|| -------- -- -----  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 2 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Get All Obliviana  ||  Issue 001  ||  -------> (Cup OWga001b, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Wed 8/19/98 * 12:31 AM Xappenshard Craze has arrived! As I review this document, I see that it was on Thursday, August 6, 1998--13 days ago--that I first expressed the need for the thing which has become Xappenshard Craze. That writing was actually done at 11:12 PM, and by 11:12 PM on 8/17/98, Xappenshard Craze was pretty much ready to. So, Xappenshard Craze took me just 11 days to create. It was 11 days, based on well over 11 years of hard work. Earlier, I drew the first Daily Winner, EveningJane (Dave Kopperman), and sent that player a Trading Card (Number 39) and two Xappenshards. I also gave out prizes to DeepNotice (my wife) for solving Xappen 1, and to FlyingOcean (my sister-in-law Carrie) for solving Xappen 3. No one beside me has posted to the message board yet, but I'm not worried--I know that Xappenshard Craze is a solid idea. It is my most viable Obliviana online game idea ever. I really hope it catches on! Can I support a large number of people in Xappenshard Craze? I think I can. I designed XC to take the workload off of myself. And indeed, most of the gameplay is designed to take place without my direct involvement, in the form of players posting to the board, E-mailing each other, making deals, etc. What IS labor-intensive for me is establishing Fonostas. So, a lot of new people would mean a lot of work for me. But, given, say, a full four hours, I could establish many tens of Fonostas. And, this establishment procedure could be automated using CGI scripting. Still, I have to manually come up with Fonosta Names, and Neighborhoods. Each Neighborhood can hold only 30 Fonostas. 1000 players would require 34 Neighborhoods, which would not be beyond my capaciy, given a few months. But if the numbers get higher by a few zeroes, it will become necessary to automate the process. So now that I have made this great achievement, what are my plans? Well, I want to get XC going, for real, and I want to get a lot more people into Obliviana. And, of course, I have to continue on the original plan for the game of Obliviana--the Octagons, Racers, Sidekicks, etc. And something I should probably get going sooner rather than later is mail order, and creating Obliviana Artifacts to sell. Ah yes, money. Obliviana making money. One idea I have is to offer a special XC promotion to businesses, online at first, but in the real world eventually. The promotion would involve the company in question giving away Craze Objects, which would require a player to go to the website or physical site of the company. This promotional strategy has the potential to be a lot more effective in getting the attention of an audience--but it will be the Obliviana audience, and I don't yet know what the overall demographic of Obliviana is going to be. It's funny. At work, a woman commented on the Obliviana T-shirt I was wearing. I briefly explained Obliviana to her, and she jokingly said something like "You're not gonna sell out to Time-Warner or anything, are you?" Well, even though it is quite presumptuous, I do fear such a thing happening. I think that perhaps, XC is a far better online game design than anything else out there. And we're talking about many millions of dollars being thrown at the problem of creating great online games. So, if I am indeed correct about how good XC is, and if it does get some exposure in the media, eventually, I do not think it would be absurd to surmise that something like an offer by some big company to buy Obliviana would be possible. Wow, that was some sentence. The reason I fear such an event is any good offer would be a no-win situation for me. I would have to turn any offer down if I were to remain true to my convictions. But I would regret the loss of potential wealth. If I accepted the offer, I'd get some money, but it would absolutely be the wrong thing to do, and it would eventually cause me great misery. Up to now, I have had the luxury of having an audience of one--myself. Even at that level, I have had constant challenges, in the form of creative and design issues. Now, who knows what I have to face. I have to stick by my one, absolute principle for Obliviana--I own it 100%, now and forever. I want to make a decent living from Obliviana, but by no means will I compromise my creation to make more money. I hope I will be able to live up these words, always. Wed 8/19/98 * 9:37 PM Drew the second Daily Winner, and it was my wife! No one has posted to the Xappenshard Craze Message Board yet, but I figure it will take a few months for XC to heat up. I need to address the overall state of Obliviana. I launched Obliviana on time, and then three weeks later, I started Xappenshard Craze. I don't think I would have come up with XC if it weren't for the pressure of seeing that the thing I had spent so much time developing wasn't yet ready. Xappenshard Craze is certainly more than enough to sustain Obliviana while I continue to develop it. It may even be so great as to potentially ecliple the rest of Obliviana. Forge of Wander, the whole 209, Stormjaunting, supernatural thing, has been in hibernation for awhile. I developed the "fingertuning" (new word) method quite some time ago. It scared me, how powerful it was. I do still want to release Forge of Wander, but I will have to do so in a dell-designed way. And, I think that the time will not be right to release FOW for some time. Okay. So, the subjects I have to focus on now are Octagon and LWOR. As far as Octagon goes, I have to get back into development mode. With LWOR, I have to finalize the Totems and Themes, and also finalize the Capitals. Central to Octagon is its means of implementation. Initially, I conceived of Octagon working by people maintaining their own web sites. I have decided that this is not a viable plan, since a relatively few people in my potential audience have the technical wherewithal to do such a thing, and even less would have the motivation to do it. So, I have to consider the computerized route. I know it sounds crazy to "consider" such a route, since it would seems that no other route is at all possible. But I think I have proven with Xappenshard Craze, wich doesn't involve any direct programming, that a non-computerized route is possible. By "computerized", I mean that computers are doing most of the work, in the context of programs. Anyway, as a side note, I do think that some XC players will eventually decide to create websites for their Fonostas. But this is something apart from a realized Octagon system. "Octagon" refers to the game of