eXistenZ WAS -- RE: [MUD-Dev] Re: MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs

[Zak Jarvis]

> From: Raph Koster [rkoster at austin.rr.com]
> Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2000 10:09 PM

<snipped bulk of Raph's very nice speech>

> I want to make online games for the same reason that people want to keep
> playing them: to touch people, to find new things to conquer,
> and to leave a mark on the world. I want to make games people
> argue about, that make them discuss philosophy or art or culture.
> And I bet that's what the future brings us: online games that matter.
> If someone asked me what it was that made people play UO, that's what
> I'd answer: because it matters to them. And that's my challenge to all
> of you: to find some way to make this medium matter, so that it gets the
> audience that it deserves: my cousins in Ohio and everyone else. There's
> a bottom-line reason to do it-it's a large market-but there's also the
> reason that we are likely in this industry making this kind of game-which
> is hard, damn hard-because we love them. And we want others to love them
too.

Under normal circumstances, I'd finish reading all my backed up MUD-Dev
mail before replying to anything, but I'm quite certain no one else has
said what I'm gonna say.

Anyone interested in the philosophical side of developing in this industry
REALLY should see eXistenZ.

I've said it once before, and I'll likely say it any number of other times.
I might make it my bloody .sig. This time, I'll qualify it a bit more.

eXistenZ is NOT the usual virtual reality movie. There is no slow motion
photography. There is not a single computer screen in the entire film. No
miraculous cross-platform viruses. No swords, lasers or techno music.
Instead, you get game developers who live in the countryside, and hard-core
gamers who work at gas stations and moonlight in game installations.
Perhaps more pertinently, there are also anti-game organizations set on
assassinating game developers for undermining reality.

The basis of the movie is this interview:

http://zappa.users.netlink.co.uk/cr_rushd.html

where the writer/director of the film -- David Cronenberg -- interviews
Salman Rushdie. Among many other things, the two ponder whether or not a
game could ever be art. eXistenZ is a further exploration of that question.

-Zak Jarvis
 Go rent eXistenZ
 http://www.voidmonster.com





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