|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- OSOAWEEK--ISSUE 150--6/7/97 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 12  ||  -------> (Cup OWis150, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = OsoaWeek Book Twelve 7 "OsoaWeek150" by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana, Tarb 6277 (6/7/97), copyright 1997 OBLIVIANA REGISTRY The only new release this week is OsoaWeek, but it's a good one. NEW REVOLVERS None NEW CUPLINES None NEW CUPS None *OW* LORD OF OBLIVIANA Sun 6/1/97 * 11:08 PM Yeah okay. Issue 150 of OsoaWeek. 150. That's a pretty big number. Yo! So I think that a lot of changes are in store for this website. One major problem that I see is the structure of having a Cupline in each Revolver which is the "central" Cupline. I'm now thinking along the lines of having a total reference system in the "Obliviana Central" Revolver. But I need to ponder this a little more before deciding. If I do make this change, it will be for the July 28 update. Mon 6/2/97 * 12:57 AM Looking at a picture on a computer, it is just an array of pixels, just little Red-Blue-Green elements on a screen being lit up at different levels. Meaningless. And then our brains go through the massively complex task of interpreting what is seen. And yet still the image is meaningless. It is the PRIMAL WONDER that the image refers to that gives the image its power. It seems to me that people have a SENSE OF WONDER, and when that sense is shut off, life loses all meaning. The sense seems to be strong in children, but weakens as folks become adults. It also seems that depresssion is a total shutting-off of this sense, which results is seeing the world JUST AS IT IS, with none of the wonder that is behind it. The difference between looking at someone sleeping, and looking at a corpse. This is an important idea, and one I intend to develop further. WHERE IS OBLIVIANA AT? With the dawn of Jukewand, Obliviana is in a much better position. A thought occurs to me, regarding the various major aspects of Obliviana. There is Stormjaunting, and there is Little World of Racetracks, and there is the content (Severe Repair, Zope, Beublin, etc.), but I think another side should be PERSONALITIES. That is, people who are involved in Obliviana. I am seeing Obliviana in a little bit of a different context. It is something that is intended to be a part of a person's life, mainly as a form of entertainment. Different people are in all sorts of different places in their complex and puzzling lives. The Jukewand represents a kind of "security blanket". The Jukewand represents Obliviana, and the knowledge that Obliviana is out there, will continue to be out there, and you are a part of it. Complexity has been a hallmark of Obliviana. But I have always maintained that it must be simple for it to succeed. It has to be one stable, Wonderful part of an otherwise baffling life. And in this, it must be easy to grasp. With the balance between reality and cyberspace, I think I have something that will work. In other words, the reality-based 209 system and the cyberspace-based Little World of Racetracks will help balance each other out and make up for each other's deficiencies. A big aspect here is ego, interest in yourself, making yourself better through making your Fonosta better. Mon 6/2/97 * 9:54 PM Never try to use Chap-Stik as a lubricant for your Jukewand. I did, and one cap is like totally fused onto the small nipple now. Ilana Bassman, my first girlfriend, e-mailed me. It's interesting how so many people and things from 1986 are coming back into my situation-realm. For example, I'm back drawing Zope, I was back on the air on the Drew University radio station with Mike Massotto, I've gotten back in contact with Bryan Cassidy, etc., etc. And now Ilana. It's frustrating to be here 11 years in the future of 1986, still struggling with my ideas and as yet unable to bring them to fruition. I want to bring Obliviana to fruition. Events in my life are moving in a new direction... I'm getting married and we're looking to buy a house... a lot of financial responsibilities... a lot of stress... with the "launch" of Obliviana a constant wild variable in the whole equation. So I have to get a good grasp on the whole Obliviana situation. But still I am terribly confused. So I gotta get Obliviana DEFINED, NOW. I have forced definitions in the past. For example, back in OsoaWeek001, 7/28/94, I made a major effort to define Obliviana, only to realize that it was not up to par with my vision. So what about now? What if I put all my current ideas together, where will that lead? What deficiencies will I find? I think I have to really get into this, really set down my ideas as of now, and see what's wrong with them. WHAT OBLIVIANA IS Okay. Even at the most general level, it is hard for me to get a grasp on my vision of Obliviana. But let me try. Obliviana is mine. I, Frank Edward Nora, have created Obliviana fully. It would not exist at all without me. I have a lot of ideas. I want to share these ideas with other