Obliviana which is focused on activities in LWOR. Specifically, Fonosta as streetlight, and the development of Racers, Sidekicks, Buildings, Land, Vehicles, etc. I think that one direction that is apparent here is for Octagon to move toward a real-time, 3-D, online, persistent world. In this world, a player would PLAY, and not have to manage the technical stuff. This idea is very much diametrically opposed to my anti-3D philosophy of a year or two ago. Of course, Octagon could be aimed not at a 3-D world, but at a 2-D world insired by the spirit of classic video games. Such a world would be technically as challenging as a 3-D world, in that its look and feel would be very important, and also because 3-D technologies are the focus of immense development. In other words, there are, and will continue to be, off-the-shelf 3-D world creation tools readily available. VRML is probably the biggest 3-D online world creation system available today. It is incredible ugly and lame, though, from what I have seen. This is just because it is massively underpowered. Playing "Banjo-Kazooie" for the Nintendo 64 over the past month or so has given me a new perspective on 3-D. And I have thought that if LWOR were to be 3-D, it would have to be at or above a Banjo-Kazooie level. Right now, a persistent online 3-D world at a Banjo-Kazooie level is not feasible. What I have seen of "Everquest", an online 3-D persistent world, which I think is going to be released in the near future, is nowhere near Banjo-Kazooie. But, I would have to surmise that, say, five years from now, Banjo-Kazooie level onlin worlds will be quite commonplace. So, I have to decide what I am aiming for. I am certainly attracted to the idea of a 3-D LWOR at a Banjo-Kazooie level, but I have to take pause, due to the vehement anti-3D philosophy which I had. The major kinds of online worlds are text, 2-D, and 3-D. In the past I would have been very much attracted to text, but I feel that Obliviana has a very potent visual side. So the major question I have to face is 2-D or 3-D. A 2-D LWOR could indeed be very cool. But it would have to be very absctract, like classic video games. If it were too representational, then it may as well be 3-D. One big factor here is the 3-D will be the major medium of the future. People will be spending a lot of their lives in 3-D online worlds. If Obliviana were to remain 2-D on principle, it might fail to attract a mass audience. On the other hand, if it is 3-D, it could become very, very popular, and I think that a lot of the bad stuff associated with 3-D would not be a part of LWOR. LWOR is a world without violence. I have written about this a great deal in the past year. This is a major philosophy of mine. As well, it would be a world without overt sex stuff, since all the elements will be cartoonish and childlike. It is important to note here that while the game world is free of sex and violence, my other creative works, most notably Severe Repair,. will not be under such constraints. I know that a violence- and sex-free world might sound pretty lame to a lot of people. But one thing I am 100% sure of is that there will be absolutely no shortage of sex and violence in other 3-D worlds that will exist, so I don't think that those who desire such things in 3-D worlds will have anything to worry about. LWOR will be one of many 3-D worlds, if I decide to go that route. I remember--it must have been back in 1990--when I was working at a place called Imaging International. I told a co-worker that I thought that theme parks were a fascinating field of endeavor, and I said that I'd like to work on designing them in the future. I think the response I got was something to the effect that such a palette would be very difficult to get. Well, with 3-D online worlds, such a palette is very possible. Creating worlds. Virtual reality. The VR hype of the earlier part of this decade served to wring all of the hope and wonder from the idea. Now, technology is catching up with the hype, and I do see the wonder in the potential of creating worlds. But one of the central tenets of my anti-3D stance was that the WONDER of classic video games came from their abstract nature, and that players had to fill in the gaps of what was being presented. And, in filling in these gaps, a window to Wonder is created. a fully-realized 3-D world, on the other hand, by showing everything, very much limits the "filling in" process. But, I have directly observed, by playing 3-D games, good ones, that such games can indeed stimulate wonder. Banjo-Kazooie is a good example--it has a beautifully-rendered 3-D world, but it is also very abstract. So, perhaps I can come to the conclusion that the problem with 3-D is not 3-D itself, but the implementation. Abstractness and differentness from the real world are very important concepts here. So, should I decide to strive for 3-D in LWOR? I think that I should. This is not an easy decision for me to make. 10:32 PM I want to outline the state of Obliviana as I see it now. [1] OBLIVIANA. Online game and entertainment system. [2] XAPPENSHARD CRAZE. A compelling online game that has just started. [3] FONOSTA. A player's identity in Obliviana. [4] LWOR. Imaginary world. [5] REVOLVERS. Creative content. [6] OCTAGON. Game that takes place directly in LWOR, centered on racing. [7] ARTIFACTS. Real items for sale. [8] FOW. Supernatural system. Okay. That's a pretty good general overview of what I have going on right now. 10:36 PM If Obliviana is to be profitable by Summer 1999, as has been my outlook for a long time now, it will have to, by definition, make money, and a lot of it. Profit of $200 a day, sales of $400? That's a very sketchy idea. I intend for Obliviana to not have any real employees besides myself. These figures reflect me being able to be financially supported by Obliviana at a decent level. Yeah, this is a tough issue. Where is that $400 gonna come from every day? [1] Artifact Sales. This is the primary aspect right now. Limited-edition, handmade, signed, dated, and numbered items. [2] Design Sales. This would apply to players of Obliviana, who would pay for me to design things for their Fonostas. [3] "Premium" Game Account? I intend that playing Obliviana will always be free, but it is possible that I could offer an enhanced game account which would add a number of features, for a fee. [4] Advertising and Promotion. This can only happen when vast numbers of people are playing Obliviana. [5] Licensing. This is something that can only happen when Obliviana has a very large audience, as well as a great deal of fame. 10:46 PM I think that people will pay for "personalized" creations by me, in the form of Artifacts and digital designs. But this idea will only work in the context of