|| -------- -- -----  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 171--11/3/97 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 14  ||  -------> (Cup OWis171, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = OsoaWeek Book Fourteen 2 "OsoaWeek171" by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana, Tarb 7171 (11/3/97), copyright 1997 OBLIVIANA REGISTRY NEW REVOLVERS None NEW CUPLINES None NEW CUPS None *OW* LORD OF OBLIVIANA Tue 10/7/97 * 12:00 PM Well, here I am. Checked out my new apartment with my soon-to-be wife Denice earlier. Just got carpeted today, very nice. Anyway, I have to do a lot of moving stuff this week, and goddamn it's hot out! I thought this darn hot weather was over with, but it was up there near 90 today and right now it's muggy and hot and nasty. I have pretty much established the Jot System, and now I really have to get it going. Exactly three weeks from yesterday will be the start of Book Fourteen, with OsoaWeek170. This is the date I'm aiming for to begin the Jot System. Now, the Jot System will BE Obliviana. That is, it will be identified as a game, and it will be called Obliviana. It will BE Obliviana. It is the foundation of Obliviana, totally. Less than three weeks. Can I do it? Yes. I already developed Surface O, which is a new "web interface" for Obliviana. I will be using this for Jot right from the start. Now, to start with, Jot will run with players doing it all themselves. That is, players will not join, or inform Obliviana of any of their actions. This decision is based on the fact that I am not going to have the time to process any of this sort of interaction until next year. So it's safe to say that Book Fourteen will have Jot, but it will not involve joining or registering or any of that. 12:38 AM The form of Jot will be Surface O, but Surface O will exist in LWOR. So I have to define the Racetracks! Also, I need to develop the initial Fonosta Systems. I think that I will start off with one Fonosta System, perhaps on a single Racetrack. The idea for this initial Jot system is to get things going. So, a single Racetrack, a single Jot System. I think that the "Dream House" idea is best to start with. 1:04 AM Define, say, eight Rooms. Exits will correspond to moving clockwise or counterclockwise around the track, as well as continuing to explore in that one segment of track 1:12 AM Took shower, more ideas. Okay--the four Exits--Clockwise, Counterclockwise, Crossover/Tunnel, Explore. Clockwise--move in clockwise direction to next segment of Racetrack. Counterclockwise--move in counterclockwise direction to next segment of Racetrack. Crossover/Tunnel--If another Racetrack is crossing segment, move to the other Racetrack. If not, take a Tunnel which could lead to any other segment on any Racetrack, or to secret areas. Explore--Move to another "Grotto" in the same Racetrack segment. Could also lead to secret "Grottos". Well, this sounds pretty good. Surface O is now a means of navigating LWOR! With this in mind, it's clear that LWOR will have to be graphically represented in Surface O. Being that I had one of the four spaces undefined when I completed the initial work on Surface O a week-and-a-half ago, it should not be hard to fit it in. The LWOR map will be a full map. It will have the current Racetrack highlighted, as well as the current location. I will eventually need to produce 256 maps to correspond to the 256 Racetrack segments. To start off with, I might just "open" the central Racetrack which has just 8 segments. Tunnels may lead to one or both of the "Mystery Racetracks" as well. I think though, to keep it simple, I'll establish the system with just the center Racetrack. Secret places could show a DIFFERENT map! That would be exciting, but I don't want to overdo anything like that. As well, Tunnels could lead to Grottos on a segment that are otherwise inaccessible. Exitting via "Explore" from such a Grotto would get you back to the "normal" Grottos of that segement. Tue 10/7/97 * 11:23 PM Jot is coming along. I have decided to have a blinking marker on the LWOR map via animated GIF. I am still on the fence as to whether to have the map in color or grayscale, but I am now leaning toward grayscale. Wed 10/8/97 * 12:10 AM The original design for Surface O called for no color at all except for the Hinges. Earlier this evening, I was working ont he LWOR with the idea of having it in color. But I think it may indeed work very well as grayscale. Regarding the Hinges, I think it makes total sense to have the Pelter corresponding to the Storm the Racetrack segment is on be the source for the Hinge. Now, another aspect here is multiple "screens" in each segment. These "screens" will be based on the landscape of LWOR. So, the main "screen" will be the Roadway. Grotto will be one of the other "screens". And maybe Pavilion will be another. It makes sense that if you're in a Grotto and if you move counterclockwise and there's a Grotto in the next segment, that you should go to the Grotto in that segment. It make be possible the you'd need to enter a certain Grotto from another Grotto, and not from the Roadway. So I have to develop the set of "screens" that will exist in LWOR. I think that four different kind will suffice for the start of Jot. One possible layout for the map would be the lower half as the map cropped vertically. The upper left quadrant would identify where you are, and the upper right quadrant would be a representation of the entire LWOR map. This idea is good because it allows for there to be one main graphic file for each "screen". I see this panel in the second position. The first position would hold two graphics, one on top of the other. The top one is the Obliviana logo which identifies the whole thing, with copyright notice, "Made in NJ", and all that. The lower graphic would be the Zope feature, which could potentially also be an animated GIF. The third panel is the main content panel which has "ads" for other parts of Obliviana, or outside ads, or whatever else. The fourth panel has the Deals. Shaping up pretty nicely, eh? Wed 10/8/97 * 11:45 PM I have this damn broken refirdgerator, and I've been going through all this stress knowing that I have to dispose of it. At first, I wasn't gonna call my apartment complex about it, I was just gonna leave it by the dumpsters. Then I kept worrying about it so much, I called up and they said I could leave it by the dumpsters so long as the doors were off. So tonight I took the doors off and took all the junk out. Then, I decided to take off the pipe-grid kind of thing on the back. Well, the thing is attached to the refridgerator via the pipes, so I yank it up and down and the pipe breaks and it starts hissing. So I figure that I got this toxic freon gas flowing into my apartment now. I open the window, and call over to Denice who was at the new apartment and spoke to her mother, with the thought of maybe getting the hell out of here and sleeping there for the night. I called the fire department and the guy said it wans't dangerous. Then I went online and found a safety guide, and it turns out that freon IS somewhat hazardous, but with good ventilation it shouldn't be too bad. Something like that. So I put a fan in the window, set of exhaust, and now I'm gonna retreat to my bedroom, door closed, and go to sleep. I just wanna get this damn refridgerator out of my apartment and out of my life! And to think I actually hauled it up here in the first place! Geez! Anyway, right now I don't know if I'm suffering any ill effects from the freon. I do feel a little weird. But then again, it could just be in my mind... Oh well. In other news, I've been experiementing with animated GIFs of the LWOR map. I'm definitely getting somewhere. But the whole thing requires a heck of a lot of work. Fri 10/10/97 * 7:36 PM Just moved my computer to a table in preparation for the dismantling of my desk for transport to my new apartment. I've been through several sets of analysis on my new Surface-Jot System, and it has withstood my mental assaults. Many times, systems that I devise crumble under my scrutiny. At the heart of Surface-Jot is the four panel / eight link setup. Four grayscale content panels of 132-by-228 pixels, and eight links of 132-by-12 pixels. Sat 10/11/97 * 1:51 PM Finished moving all the big stuff. Now I gotta go down to my storage in Iselin and get my futon, so I'm getting together some stuff for storage. My apartment is now full of stuff. Books, boxes, video games, CDs, etc. I have to go through everything and decide what I want to do with it. I do have two weeks to take care of it all, though, which is cool. Gotta tellya about a dream I had last night. I was in Plainfield, NJ, and I was going somewhere and when I was heading back for my car, I decided to go into this comic book store I had seen a few times. Inside were a lot of amazing things, all sorts of models and figurines and action figures. I tried to act cool and get an overview of the store before scrutinizing everything. The store seemed kind of small, and there weren't many comics. There was a row of models and model parts for like a scarecrow--even some enormous eyes and nose for a gargantuan scarecrow model. Then I went downstairs and it was quite amazing. It was a huge space, very dark, in which was a recreation of the street outside the comic shop, although changed in some ways. There was even a store there which had recently closed and which was very famous. The whole thing was done so well you couldn't even see the walls. I was looking across a lawn or something, wondering if I could explore it. There were people all around. I think they sold