing the specifics. Stimulation. In this case, getting Trading Cards and becoming a winner. I will need to have several Xappens going at a time. I do plan on having three winners immediately, for the first three Xappens. I do want to finalize the Craze Objects. Xappenshards and Trading Cards are definite. OsoaWeek back issues, and specifically "Carne's Moisture Detection Friend", are Craze Objects. Any new player will need to get back issues from existing players. This means that a player can make trades just by saving issues of OsoaWeek. A brand new player could win one day, and a full set of OsoaWeek back issues would seem a great trade for a rare card. What about multiple versions of OsoaWeek? This is something for the future, but it will fit right in with Xappenshard Craze. Craze Objects are defined as Obliviana data which is not available directly from the Obliviana Website. It is received via E-mail, or hidden somewhere. Another possibility would be to hide actual floppy disks in real locations, such as taped to the bottom of a sink in a bathroom, or whatever. Hiding and encoding methods exist "above" the objects. And I really need to establish the Objects. Even when we talk about creative contests, these are not in and of themselves Craze Objects. CRAZE OBJECTS SO FAR: [1] Xappenshards [2] Trading Cards [3] OsoaWeek Now wait a minute--maybe I shouldn't archive OsoaWeek AT ALL on the website, making it even more of a collectible! Yes... heh heh heh... Hmm... kind of a tough decision... AH, why not? All I gotta do is delete the one I already put in this here "Get All Obliviana" issue one! Yeah... seems like the right idea... 2:33 PM Well, I did it. I deleted OsoaWeek209 from this issue of Get All Obliviana. I think this is the right decision. Back issues (209 and up) of OsoaWeek could even be a Mall prize! The "Mall Prizes" are won when a player is first to answer a Xappen, and chooses a "Mall Store" to open. The contents for each Store will be determined beforehand. In terms of stimulation, Mall Prizes are very important, and they are not always Craze Objects. Okay. Three Craze Objects. Maybe I should add one more, and keep it simple! 2:47 PM I'm looking over my writing from tha past week. The wagering idea is not too bad. Craze Objects could come in the form of "tips" or "inside information" about the outcomes of the events. The other major Craze Object idea is a text-based thing to collect, such as shards of a story, or of an "Afternoon-type" game. 3:00 PM Clues. Like, code tables, Quanxactive tips, secret page URLs, etc. Clues could retain their value longer than Xappenshards, which would become somewhat worthless once a Xappen is solved. I think that Clues could indeed be the fourth Xraze Object. !!!--wow, look how I misspelled that word! Weird. So: CRAZE OBJECTS SO FAR: [1] Xappenshards [2] Trading Cards [3] OsoaWeek [4] Clues This would seem to be the right set of things. I still want to consider another form of collectible text. An Afternoon-type game could work. The idea would be that the game would be somewhat like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" game, which I have called "permu-fiction" in the past. It consists of "shards" which each are identified by a code, followed by a block of text, followed by a set of "go to" codes with various decisions. To clarify, you'll read the text, and then be presented with a set of choices. To go to the place or your choice, search the document for the appropriate code. In a "sharded" version of this game, you would have to collect the various shards, so that many choices would be "closed" until you got the appropriate shards. The problem with this idea is that it is complicated--both to created and to play. Therefore, I will keep it in mind as a Craze expansion, but I will not introduce it immediately. So, I will start off with these four kinds of Craze Objects: [1] Xappenshard--obtained from Obliviana through a wide variety of sources--OsoaWeek, website, winning E-mail, hidden, promotions, etc. [2] Trading Cards--obtained from Obliviana primarily through winning E-mail, with four from each set always available to get collections going and to provide samples to let people know what they look like. Also, they could be available via promotions (see below). [3] OsoaWeek--obtained from Obliviana one way only--being on the Obliviana mailing list. Not for use in promotions. [4] Clues--this Object will most likely not be available in OsoaWeek or on the website, but rather, in hidden and winning E-mail forms. Promotions are possible, but not likely. Note that all of these Craze Objects are tradable, and that is the essence of Xappenshard Craze--to trade Craze Objects. PROMOTIONS IDEA! Both real world commercial establishments, and also websites, can have Craze Object promotions to attract visitors. WAGERING Now, I have to decide about this whole Wagering thing. I think I will do it with Quanxactive if I am to do it at all. Quanxactive would be a sport played in the Xappenshard Craze Mall. I would keep it somewhat vague, to keep it interesting. I would keep the original 15 teams from OsoaWeek001. I think I will introduce Quanxactive as an expansion to Xappenshard Craze. DIARY OF A DREAMFRANK Earlier today, I took a nap from around 10:30 to 11:30. I had a pretty cool dream. I'll