people. These ideas manifest themselves in a variety of forms. In some forms, I merely wish for people to drink in the stuff I create, be it writing or drawing or computer images or whatever. In other forms, I want people to interact with Obliviana and with other people and with reality itself. These types of forms could be referred to as "games". But there is another level, where Obliviana becomes something like a game, but more. This is my idea of a fully-realized "club" that you join. I am also interested in presenting the work of other talented people, in a variety of forms. And I have a desire for the whole thing to work as a single thing, like a huge game, simple on the surface but complex underneath. From last issue: *********** [20] From the notes: "Now I have this idea of a game that can be played in many ways... as a boardgame, a cardgame, in reality, in cyberspace, big or small, all of it Obliviana. A tall order. Can I come up with a game like this, that is close to what I already have?" This is a prelude to the current system I have. ******************* One aspect of this system is that it is highly structured. That is, stuff that is part of Obliviana will have something akin to an "Official Seal of Obliviana" attached to them. Another aspect is that the great unifying thing is the Fonosta. Everyone who is "in" Obliviana will have a Fonosta, and everything that one does in Obliviana goes "into" his Fonosta. A smoldering ember from my pipe is on F3 on my keyboard. Anyway... And burned it! Melted it a little! Damn! Well, now would be a good time for a breakthrough, so that this keyboardic scar will have some meaning... Okay. Obliviana Bag... physical artifact aspect of Octagon... get goin' yep... Make it easy for people... don't make people have to try too hard... it's supposed to be entertaining and fun... 10:44 PM Well, again I have come in my thinking to the idea that to define Fonosta is to define Obliviana. FONOSTA Fonosta is a thing which contains information, and has a structure. Each person in Obliviana has a single Fonosta. One person, one Fonosta. Fonostas cannot exist without a being "attached" to a person. Let me go through the aspects of Fonosta that I have developed over the years. [1] PERSON. Each Fonosta is connected to a single person. A Fonosta may never change hands. Nor may a person get a "new" Fonosta. However, Fonostas can change over time. [2] ATTRIBUTES. Fonostas have Names, Numbers, and a host of other attributes. In this system, categories are established, and parameters are set forth which define the acceptable range of the specific variation on the the theme of the attribute that is acceptable. [3] RECORD. To keep track of accomplishment done "in" Obliviana, such as Stormjaunting, playing Obliviana Classic, racing on the Little World of Racetracks, etc. [4] OCTAGONS. A recent concept, Octagons are "objects" which are "bought" with "Cups" representing accomplishments in Obliviana. Octagons have eight aspects, which are the Eight Aspects of Fonosta, which I will deal with below. [5] IDENTITY. A Fonosta gives a person an identity within Obliviana. In Obliviana, your identity is defined by your Fonosta, in addition to the "real you". One idea is that your Fonosta can help you understand your own identity beyond Obliviana as well. [6] JUKEWAND. Finished less than a week ago, the Jukewand is the physical focus of your Fonosta. It is a cool object, definitely useful in stress relief and as a companion for musing and thinking. It contains Stormjaunt Scrolls and is an integral part of the Stormjaunting process. [7] FORGE OF WANDER (FOW). The FOW is the foundation of all Obliviana. It is a grid, 19 squares wide and 11 squares high. This is "where" your Fonosta is built, your own personal FOW. In fact, I have been having trouble pinpointing exactly what a Fonosta looked like, but I think that FOW is the answer. [8] LITTLE WORLD OF RACETRACKS (LWOR). LWOR is an imaginary world, built on a series of FOW levels, which contains themed Racetracks, on which a Fonosta Character lives and works and plays. The Character, the Vehicle it drives, and the Buildings it builds in LWOR are a big part of Fonosta. [9] YOUR FONOSTA DEVICE. This is the phrase that popped into my headed and started this whole "Fonosta" thing. The Device is a graphical symbol which is enclosed in as FOW boundary, but which has a great deal of freedom in terms of what can be on it. Graphical elements for your Device are one aspect of Octagon. The Device begins being totally black, and then graphical elements are added. So this aspect of Fonosta, more than anything else, defines what a Fonosta "looks" like. [10] THE EIGHT FACETS OF FONOSTA. Ah, this is the real challenge... to come up with the Eight Facets... or Aspects... or whatever... Well, Device is definitely one of them. Other ones I am working on are Character/Guy, Building, Vehicle, Sword, Cup, (((My Jukewand is free! After many harrowing hours of cap and nipple fused together, I have finally gotten it apart!)))