an Obliviana with a large audience, and, more importantly, an Obliviana which is a real community. "Community" is an online buzzword, but it is vastly important. I think that with Fonosta, I have set a strong foundation for an online community. Sun 8/23/98 * 5:09 PM Went on a Stormjaunt to Space Farms yesterday. Working on Obliviana today. Tough day, today. A few things. First, Xappenshard Craze is off to a very slow start. I realize that this makes total sense. But I was very excited at having started XC, and I guess I irrationally thought it would take off right away. Also, there are seven people who established their Fonosta before I decided to use ListBot, and they still haven't joined ListBot, even though I've sent them two requests to do so so far, at the beginning of the issues of OsoaWeek they received. Actually, the first week there were nine people, but now there are seven. Also, my site is in need of a great deal of improvement. The homepage has two huge animated GIFs, and it's gumming everything up. The Obliviana Transportation Center is still "under construction". Yeah, I'm feeling pretty low today. I am working under the idea that Obliviana will be a big thing by next Summer. So, from a rational perspective, I am right on track--there's no way I could expect a big response in just four weeks. Also, I haven't had any new Fonosta Establishments for awhile--I have to revamp those pages as well! A lot of stuff to do. And also, I'm thinking of introducing Stormjaunting. 5:20 PM Should I have a new element of Obliviana to attract people, which will be above and beyond XC? I thought that maybe Stormjaunting could be such a thing, but Stormjaunting is anything but simple. I want something that can be described very briefly and understood immediately. For example "For the best Tori Amos MP3's, click here!" To a fan of Tori Amos who knows what MP3's are, this link would be totally understandable. But that's not really a good example, because the average person online doesn't know who Tori Amos is, and has probably never even heard of MP3's. Obliviana as "Game and Entertainment System". But I can't just say, "Click here to play a game and be entertained!". There is too much shit out there. I've been looking for game and enterainment sites, and I usually come up with pages that are totally disappointing. Many people think of online games as Java games, which take forever to load, usually crash you machine, and when they do work, are incredibly lame games which are fully derived from an existing game. Why would I want to play a slow, semi-functional, boring version of Centipede, when I can play the real game on an emulator? So... can I come up with "For X, Y, Z--Click Here!"? That is, a very simple, very compelling thing which will DELIVER? What do I have in Obliviana which is very accessible and very enjoyable and very universal? What do I have that can instantly catch someone's attention? Also, it should be something that I don't mind Obliviana being associated with. I read somewhere that in terms of promotion, it is best to have a single, simple idea. People associate a name with a concept. I know I've gone down this road before, writing about this subject. Disney: Family entertainment. Coke: Soft drinks. Led Zeppelin: Great rock band. Microsoft: Software. Obliviana: See? I can't write anything there just yet! 5:58 PM I was just watching a show on A&E, "Unexplained", about UFO cults. It was pretty funny. I have discussed the potential for Obliviana to become a cult many times in the past. And my position on the subject is unwavering--Obliviana will never become a cult, if I have anything to do about it. There is a supernatural side to Obliviana, however. Forge of Wander is based on the whole 209 thing. Stormjaunting is a specific activity based on Forge of Wander. One way of looking at what I am doing is that I am creating a game and entertainment system with a supernatural thing as a major part of its foundation. I have a vision, and I am working toward that vision, but I am not totally sure what it is that I am working toward. But I do have a general idea of what Obliviana is all about. I believe that Forge of Wander is a thing that was once a part of people's lives, but has long since been forgotten. It deals with situations, with luck, with "atmosphere". (Atmosphere as the feeling one has in a given situation.) I have found Forge of Wander to be a good thing in my life. It adds a new dimension to life, but it is a subtle thing. So, Obliviana is not something that is going to utterly transform people, it is just something that is going to make people's lives a little better, and a little deeper. With ideas like this, there's no way I'm gonna be starting a cult. Cults always promise a total change, a massive improvement. The supernatural aspect of Obliviana offers a minor change, some new challenges, and a slightly different way of looking at the world. This is not the sort of dogma that cults are made from. "A new supernatural idea, which can add a subtle new dimension to your life, intertwined with an online game and entertainment system." Hmm. That's not bad! There is another angle, which I'm not too sure about. This angle involves using the finger-method of setting a Storm to create sensations similar to those of taking narcotic or hallucinogenic drugs. On the plus side, setting a Storm is absolutely free. On the minus side, there are indeed side-effects. These side-effects could be compared to bad luck. That is, if you set a Storm and do not follow the proper procedures and precautions, bad things can happen to you. I have observed that alcohol is a major problem with Stormjaunting. Specifically, having any alcohol in your system will cause a Storm to "go bad", and make negative things happen. I am going to use this standard: Do not consume alcohol of any sort 24 hours before and 24 hours after Stormjaunting. In fact, if you plan on Stormjaunting regularly, I recommend ceasing the consumption of alcohol totally. This idea is based totally on experience, and not from any anti-alcohol sentiment. It does make sense that alcohol would affect Stormjaunting, since Stormjaunting has a similar effect as drinking, in that it changes your perceptions of the world around you. Maybe I'll go ahead and start writing the Stormjaunting Document. 