present it in the "diary" format I have used in the past. 8/15/98--Today I took a flight to a Disney location. I didn't even know where I was going. I wound up in Denmark, and at the airport, there was a mountain log flume ride, which I took a ride on. It was kind of European mountain theme, Alps or something, but not too themed. At the big flume, I decided to close my eyes and relax. Then I heard a song they were playing and I closed my eyes and I was real calm--I think it was Beck's "Devil's Haircut". I opened my eyes near the bottom, and I did feel a little of the uncomfortable rush of such a ride. The ride then abruptly ended and I got off. I recalled a Disney CD-ROM which had conceptual artwork of a set of stores at this very location. I searched for the place I remembered, and I found it around the corner from the ride exit area. It was a set of three stores in a circular pattern, like mall storefronts. A bookstore/magazine store was closed--it looked like they were still building it. Then I saw the Lego Block store, and it was just like from the CD-ROM. I went in and told the guy behind the counter about the CD-ROM and he was mildly interested. Then, things got a little strange. A chest of drawers of mine was there, somehow. The guy asked me about my passport. I said, "why? I'm already out of the airport--wait a minute--I'm NOT out the airport, am I?" So I searched in a coat pocket, and found my passport! I was releived, but then I realized it was a National Park passport thing, and not my passport at all! I went through the chest of drawers, vaguely wondering why it was there, finding a lot of junk of mine, but no passport. Unfortunately, I went awake before I found the passport. As I was entering awake, I thought how cool it would have been to go to Euro Disneyland from there--it couldn't have been a very long train ride from Denmark, after all. END DREAM Okay! Now... MALL PRIZES Mall Prizes are going to be subject to exansion just like the rest of Xappenshard Craze. Therefore, I only need to come up with an initial set of prizes, and then place them in Section A, wherein there are 13 Mall Stores. [1] Pair of Trading Cards. A very cool prize--two randomly drawn playing cards. [2] Four Xappenshards--four randomly drawn current Xappenshards. [3] A Few Clues--for example: [[[Hey! My example clue was so good, I'm going to use it!]]] [4] Fonosta Upgrade--will deal with gif to left of listing, adding picture of player, typeset name, Fonosta Device, etc. [5] Artifact--a real physical object. The first one could be an autographed drawing of Zope on the back of an Obliviana business card! [6] "Appear In"--this idea has a Fonosta appearing in some kind of fiction. Or--even better--the player will be interviewed, and that interview published! [7] WAV files, etc. These would be Mall Prize-only Craze Objects, which could then enter trading circulation. [8] Booby Prizes?--Should there be crummy prizes? Like "empty" stores? Maybe--but that wouldn't mean that having your Fonosta name "in" and empty store wouldn't have benefits in the future! Okay. The first 13 Prizes: [1] [2] [3] Pair of Trading Cards--Congratulations! You won two randomly-drawn Obliviana Playing cards! They will be emailed to you shortly. [4] [5] Four Xappenshards--Hey! You just won four randomly-drawn odd Xappenshards! Remember, even Xappenshards are available to all players, odds are never given away directly in OsoaWeek or on the website! [6] [7] A Few Clues!--You have won a few clues--they'll be emailed to you shortly! [8] [9] Fonosta Upgrade!--Your Fonosta listing will be upgraded! Your Fonosta Name will be typeset! [10] [11] Artifact Prize Package--Alright! You've won two great Obliviana artifacts--an Obliviana keychain, and an original drawing of Zope, drawn on the back of an old Obliviana business card! You'll receive an email shortly asking for a mailing address to send the prize package to. [12] Instant Fame!--An interview with you will be published on the Obliviana Website. You will soon receive a list of questions in the mail from the Lord of Obliviana himself! [13] EMPTY! You're screwed! There's nothing in here! Now I'm gonna determine where each prize is located--but I won't reveal it! NEW $20 BILL I went to the bank today, and they had brochure about the new $20 bills, which follow the design of the new $100's and $50's. They're not out yet, but the brochure states that they will be out this year. I think it'll be tough for people at first, since $20's are very much a daily-use currency, as opposed to the $50 and the $100, which are nowhere near as common in use. Sun 8/16/98 * 4:04 PM On my drive down to the Video Game Connection NAVA collector's meeting, I thought of a simple way to implement wagering in Craze. Basically, two players contact each other and put up any ante they both agree on. The outcome is based on the next Lucky Storm. If the Lucky Storm is odd, the player who has Primacy (ie, a lower Fonosta Number) wins. If the Lucky Storm is even, the player with the higher Fonosta wins. This gives the participant with Primacy a slight mathematical advantage. The player with Primacy will win 50.24% of the time, whereas the other player will win 49.76% of the time. Like I said, a slight advantage. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----