... Now, where was I? Oh yes. The eight aspects of Obliviana. I don't know them yet. If I did, Fonosta would be defined, and thus Obliviana would be defined, and a major, very major thing in my life would be resolved. So trying to get these eight aspects would seem something worth working on right now, eh? Well, let me start with Device. I know for sure that Device is one of the eight aspects/facets. In the previous version of my website, Fonostas had Devices, but they were of a nature that was not ultimately workable. Okay, here's an important thing. Octagons are objects which have eight Facets, once of which is Device Element. So for examine, an Octagon with a little red circle would also have seven other aspects. So by seeing a red circle in someone's Fonosta Device, you will know that they have the other seven aspects, if such are known for that model of Octagon. There is the idea of "trading up" here, where, say, a light blue square is enormously difficult to obtain, and can only be gotten through "trading in" a number of other Octagons, each of these perhaps also being made up of "traded in" Octagons, and so on. This system is required, because there will only be so much space available in the Device, with computer resolution and human perception being the limiting factors. So a Fonosta Device will show you, at a glance, what a person is all about. Beginners will be easy to spot, as will seasoned veterans of Obliviana, from the nature of their Devices. This system implies a "non-permanence" of Octagons, if they can be "traded in". So, any elements that need to be permanent can exist apart from Octagon. It occurs to me that Octagon is a system of recordkeeping, which is at the heart of the system, but not the totality of the system. With such variety in the nature of the input into Fonosta, a system is needed which distills all the disparate input into a universal system which can be understood by all. And this system is called Octagon. In general, now, the accomplishments in Obliviana that I referred to above are recorded permanently in your Fonosta, but are used to "buy" Octagons, and therefore make all Fonostas play by the same rules, even though each Fonosta may contain a dizzying amount of personal information. Others will not have to sift through such information--the Device will tell the story in broad strokes. Tue 6/3/97 * 12:13 AM Okay. I have made a good deal of progress here, but I want to go a little further before hitting the hay. Obliviana can be seen as a set of challenges, and by meeting these chellenges, people can obtain Octagons, as well as recording a permanent record of their achievements. Fonosta is a system which allows folks who are engaged in a wide variety of activities to be part of a single community and compete and compare their accomplishments with those of all the others in the system. Now, Obliviana is a system which sets forth numerous challenges. Some challenges could be: [1] Mallball and other Friction Enhancers in 209. [2] Build a Deluge of Primacy (wax-drip structure) of a specific height. [3] Read an entire Cupline of Severe Repair, or develop your own Cupsequence for SR. [4] Play a series of Obliviana Classic games. [5] Create a series of Yargos. etc... 12:37 AM Smokewaves blasting over my keyboard... So Obliviana is a system which sets forth a likely vast amount of "challenges", and by taking these challenges on, the results and details of them are stored in your Fonosta as Cups. The Cups are "charged" when they enter your Fonosta, and it is this Charge that you use to "buy" Octagons. This Charge idea is designed to establish that Cups are not lost when used to "buy" Octagons. So there are levels: [1] Level at which challenges are met. [2] Cup level. [3] Octagon level. Note: Physical artifacts in Obliviana, such as could be traded, etc. Super Objects, Modern Saplings, etc. So with this new structure, Obliviana is emerging as a potentially very massive game/entertainment system. All of the cool things I have invented and created are indeed disparate and most likely not able to be all fit into a unified system. Therefore, the Octagon system solves the problem. Octacon is a unified system, but the "challenges" are not. The unification process starts with accomplishments being distilled into Cups, and is further unified by the Cups being used to obtain Octagons. Note: Needwords: "challenge", "accomplishment", etc. It is important to note that "challenges" must be official Obliviana challenges. This is really the first level of distillation, since a system which distills ALL sorts of activites is conceivable, and is maybe even a system which I would have embraced int he past, but not now. This Core Endeavor of mine has very specific criteria, and I am sure that the first level of "official Obliviananess" is required to keep the system under control. One more topic I want to touch on before I turn in is the idea of different general areas of endeavor. For example, some people might wish to focus on 209, while others might be more into the games, while others might focus on