6:53 PM I started writing the Stormjaunting Document, but it's pretty tough. Part of the problem is that I don't really know where I'm coming from. I don't have a clearly defined central philosophy. This problem does relate to the problem of not having a central definition. Back to the same old question--"What is Obliviana?" Y'know, it's funny. Last week, I was exhilarated at having completed Xappenshard Craze. I thought that it was the answer to all the challenges I have in the design of Obliviana. But today, I am very downtrodden, with the realization that I still have numerous design issues to face in Obliviana. So what about the definition issue? I think that the LWOR basis for Obliviana is very good. LWOR is the place where Obliviana exists. This is totally established. So, in an overall sense, Obliviana is an online world. Online World. Very vague, but also very descriptive. Obliviana is an online world. Okay. Obliviana: Online world. How's that? Now, I'm gonna do the Storm Pelter pages. 10:49 PM Yeah, I did the Storm Pelter pages. And the homepage. It looks like crap, total crap, all this centered text, "Click Here" links, ugh... Very depressing. Very disturbing. 11:53 PM I have two ideas that relate to the issues at hand. I wrote earlier: Single-page diversion... game, entertainment... daily? This idea involves having a single page which would be updated daily, and which would contain various entertainment and game features. The other idea is doing Devastating Nightscape as a web-based hypertext game. Both are good ideas, but I don't know if either could fit the bill of the new thing I'm looking for. New thing I'm looking for... Xappenshard Craze IS an excellent and workable idea. But it may lack the instant appeal that I need to start getting people into Obliviana. Obliviana is an ONLINE WORLD. This is the best super-simple description I've come up with yet. These two words, ONLINE WORLD, have connotations--people will be expecting certain thingd from an "online world". I have already laid a very strong foundation for an online world with LWOR. And eventually, I think that people will be coming into Obliviana, and will be able to hop in a car and drive around and discover things on their own; it will be a true world. So--the idea of a world, with many things to explore. Games and Entertainment. So, if I do introduce a new aspect of Obliviana, it should revolve around this idea--being in an online world--LWOR--exploring, being entertained, playing games, etc. ONLINE WORLD What are some major aspect that make something an online world? I think that first of all, the location in question has to be conceived of as a distinct place. LWOR satisfies this requirement. The word ONLINE implies that the world is available for exploration on the Internet. This implies that it is possible to travel to and explore different parts of the world in question. A cool online world, with all sorts of cool stuff going on. A top-level exploration system? Like my old "Surface O" idea? Or... take the Devastating Nightscape idea and... use it as the basis for... exploring LWOR...! That's it. Cool. I got it. Mon 8/24/98 * 11:52 PM Well, I did OsoaWeek213. And the Daily Winner. And the Fonosta Upgrades. And the Xappenshards on the XC Message Board. I have code-named the new idea "Surface O", since it will function much as the original Surface O was designed to, only in a text-based way as opposed to a graphical way. This new way also holds the possibility to have much more depth and complexity. I was checking my site out on WebTV, and the LinkExchange link at the top was to an adventure-type site, which was text-based and permutative, just like I want Surface O to be! It was interesting, but the part of the site I saw was two years old, and it was, of course, based in the fantasy genre. I do see a great potential for Surface O. The cool part is that you can "descend" into different parts of the website. Should there be an "ascend" function? Hmm... maybe I should start building that into the pages? Surface O will definitely be table-based. To do Surface O, I'm going to have to map out a lot of LWOR! Surface O will start in Owltoco, but it will, of course, branch out. I could make a rudimentary framework for the whole of LWOR, with STORMPOSTS! Yes, I remembered, in the shower last night I did decide to call Racetrack segments "Stormposts". For example, you might be on a main road, and then see an exit lading off somewhere (to the Shadow Capitals, for example). Each "Surface Location" will have multiple exits. I am thinking of having NO graphics at all in Surface O, and if I do, it will be the Obliviana logo, and that's it. Wed 8/26/98 * 9:35 PM Now, the challenge of Surface O. But before that, I want to relate a little incident which happened today, which I take to be a message. I was at an interstection in Manhattan, and I saw that a large UPS truck stopped at a green light--since if he had gone on, he may have caused gridlock. I started crossing the street, but turned to see a car speeding toward me, passing the truck. I quickly jumped back. If it had been a second or two different, it would have been a really close call. As it was, I was no phycially shaken, as one often is from a close call. But it did bother me. I was CLOSE to a close call. I relate this event to my impatience to get Obliviana going for real, and working on it full-time. So, "it may seem that the coast is clear, but it is not yet clear". By operating in this restrictive environment--full-time "day job", and an almost nonexistent budget for Obliviana--I have done amazing, essential work. The problem is that I could be adversely affected by a lack of pressure. I could become complacent. I might cease to push the envelope forward. So I need patience. And it's not easy. 1999. Summer. That is the time for Obliviana to burst forth onto the scene. SURFACE O First of all, I want to relate Surface O (SO) with the potential, eventual "Virtual O" (VO), which would be a fully 3-D, persisent, online world. First of all, SO and VO are very similar, in that they both represent the same world. From a foundational standpoint, SO is totally sufficient to lay the groundwork for VO. Specifically, the layout, the terrain, the names, the places--in short--EVERYTHING. All that VO adds is the ultimate visualization and "audioization" of Obliviana. So, SO is not an inferior system, which will need to be scrapped someday--it is a medium for an online world by itself, and an essential development tool for VO. I write about this because I was a little concerned as to the relationship between SO and VO. But now it is clear. VO will be built "on top of" SO. BASICS SO is going to be a set of HTML pages, interlinked, to form a text-based means of travelling around Obliviana. Now, I realize that MUDs perform the same function, with a heck of a lot more functionality. That is, a MUD can not only allow exploration of places, but also interaction with objects and other players. So, should I implement SO as a MUD? Well, first of all, I don't have any real idea of how to go about making a MUD. I have some idea, having looked into it a little, but I don't think that such a