comics down there. It was totally amazing. This could wind up in Severe Repair! Anyway, I want to get back to Surface-Jot for a moment before I set off for Iselin. One element of this system is that there will exist other parts of Obliviana online besides Surface-Jot. That is, the Severe Repair pages will still exist, and you will be able to link there if there's a "ad" for Severe Repair in the third panel. On every page of Surface O, there are eight and only eight links. The top four are reserved for navigating Surface-Jot. This leaves four for links to other places. The fourth bottom link always leads to "How to Play" the Jot system. The first bottom link always leads back to the main Obliviana page. The third bottom link leads to where the "ad" refers to. This leaves the second bottom link, under the LWOR map. I think that this link should also be variable. It COULD lead to information on LWOR, but I think that it may be best as a "wildcard" sort of link, leading to different weird places. I have also considered having a "Zope" link, but I think this is probably unnecessary, as there can be such a link on the main page, which is where the link right below the Zope area leads. I may decide to break the Deal area into four, as opposed to six areas. This will allow for more space, which will allow the Jots to be represented larger, as well as leaving open the possibility for Jots to be represented smaller, allowing for more to be shown. Well, time to go to Iselin! 5:54 PM Back from Iselin. Ripped my pants on my Jeep, really bad rip, half my boxers was exposed in the back. Had to tie a jacket around my waist when I went to the Menlo Park Mall. Anyway, I've been thinking about the relationship between Suface-Jot and the rest of the site. I think it would be good for www.obliviana.com to take you right into Surface-Jot. Also, it makes total sense for all of the content in Obliviana to exist "below" Surface-Jot. That is, all of Severe Repair, Zope, Superior, etc. will exist at a segment and area of LWOR. This brings up the issue that if each area has some content associated with it, shouldn't that be presented at the Surface level? The third panel could be used for this purpose, but I really want to be able to use the third panel for general kind of stuff. I have decided that each Racetrack will have a name, and each segment will be identified by it "mile" from the starting gated, going counterclockwise. So, for example, if there's a Racetrack called "Concordo", it's eight segment would be "Concordo Mile 8". In addition to this, there are numerous potential locations within each Mile. So, the "Grotto" for the above segment would be "Concordo Mile 8 Grotto". 6:23 PM Content that is based in a certain location. When on a content page, there will be a link to Surface, which will take you to the surface screen representing that area. With Severe Repair, for example, a single area might contain a single Cupline. With this is mind, it's clear that there will have to be space for a "billboard" identifying what content is "below" the Surface of each area. The top left quadrant of panel two is for area identification. So, it would read like "Concordo Mile 8 Grotto--Classic Zope". Something like that. Or, I could simply split panel three into two parts vertically, one for that area's content, and one for somewhere else. It is possible, however, that there would NOT be links to other parts of LWOR or other Obliviana content. This would heighten the sense of space and the sense wandering and the sense of limitation, all very inportant. Hmm... So, when you get somewhere in Surface-Jot, and you find something cool, you'll know that you've accomplished something. In an HTML world, where URLs are 100% known, it is hard to have a system where people HAVE to explore. But I don't want to make it cumbersome to get where you want to go. So if you know the URL for "Concordo Mile 8 Grotto", you can just go there! But you'll still have to explore to find new places. If the file naming conventions are too easy, though, folks will be able to "teleport" to places they've never been before. Oh well. Gotta go. Sun 10/12/97 * 1:00 AM I have some words about electronica and Carol Burnett. Electronica is this new genre of music, and I've been into techno a little and I like a few songs, but come onit sucks and the fact that so many people like it shows that the quality of people in this world is going way down. I just saw a rerun of the Carol Burnett Show, and I remembered how much I liked it growing up. Then a few years ago she got a massive facelift, and said on Letterman or something "I've got Kim Basinger's face." or something like that. So talented, so loved, so successful, and still she has to go and be totally into appearance. I don't know. It relates to Electronica somewhat--it sounds good on the surface, but there's nothing underneath. Beauty is only skin deep. Sex. The ugliest person is acutely aware of and able to judge beauty. It is built into the human body you inhabit. A lot of other things are also built in. It's clearm however, that whatever WE actually are, we are in a constant battle to rise above the urges of our bodies. You are not your body. You are something else. That much is totally evident. On another topic... Is it really fun to play at killing? So many videogames these days involve graphic murder. I admit to playing some of these games, and yes, there is a novelty to it. And maybe these games allow people to release pent-up feelings. I don't know. But like just about everything, there's a point where it's just too much. And we've gotten to that point. How much farther can it go? Is the ultimate goal to precisely model human anatomy so that you can experience what it's like to murder and dismember someone with total realism? That's what it seems like. And that is not a good goal. In fact, it's an awful thing to be working on. We all have darkness within us. And it is uncomfortable to keep it all pent up. Little releases are cathartic. Total releases are disastrous. Did you ever wonder why this stuff is bottled up in the first place? Maybe there's a reason to supress the darkness within us. Of course there's a reason. You can't just go around killing everyone who pisses you off. But in a videogame, you CAN go around doing just that. I don't know. I want to provide some kind of alternative. But if you're familair with Severe Repair, Zope, and other aspects of my work, you know that I've produced a fair amount of sex and violence. But it's in MODERATION. 12:05 PM With Obliviana, I am presenting a website with the hopes that people will want to spend a lot of time there. Part of the challenge of keeping people's attention is to make a site "graspable". That is, a person needs to understand the extent and nature of the site, and what they can get out of it. For a site to be graspable, it has to be very easy to understand. My current site, for example, is not very graspable. Surface-Jot goes a long way toward being graspable in its FORM. The consistent four grayscale panels and eight color links provide a consistency and a compelling theme-and-variation structure. A thought just struck me, which is that all the major elements of Obliviana should be represented in Surface-Jot. The element that is missing right now is 209. Zope represents the entertainment side, and the virtual world of LWOR is also very prominent. I think it makes sense to design Surface-Jot with all the elements represented. As I have it now, 209 is not presented at the Surface level. Space is at a premium in the Surface-Jot interface, but I think that I will have to make room for 209. 209 at the Surface level will be represented by Friction Enhancers. Friction Enhancers embody the spirit of 209, and are easy to grasp. The second panel is now fully devoted to the LWOR map. The upper left quadrant contain text describing where you are, the upper right shows the total map of LWOR, and the bottom half shows the specific part of the map you are at. This could be condensed into just the lower half, by presenting the text underneath the map, and giving up the overall map of LWOR. The overall map of LWOR has its plusses and minusses. On the plus side, the map gives you the big picture, allowing you to grasp the extent. But of the other hand, the zoomed-in map without the overall map provides incentive to explore. 12:33 PM I still have a lot of challenges in constructing Surface-Jot. My ultimate goal is for Obliviana to become a game that is played and enjoyed by a large number of people. Jot provides the "game glue" that ties all of Obliviana together. With Jot, all of Obliviana is indeed a game. I believe that the Internet will continue to grow, and more and more people will have access to it every year. Surface-Jot can be implemented in HTML, but it wouldn't be too hard to implement it in Java or some other HTML alternative. So Surface-Jot is not a stepping stone to get somewhere else--it is intended to be the permanent interface for Obliviana. Of course, Surface-Jot may not work out--that's something that I won't be able to tell until it's been implemeneted. Now, regarding Obliviana as an online game, the core of the game is in the constant development of your Fonosta with the Jot System. But in order for this to work as a game, there has to be goals. Goals are easy to incorporate into the Jot System. Each Racetrack will have its own Fonosta System, and will issue its own goals. The idea of multiple "platforms", all competing with each other, is a central idea in Obliviana. Another factor here is racing. Being that this is a "Little World of Racetracks", it makes sense that there should be some racing going on. And indeed, racing will be incorporated into the system. 