the fictional works such as Severe Repair. And of course, some might do a little of everything. With the Octagon system, it will be apparent by one's Fonosta Device what they are focusing on. Therefore, it is necessary to define these areas of focus, and create specific attributes for Octagons which are available with these different sorts of Cups. Colors and shapes and patterns will be identified with these various areas. Well, I think I have made a great stride forward tonight. I feel a lot better about things. And I truly believe that a lot of people will have a Wonderful time playing Obliviana. Goodnight. Tue 6/3/97 * 9:59 PM Okay. Last night I made a lot of progress, and I need to go further tonight. So let me describe Obliviana as I see it now... OBLIVIANA Obliviana is a game and entertainment system which presents players with a wide variety of Amusements. An Amusement is a challenge, and when a player successfully completes an Amusement, he fills a Cup with the accomplishment of completing that Amusement. Cups go into the player's identity in Obliviana, his Fonosta. Cups enter the Fonosta Charged, and these Cup Charges can be spent to buy Octagons. Octagons are the building blocks of your Fonosta. In your Fonosta there is a Cup for each Amusement completed. This set of accomplishments is distilled into Octagons, so that you may interact with other players of Obliviana, your Fonosta interacting with theirs. So, even though folks in Obliviana are playing wildly different sorts of Amusements, at the Octagon level, there is a unity and a simplicity to the system. Amusements are defined by Obliviana Super Occult Amusement. That is, there are official Obliviana Amusements, which can be used to fill Cups in your Fonosta. So this is the first "level" of Obliviana--browsing through the set of available Amusements, choosing one, playing it, and then filling a Fonosta Cup with it. At this level, a player is doing fun stuff and keeping track of it. I'll call this "Level One" for now. At Level One, you are doing fun stuff, and you have a Fonosta to keep track of what you have done. If Obliviana only existed at this level, it would be okay, but it would be difficult to compare your Fonosta to and interact with other players and their Fonostas. Therefore, we come to "Level Two". Level Two is the place where players of Obliviana come together and interact and compete through their Fonostas. Because Obliviana Amusements are so wildly diverse, it would be very difficult to compare Amusement Cups without some sort of abstract system to distill a player's accomplishments into an easily understood and recognized system. This system is Octagon. Amusement Cups are distilled into Octagons. Each Fonosta therefore contains a set of Octagons. At this level, players are able to quickly and easily see where they stand among other players. If Obliviana were to exist with just these two Levels, it would still be difficult to interact with other players, and to solve this problem, I have created "Little World of Racetracks" (LWOR). LWOR is "Level Three" of Obliviana, and its purpose is to allow interaction and competition between players of Obliviana. Because players will be scattered across the world, it will be impractical for all players to come together at a physical location. But, using computer networks, it is possible to create a common "place" where all Fonostas can coexist, and therefore interact and compete. This place is a "cyberplace", LWOR. LWOR exists to facilitate interaction and competition, with Amusements as that which brings players together. For example, if you are focused on Obliviana Classic, my boardgame, there will be a Racetrack, or part of a Racetrack, where Fonostas of people with that same interest will reside. Now, while LWOR is designed for the described purpose, it itself becomes a medium for Amusements. As the name implies, there are Racetracks where racing goes on, and such racing is an Obliviana Amusement. And as such, racing is distilled into Cups, which are distilled into Octagons. And of course, there are myriad other possible Amusements is LWOR itself. So, it will be possible to play Obliviana almost exclusively in cyberspace, and also, almost exclusively in reality. In the case of the latter, elements of Fonosta, such as Fonosta Device, can be output and worn by a players, as a T-shirt, or pin, or hat, or whatever. And interaction and competition can happen in reality, with the results being stored via computer network. In the case of the former, a player can "run" his Fonosta in LWOR and participate in LWOR Amusements only. Wed 6/4/97 * 12:51 AM The system I have been describing is very much a framework on which I can build many Wonderful things. 