system is necessary at first. In other words, a MUD would be hard to implement--just like VO will be hard to implement. And, the foundational stuff I create with SO can serve as a basis for a MUD as well as for VO. There are also issues of compatibilty and simplicity. SO will be very simple for now. It will allow players to wander LWOR, and ENTER various places, which have their own pages on the site. For example, if a player goes to Arctahojast, they might pass by the massive structure of the Severe Repair Pavilion. If they decide to enter, they will go to the main Severe Repair page. FORM SO is a set of HTML pages. Each page will have a single table, and will represent a single PLACE in SO. A SO Page (SOP) will consist exclusively of text, to speed things up. I may include a non-animated Obliviana logo, though. Each SOP will contain a standard set of location information, including: [1] Racetrack [2] Stormpost (Road segment number, which starts with the "starting line" as Stormpost 1, and moves clockwise around the Racetrack.) [3] Storm (This is the Storm Number in FOW. In many places, two Stormposts share the same Storm.) [4] Location Hierarchy (This is tricky. For example, you might be in a specific room, in a specific Pavilion, in a specific town. Or, you might just be on the road. This is, essentially, the environment around you.) [5] Descriptive Text (A passage which describes the current location.) [6] Exit Options (From any PLACE, there will be a set of Exit Options, which will provide links to other SOP, as well as Obliviana site pages.) This is, basically, the idea. I want to keep SO as SIMPLE as possible. 10:10 PM TEXT ANGLE What should the angle of the text be? It could, for example, by very dry, and simply describe the location and give the names of the Exit Options. Or, it could use the second person, and say, for example, "You get into your car and drive down the road." If I decide on the latter, who is "you". That is, what is your avatar? I think it's clear that as far as the text goes, the avatar should be very generic. What about game elements? For example--if the current date is odd, you get 3 yellow bottle. If it is even, trade 4 blue bottles to get one red bottle. This game idea would involve keeping a record on paper or in a text file of your journeys in Obliviana. This would make SO more interesting and interactive, but it would also make the whole thing more complicated. I have to consider this matter further. GAME ELEMENTS? There could be Friction Enhancers... relating to the real world... In fact, the previous example I gave, about the date, also relates to the real world. On the negative side of the game, a simple, unfettered exploration would be quite pure. Game elements would very much detract from this purity. But, the game elements would absolutely be optional. On the plus side, game elements would establish the interactive nature of SO/VO. And additionally, real-world stuff would establish the theme of the Obliviana virtual realm very much referring to and encouraging exploration of the real world. It is the this idea that resonates with me. I really do want to establish Obliviana as a virtual world which refers to the real world, and encourages exploration of the real world. This idea is incredibly important. A "sealed" virtual world is one of the aspects of virtual reality that made me vehemently against it in the past. Virtual worlds hold the potential to replace the real world. I want to make sure that doesn't happen. So, the "game elements" of SO will focus on this "real world" stuff. 11:42 PM I checked out some websites which have text-based permutative systems. Interesting. I have an idea for an "Obliviana Box", which would be a real, physical box in which you would put in or take out various "chits". This activity would be based on "Deals" presented on each SOP. For example, if it's night, put one red chit in the box. If you have a comb in the room in which you are sitting, you can take two green chits out of the box. This is not a bad idea, but it does, on the negative side, make things more complicated. Of course, I could create SO in the simplest possible way, and then update it in the future. This is probably the best way to go. DIVE AND RISE As in the first implementation of SO, there will be Diving and Rising. Diving means to go "down" into the regular website, and Rising means going from the regular website back to SO. The Diving part is no big deal--a link to the page in question. It is RISING which presents a little bit of a challenge. Well, maybe it's not so bad. The most obvious idea would be to have a RISE button on each page in the website. An alternative idea would put RISE links in the Obliviana Transportation Center only, and not on individual pages. The latter idea has two main advantages--I don't have to alter existing pages, and I don't have to add an element to the Obliviana Header. On the downside, it does make Obliviana less contiguous; with a RISE link on every page, SO extends fully into the whole site. How do SO and the Obliviana Transportation Center (OTC) relate? Well, OTC is more of an overview, whereas SO will get into all sorts of nooks and crannies. OTC will have a DIVE and RISE link for each of its listings. Thu 8/27/98 * 10:50 PM I have to say that I am quite impressed with the new MTV show "Sifl & Olly". Anyway, I want to get SO started. SO has two major aspects--the format, and the content. Of the two, the content is far more challenging than the form. A side note here: Xappenshard Craze is ten days old, and I the only people who have been playing it are my wife Denice, my sister-in-law Carrie, and her friend Carmen. I really have to add a "How to Play" link on the Message Board and on the XC Main Page. Anyway, as far as the content side of SO, I have to develop the format, and then I just have to start building, starting from a starting point, and building outward. I do need to resolve the SO/Transportation Center/Main site RISE/DIVE structure. Simplicity! Simplicity is the rule! Okay. I think that the DIVE from SO should be to the Main Site. Should there be an OTC link from SO? Well, the Obliviana Logo should go there. So that much, I know. I guess the real problem is still the RISE from the Main Site. 11:17 PM Okay. Here is the prelimiary idea. Each SOP has the Obliviana Logo, which links to OTC. As well, each SOP has a set of Exit Links. Exit Links can go to other SOPs, the Main Site, or, possibly, to other websites. Once in the main site, returning to SO will be accomplish by first going to OTC, and then getting back near the place you left in SO, or, a player could simply hit BACK or RECENT or GO in their browser. I would prefer a RISE on every page, but I don't think that's feasible