Spiritual Gaming has a channel on YouTube. We’ve just started the process of adding bits and pieces selected from the hundreds of hours recorded on the topic.

Take a look, have a listen.

The channel is http://www.youtube.com/spiritualgaming

Survival is not the goal.

That doesn’t mean to suggest that death or reckless behavior is called for.
Simply, survival is not the goal.

When running a set of linked equations and optimizing on survival you get one answer. Take that same set of linked equations and optimize on something other than survival and you’ll get a different result.

I can’t really put into exact words the nature of what that other thing would be. I can’t put it into words for two reasons. One, the true nature of that other thing is non-human and thus can not be bound in a simple container of human language. Two, the exact nature of what that other thing could very well be different for me than it is for you.

So given that confession of wiggly-fuzziness consider the following as possible alternatives to survival as the goal:

Making the most of the life that one has been given.
Quality of life.
Contribution.
Communion with the underlying is-ness of it all.
Right action.
Not dying like a dog.
…
und-sew-forth

Somewhere in and amongst those phrases may lurk a valid alternative to survival as the goal.

This is the title for an old but still very relevant article found in the BBC news on the topic of video game development. The link can be found here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/6047566.stm

Quoting from the news article:

“Spiralling production costs, development time and accusations of a lack of innovation are causing problems for gaming companies. But some in the industry are hoping the revival of user-generated games may provide the solution.

Boasting 3D, photo-real graphics and 5.1 surround sound, contemporary video games are pretty impressive.

But games that look and feel next-gen do not come cheap.

With development costs running into tens of millions of dollars, the games industry relies on sequels and tried and tested formats.

Eidos’ Ian Livingstone says: “The industry really is relatively young but already it’s surpassed Hollywood box office in receipts. It’s [earned] $20bn [£11bn] a year in software sales alone, so it’s a huge business.

“I think publishers became a little bit more risk-aware because of the amounts of money involved.

“You get two or three titles wrong, and you’ve spent £5m [$9m] to £10m [$19m] each on them, you’re out of business in a hurry.”

Popular game genres like sports, racing and first person shooters, dominate the charts.

But where are the new, innovative ideas?

Observers think the industry needs an injection of imagination. “

The article then goes on to discuss the attempts by Microsoft and other software moguls to provide platforms that will allow individuals to penetrate the development scene.

Unfortunately, these platforms also serve the purpose of locking the would be developers into the preferred platform of the supplier.

There are two solutions to this dilemma that we like. One involves the creation of group productivity tools similar to those used on sourceforge.net for open source software. This would need to be enhanced in a wiki type fashion to allow for parallel development of story-lines and other non software aspects of the project.

Another solution we like is the use of simpler development platforms that are more friendly to small team (or solo) development.

In this regard I’m very familiar with the G.O.D.D. engine — as one of the co-developers I’m more or less forced to be aware of it. However, you may know of other small-team friendly development systems. Heck you might even be involved in such a beast. If that is the case please drop a line. It would be good to know about and perhaps review.

The problem with massive projects is the demand for justification. You simply can’t ask 150 people to work on a project without justifying to them in some fashion the why, where, and how of that project. This is not conducive to exploration of a creative hunch.

This is not as easy as it might seem. But not to worry, if you happen to jump to the next grade of sandpaper too soon there is one sure fire method to test your progress and determine if you need to bump back to a previous grade of sandpaper.

After you graduate to 320 sandpaper, it is time to let your sculpture dry and look at it under a strong light.

The sculpture to the right was more than a bit of a bear to polish. It took my quite some time before I could find and remove all of the scars from the crevices. That is what drying will bring to light — scars and scratches.

When you let the sculpture dry and look at it under good light, you will find all of the scratches and scars left by the chisel and rasp. Scratches are a natural result caused by the use of chisel and rasp.

When the sculpture is close to its final form I wills top using chisel and switch to course rasp. The course rasp is useful in the process of shaping and in the process of removing scars left by the chisel.

When the sculpture is even closer to the final form I will switch to a medium rasp. The medium rasp is useful in the process of further refining the shape of the sculpture and in the process of removing scars left by the course rasp.

After the initial shaping of the sculpture each stage requires more and more delicate tools — leading from hammer and chisel to 1500 grit sandpaper. While shaping is the main goal of each stage of the sculpting process, removing the traces of work from the previous stage is the other equally important goal.

By the time you get to 320 grit sandpaper shaping is done. Now it is all a process of removing traces of work and achieving an appropriate surface for the sculpture. In the case of my sculptures that is smooth — real smooth.

If when studying the dry sculpture in the light one notices a scratch or scar, then one simply reverts to a previous grit of sandpaper to remove that scratch. Depending upon the depth of the scratch one can just bump up to 220 — or it might be necessary to go back to 120. If you find it necessary to revert to the use of a rasp, then you jumped into the polishing process a little too early.