1:02 PM I have to be at Mike Massotto's wedding in less than two-and-a-half hours. So, I've been asking a lot of questions about Surface-Jot, and a lot of them are difficult questions. Obliviana is something I've been working on for over ten years. In that time period, it seems that every few months I came up with a redefinition of the Obliviana system. So now, it's very hard to tie it all up in a neat package. One thing I do have is the goal of people playing the game of Obliviana. Whatever the history of Obliviana has been, the harsh reality is that I have to develop an Obliviana system that other people will be able to embrace. And this throws a lot of focus on everything. Obliviana is made up of several main elements: [1] 209 [2] Entertainment [3] LWOR/virtual world/Surface [4] Jot/Fonosta All of these elements have to mesh together to form a whole that is to be grasped as a GAME. 1:18 PM My Zip disks are being treated to a smoke bath. One of the major concepts in Jot is the idea of "Jot maturation". This idea involves obtaining a Jot which is "incomplete". In order to "complete" the Jot, you have to satisfy some criteria. This is the way in which 209 is connected to Jot--maturation via Stormjaunting! Gotta go to wedding now. Mon 10/13/97 * 10:04 PM This issue is due today. Maybe I'll be able to upload it if I can find a phone wire long enough to reach to the table my computer is now at temporarily for the move. I've been thinking a lot today about the overall plan for Obliviana. As I mentioned above, if I include a 209 feature in the Surface interface, all four of the major aspects of Obliviana will be present in Surface. The four major aspects are: Entertainment, 209, Jot/Fonosta, and Surface/LWOR. Another issue I have to deal with is the way in which "sub" content is dealt with. In Surface-Jot, all content exists inside "Places" on LWOR. I am using the term "Place" to refer to a single Surface screen, which is a specific area in a Racetrack segment. The hierarchy here is thus: [1] LWOR [2] Racetrack [3] Mile [4] Place This is a similar hierarchy to my just-previous Pavilion system, which was: [1] LWOR [2] Racetrack [3] Pavilion [4] Ride I really do like the Pavilion system, but it doesn't work as the foundation system. There could be a Pavilion Place, however, so the idea is not dead. No idea in Obliviana is ever totally dead. Ideas transform in Obliviana, in my mind. All Places have a Surface screen as their "home". One of the links, most likely the third link on the bottom, will lead to the rest of the Place. Another thing--I had intended the first link on the bottom to lead back to an Obliviana main page--but now, there is not really a main page anymore. But I do have to have a link which leads to introductory information, so that will probably be the first link. Come to think of it, it should be the SECOND link that leads to the rest of the place, not the third. The second panel is, after all, the panel that contains the information for the Place you're at! Another question is how many Deals should be in each Surface Place? One important change I've made in Jot is that there is no longer a limit to how many deals you can take in each Place. Limitation is taken care of via CJs (Currency Jots). Right now, I'm thinking that the entire fourth panel will be split into four segments, divided horizonally, each of which will contain one Deal. In any case, the fourth panel is reserved entirely for Jot. The first panel is split into two segment divided horizontally. On top is the general Obliviana feature, which identifies that you are in Obliviana. The bottom panel is for Zope. The second and third panels are somewhat in question. I know that at least one half of the second panel will contain the LWOR map segment showing where you are in LWOR. This leaves one-and-a-half panels that are potentially open. And 209 has to be somewhere in there. 10:34 PM One of the original inspirations for Surface was the idea that people cannot help but respond to very basic emotions and feelings. With this in mind, I think it might be good to incorporate the "Obliviana People" idea into Surface, with the idea that one of the motivations for playing Obliviana is to be profiled in Obliviana People. I had intended to include this feature as part of the content of the third panel. That is, the third panel was going going to contain a single graphic, and some of the time it would have been Obliviana People. I'll have to keep Obliviana People in mind as I continue to develop the layout of Surface. Now, in terms of presenting 209 content, I have been thinking along the lines of including Friction Enhancers. I think, though, that I will have to create a new kind of Friction Enhancer which can be presented simply, with very little text. I also want to have a definite connection to Jot with the FE feature. That is, the various challenges set for forth in FE must serve to mature Jots. In this, I could present the image of a Jot with the FE, identifying the class of immature Jot that can be matured by that FE. In this way, people will be encouraged to do FE's. Another aspect of the Surface class of FEs will be that they must be relatively easy to do. This fits right in with them being easy to present. And I think that this sort of FE is not too difficult to develop for. 11:28 PM With this new idea for Jot maturation being presented right at the Surface level, I have to also consider Entertainment-based Jot maturation. This is different than the FE idea, however, because content can only be referred to in the Surface, else drinking it at the Surface would satisfy the maturation requirement. I think that an Entertainment maturation reference is a possibility, however. But it would require a link. And I don't have a lot of links to go around. Wow. I'm writing this stuff, and I realize that if you're reading this stuff and you're not all that familiar with what I'm doing here, it's gotta be awfully confusing. I guess that really, I'm the only person who's gonna fully understand all the stuff I'm talking about. But it's my opinion that this development process is interesting in and of itself, and that there are some people out there who might enjoy reading about it. I've been at this development game for years now. I'm totally used to it. I definitely have perserverence. I've talked about this many times in the past, but I'll say it again--when people say that the key to success is perserverence, they're right--but I don't think many individuals truly understand what perserverence is all about. Perserverence is about being able to go on in the ABSENCE of success, possibly for a very long time. I do believe that Obliviana will someday succeed. If it does, it is because I have been able to keep on working and developing while having NO success. Surface-Jot is the latest system I have developed. If I had to estimate how many systems for Obliviana had come before Surface-Jot, I'd have to say maybe thirty of forty. And that's a lot. So what exactly is going on here with me? It's really pretty simple--I know that there is a system that I need to create. I am not sure of its nature, but I am very definitely able to tell when a system is NOT the right one. With Surface-Jot, the big difference is the Jot system. Jot is a very new idea in Obliviana, and I believe that it is the element that has been missing from Obliviana throughout those previous thirty or forty systems. Right now, I intend to finish up the plan for Surface-Jot, and then begin to implement it. So far, it seems that Surface-Jot could very well turn out to be the right system for Obliviana. But I have embraced too many systems as the "right" system in the past for me to be 100% confident in Surface-Jot. 11:55 PM The Redskins just defeated the Cowboys on Monday Night Football. Normally I don't care about sports at all, but my father and brother are longtime Redskins fans, and I hate the Cowboys, so I was actually interested in the game. Anyway, I want to try and get to some tentative layout for Surface before I go to bed tonight. Surface is meant to be engaging, understandable, and simple. I want everything that's in Surface to help toward this goal. It is the second and third panels that are in question. Right now, I know that two half panels will be the LWOR map/Place identifier and Friction Enhancer. This leaves one whole panel's worth of content still undefined. I have been thinking in terms of combining the map and the Place identifier in one half-panel. This is doable, but I need to also identify the content of the Place, and this cannot be done in that same half-panel. So I think I'm going to have to devote the entire second panel to Place. So, the second panel will cosist of Place ID on top, and LWOR map on the bottom. The overall LWOR map in a quarter-panel will not be part of this scheme. This leaves the third panel, half of which will be Friction Enhancer. So that leaves a half-panel. This means that I will not have the full-panel image for the third panel that I had envisioned. One possible idea would be for the bottom of the third panel to be an "ad" for another part of Obliviana, perhaps accessible through the "Tunnel" link above. But not all Places will have Tunnel. Internal "ads" are good in that they let people know what's happening elsewhere in Obliviana. But they also take awau a little from the exploration angle of Surface. So the "internal ad" is not at all definite. As far as the lower links go, the second one is definitely the one that goes "into" the Place. And the fourth is definitely "How to Play", since Jot is meaningless without explanation. I have thought about combining the "General Info" link with the "How to Play" link, but I it's better to keep them separate. With the system as it now exists, there is no overall index that would allow "teleportation" to wherever you want to go. Indeed, I do not want to have such an index. This aspect of Surface-Jot goes against the traditional wisdom of website design. But I believe that the limitation that is created by this system will be a great asset. When you go to "www.obliviana.com", you will be at a Place on Racetrack 11, which is the central Racetrack. At this point, using the "driving" links, it will take, I believe, over forty links to get to the farthest Places. This is very cumbersome if you want to get to these distant Places--but Tunnels can relieve this problem. Racetrack 11 has four Miles which can have Tunnels. I intend to use these Tunnels to allow easy access to distant Places. With Tunnels, it may only take ten or so links to get ANYWHERE in LWOR, which is not so bad. In fact, with the right overall Tunnel structure, the maximum number of links to get to any Place could conceivably fall well BELOW ten links. So, I have decided that the final half-panel will NOT be an "internal ad". So then, what about making it a REAL ad? This is a tough question. Actually, it's not a tough question. I don't want ads in Surface. If anything, ads would appear above or below Surface, but not IN Surface. So maybe Obliviana People is the right way to go. Yup. That's it. Got it. Goodnight. Wed 10/15/97 * 12:58 AM One month till my wedding day! So I made a prototype of the Surface interface I developed last night. The first thing I noticed was that the first three panels were divided in half by a horizontal line, and it looked kind of bad. So I moved up the LWOR map in the second panel, so that there's a quarter-panel above and below it. Obliviana People is on the top of the third panel, and arranges well with Zope in the bottom first. I also did the Friction Enhancer area in bottom third. I have a matured Jot pictured there, and it occurred to me that Jots should be maturable in different ways. That is, different graphical elements will be used to connect the inner and outer portions of immature Jots. I'm pretty happy with the Surface interface as it is now laid out. I still have to do a lot of formatting and make a lot of design decisions. As well, the question of animation is still up in the air. I just thought of the idea of "jittery" Jots, alternating between two frames of animation. Interesting. The idea of having complete Zope comics in the rather confined 132 x 114 space is intriguing. As is animating the Obliviana ID. And of course, the animated checkerboard on the LWOR would be very nice. Animation could add a lot of extra kick to Surface-Jot. I will continue to experiment with it. Thu 10/16/97 * 112:44 AM Obliviana is a game. What is Obliviana? Obliviana is a game. Simple, eh? Looking at my current Surface-Jot interface prototype, Obliviana is a lot clearer to me than it's ever been. I think that the design I have developed for the Surface-Jot interface provides me a strong foundation for all the work I have to do to make Surface-Jot a reality. There are eight distinct aspects of the interface: [1] Obliviana ID [2] Zope [3] Place ID/contents [4] LWOR map [5] Obliviana People [6] Friction Enhancer [7] Jot [8] Links I have a great deal of work to do on ALL of these. Sat 10/18/97 * 12:27 PM Weird day today. Stayed at my new apartment last night. One week left at this old apartment. Video Game Connections collector meeting tonight. I'll hit my storage on the way down, so I need to get together a Jeepload of stuff for storage! Thursday night I wrote a little Severe Repair, for the first time in months. It involves Hadrian Fozzcolt and the Boolevathers space agency, BOCORAM. It will be part of the "Johnny Pitch" Cupline. 1:17 PM At the core of Obliviana is the idea that your Fonosta is a record of things you have done, in glyphical symbolics. That is, Fonostas are made up of Jots, which are little graphical signs. In Obliviana, there could be a single Jot that represents a huge amount of effort. That is, a single Jot which can only be obtained by trading in many other Jots, which themselves each took a lot of Jots to get, and so on. One of the most important ideas in Obliviana is that your Fonosta is for YOU. If you phim and enter a Jot in your Fonosta that you haven't earned, YOU know that it is not true. If you're doing it to impress other people, you do not understand what Obliviana is all about. Jots cannot be traded in the traditional sense. That is, all the Jots in your Fonosta are there as a result of your own effort. There may be Jots which are matured through some sort of interaction with another Obliviana player, but this is not trading in the traditional sense. Or, you could "get" Jots which you yourself cannot use, but which must be given to another player. And conversely, other players will have this same sort of Jot to give to you. These would most likely be paper-based, and gotten through the mail. These CAN be traded, but only for other Jots of this sort--not for money or anything else. This is an idea I have to work on a lot more. The idea of different "Fonosta Systems" tied to Racetracks is a central idea in Obliviana, and one I have yet to fully develop. In LWOR, there are eight Major Racetracks, and three Minor Racetracks. This means that there will be eight Major Fonosta Systems. I'm not sure yet if there will be any Minor Fonosta Systems. As well, there are eight "blank" squares in LWOR, which will be accessible in some way. So it is possible that there will be several alternate Fonosta Systems, but the eight Major Fonosta Systems are the foundation of the Jot System. The idea of Fonosta Systems is that they all share the same Jots System, but in each Fonosta System, the Jots have different meanings. 2:07 PM Right now, the nature of the Fonosta Systems (FSs) is the most undefined of the major areas of Obliviana. Right now, I am thinking along the lines of the Fonosta Systems involving building things, such as a dream house or a little world. But this is much too vague. It does stand to reason that the basic nature of that which is being built in the different FSs should be the same. That is, building little worlds with different themes, as opposed to build wildly different things like: the personality of a character, the aspects of a religion, parts of a machine, etc. Theme is very important here, and as I have discussed in the past, I want to come up with new themes for Obliviana, as opposed to the typical fantasy, space, western, pirate, etc. themes. The reason for me having multiple FSs is first, that it "feels" right. That is, I have a vision for Obliviana, and multiple FSs are part of that vision. But there are other reasons. For example, by having multiple FSs, many more people will be interested in the system. Also, the presence of limited choice does make the system more appealing. And of course, themes and variations are very popular with people--as can be shown in systems as varied as collecting View Master to Pro Football. (Themes--little reels of 3-D photos and teams, variations--individual reels on specific subjects and specific teams.) I want to create an environment where there is good-natured rivalry between the Racetracks. I very definitely want each player to align themself with one Racetrack. 4:22 PM Continuing with my cleanup effort. Remember, I spent the first half of 1996 working real hard to get my possessions in order. At that time, I threw out literally more than a whole industrial dumpster worth of stuff. And I filled a 5 x 10 foot storage unit about 75%, literally from floor to ceiling. Now, I still have an apartment full of disorganized junk. A total wreck. In my main room, I have over thirty open boxes of stuff filling up all the floorspace. I have to get a major grip on this situation. I'm trying to be better about throwing stuff out. But I have so much REALLY GOOD stuff... 4:55 PM I want to work on the whole nature of FS thing. Regarding the nature of what you are building in your Fonosta... the question is, what are the benefits derived? Jots COULD represent nothing, and simply be abstract symbols. Attaching meaning to them is a very effective way of making the system more compelling by an order of magnitude. Now, the question of benefits is a central one here. In this, I am referring to any benefits that you derive from the nature of your Fonosta. Of course, the main benefit is personal satisfaction and the "catching" of energies expent which would otherwise fall into oblivion. Any other benefits, such as special abilities and accesses--are very sensitive to phimming. "Phimming" is my term for cheating in Obliviana by putting Jots in your Fonosta that you did not earn. Since Obliviana is based on trust and honesty, and since human nature is a constant which in this equation which cannot be altered, it is the unfortunate situation that benefits derived from the nature of your Fonosta will put pressure on people to cheat. In Obliviana, I am absolutely going to encourage people to share information on their Fonosta. This results in the benefits of "looking good in other people's eyes". While this is an incentive to cheat, hopefully it will not be strong enough to override in most people the sense of personal satisfaction, which is the strongest benefit of Fonosta. I guess what I'm driving at with this line of reasoning is the idea that your Fonosta might have some effect on your activity in the game world. For