right now. I COULD, however, have a RISE on some pages in the Main Site. I guess it's good that I haven't done OTC yet, cuz if I had done it before deciding to do SO, I would have had to go back and do it over again. Obliviana as "online world". This is what Obliviana will be identified as--an online world. As such, the words "Online World" will have to be placed near the Obliviana logo in all promotional stuff I do, as well as some places on the website. I could have a slogan, such as "Obliviana--the great new Online World where originality and unique content are the rule!" This is not a good slogan, but you see what I mean. So, what else do I need to consider before embarking on the implementation of SO? I should talk about the nature of SO Places. First of all, there will be SO Places for the Road in each Stormpost (Racetrack segment). There will be a "driving" mode, where there is a link to the next Stormpost. So, this is the "skeleton" of SO--the 272 Stormposts of LWOR. 272! Yup. There will be at LEAST one SOP per Stormpost. But some Stormposts will have a LOT more SOPs. I think we may be talking in the thousands here. Thousands? Wow. At some point, it will make sense to "computerize" the process. But right now, I will do as a set of HTML pages. Remember, I will be constructing SO piece by piece. So no matter what, it will take quite some time to get SO done. And the DESIGN and CONTENT I create in this first SO will be a foundation for subsequent SO formats. Now, beyond the skeletal Stormpost Road SOPs, there will be many others. For example, each town will have a number of SOPs. In fact, all the Locations in Obliviana will have SOPs. Now, beyond Stormposts and Towns, there will be "adventures", which will lead to all sorts of interesting Places, some of which will have secret pages on the Main Site. DESIGN Each SOP will need to contain a set of basic information, and then a desription, and then the Exit Links. I absolutely want each SOP to fit on a single screen. I will continue to use the 544 width that I have been using. 544 is the max width for WebTV, and it's a pretty good max width for computers with smaller monitors, too. Should the table have a border? I think so. I think borders help maintain a sense of order. What about the Exit Links? Shall I use the Hinges, which are already made? Well, I just checked, and the current Hinges are 132x12, which is much too big. I would like to use Hinges, since they very much associate the Storm Pelter with the Storm. I will have to make new Hinges, though--which shouldn't be too hard. The other consideration is that Hinges will slow SO down. This is true, but the alternative is using a universal GIF for a number (or all) of the pages, or simply using "Click Here", which is unacceptable. So, Hinges it is! The top of the SOP will have the Obliviana Logo on the left, with the "orientation data" (Racetrack, Storm, etc.) to its right. I am thinking of having the Exit Links ABOVE the descriptive text. Sat 8/29/98 * 11:10 PM Went to see my parents with my wife today. Then we went to the Bridgewater Commons Mall. I started getting a cold today, and right now I have an Alka-Seltzer Plus high goin' on. I decided to take it easy today because I don't want to push myself over the edge. Creativity is something that has to be treated seriously--if you push too hard, it can result in bad stuff. I will start work on SO in earnest tomorrow. SO is going to require a massive amount of creativity, so I have to get ready for it. I think that taking it easy today will really help. Sun 8/30/98 * 7:13 PM I've started designing the HTML format for SO, but it's a tough job. 8:02 PM I looked at the original Surface O (which was called "New Surface O"--so, what was the real original SO?)--and I think that there is value in having the graphical depiction of LWOR. But this is something which I can add later. I am having trouble with the layout of SO as I have currently conceived it. It IS a tough design job. I want something simple that doesn't take up a lot of space. But it's not looking too good. 8:16 PM I think what I have to tackle is the "location hierarchy". Basically, the top level of the hierarchy is a Stormpost. Where are you? If you're on the Road, it will say ROAD, or ROADWAY. If you're inside the Zope Pavilion, it would say: ZOPE PAVILION, BOLT HAVEN, RACETRACK MOODBRUC STORMPOST 1 Or something like that. And what about side roads? And secret places? Are there any places that are not in a Stormpost? Well, first of all, all of SO takes place in LWOR. So, at all times, the location is inside one of the 209 Storms. Where things get tricky are in the Storms which contain two Stormposts, from different Racetracks. Still, I think I can make a hard rule that every location in SO will be "in" a specific Stormpost. There are 272 Stormposts in LWOR--256 in the normal Racetracks, and 16 in the Shadow Racetracks. So, every single SOP (Surface O Page) is "inside" one of the 272 Stormposts. So, each SOP has an overall Stormpost, a local Stormpost, and a Storm Number. Confusing! I think that perhaps I should emphasize the simple format of "Owltoco 1", "Arctahojast5", "Inhusto24", etc. The Storm Number and the overall Stormpost should be presente, but perhaps in "code" form, as in "O-01-249-104". This means Owltoco Stormpost 1, overall Stormpost 249, Storm 104. As far as what I want to describe, it will be simply "Owltoco 1". Now, within "O-01-249-104", there are numerous Locations. How shall I define these sub-locations? Also, being that each Stormpost is either 1 mile long (for straight segments), or 0.785 miles long (for curved segments) should I have just the one single Location for driving on the Stormpost? Yes. At a normal driving speed, it would take about one minute to cross a Stormpost. In "driving mode", the Exit Links will be from the perspective of a driver--road exits, and directions (ie, forward/backward, Clockwise/Counter-Clockwise, Racewards/Ecarwards). Ecarwards? ECAR=RACE backwards. Or, "Racewise" and "Ecarwise"? Raceward, Ecarward. More new terms! Should I state the mode in SO? I think I should! Driving, strolling, etc.? I need to fully define the states that are involved here. Driving and walking would seem to be the major states. What about trains? Subways? Boats? Yeah, this is pretty overwhelming. Which is to be expected, since I have arrived at the edge of the LWOR construction phase! That is, I am now engaged in truly designing the layout, terrain, etc. of LWOR. Mon 8/31/98 * 11:35 PM I just finished OsoaWeek214. I'm thinking of an Obliviana card game, using the double Storm Codex from the Obliviana Boardgame. Pairing up identical cards could be a basis for the game, since there are two each of 30 different cards. Each person