Sunday, September 6, 1998:

How do the goals of the character and the goals of the player relate?

First before addressing this little gem of a question consider this: It might not be possible, ever, for the goals of the characters to be the same as the player. Continue reading →

Saturday, September 5, 1998:

What is meant by character’s goals?

Well in Monopoly you could think of the character’s goal as getting around the game board and passing go collecting $200.

In Zelda the character’s goal is to defeat Gannon and rescue the Princess Zelda.

In Parcheesi, the character’s goal is to get around the game board without being sent to jail and make it all the way to the home square.

Or, how about in the multi-player game of Quake Team Fortress? In that game the character’s goals are to protect their flag from capture and capture the enemy’s flag.

Go through every game you can making note of what the goals of the character would be.

Friday, September 4, 1998:

What Makes A Game A Game?

Well, what are some of the characteristics of a game?

There is an apparent and noticeable distinction between player and character.

The game has definable goals within the scope of the game that are applicable to the character. As in: the character within the game can have the goal of carrying a flag from one spot to another.

The player can have goals that extend beyond the game into other higher-order domains. As in: a player can have the goal of playing with a sense of humor about his or her situation — or perhaps a player can have the goal of playing with an attitude of fairplay.

These are but a few of the characteristics of “What Makes A Game A Game?” If you like the game of solving this question Contact US.

Wednesday, September 2, 1998:

Persistence, Patience, Hard Work

These three characteristics permeate every endeavor — whether it be Job, Work, or Gaming.

Consider the example of making flag runs in a game such as Quake CTF. You would be wasting your time if you fought to get the flag from the hole to the spiral and then to the top of the ramps only to give up because you hadn’t capped the flag yet. You have to keep at it. Continue reading →

Wednesday, August 5, 1998:

Once a signal makes it past the data receptors (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, etc.) into the processing network of the body the processing network can not tell whether the incoming information is from a “virtual” or “real” input source. There is no difference. This is how the subtle brain works. The “beta” brain may know that the virtual input is not “real” and discount it. This does not stop the deep processing functions from accepting the input as real and acting accordingly. Continue reading →

This blog is from my (that’s right my) original posting on DeadElvis.com over a decade ago. It was tempting to re-edit the content to fix typos, spelling, etc. But alas, I was concerned that the etc. would include updating the content to incorporate my new perspectives. I thought it best to leave these as they are.

Wednesday, Jun 17, 1998:

Now for the second event of the two events mentioned in the previous letter. As the second installment on this topic we alluded to two events which occurred in flat 2-dimensional graphic chat environments. One event, previous detailed, was the palpable experience of being-to-being contact through the vehicle of the pixel graphics interface. The second event, which we’ll address in this third installment, relates to group work. Continue reading →