example, having a particular Fonosta element may allow you to enter someplace that you could not otherwise enter. This would, in my opinion, be too much of an incentive to phim. Is there a danger of there being too LITTLE benefit to the symbolic nature of the FSs. In one system you might be building a Wild West Town and in another you could be building a space station--but what real benefit do these things afford you? Because of the nature of Obliviana, such benefits must be kept within boundaries, measured by the effects of such benefits on a trust-based system. For example, if players were allowed to buy and sell Jots for real money, it is certain that cheating would be rampant and that Jots would lose all meaning. Such a cash-for-data system, such as Sega's online Transactor system, is not based on trust at all, but rather an air-tight cryptographic system, in which cheating is just about impossible. In order to counter the urge to phim, I am considering putting a "Jot credit" system into place, where in certain circumstances you can "borrow" a Jot, which must be "paid back" later. This idea would be for situatios where a player is very close to being able to obtain a Jot, just missing one or two minor Jots to complete the Deal. In this case, the borrowed Jots would be entered on a "Credit" Page in the player's Fonosta, and would have to be "paid back" with the same Jots--perhaps doubled. There would be a limit to the number of borrowed Jots, of course. This whole situation does contain a number of factors which do impact on the nature of the FSs in this developmental stage. (Wow, that sounds pretty official, eh?) In other words, I have to take these issues into account now that I am developing the nature of the FSs. It stands to reason that if you build something you should be able to do SOMETHING with it once it's built. 5:59 PM Well, gotta get going now. It's clear that I need some sort of breakthrough idea to define FS. I'll be thinking about it on the drive... Mon 10/20/97 * 10:04 PM Thought about FS all day. Drove to Jersey City to go to work, cuz I was late. On drive home I got on the wrong side of the Turnpike and had to take a roundabout sort of way home. I saw a Kool cigarrette ad with a race car and it reminded me that Obliviana takes place on LWOR. So, the thing you are building in your FS should be "in" LWOR. The first idea I had was that you'd build like a little town in one Place on LWOR. Then I thought back to the Pavilion idea, and I thought it would be good for players to build Pavilions. But when I thought about it, it seemed that there was too much structural/architectural stuff involved. So then I had the idea that what you are building is a RIDE. And this is where I'm at now--the idea that the paradigm is for an EPCOT-like ride. In this idea, each Page would be a Scene in your Ride. Now, to clarify what I mean by Ride, I mean a slow, non-thrill ride, such as the following rides at Walt Disney World: --Horizons (almost gone) --World of Motion (gone) --Journey Into Imagination --Living With the Land --Maelstrom --Spaceship Earth --Great Movie Ride --Pirates of the Caribbean --It's a Small World --Mr. Toad's Wild Ride --If You Had Wings (gone) --Splash Mountain There are others, of course. Pirates of the Caribbean and Maelstrom each have a small drop, but not enough to consider them thrill rides. Splash Mountain is a hybrid ride, both atmospheric and thrill. Space Mountain has some atmospherics, but is mostly thrill, as a Tower of Terror. So, the kind of Ride I'm referring to is the atmospheric kind. The idea, then, would be that each Page in your Fonosta would represent one Scene in your Ride. The Jots on each Page would then represent the various elements of the scene. A big question here is whether or not you Ride would be rendered and available for others to experience. This is an obvious question, and I think that people would indeed EXPECT this to be the case, that they get to "ride through" the Rides in 3-D. Folks might even expect to be able to charge for a digital ticket for people to ride their Ride. In fact, I myself may have thought of these idea in the past. But for a lot of reasons, this is not the direction I am going to take. 10:53 PM First of all, I am against interactive 3-D games being part of Obliviana. And if Rides were to be fully "realized" digitally, a 3-D implementation would probably be called for. Now, there is a difference between the current crop of 3-D games, and a fully-implemented virtual reality system. It seems to me that virtual reality would be a good way to simulate atmospheric rides. For example, you could have a "car" you'd sit in, which would move with hydraulics. There would also be temperature controls, scent delivery, etc. Such a system would essentially be non-interactive. That is, the only interaction is which way you're looking at any given time. This thought experiment brings up an interesting question--with this system, where just about anything could be presented, are the restrictions inherent in the atmospheric ride genre actually desirable artisitc elements? For example, look at "It's a Small World". This a a highly stylized "trip around the world", which is certainly distinct from a ride that would take you through totally realistic scenes of the world. Small World is an extreme example, but I'd say that even the scenes that are attempting to emulate reality have their own unique style. Take the desert scene in Horizons where a storm is coming and you smell oranges. The audio-animatronic figures and fake-perspecive models create a very enjoyable atmosphere--distinct from the atmosphere that would be achieved through a totally realistic presentation. So I do believe that with such a ride-based virtual reality system, it would be better to simulate the simulations--to create rides that COULD have been theme park rides in the second half of this century. 11:14 PM Regarding my new Pavilion idea, I'm thinking that it may indeed be too obscure for my purposes. That is, the idea of creating an imaginary ride that is not really going to be seen by other people is a little contrived. I want the Fonosta Systems to be very accessible--and I just don't think that this new Pavilion idea is quite there. 11:51 PM Paid a few bills. Tough to keep important stuff like your bills and checks and stamps organized during a move. I feel that I am very close to the proper design of the Fonosta Systems, but I'm not quite there yet. From the Pavilion System, I do like the idea of being able to use themes in a very straightforward way. Additionally, I like the idea of combining elements from several familiar themes to create my own new themes. The part of Pavilion that I don't like is that it is not very intuitive. If I say, "create your own little world", not THAT'S intuitive. To say, "create your own atmospheric ride in a Pavilion", that's NOT intuitive. So, I could do it this way--creating your own little world as the overall idea. If you want to pay a fee, you can present your world to others as a ride in a Pavilion. I know I just said that I don't want to present the Rides, but in this new context, I think it's a good idea. If someone's paying money, they're gonna want some bells and whistles! This is not to say that I'm going to have any 3-D going on--just that Fonosta will be presented in graphical form as rides. The form could be as simple as a scrolling image, maybe with a little animation. World creation is definitely the best paradigm for Jot, since it is so universal and so understandable. With eight major themes, there will be eight major Fonosta systems. It will be world creation all the way, with the whole Ride element being handled at another level. Tue 10/21/97 * 9:10 PM Okay. I think I have a better grasp of everything now. Basically, the Fonosta contains Jots, and at the first level, all they are are glyphs with no associated meaning. At the second level, they are assigned attributes of "world creation". That is, each Page is a part of a world, and each Jot is a thing in that part of the Fonosta world. At this second level, there is theming involved, and there are eight Major Fonosta Systems, which incorporate eight sets of meaning for each Jot. At the third level, other stuff can be done with the Fonosta. As mentioned above, the Fonosta can be a Ride in a Pavilion. Or it could be a set of paintings in a museum. Or chapters in a book. So the idea is that any meaning beyond the very basic idea of building a world is at another level. I am still thinking about how to incorporate Octagon into this current system. Each Jot will have eight meanings, one for each of the eight Racetracks. This is somewhat Octagonlike. But I am looking for something a lot more involved in the system, such as each Page having an Octagon, drawn as eight boxes, two by four. Jots put inside the Octagon would be treated differently than other Jots. But I haven't developed this idea much further. Another area I've been thinking about is Jot Maturation. I had the idea that maybe you could perform a Maturation Event (first use of this term) and "save" the Maturation Stroke for later use. (I realize that the words "maturation" and "stroke" next to each other inevitably imply the word "masturbation", by the way, so I probably won't use this term in the long run.) Another question is how many Maturation Strokes can be performed at once? For example, say that a Maturation Event (maybe "Bloom Event" would be better?) is "touch your Jukewand to the side of a laundromat while humming a patriotic song"--how many Jots could this "Bloom"? One idea I have is that you can Bloom as many Bloomable Jots as you have, but if you have none, you can only put one "free Bloom" in reserve. 