11:40 PM Primal Wonder is very important here. Looking toward Wonder... I had the thought that this is what was originally meant by religion... to keep people facing toward Primal Wonder... then the idea of God as some guy oppressing you came in and people started rejecting religion, and rejecting Wonder. I am tired of this limbo existence of mine. I want to start Obliviana. I can't keep going like this. It's been such a long time. If you go back an issue or two and read the beginning of the "Little World of Raceways" document from over a year ago, you'll see that at that time I made the decision that the system I currently had was THE system and that I would not continue on with the constant development. But that declaration turned out to be wrong. The system was not workable. It seemed good at the start, but further development revealed that it was extremely flawed. Now I am at the same point with my current system. I want to make the same declaration as I did before, but I am understandably reluctant to do so considering what happened the last time. But in my heart, I feel that this is the right system. And more than ever, I feel like even if this ISN'T the right system, I'm gonna hafta go ahead with it--the limbo state is becoming very tiresome. This system that I currently have is not fully defined. What if it, too, turns out to be no good? Well, I think I can judge the system at this point, at least to some extent. I have developed this system to be very general and encompassing. Here are some aspect: [1] Obliviana offers "Amusements" of all sorts. People play these amusements. [2] Players record information on the Amusements they have played, in a record that is called a Fonosta. [3] Players can interact and compete with each other through the Octagon System and the cyberworld Little World of Racetracks. The Octagon system distills Amusements played into Octagons, which are universal in Obliviana. [4] The Little World of Racetracks itself becomes a place where Amusements can be played. These four "Levels" of Obliviana are almost the same as I discussed yesterday. This defines my current system of Obliviana. So what could be wrong with it? Okay. I suppose that the main problem area is going to be in structuring the Octagon system. Turning Amusements played into Octagons. Right now, I feel that I can tackle the challenge, but I also did last time. But wait a minute. Last time, I came up with Little WOrld of Racetracks. And indeed, I AM using that system. It's just, there's this whole other aspect of Obliviana that I was neglecting back then. So that was my problem--not that the system was bad, but that it was incomplete. So is my current system incomplete? One issue I can think of is how the whole 209/Stromjaunt system is defined as an Amusement along with other sorts of stuff, like fiction and comics and games. Should 209 be more at the center of the system? Should it be separate from the Amusements? My case AGAINST changing the system in this way is strong. I don't want to make 209 the focus of the system in presenting it to the public. I think it's much better to have 209 exist as an aspect of the system, in an unobtrusive way. Okay. I'm sitting here wondering if I can further develop this system. So why don't I further develop it? Okay. [1] Amusements are to be "official". By this I mean that there will be a list of Amusements that is created by me and released through OSOA, which will identify the set of all available Amusements. Amusements will come and go. [2] The significance of an Amusement being "official" is that it may be "poured into" a Cup in your Fonosta. This act of entering a played Amusement into your Fonosta is done so with the sanction of OSOA. Of course, people can do whatever they want, but if they want a played Amusement OFFICIALLY ntered into their SANCTIONED Fonosta, they will have to play an "official" Amusement. [3] Amusements will be identified by unique codes. Amusements will definitely be quantified. That is, even in that case of an Amusement with a lot of "ifs", there will be defined parameters that designates where that Amusement begins and ends. [4] The Cup is the basic unit of recording in Obliviana. In each Amusement, there will be defined parameters of play which will constitute a single Amusement Cup. [5] Amusement Cups will be identified using the same system of identifying Amuesments. That is, the same categories and sub-categories will apply. [6] Octagons will likewise be identified using this same system, although due to the nature of Octagons, there will be a lot of mixing going on. Let it suffice to say at this point that Octagons are basically defined by Amusement categories, but they can then go on to higher levels of classification. [7] It is of the utmost importance, therefore, to develop the system of Amusement classification. I currently have the 2-level Revolver/Cupline hierarchy system. I have to see if this will be applicable to the task at hand. [8] It just occurred to me that Stormjaunt Scrolls could be applicable to the whole system, ie, "Amusement Scrolls". But then, would this diminish the value of Stormjaunting, if ALL Amusements are considered thus? Or, the whole system could revolve around Stormjaunting to some level or another. [9] In terms of categorizing Amusements, I think I should create eight all-encompassing categories to start