could also be playing with their own deck, as in the Obliviana Boardgame. If this is the case, then each player would have their own "play area", where cards can be laid down. Perhaps the goal will be to pair up all the matching cards. One idea is that to put down a card pair that has not yet been put down by another player would involve some kind of penalty. In other words, once someone else puts down a particular card pair, it will be easier for the other players to put down the same pair. And maybe a limited number of cards may be put down unpaired, waiting to be paired up. Maybe there could be "tricks", where the winner would be able to discard cards. The idea here would be that the first player to discard all cards is the winner. So, one player would put down a card, and then each other player would have to put down a card. Based on the cards, there will be a winner of that trick. As soon as two cards are paired, they are both discarded. Perhaps cards that are NOT the same can be paired, to help win the trick. Winning a trick might mean drawing more cards from the deck, separated "linked" cards, forcing other players to put cards back on the "draw" deck, etc. Linking cards could help win a trick, but then they need to be unlinked before they can be paired. So, here are the play "areas" as I see them: [1] Draw Deck--cards yet to be drawn [2] Discard Pile--Paired cards which have been discarded. [3] Field--Cards on the table, they may be single or linked. Linked cards are two cards that are not the same card. [4] Challenge--this is where the card or cards are placed for each "trick". The "trick" begins with one player placing one card in the challenge area. Play continues clockwise, with players adding a card to their challenge from their hand. Once play reaches the "trick initiator" he or she may add a card to the challenge card FROM THE FIELD. If the two cards are the same, they are immediately discarded, and the player puts another card from his or her hand into the challenge area. Once all players have either a pair of linked cards in front of them, or a single card they have declined to link, a winner is determined. All the losers must place the linked cards back in their field, STILL LINKED. The winner returns the cards to the field UNLINKED, and may take one of a set of rewards. One reward would be to unlink a linked pair of cards. Another would be to draw more cards. Thu 9/3/98 * 10:57 PM The past few days, including today, I've been backing up Obliviana files onto CD. Also, I've had a little supernatural "trouble". I know that I've written about my relationship with the supernatural in the past. But I do find it a little difficult to write about, since I know it's gonna be misunderstood. I'll go into it a little bit, just because I feel like "talking" about it with you, dear reader. Basically, as an adolescent, I was fascinated with the supernatural as a means of escaping my current situation and becoming powerful. It was a total loser thing. A few years later, in college, I got involved with a supernatural situation that was very much unlike any typical supernatural situation you might think of. It was a battle, the true nature of which I might never know. But I am still involved in the aftermath of that battle, over twelve years later. I would say that this supernatural stuff is a very minor part of my life. And the thing is, I don't have any psychological need for it any more. I could, quite frankly, do without it. At this point, I know you probably think I'm full of shit. But I'm not trying to convince you of anything. What I am saying here is totally sincere. I can't say for sure that any of it is real, but I can say that I have truly experienced it. Ah, whatever. I don't even know why I'm bringing this up. It's just that since I launched Obliviana a little over a month ago, I've gone through a lot of highs and lows. And the past several days have been quite draining. I am a little out of touch with my work on Obliviana right now. But I want to get right back into it. A lot of the files I backed up were from 1993. Five years ago. I was hard at work on Obliviana back then, just as I am now. And in that time, I have made incredible progress. It's quite interesting that I am STILL struggling with the question "What is Obliviana?" I had a thought on my dark walk back home from the bus stop earlier. "Obliviana is an online world, which seeks to compliment your real life, as opposed to being a replacement for reality." This is a very important theme. Obliviana is now moving toward being an online world. And I have embraced the idea of 3-D, of virtual reality--an idea which I was vehemently against in the past. Obliviana has for a long time been about "actual reality"--the real world--and enhancing one's experience in the real world, adding many layers of depth and dimension to it. The medium of the online world is still very much in its infancy. It's ironic that I have never really been involved in MUDs, which are far and away the premiere form on online worlds right now. I played Gemstone III on AOl a little bit, which is a MUD, I guess. And I don't think I really want to get involved in MUDs. I don't see Obliviana at all as a MUD. I guess the big difference between my vision for Obliviana as an online world and MUDs is that I don't see a role-playing aspect in Obliviana. You are youself. But--the tone of the thing is different from, say, a chatroom. You are yourself, but you are associated with a Fonosta, and this make you something akin to a god or a superhero in the game world. In Obliviana, identity is the big thing. 11:45 PM Specifically, I see players taking on one of their Racers as their avatar. The player's "true" avatar is the streetlight that is their Fonosta. Imaginary world, virtual world, real world... Sat 9/5/98 * 5:12 PM Well, my friend Andrew won the Daily Winner three days in a row! I figured the odds of this happening are over 8800 to 1! He has Fonosta 6, which kind of implies "666". But I have for a long time thought of 666 as a time rather than a person. Oh well. Anyway, I added Fonosta 24 to Shack Bluff, a person from Arizona. Fonosta 23, from Sweden, is still not on ListBot. Oh well. I finished up Duffy 7 earlier. Pretty cool. I am feeling a little lost about Obliviana in general. This is nothing new. But I feel that now that Obliviana is launched, I should try and keep a handle on things! Wow. I don't know. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't write in this fashion. That is, what is now "Get All Obliviana", and what was previously "Lord of Obliviana". It really is like a free psychologist. Someone to talk to. But that "person" is a potentially unlimited number of readers on into the future. I do have to release this issue of GAO sometime! But it was my intent from the start not to require GAO to be released on a regular schedule. All this writing will be released eventually--certainly before the next Trick Sojourn begins. So where am I at? Xappenshard Craze is heating up a little bit, but it still has a long way to go. Surface O is stalled, but I should get back to it soon. And, I am feeling the urge to get back into Severe Repair! And then there's the issue of Zope--I gotta start producing new Zope material soon! Regarding Severe Repair, I definitely want to identify every Cup with an overall number. So, if SR does eventually get to eight Forges, that would mean there would be 1672 Cups, eventually. At five minutes to read each Cup, it would take 5.79 days of reading, nonstop, 24 hours a day, to read the whole thing. Well, that doesn't sound like a whole lot, but then again, it IS kind of a lot. As a physical book, it would be several thousand pages long. I know that I can do Forge Two in the near future--there's more than enough material. But I do want to add some new material into Forge Two. Now, first of all, all the Cuplines which did not end in Forge One must continue in Forge Two. So this means a lot of new writing. As well, all the Cuplines which naturally follow the ended Cuplines must also appear in Forge Two. So, I think thhat continuing Cuplines is the first thing I should work on. Wed 9/9/98 * 11:30 PM Wow, I am totally out of it. Really cold outside, low 50s. Up till a day or two ago, we were using the air conditioners every night. Now, if you're reading this in the far future, let me orient you a little. Yesterday was the day that Mark McGwire (that may be spelled wrong) hit his 62nd home run to break the single season home run record. And today is the day that Ken Starr delivered his report to congress, that will hopefully result in Bill Clinton resigning from office soon, or being forced out. I don't care. I just want him out. So anyway, I am really out of it. Me and my wife Denice ordered a new computer, using WebTV at about 4:00 AM on Sunday morning. It was really weird. Also, I downloaded an MP3 encoder (or "ripper" as such programs are more commonly known). Over the past few days I have become totally obsessed with the idea of creating an MP3 "jukebox" on our new computer. One result of this MP3 obsession is a pretty cool idea for Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall--to use MP3 to encode a huge number of WVM sound segments to a CD-ROM, which would then use SoundApp or something to play various playlists, or even the whole the entire thing at random. 11:39 PM Another thing I've been really into is "Sifl & Olly", a cool show on MTV. I've been taping every episode since about  two weeks ago. So, new computer (coming in less than two weeks), Sifl & Olly, and MP3 have been very prominent in my thinking over the past few days. I have definitely gotten off track with Obliviana, and I intend to correct that right now, even though I am in a very bad state of mind. For example, I tried to create Xappen 7 last night, but I had very little time and decided to put it off. And right now, I don't feel that I have it in me to create a new Xappen. One good thing about Obliviana as I have created it is that I can't ignore it--I have the Daily Winner every day, and a new issue of OsoaWeek every week. But beyond that, I have to work on all the other stuff in Obliviana! Fall had traditionally been my most creatively-productive time period. And even though it feels like Fall outside, it is indeed not Fall, but still Summer, for around another week. Actually, it's exactly two weeks from today, the Autumnal Equinox. Obliviana is pretty well defined. I know what I have to do. Surface O is the next BIG thing I have to tackle. But I think that there may yet be another major building block waiting in the wings. At the bus stop last week there was a charred piece of newspaper, and I looked at it, and the word "PLUS" jumped out at me. I took it as a message that there is one element left to create. So what could this element be? What is the purpose of Obliviana? The way I see it now, the general purpose of Obliviana is to provide an oasis and a decidedly different point of view in the sea of stupidity that is coming. That's pretty vague. So... First of all, virtual reality is coming. I was promised earlier in this decade, but it was about ten years early. VR will hot, however, and relatively soon. I am referring to inexpensive home VR setups which will be very immersive. I intend for Obliviana to be a compelling virtual world that will enhance a person's relationship with the real world, rather than destroy it. This is where 209 comes in. 209 is a compelling supernatural practive which very much enhances one's relationship with the real world. So, if 209 is indeed a forgotten aspect of humanity, it would seem that my plan for "bringing it back" is pretty sound. Create a virtual world based on 209, and then use the general anti-reality stance of the VR to come to propel my "pro-reality" stance, as bolstered by the specific practice of Stormjaunting. I see this all as something that will be quite beneficial to the people involved. So what's missing? Okay... say I'm an Obliviana player... so I'm part of this virtual world that, unlike most virtual worlds, seeks to reconnect me with the real world. And I do Stormjaunting, which is really cool, and has opened up a whole new dimension for me in my relationship with the real world. So now what? I think at this point I have to address the "cult" question yet again, because what I am describing does have a bit of a "cultness" connotation. First of all, I am totally commited to Obliviana NEVER becoming a cult. I realize the potential for Obliviana to become cultlike, and I will not let that happen. Individualist Trip. That is a phrase I came up with a long time ago, as a name for a UABN Area (in Severe Repair). But it seems to me that individualism is somewhat diametrically opposed to cultness. Fonosta deals very much with identity. Could Fonosta indeed be a part of the ancient thing that is 209? Hmm. I want to view this question more generally. What is the answer to "So now what?" One big idea in Obliviana in the past has been the idea of creating a digital archive of material for all future people to have access to. It would be something a player would create, and creating it and building it and adding to it would be the source of great satisfaction in the here and now. And there would be the knowledge that it could very well touch people in the far future, as well. I think this is quite possibly the element I had been lacking. And it is an extension of Fonosta. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----