10:05 PM One idea I had was to have a Fonosta System for the Central Racetrack, which would basically be a featureless system--that is--the Jots would not have any associated meanings. This would be for people who care only for the play mechanics, and not for the themes. The Fonosta Systems will have meaning in the play mechanics, however. Say there's a Racetrack Arctic. All Pages in an Arctic Fonosta will be identied as Arctic Pages. Jot on Arctic Pages are Arctic Jots. Arctic Jots cannot freely become Jots of another system. I do want to allow Deals to be universal however. That is, if you're an Arctic player, and you're in Racetrack Ancient, you should still be able to do Deals there--but perhaps with a little bit of a disadvantage. What about Fonostas with multiple Fonosta Systems? From an overall perspective, I know people are going to want to do this--and I will allow it--but there will definitely have to be advantages and disadvantages associated with a multiple-FS Fonosta. The main disadvantage is clear--you have to use the same amount of resources spread over several FSs. This will mean that while you'll have multiple FSs, each will be smaller than if you had chosen to go with just one. Wed 10/22/97 * 12:00 AM Okay. One aspect of Jot is that you can move Jots from Page to Page, but each move will have a cost in CJs (Currency Jots). The cost can be greater from pages of different FSs. I still have to figure out where Octagon fits into all of this! If I had not had such a totally powerful experience in Metuchen when I came up with Octagon I would not feel so strongly about including it. Octagon involves there being eight places to put Jots, each place having a certain attribute. The problem with this is that in the current Jot System, I do not have a type breakdown for Jots--it's just totally freeform at the basic level. But I just thought of something... the eight places need not refer to symbolic attributes (such as vehicle, buddy, tool, etc.) They can refer to Jot mechanics, such as moving Jots, blooming Jots, getting Jots, etc. 12:31 AM It is clear to me that Octagon has to operate on the basic level of Jot. But I do want to implement it in line with my original vision. Hmm... you know, my original vision called for each basic element to HAVE eight different characteristics. That is, there would be eight categories, and each element would represent something different in each of these categories. This definition of Octagon is awfully similar to what I have now--where each Jot has eight different meanings, in the eight Major Fonosta Systems. But inherent in the original Octagon idea was that you would be able to use all the attributes, or at least, potentially use them. My original vision had the ideas of architectural element, vehicle, device glyph, and other things. The idea was that you could possibly have more than one aspect of an Octagon active at a given time. Octagon changed into the idea of organizing elements into sets of eight, each spot having a particular aspect. If there is one cardinal rule in Jot, it is simplicity. It seems to me that in Jot now, Octagon is represented by the eight-meanings-per-Jot aspect. And indeed, as I mentioned earlier, Jots will be able to cross over into different FS Pages and "become" their meaning in that system. I am still tempted to try and involve an eight-slot Octagon per page, but this will definitely make things more complicated. It is clear that my experience in Metuchen with the Octagon vision was a very important step that has lead to where I am now. Maybe Octagon was the seed that has grown into Jot. So, if I drop the idea of actively incorporating Octagon... I think I might be there... Wed 10/22/97 * 11:49 PM There. I'm there. I am at the point where I have a stable foundational idea. At the core of Obliviana is Fonosta. This has been the case for a long time. Fonosta is now in the form of a notebook. The notebook has a very defined structure. This is what I want to focus on now. Fonosta is a notebook. Fonosta notebook is divided into Pages. Each Page is a single page of the notebook. Pages are strict boundaries--content cannot cross multiple pages--but must be divided into Pages. The Main Pages are all of the same form--containing a Page Jot, a set of Jots (up to 64), and information. Information refers to writing that would record such things as the sequential number of the Page, the date of the Page's creation, how many Jots have been on the Page, etc. The set of information will be specific. Pages are not tied to pieces of paper. By this I mean that a Page can be transferred to a new paper page in a notebook without a problem. With all the transformations going on, Jots are going to be crossed out quite often, and it's unavoidable that Pages will become a mess. These discarded Pages can be kept, however, perhaps in a box like with the Stormjaunt Scroll idea, to preserve the history of your Fonosta. Besides the Main Pages, there will be Special Pages. Some Special Pages that are possible: [1] Title Page--listing the Fonosta Name, number, date of creation, etc. [2] Currency Jot (CJ) Page--the place to record and manage your CJs. [3] Credit Page--the place to record the Jots you have "borrowed" and have to "pay back". [4] Free Blooms Page--the place to put Blooms that have not been applied to a Jot yet. [5] Records Page(s)--a text page listing major events in your Fonosta with dates. [6] Octagon Page--this is a new idea--to have an Octagon in which you can place Jots. Jots is certain places will affect Jots of that kind--such as making them easier to obtain, trade, etc. The idea is that once a Jot is in the Octagon, it cannot be moved out. In fact, the Octagon can only be "reset" by demolishing the whole thing--and it must be full to do this! [7] Reference Page(s)--to identify the meanings of Jots, record the locations of Deals, etc. Thu 10/23/97 * 12:38 AM It is difficult to do specifics. I deal with visions. Visions are soft. To make a vision a reality, it has to exist in the real world. The real world is hard. So I have to deal with all these Special Pages in Fonosta. I want Fonosta to be simple and elegant, but the more complex it gets, the more "ugly" it get when compared to my raw vision. I have partially solved this problem with the idea of levels of interpretation. For example, saying that your Fonosta represents a Ride in a Pavilion is quite "ugly". But establishing that the "Ride" attribute is one possible interpretation of the raw Jot data is elegant, and not all that ugly. So maybe this is how I should handle the basic structure of Fonosta. There could be different sorts of Special Pages that would exist as options. Or maybe I could take a little bit of a different angle, and not be so strict with the setup. I could be more general, such as: "A Fonosta Page is defined as one side of a sheet of paper, which can be loose or part of a notebook, which has in the upper right corner a Page Jot, and which contains a number of Jots from zero to 64." This is very simple. Special Pages can be defined this way as well. Or I could expand the definition to include Special Pages: "A Fonosta Page is defined as one side of a sheet of paper, which can be loose or part of a notebook, which has in the upper right corner a Page Jot, and which contains a number of Jots from zero to 64. Certain Page Jots carry with them additional graphic elements for the page. Writing may be included so long as there is no confusing a letter for a Jot." Thu 10/23/97 * 11:35 PM You know, I just finished writing some new Severe Repair--a scne between Hadrian Fozzcolt and Horhut Kelmbay. And it occurred to me that while philosophically I want to produce work that is positive and uplifting and appropriate for children, that is just not what comes out when I write Svere Repair, which is at thing point the main, if not exclusive outlet for my fiction writing. The thing I just wrote is weird, scary, sexual, insane, frightening, and really cool. But it's not Disney. It's more like David Lynch or William S. Burroughs. I'm lucky in that I can channel true art from myself. As to its nature, I cannot, nor do I want to, have control over it's overall nature. Oh well. What am I complaining about? What I just wrote kicks ass. Anyway, I just want to talk a little bit about Surface-Jot. The past few days I've been focusing on Fonosta, which is at the heart of Obliviana. Define Fonosta, define Obliviana. Each page is identified by a Jot which is inside a rectangle, and one one side or corner of that rectangle is a smaller rectangle, identifying which of the eight Major Racetracks it's a part of. Sat 10/25/97 * 3:12 PM In the middle of big moving weekend. Did 13 loads of laundry, a few are still drying. Rainy. My wedding is three weeks from today. Book Fourteen of OsoaWeek begins on Monday. I have the right idea for Obliviana, finally, but hardly any time to implement it at all for Book Fourteen. Obliviana is now a system which is built in layers, from very basic things like Fonosta and Jot and LWOR, to more complex things like Fonosta Systems, Racetracks, and Entertainment. Sun 10/26/97 * 10:04 PM Smoking a Cuban cigar here. Romeo Y Julieta. I'm in my new apartment now. I guess this is my first time writing here. Yeah, it definitely is. I just brought the computer here last night. This is the first cigar I've smoked in here. I figured that smoking a good cigar as the first one would be good luck, you know. I still have a lot of stuff at my old apartment, and I have to be totally moved out by Friday, the end of the month. I've been really worried about this move, and it's still not over, but I got so much done this weekend that it's cool. I should be able to finish everything up by Friday no problem. Some of the stuff, though, I'm gonna have to sort out later on. Went to my mythical "storage in Iselin" earlier. Rainy and dark, pretty cool. I haven't been thinking about Obliviana a lot in the past 24 hours. It feels weird to have taken a break from thinking about Obliviana. Wow. This thing better be good, this Obliviana, after I've been thinking about it every day for years and years. 