After fixing the scratch, proceed with the 320 again, dry the sculpture and study it again.

Sand, rinse, dry, study and repeat as necessary.

When you move on to the 400 grit sandpaper you should have zero worries about scratches. From this point on it is all a matter of polishing.

More than once I’ve heard complaints about apparent violence contained in games that have been recommended as vehicles for spiritual gaming.

“So what’s the deal with all this violence in the video game? I can’t do spiritual gaming with something that contains violence.”

If you have a problem with yucky stuff you might want to take it up with those pesky Tibetans. They might have something clever to say on the topic. For myself, I’d just point to the bardos and ask if you’d like to be prepared for all of the bardos or just part of the bardos.

As mentioned in a previous blog there are games that I find harmful and avoid for myself. Others may not find them objectionable. I don’t play them and I don’t recommend them. If someone stumbles across such a game themselves and decides to play, that is their path — I wouldn’t dream of interfering, other then to give my opinion if it is called for. And as mentioned in the same previous blog, the aspect of these games that I find objectionable has nothing to do with shooting, explosions, and/or flying body parts. I find the infliction of authority on a child by an adult just because they happen to out-weigh the child and can beat the crap out of them to be a form of violence. And yet, this is typically not labeled as violence. Yes, yes, yes there are occasions when it is the responsibility of the adult to take charge and insist on a particular action and/or behavior by a child. Using the attention that is your rightfully heritage you will notice I said “just because they happen to out-weigh the child and can beat the crap out of them”. The world is not black and white. Check out the shades of grey. It will help you sort out this rather complex video game we find ourselves in.

Maya or video game, a world hallucination by any name can be just as seductive.

Any way, back to the part about violence being an apparent contradiction in games used for spiritual gaming.

Do you want to be prepared for all of the bardos or just part of the bardos. Apparent violence is an integral part of the bardos — just as much as apparent non-violence. However, keep in mind neither of these reflect the true unfiltered, unadulterated vision of the void. The Voidness of the Void is beyond words and beyond judgments of G, PG, R, and X ratings.

In the Voyager’s Quatrain, one will read:

• All phenomena is illusion
• Neither attracted nor repelled
• Not making any sudden moves
• My habits will carry me through

I don’t necessarily find body parts flying off in every direction to be particularly violent. The number of red pixels on the screen is not a direct measure of violence.

While it is true that I find 98% of all video games violent to one degree or another, it is also true that most folks find my designation of non-violent games to be a bit odd.

For example, I don’t find Diablo Lord of Destruction or TF2 (Team Fortress 2) to be violent games. In both cases body parts being cast about the landscape is a definite part of the game. In fact, in TF2 the programmers are kind enough to point out my various body parts (such as foot and head) when I’m dead with arrows — “Your head here –>”. This bespeaks an underlying sense of humor in the game. This along with the larger than life characters and slightly cartoonish graphics keeps the game fun, not violent.

Old school games such are Zelda 1, Zelda 3, Soloman’s Key, Solstice, Faxanadu, and their ilk are definitely not violent in my book. Zelda 2 on the other hand had some serious problems. Myself and other Spiritual Gaming testers found it to be abusive of the player. The grinding necessary to do anything was a real joy killer. Hear this Blizzard? You might want to rethink the constant grinding necessary in World of Warcraft.

My idea of violence: the ankle breaking scene in Misery, or the scene in Spawn when the hell clown licks Wanda’s face.

I found Grand Theft Auto to be violent, but had no problem with the original Going Postal — go figure.

As an experiment, take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle of the page. On the left write in a column header “Violent”. On the right write in a column header “Not-Violent”. Consider the games that you have actually experienced and place them on either the left or the right. Do this with games you have played. Don’t go all silent majority and list games that you have only seen advertised on television, looked at the game packaging, or just heard about in the media. Do this with games you have experience.

When I did this experiment I ended up with about 100 games on the left and a couple dozen on the right. Looking at these games it became clear to me that it would be impossible to apply a predictive formula to games in order to sort them. I could not find any of the obvious attributes in the violent games that did not also exist in some of the non-violent games. Nor could I find any of the obvious attributes in the non-violent games that did not also exist in some of the violent games.

However, when it came to the less obvious, and less used criteria, I could easily find attributes in the violent games which did not exist in the non-violent games. Racism, sexism, demeaning of spirit, brutality and brutish behavior in general could be found in some of the violent games and none of the non-violent games. But these are qualities that are not easy to subject to quantification. Unless certain words are used it is hard to label racism and sexism — even though they are unmistakably present. There is a reason it is hard for schools to enforce statues related to bullying, racism and sexism — it it hard to define these things in statues.

Bottom line, there is such as thing as violence. To this I agree whole-heartedly. But, to those that suggest squirting blood, explosions and flying body parts are a measure of violence I say: “too simplified, it won’t work.”