with, which will be robust enough to contain all Amusements I will develop in the future. [10] Initial listing of categories: [a] Classic Friction Enhancer (Mallball, Pebbleswitch, etc.) [b] Traditional Game (as opposed to the untraditional overall game of Obliviana) (Obliviana Classic, Vamershee, etc.) [c] Creation Games (Deluge of Primacy, Yargo drawing, Blamnoom, etc.) (also writing and comics?) [d] Passive Entertainment (as in, you drink it in, but don't interact much) (Severe Repair, Zope, etc.) [e] Active Entertainment (as in, you drink it is, and then do something with it) (SR Cuppaths, Superior selecting and using (as in "displaying" it on a side of one of your building, etc.), etc.) [f] LWOR "Cyber" (Game activities played with your Fonosta "Guy" in LWOR) [g] Obliviana Artifact (vague idea right now, but using Super Objects, Modern Saplings, etc. in some way) [h] Meeting (vague idea right now, but deals with interacting with other players in reality) So, in making this list, I can see that I have a real challenge on my hands, since this set of eight is very far from fulfillment. But I do see that I am on the right track. I am now defining stuff in Oblviana in terms of how people will interact with it, which is really the bottom line of all the work I've ever done on Obliviana, but I never really structured the system with this as a founding concept. Thu 6/5/97 * 1:11 AM What about Blivs? Blivs are those uncaused but very unlikely events which occur while Stormjaunting. Should all players be aware of Blivs, no matter what they're doing? Aha! I see something now. Regarding Stormjaunting, with it's Storm selection, I recall the "StormLustLuck" gameboard I had on my previous website, where choosing a Storm was the basis of a gambling-type game. This lotterylike aspect can make Storm selection for Amusements much more palatable. That is, with a Storm number embedded into each Amusement Cup, a lotterylike system could reward players who have a Cup or Cups in a certain state with those numbers. Perhaps Charged Cups? Ie, before they are "discharged" to buy Octagons? Anyway, considering this idea in conjunction with Blivs, I can see that there will be an initial set of instructions to players. And the concept of Blivs is very important, because it is a very simple but also a very compelling idea, and it will encourage players to select their Storms BEFORE doing an Amusement/Stormjaunt because doing so does increase the likelyhood of Blivs occurring. So... everyone does Stormjaunting, but at different levels. The basic level involves an understanding of setting a Storm and looking out for Blivs. Higher levels incorporate an understanding of Friction Enhancing and "Zonal Aesthetics". A thought strikes me, which is that the somewhat rigid idea of setting up an Amusement and then playing it, and then ending it and recording it some more, that this process is in stark contrast to the baffling muddle that "browsing", especially on the Internet, can become. So, for example, looking at the Obliviana website, instead of just randomly sampling things, a player will decide to, say, read ten Cups of Severe Repair, to gain an Amusement Cup. This level of structure may seem a little restrictive, but its benefits, I believe, far outweigh, its drawbacks. Well, gotta go to bed now. I think I've made a lot more progress this evening. I think that maybe, just maybe, I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 6/6/97 * 11:05 PM It's that date again, when back in 1986 it was "666" and my car broke down and Peter Litkey got fired and stuff. And the next day, I started Halfevil Graphics. That was 11 years ago. One year ago, I was about 24 hours away from meeting my now-fiance Denice in person, after chatting with her on America Online and speaking to her on the phone on the night of 6/5/96. Wow. The eleventh anniversary of Halfevil Graphics. It seems like such ancient history to me, so very distant. But eleven years can be very long or very short depending on how you look at it. I read today that Disney revamped "Pirates of the Carribean" at Disneyland, to reduve the amount of womanizing, thus making it more "politically correct". This is an absolutely sickening thing. The Disney company of today is truly vile. If Walt were alive... well... Sun 6/8/97 * 9:30 AM I had a dream just now which was like a Little Rascals episode. Spanky (at about four years old), and mother and a few siblings were at a bus or train station. They were headed for a restaurant when the mother stopped and said "No, I think some ham for my Spanky!", and they turned around and headed for a different restaurant in the station. Sitting at a booth, Spanky standing at right rear seat, he's done with his ham, and his aunt or something has a little chili left, so he goes over and stands at the left aisle seat and absently scoops out chili from the bowl with his finger as he stares into space, and ultimately delivers the line "You know, I think I like plastic surgery better than free surgery." His mother says something in a joking way