10:21 PM Starting to feel the woozy feeling of Cuban cigar. It tastes damn good, but a quarter way through I'm dizzy and feeling a little sick. That's the way it is with Cubans. At least, the half-dozen or so that I've smoked. Maybe you build up a tolerance to it, but even if they were legal, I'd probably stick to the ones that aren't so strong in their effect. Anyway, what about Obliviana? Mon 10/27/97 * 11:37 PM Well, today is the day. The start of Book Fourteen of OsoaWeek. And I'm not gonna be able to upload any Surface-Jot stuff. This week is weird. I'm living here in Nutley now, but this morning I drove back to my old apartment complex in Clifton, about 10 minutes away. I took the bus, went to work, and when I got back, I went back to my old apartment, and cleaned the bathroom and brought more stuff back to my new apartment. I'm gonna hafta do this every day this week, but I wanna be outta that old apartment toally by Thursday, cuz Friday is Halloween. Come to think of it, I'd like to do it all by Wednesday, cuz Thursday is Mischief Night. Both those night alotta people are gonna be wandering around. Wed 10/29/97 * 9:14 PM Well, I moved out of my old apartment yesterday. From 7:00 PM to about 11:30 I was finishing the move up. I made two trips with my Jeep full of stuff. Now all this stuff is here, and I have to go through all the unsorted stuff. The move over, I have been focusing more on Obliviana today. As I have stated many times, to define Fonosta is to define Obliviana. Today I have been looking at Fonosta in a little bit of a different light. The equipment for a Fonosta is a notebook and a pen. That's it. But a Fonosta is a versatile and complex piece of equipment, due to the Jot system it incorporates. I very much like the idea, in general, that in these days where the major focus is on electronics, that something as mundane and analog as a notebook and pen could be as compelling as a computer. Of course, it remains to be seen if I can really make it that compelling! Fonosta is based on several levels of rules. The lower levels define the basics, and the higher levels define what to do with the basics. The overall idea of Fonosta is to manage an ever-growing, ever-changing set of little glyphs called Jots. Here are some initial rules: [1] A single physical page of a notebook is the basic division in Fonosta, known as a "Fonosta Page" (FP). A single FP is always tied to a single sheet of paper. Only one side of the FP may be used; the other side must remain blank. An FP may be transferred to a new sheet of paper, but the old sheet of paper must be removed from the Fonosta. [2] Any sort of notebook may be used for a Fonosta. However, a Fonosta must always be bound together. FPs that are not bound to the Fonosta are not a part of the Fonosta. Binding is defined as a set of pages which are physically connected. A 3-ring binder is fully acceptable, and all FPs bound in the binder are part of the Fonosta. Any FP that is not bound, even if it is in a pocket in the notebook, is not a part of the Fonosta. [3] FPs are created by drawing a Page Jot (PJ) on the page. Only one PJ may exist on any FP. As long as the PJ is on the FP, it is considered an active FP. As soon as the PJ is crossed out, it is no longer an active FP. For example, when an FP is transferred to a new sheet of paper, the PJ is transferred to the new FP and crossed out on the old FP. By crossing out the PJ, all Jots on the page are also "deactivated". Therefore, to transfer an FP to a new sheet of paper, only the PJ needs to be crossed out--the other Jots are automatically deactivated in the process. Deactivated FPs may remain bound with the Fonosta, but should be removed at the soonest possible opportunity. This may be called for if an FP is transferred while the player is on the road, and does not wish to have a loose piece of paper, either because he wants to save the old FP, or because there is not a place to discard it. 11:59 PM [4] Page Jot is the uppermost and rightmost Jot on the Fonosta Page. [5] Types of Fonosta Pages: [a] Standard: A regular FP, contains Jots. [b] Special: Contains Jots and other graphics of a special nature, such as Currency Jots, Available Deals, Octagon(s), etc. [c] Notes: Page Jots for Notes include a Notes Jot plus a sequential page number. Note Pages are meant for writing stuff down. Any Jots on Notes Pages are inactive. [d] Title Page: The identifying page of the Fonosta--it makes a notebook into a Fonosta. [6] "Crossing out" refers to getting rid of a Jot. Just drawing an X through a Jot is no good, since it might make the Jot into a different Jot. So a dense scribble such as is usually associated with crossing out is suggested. Alternatively, a highlighter may be used if you want to be able to see old Jots. Circling is also a possibility. Thu 10/30/97 * 9:56 PM Got a cold. Getting married in sixteen days. Children wailing in some nearby apartment. Smoking a rather crappy cigar. Obliviana. Obliviana is on the rise. My wedding and honeymoon are right around the corner. In fact, one month from tomorrow I'll be going back to work after my honeymoon! Realistically, what can I get done in Obliviana? I feel that it is important to begin to present the new Obliviana before my wedding and honeymoon. It will probably be a very preliminary presentation, but I want to get a foothold on the future of Obliviana. It is clear to me now that the idea of Fonosta as notebook is going to be a central part of Obliviana. I think that this idea will appeal to people as a reaction to Internet-hype. That is, non-electronic stuff can still be cool. The TV ads for Magic: The Gathering refer to this idea. Of course, Obliviana is partially electronic--one foot on the Internet, one in physical reality. One idea I've had for a long time which I've been thinking about again is to make money by selling physical products. I know that there is enormous profit potential to sell stuff digitally, but when it comes to products, I don't like the idea of selling over the Internet. Services, on the other hand, I don't have a problem selling electronically. Take fonts for example. With my Balbitype fonts, I want to make them available for free. But I also want to offer a physical package which can be bought. Such a package might incorpoate a printed piece with character sets, examples of usage, posters, etc. It could also include Super Object-type stuff. This is the idea: associating a physical product with a free software product. But back to Fonosta... I bought a little notebook today and I started playing around with it. I like the idea of drawing a rectangle in the upper-right of a page. Then, the midpoint of the top edge of the rectangle is connected to the edge of the paper with a line. And the left and right edges of the rectange are connected to the left and right edges of the paper. This creates a separate area on the top of the page for text entry. The rest of the page would be exclusively for Jots in standard FPs. The only thing complicating this is the possibility of writing the names of Jots next to them. For example, if a certain Jot represents a "lamp" in a particular Fonosta System, the word "Lamp" could be written next to it. This complicated things only in that letters in such a word could be identical to certain Jots, and therefore might potentially cause confusion. I guess this problem could be alleviated by excluding all typographical characters from the set of Jots. This idea works except in the case that a player is using a language with a non-Roman character set, such as Cyrillic or Japanese. I think that such words written next to Jots are unnecessary, though. Or, since a Fonosta is maintained and used by a single player, perhaps the issue of confusion is no longer a problem. In any case, I think it is better to not use such words in the Jot area. There are 11 types of Page Jots. The eight Major Racetracks contain the eight Major Fonosta Systems. These are represented by a smaller rectengles at the eight corners and midpoints of the rectangle bounding the Page Jot. Special Page Jots use a double rectangle, which is equivalent to the central Racetrack, Racetrack Eleven. Racetracks Nine and Ten can each be represented by four smaller rectangles, on the corners and the midpoints. I want to reiterate the importance of simplicity in the Jot System. In developing systems, I have very often made things very complicated. In the case of Jot/Fonosta, I cannot make it complicated. So what I have is three types of Fonosta Pages--Standard, Special, and Mystery. I have not yet begun to develop the Myster Page format, but I do like the idea of it. Special Pages are just like Standard Pages in that they are defined by Page Jots in a Fonosta System, in this case, the Fonosta System of the central Racetrack Eleven. Fonosta is a tool. It is a means of recording and managing information, much like a computer. But it is cheaper and simpler than a computer. Special Pages can have any kind of stuff going on in the Jot area. Special Pages are individually defined, and the set of Special Pages is