The trick to working with wet/dry sandpaper is working wet. (Keep in mind all of my sanding comments relate to alabaster, chlorite, and pyrophyllite).

To do this I use a large black rubber pan that I purchased from Sculpture House. I The pan is designed for use in mixing plaster. Actually, I believe it is manufactured for use in the barn — pigs, goats, horses, etc. If you hunt in google for “Kanguro bucket” you will find many referencese. All of the references relate to farm/barn and most of them are in the UK. Here is a quote about the Kanguro bucket:

“Kanguro are made from reinforced rubber, they are virtually indestructible ( even for pigs!), and are impervious to frost, sunlight and manure acids. They are the long term answer to all your bucket requirements. 17 litres”

I suppose manure acids aren’t a regular part of sculpting. But it’s nice to know that if there are any the bucket is impervious.

The part number at Sculpture House for the rubble tub I use is C-100 — called Cesta Rubber Bucket. I am gonna order one to make sure it is the same as the ones I bought back in 1986. As you can tell, they last a long long time. The only down-side is that the rubber marks my white alabaster. So to prevent this I use a large cloth (old t-shirt) to line the pan.

So with rubber tub filled (about 1/2) with water and the sculpture partially immersed I am good to go for the wet version of wet/dry sanding.

There are several advantages to this:

1. It keeps the dust down (yay!) .
2. I achieve a better surface faster.
3. The sandpaper lasts much longer.
4. It is easier to tell when it is time to switch to the next grade of sandpaper.

On the larger pieces I can’t fit the sculpture in the pan, so I will either run water over the sculpture as I sand or I will have a basin sitting close by and dip into it every few moments to re-wet the sandpaper and rinse the sculpture.

When I finish a stone sculpture I use wet/dry sandpaper to polish the stone. This works very nicely with alabaster, chlorite, and wonderstone (pyrophyllite). I don’t do marble, so I can’t tell you much about how to polish marble.

But when it comes to polishing alabaster I’m a bit of an old hand. I’ve polished about 100 different sculptures to date — some small, small large.

After taking the sculpture as far as I intend with rasp, I start in using 120 grit sandpaper. I used to use 3M 150 wet/dry. Boy that was a sweet sandpaper. Can’t get it much anymore — leastwise not the same quality as the old black stuff. Too bad I didn’t stock up more.

The job of the 120 grit sandpaper is to remove all, All, ALL scratches left by the rasping process. If I get anxious and move on to 220 grit (the next sandpaper in the process) before all of the rasp marks are gone, then those rasp marks will be there at the end. This 120 to 220 barrier is an important one.

The sizes of sandpaper I use are 120, 220, 320, 400, 600, 1500. If I move from 220 to 320 a little early it is not such a big deal. The 320 can (with a little extra effort) do the job of the 220. But the 220 just can’t manage the job that 120 is designed for. Admittedly it is important to finish with each stage of sandpaper before moving on to the next. Even so, the 120 to 220 is extremely important.

Back in the ol’ day — long before I learned this lesson the hard way — I would be working with 600 grit and have a very smooth sculpture with a very well defined rasp mark that would just not come out. I tried backing down to 400 to remove it — no go. I tried backing down to 320 to remove it — no go. I tried backing down to 220 — no go. I had to go back to the 120 to remove the mark. Then, of course, I had to re-polish with each of the intermediate grits back up to 600.

You’d think I would have learned my lesson after the first time — lol. Well, at least I learned it after the second time. Since then I am very careful to make sure that all rasp marks are gone before moving from 120 to 220.

Spiritual Gaming — The Talks

E.J. Gold’s publisher, Gateways Books and Tapes, is coming out with a new book this next spring which will contain transcription extracted from over thirty years of talks/lectures. These talks have ranged on every aspect of spiritual gaming from Monopoly to Nintendo, and from Doom to UnReal. This will be an amazing resource for the spiritual gaming community.

The title of the book is “Spiritual Gaming — The Talks.”

Yes, this is just the first book in his trilogy.

Any Game — Recipes for Spiritual Gaming off to the press.

The book has been sent to the printers as of last week. Folks seem to like the cover well enough, and the contents have been getting some rave reviews. The results from the test groups have been very encouraging.

As predicted many months ago when starting this project, we did have a few folks that were a little annoyed by the lack of theory (or preaching as I think of it). This book was designed with one, and only one goal, in mind — give people the tools necessary so that they can have their own spiritual gaming experience and find out for themselves what it’s all about.

To this end, I have kept discussion of what to expect, or what might happen to a bare minimum. Instead there is recipe after recipe which anyone can use to cook up their own spiritual gaming adventure.

Forgive the above, my publisher requested some sound bytes on the book. Since I was here and the words were popping in the head, I thought I’d try out a few.