about "don't be so political". But his big sister, a teen, sitting in back of booth, defends plastic surgery a little. There's a bathroom to the left, at the back of the restaurant, with a divider up to get in or something, for some reason. Before that... I was outside at a picnic table, and I had this thing to do, related to communicating with people or something, and my sister has this awesome set of Crayola Crayons... with the number "100" on the top of the box, and with all sorts of aweseme new colors, and also little ball and maze puzzle games, all arranged kind of like a notebook. Then my sister came back and flipped out and yelled at me for playing with her Crayolas. So I went out to this trailor in my gransmother's yard and went in and locked the door and found big black garbage bag on the floor with not one, but three of these awesome Crayola sets in it. But then, to my left, the dark trailor opened up into a full-fledged toy store. But I took the three games back into my grandmother's house, just to look them over and decide which one to buy, fully intending to bring them back to the toy store and pay for the one I chose. It crossed my mind that it might look like I stole the Crayolas, as I sat my the TV set examining the boxes, but I quickly dismissed the thought. Right as I was waking up, I had a little vision. Now, at work there is this piece of art above the elevator, at 185 Varick St., with all these little LEDs arranged in rows and circles and stuff, and programmed to light in various sequences. Anyway, just imagine a square with maybe four to six LEDs on each side, green. And on each side, the first LED would light up, then it would go out as the next went on, and so forth. So in the vision, I saw the letters HONE superimposed on these LEDs. And I ttok it to mean that I had arrived at the right Obliviana idea, and that now I have to HONE the idea. Also, ealrier in dreams, I looked up at booths of a resaurant that were overlooking the atrium I was in, and I wondered if I could go up there, or if it was only for the "privileged". So... back the the Disneyland thing... if Disney were alive today, he would be 95-and-a-half years old, and the world would be a somewhat different place, and he definitely wouldn't have gone for a renovation of Pirates of the Carribean to make it more "politically correct"! 10:15 AM Hone. The idea in Obliviana that I have been thinking about the most the past few days is this idea of "entering" an activity into your Fonosta. This is something that I need to define a little more specifically. Well, terminology is an issue here. I think that I'll go with "Storm" as the overall terms for "doing an Amusement", no matter what it is. So you Stormjaunt, and at the end, when the Storm is over, you enter in into your Fonosta. Right now, I have the Stormjaunt Scrolls, which are little pieces of paper where you fill in some basic information, before and after the Storm. But even after this is filled out, the Storm is not "entered" into your Fonosta yet. Or is it? I think I need to define exactly what sort of storage system makes a Fonosta a Fonosta. 8:55 PM As I thought more and more today about my "hypnopompic" message of "HONE", I really started to take it as a sign that my ideas are now indeed mature and "right", and that now is a time of HONING my ideas. As I have mentioned many times before, I have been very concerned about whether I have the "right" idea or not. I think that the little HONE vision I had this morning is a message that indeed I have arrived at the right idea. Where did this message come from? I don't know. But somehow, the way it was presented, with the LEDs and stuff, it just rings true. So, now on to more working on the idea... A Fonosta will contain X number of Cups. It is quantified. So whereas life is full of subtletites and qualitative experiences, a Fonosta is very much quantitative. So, Fonostas take essentially qualitative experiences and quantify them. This then involves a process of converting the qualitative data into quantitative data. Sort of like in baseball, where actions on the field are converted into very quantified stats. This process involves observing the activities in question and fitting them into an established quantitative system. This means that there are various types of information, with parameters... So, what exactly is recording for each Storm? I was till now thinking along the lines of having just the act of completing the Storm itself be that which is quantified and recorded. But now, I am thinking along the lines of having a number of "stats" which can be recorded. Now, I have to keep in mind that the Octagon system requires that the "value" of Cups of the same sort of Storm be the same. That is, all Mallball Cups will be worth the same in terms of "buying" Octagons. But, for example, in Mallball Cups, a subvalue would be "number of layers". This idea opens up a lot of complications. That is, one the one hand, it is much easier to give all Mallball Cups the same value in terms of Octagon, with the