open-ended. There will be a minimum startup set of Special Pages, however. This will include the Title Page and the Currency Page. From above: Some Special Pages that are possible: [1] Title Page--listing the Fonosta Name, number, date of creation, etc. [2] Currency Jot (CJ) Page--the place to record and manage your CJs. [3] Credit Page--the place to record the Jots you have "borrowed" and have to "pay back". [4] Free Blooms Page--the place to put Blooms that have not been applied to a Jot yet. [5] Records Page(s)--a text page listing major events in your Fonosta with dates. [6] Octagon Page--this is a new idea--to have an Octagon in which you can place Jots. Jots is certain places will affect Jots of that kind--such as making them easier to obtain, trade, etc. The idea is that once a Jot is in the Octagon, it cannot be moved out. In fact, the Octagon can only be "reset" by demolishing the whole thing--and it must be full to do this! [7] Reference Page(s)--to identify the meanings of Jots, record the locations of Deals, etc. Sat 11/1/97 * 3:36 PM Exactly two weeks to my wedding. Still the first week of OsoaWeek Book Fourteen. I have all the ingredients for Obliviana, but there's no chemistry happening yet. 4:11 PM Obliviana is pretty complicated right now, even though I have been trying to make it simpler. It's pretty frustrating. From above: Obliviana is made up of several main elements: [1] 209 [2] Entertainment [3] LWOR/virtual world/Surface [4] Jot/Fonosta Sun 11/2/97 * 2:41 AM "Typewriter Corner" by my desk here, gotta be careful not to step on vintage typewriter... How do you get Jots? CJ allotment, Deals, Blooms. I made one test Page, called "Snowy Wasteland", with the following Jots: Penguins, Megaliths, Ancient Crashed UFOs, and Folding Chairs. I like the idea of the scene this creates. It could be that Blooms are the key to unlocking this whole muddle that I'm in the middle of right now. 11:09 AM Blooms. Things you have to do to complete a Jot. Fonosta. Each Page is a scene with stuff in it. I have to clarify the basic structure of the system. Right now, it is: [1] Every day or week you get a number of Currency Jots. [2] You may do as many Deals as you want to, obtaining Jots. Some Jots are standard and don't need to be matured, and some are immature. The immature kind need to be Bloomed. Now, I am thinking along the lines of all Jots being "mature", but that by adding a Bloom in a certain way to a certain Jot, it becomes a new Jot. This certainly simplifies things. Instead of the three types (standard, immature, mature), there are two (standard, bloomed). Ah, simplicity! In this scheme, Deals would consist of the following: Each Deal has the "price" and the "product". The price defines what Jots must be crossed out, and the product defines what you then get. The price will potentially include Currency Jots, Standard Jots, and Bloomed Jots. The product will only be Standard Jots. The reasoning behind this is that CJs are used to limit Dealmaking and Deal Loops (where two or more Deals would complement each other to allow for infinite gain). Therefore, CJs should not be obtained via Deals. Blooms are associated with actions taken by the player, and so these, also, cannot be "bought". In the past I had considered Deals being "reversible"--that is--either side could be the price. But now, this is not possible. 4:51 PM Planned out my bachelor party. We're gonna be going to Times Square, eating at the All-Star Cafe and going to XS and Laser Park and Virgin Megastore and stuff like that. Anyway, back to Obliviana! Are Currency Jots necessary? In general, I'd like to keep things as simple as possible. So if I could eliminate CJs, it would be better. I don't think I can eliminate them, however. I do have to do something about saving up CJs. I am thinking of having a "refill" every week. There will be a standard number of weekly CJs, plus extras for various reasons. For example, the week in which your birthday falls, you will get extra CJs. As well, there could be a "Christmas Bonus", and an "Obliviana Day Bonus". At the time of the refill, all unused CJs will be transferred to a "savings" Page, but it will cost two CJs to save one CJ. So, the number of CJs you can save is current CJs divided by two, rounded down. The refill must occur on the day that is the beginning of the Obliviana week. It can happen at anytime on that day, however. Standard Jots, Bloomed Jots, Currency Jots, Page Jots. These are the types of Jots in the system as I am now describing it. 7:41 PM There are some unanswered questions about Blooming. Blooming involves adding a stroke or strokes to an existing Standard Jot to change it into a Bloomed Jot. The graphic that is added in the Bloom Glyph. There is the set of all Standard Jots, and the set of all Bloom Glyphs. Each Standard Jot will be defined as being "Bloomable" with from zero to all of the Bloom Glyphs. Blooming can only take place in defined combinations. In addition, it is possible that a Standard Jot can be Bloomed with a Bloom Glyph in more than one way. That is, the two glyphs can be combined in different ways. But these combinations also have to be defined. Standard Jots are obtained through Deals. Blooms are obtained through actions. I'll call these actions "Happens" for now. Happens are specifically defined. Each Happen sets forth a "mission" which must be accomplished. Upon satisfying the criteria set forth, the player receives a Bloom Glyph. Each Happen incorporates a single Bloom Glyph. The question is, can the obtained Bloom Glyph be used for any Standard Jot that is Bloomable to that Bloom Glyph, or only to a particular Bloomable Jot? This issue is complicated by the idea of "suspending" Bloom Glyphs, wherein a Bloom Glyph is stored on a "Bloom Glyph Storage Page", to be used later. The issue here is one of encoded information. If a suspended Bloom Glyph (BG) is recorded as the glyph only, then it would have to be usable with any Bloomable Jot that works with that BG. In order to limit the Blooming, additional information would need to be recorded. Another question here is the nature of Happens. A Happen is created and presented in Obliviana. Do Happens have a duration? Happens and Deals are similar. And in order to continually tweak gameplay, both Deals and Happens will have to be "endable". That is, they will have to be able to be cancelled. With this in mind, it would be good to assign validity periods to both Deals and Happens. Considering the nature of the World Wide Web, and of various print media, it would be good to assign an "end date" to all Deals and Happens. In fact, they should have both "begin" and "end" dates. Aha! Maybe there should be a separate sort of Deal which Blooms Jots. That is, Happens generate Bloom Glyphs, while "Bloom Deals" define what sort of Blooms are available. Thus, there are four kinds of Deals: [1] Standard Deal: Price = Currency Jot(s) and/or Bloom Jot(s) and/or Standard Jot(s). Product = Standard Jot(s). [2] Happen Deal. Price = Defined action. Product = Happen Jot (Bloom Glyph). [3] Bloom Deal. Price = Standard Jot and Bloom Glyph. Product = Bloom Jot. [4] Currency Deal. Price = One week's time and special conditions. Product = Currency Jot(s). Actually, five: [5] Page Deal. Price = Bloom Jot and ???. Product = Page Jot. I still have to word on that last one. Anyway, I now have five sorts of Jots defined , and five sorts of Deals defined by which you obtain them. Wow, progress! 8:28 PM Now, I have defined five kinds of Deals. Each Deal is accompanied by a start and end date. This means that a player can only do a specific Deal within the span of time defined. Originally, I had decided that a Deal would have to be in front of a player on a computer screen, live on the WWW, in order to do the deal. Now, this restriction is unnecessary. Deals can by copied down into a notebook, printed out, photocopied, or distributed in print form. The originals for all Deals will be available on the Obliviana website, to prevent mistakes or cheating. This new system throws the Surface Interface into question. For example, if I were to publish a monthly Obliviana magazine which printed all current Deals, then wouldn't the "Wandering" nature of Surface be eroded a bit? And if Deals are to be downloaded and copied and printed by players, then the whole "wandering" aspect might become pointless. The original "wandering" idea was meant to allow for serendipitous discovery of Deals. This could still work, but only if I forbade people to present Deals on their own Obliviana fan websites. Obliviana fan websites. Am I getting ahead of myself here? I think this issue really involves the "expected" nature of Obliviana play. That is, players will generally want to spend the most time in their home Racetrack, as the Deals there will be specially tailored to their Fonosta System. I think that Deals SHOULD be placed in such a manner that one must wander to discover them. New Deals will be popping up all the time. There really isn't a need to have them all in one central place. In fact, this is a big part of Obliviana. Foir example, there could be a "hidden" Deal that only has a duration of one day. If you happen to discover it and benefit from it, it'll be a really cool thing. Mon 11/3/97 * 9:48 PM Well, I' about to upload this issue of OsoaWeek after missing three deadlines. It's really cool, though, cuz I just found out that this issue, 171, falls on Tarb 7171! Wow. As has happened so many times in the past, I have grown tired of the format that I am using. I will have to change things soon. Get all Obliviana! *OW* -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----