OsandBohs11's blog

For my final project, I documented, in essay form, a game that I wanted to create for my final project. Though I didn't have the time I wanted to finish the project, I believe the essay more than makes up for it. It is funny and an interesting read. I don't think that it is something anyone else would really want to write about though I'm sure there are some that felt the same way as I did at times during the course. It's been a pleasure...

So after finally finishing up our ARG project, Team Name is ready for a break, or at least I am. The project as a whole was amusing but not something I would really want to do again. It was extremely frustrating and the fact that we could only communicate over break through the Wiki was a really bad way to conduct a game that requires so much communication and teamwork.

If it had been due before break, we could have finished the assignment much faster because we would be able to meet much more often and get more accomplished instead of having 4 posts in a day that don't do much.

The game is about a mysterious medicine that causes common cold side-effects. With a fake website and an e-mail, the players is brought into a world of murder, suicide and deadly viruses. In the end the player decided the fate of the main character as they help him escape the depths of a secret organization after they try and crack a very hard puzzle.

Unfortunately, no matter what the player chooses, the main character "Matthew Emmick" dies anyway, sacrificing himself for the good of the people.

so far in our group, team name, we have come up with some great ideas to include in our ARG project. It all happened very quickly and I think that the class will definitely enjoy it. It's going to involve conspiracies, outside help, murder and genetics. It should come out really well just as long as we can explain it and not make the clues to vague. I'm looking forward to it being finished so that we can show everyone what we've been working on.

I really enjoyed our short discussion of the Matrix during yesterday's class. In terms of ARGs, I'm beginning to think that the Matrix is one. Not necessarily the movie, but IN the movie. As long as you were aware of the fact that you used to be plugged in. when being plugged into the Matrix, you can do what you want, break the rules and try to survive. Sounds like an interesting way to experience an alternative reality.

Do you think that a movie can contain an ARG without even knowing it? To what extent the the Wochowki(sp?) Brothers have been trying to build an ARG in the actual movie.

Second Life is not for me. When I use it, it feels far too much like it's a game. However, it's a game that doesn't have challenges or anything really fun to do. It basically serves the same purpose a regular chat room except you have an avatar.

I would prefer using Skype or AIM with a webcam because I prefer the actual bond in a conversation. Even without the web cam would be fine with me.

I probably never would have played Second Life if I weren't in this class but I do however continue to keep an open mind about the new things I'm experiencing.

I can't help but not be interested very much in the "Cathy's" series. I never called the number and can't say I really had much of an interest to. After prof. Groom showed us the youtube clip of the young kid that called, it was even less of a mental turn-on. The thought that it could actually be someone that is picking up the phone every time is kind of cool, but to know that it's just a recording, not so much fun.

I thought that shadowpuppet's arguments on the gameplay angle in Cathy's Book and Key was extremely interesting. It does feel like the book should be an alternate reality type thing because you are interacting with the book, in the sense of it, you really aren't playing anything. It's already all happened, and nothing changes if you do or do not play along.

I could classify these books almost more along the lines as interactive fiction.

The idea of my game is that you are a college senior in Alvey Hall and you wake up after a one-night stand extremely hungover. To make things worse you have an extremely ugly girl sitting right next to you. The goal of the game is to make it back to the UMW Apartments with all your clothes, your wallet and your keys.

I came into a large amount of trouble with creating this game because I am not by an means a code writer. I thought this game was much harder to write than the HTML web site, and though I didn’t enjoy it as much as the web site, I still liked the experience...

I'm starting to like Inform more and more every time that I use it. It's something about being able to create a world of your very own.

I've created different worlds and being able to "release" the game and have my friends play it is pretty exciting. I wasn't sure how much I would get into it. I never am until I get to really use it. But luckily it was pretty cool. It makes me think that it's the type of thing that I wouldn't mind doing in my spare time, not just for an assignment. The only thing that I'm having trouble with is the error modes, and the fact that I haven't been able to attend the workshops.

With the day of reckoning upon us. Inform is finally coming together for me. After the peer workshop, which I think gave me some terrific help on my project, I have finally finished my inform project. These projects for me have all, for some reason, started out extremely frustrating. However, they have grown to be very special to me and I feel like I could easily write more games.

My computer is a thing. The description of My computer is "There is a Blog open on the computer. It seems to say The virtual and the False at the top of the heading.

The blog is typeable.

I think the Inform program is pretty interesting. It took me a while to get used to everything that had to be sad and when. My descriptions were not working very well and then I realized that I didn't have which rooms I was describing. You forget that sometimes a computer is only as smart as the person using it.

I'm enjoying using the game however it's very frustrating when the error sign comes up and tells me that I typed it wrong. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the index does not help very much either. Oh well, type to keep chugging through.

Would it be easier if you could say what verbs are which? that you could go into further explanations of what things are?

lol...anyone get that joke from "Friends." One of my favorite Joey-isms.

Anyway, I was pretty intrigued by Moo. It takes a regular chat room and gives it a high five. You can literally give a high five, or give a cookie, or steal someone's spanish dictionary. I thought that the last 30 minutes of class Wednesday were highly entertaining. It was interesting to do things a different way but still be learning, discussing and staying involved as a class. There are seldom things in this world that can get the whole class's attention and I think MaryMooville did a great job in doing so.

I look forward to having more Moo class periods, perhaps even with everyone at home. See how well it shows up. It would be interesting to see how role call is taken over a chat room when theres no master list of who is there. you would have to type "present." haha.

After multiple, multiple hours and days of working with HTML code, I have finally finished my Aleph project.

The basis of my design is to show how terrible society is now that the world is totally controlled by virtual reality. My character "Fernando Poincare" has had his life destroyed by "Jobe."

There are 4 main parts to my website. The main site illustrates what people are like nowadays.

The second part tells about my past life and what I used to be like. I guess you could call it the "About me" section. It's depressing because it's supposed to reciprocate my feelings towards the new "government" and style of tyranny that has taken over our society.

The third part shows my last true love, baseball and the Baltimore Orioles. In a life that shows no mercy, "my memories" are the only thing that I have to live for.

Fourth and finally, the last part is my mission in life. To kill Jobe. Whether or not it ever comes true I don't know. I will have to decide later. But it describes how we let ourselves become completely dependent upon virtual reality.  read more »

I have to say that I wasn't sure how much I was looking forward to writing HTML code from hand. I had no prior knowledge in how to do it. But as I was able to get pictures and new descriptions and different effect on my site, I got pretty excited about it. Now, I think my site turned out really well, just have to do my write-up and post the link. I can't wait to see everyone's website and how they turned out. Good Luck everyone.

Shade was my first real experience in Interactive Fiction. I have however done the "Strongbad" game on homestarrunner.com before. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised in the amount of movement that you have in the game. On top of the movement, the vocabulary of the game seemed fairly advanced for a computer program that was so old.

Not only can the game help you and tell you where to go, but the fact that the game is different every time makes it more fun to try again. That way you're not just typing the same thing every time just to get to the part you left off at.

I unfortunately got stuck after the vacuum. Can anyone help me out? what else is actually supposed to happen?