subvalues being ignored in the Octagon context. But this would cause a situation where a person who, say, would consistenly go to only two malls and thus make two-layer Mallballs the same level of "prestige" and "power" in Octagon as a person who consistently did, say, eight-layer Mallballs. One answer to this would be that Octagon is not the only measurement of "prestige" and "power". Another problem would be people doing the absolute minimum to get a Cup, to get more Cups. This could be remedied by establishing minimums, such a four layers for a Mallball, or establishing maximum Cups per time period, ie, one Mallball Cup per day. Such restrictions would have to address the reality of such situations. In terms of Mallball, I think that one per day is absolutely reasonable. But for some other types of Storms, there could be many per day. Another way I could deal with this problem is to assign a "charge" value to a Cup, depending on the extent to which it is done. So, for example, a 4-layer Mallball might get a charge of 1, while an eight-layer might get 2. But this idea does not appeal to me. Rather, I want to see such matters of extent benefit the player in a way other than Octagon. Octagon is the "common tongue" of Obliviana. As such, it needs to be simple. So, for example, if the minimum number of layers of a Mallball is four, how do I reward those who work much harder and achieve much more than the minimum? Octagon is designed to allow anyone in Obliviana to quickly see how they compare to anyone else in Obliviana, no matter what aspect of Obliviana they are involved in. BUT, for those in the same area of Obliviana, the specifics of the accomplishments will have more meaning. That is, for Mallballers, it will be a matter of prestige to be able to present high numbers of layers in your Mallball. So, in the Octagon system, Storms are very straightforward. They either are, or they aren't. 1 or 0. Now, what about abortive attempts? That is, what if someone has three layers of a Mallball and their car breaks down? Okay. I feel that in such a case, the original Storm is not achieved. That is, a three-layer Mallball does NOT get a Mallball Cup. But, no Storm will ever go unrewarded. So, perhaps all abortive attempts, as well as those Storms with no real goal in mind, will generate a "Basic Cup", which would not be worth as much as other Cups, but which would have value. Of course, there has to be some sort of minimum for a Storm. A player cannot start and finish a new Storm every minute and wind up with hundreds of Storms in a day. A Storm is meant to be a sincere attempt to do something, and being that even the "Basic" Storm takes awhile to generate any kind of results, there have to be some minimums below which no Cup is generated. These rules I am describing have to be very specific. There cannot be anything, in terms of the quantitative values, that is left up to the player. Maybe I should rephrase that. What I mean by this is that all sorts of situations have to be addressed, and the system has to be rock-solid. Another big issue is the potential problem of people just plain lying about Storms, and not doing them at all. This problem can be addressed in a number of ways. But the most essential way of dealing with this potential problem is to establish, from the very beginning, that your Fonosta is something for YOU, and that cheating on your Fonosta is about as productive as cheating at solitaire. Of course, with competition as a big motivator in Obliviana, there will be situations where players will be tempted to lie, or at least exaggerate, their Storms. Now, this is a problem. When the urge to cheat strikes a player, there has to be a REASON to be honest. Some people will have their own moral sense, and be able to resist with their own will. But others will need some sort of prodding to remain honest... [1] Instill a sense of pride in honesty, and give the player the responsibility to be honest. With this "honest" atmosphere, anyone caught lying will be looked down upon. Additionally, lying will cast doubt on all your Cups, past, present, and future. [2] Some really weird stuff happens while Stormjaunting, so I don't want to discourage people from reporting the truth for fear of it being interpreted as a lie. [3] In no way do I want to start policing player. That is, I don't want to require any sort of verification, ie, witnesses, photos, videos, etc. For one thing, such a system would be unbelievably difficult to admister. For another, it would be fertile soil for clever cheaters. And the main reason is that I don't see such a system as being in synch with Obliviana at all. Treat all people like potential cheaters, and a lot of them will BECOME cheaters who normally wouldn't. It may be idealistic to expect people to be honest for the sake of being honest. But I think it's good to encourage people to be honest and trust them to be. 11:06 PM Well, it's about time to stop and upload this issue. So that's what I'll do. *OW* -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----