This blog is dormant since I keep myself too busy with too many other projects all the time. So, no time for more serious blogging these days.
An update on what I do these days:
Left Gameplayer.se and founded Skillpoint Productions HB to launch the website Skillpoint.se together with fellow editors Sofia, Lars and Sebastian who also left Gameplayer.
Visit us at: http://www.skillpoint.se
Dabbled in necromancy and managed to raise from the dead my old deathmetal band Engraved together with Martin Runnzell. (Actually tried to revive the band already back in 2002, but ended up singing in Doom metal band Wounded Heaven instead).
The demo can be enjoyed on our myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/engravedsweden
Newsupdates about the band are regularily posted on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Engraved/206235095364
Also a proper homepage is in the pipeline: http://www.engraved.se/
Monday, October 25, 2010
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Another circus in the swedish game journalist ranks
Level7 just held their annual award for best swedish game mag, writer and blog. Apperently last years winner got pissed off because he didn't win this year.
Here's the coverage in blogs. All in swedish alas.
The temper tanrum from Petter Hegevall.
The official response to the tantrum from Level7s chief editor Erik.
The response from this years winners, Level, through Thomas Wiborgh.
Criticism from game journalists regarding the circus:
Emmy Z
Michael Gill
Victor Leijonhufvud
Tobias Jensen
And last but not least, it's discussed in an episode of Spelradion.
My thoughts? Well... completely unecessary drama. Everyone knew the rules and noone could give a fuck about hurt pride. It is what it is regardless our opinions about it. Lashing out at it though, in an effort to discredit a competitor, is extremely unprofessional and childish.
End of story.
Here's the coverage in blogs. All in swedish alas.
The temper tanrum from Petter Hegevall.
The official response to the tantrum from Level7s chief editor Erik.
The response from this years winners, Level, through Thomas Wiborgh.
Criticism from game journalists regarding the circus:
Emmy Z
Michael Gill
Victor Leijonhufvud
Tobias Jensen
And last but not least, it's discussed in an episode of Spelradion.
My thoughts? Well... completely unecessary drama. Everyone knew the rules and noone could give a fuck about hurt pride. It is what it is regardless our opinions about it. Lashing out at it though, in an effort to discredit a competitor, is extremely unprofessional and childish.
End of story.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Quick note
My next reflection will have to be postponed... Running a tight schedule at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to write it after the weekend
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Reflections on the Pirate Bay Spectrial - Unprofessional
Before the trial began, and a few days into the trial, I was of the firm conviction that The Pirate Bay would lose the trial no matter what happened at the court. An outcome I dreaded because of the implication towards indirectly punishing technology and internet infrastructure (internet is after all just a chaotic swarm made up of links and file transfers at the core, and little else). My certainty rather stemmed from the belief that the court would follow the assumption that copyright infringement is a priority matter over integrity or morality, as seems to be the agenda of our current government (yes, I'm cynical like that). Point is, with all this international pressure I had a hard time seeing any other outcome. That, and most because I suspected the copyright lobby would have pumped money into the case, hiring the most professional representatives they could, to get a guilty verdict on The Pirate Bay.
Perception is, however, as we all know relative. It didn't take many days for this belief to start to shatter. Severely. It is by now actually, as the trial has ended and we're waiting for the verdict, that I've started to suspect The Pirate Bay cannot lose this first trial at all. And the reason is because the prosecuting side have totally failed to give at least me as a listener any confidence at all, neither in their case nor in their professional skills.
Before I begin to elaborate, just let me quote a colleague who listened in a little now and then: "Are they serious? Is this really happening in a court in Sweden? I cannot believe the prosecuting side can behave like that. Can't those companies hire better and more competent people than that? Don't they have education?". And so on. I kinda agree with her though
- my already low trust in the swedish law system has gotten even lower after this spectacle.
I didn't react initially to this personally though. I expected no lawyers on either side to be especially technologically adept. So it wasn't until the hearing of the first the accused and later the witnesses it struck me how completely lost they were. There seemed to be a total confusions on both sides of what the trial was about, but in this chaos the defense lawyers at least were keeping to point and arguing from a topic-basis and a law point of view. The prosecuting side didn't. They (as far as I experienced it listening in on the live streams) were rather making a vulgar display of power, pushing numbers, rhetorics and playing on emotions. I even dare say they used indirect slander as a offensive tactic.
I preceived especially Danowsky and Pontén this way. I pride myself of being quite good at seeing through rhetorics, and the way these two lawyers argued were rarely substantial, rather always rhetorical. Both sides used rhetorics at turns of course but the prosecution seemed to have this as their main tactic. There's many examples of it,but I think the most apparent one is Danowskys reappearing argument that the accused were criminals, because copyright infringement is criminal and TPB supports copyright infringement. It sounds like a heavy argument, but is nothing but plain manipulation of the line of thought by rhetorics. Yes, copyright infringement is illegal, but it is the courts responsibility to decide if TPB is actually supporting copyright infringement by hosting links, and if that in itself can be illegal. The prosecutions thus, in short, tries to put the verdict into the mouth of the court. But it is no argument, they are only saying "The accused are guilty because they are guilty" without adding proof or substance to the claim. They are using tautology as a tactic, and it makes their argumentation void and irrelevant.
Now, we all make mistakes, and we sometimes fool ourselves with our own rhetorics, and you can't blame a biased side for jumping to conclusions, because it's human. However, the lack of professionalism on the accusing side doesn't end there. No, they also attack the accused with claims of them being criminals because of the name of the site. That the fact it contains the word "Pirate" clearly shows it is illegal activity, or intent to support illegal activity. Well, if that's the case, isn't it time to put Sid Meier or Disney behind bars by now? How can a serious lawyer really support a stance like that? How can something so abstract as a name be used as evidence of criminal intent? I don't think I need to argue further why it's banal, because that's just common sense to most people.
Even though rhetorics or strange accusations might be common in a courtroom (I have no idea, this is the first trial I've followed live. I hope not though.) I refuse to believe slander, threats, insults and attempts at defamation are normally acceptable in the courtroom. While witnesses for both sides were pushed really hard, the methods used by the prosecution left my jaw hitting the table as I was listening. Especially grave did I (amongst many others as proven by the now legendary flower mountain) find the attacks on Professor Roger Wallis. To me, with my academic background, it is not even in this world that anyone would question the status or knowledge of a Professor emeritus. There's is few more honorable things to be in the academic world after all, and the amount of research and knowledge needed to get there is more than a normal man could bear in a lifetime. Discrediting him and his research is just not something any educated, professional and serious individual would do. And especially not something I expect from a lawyer. All it has resulted in is making the prosecutor look desperate and the opposite of serious.
And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg. It has left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and a total lack of respect for the swedish justice system. I cannot respect a judge that doesn't put down his foot and keep order in the court. I cannot respect prosecutors that attacks someones person or threatens them. How can we trust a legal system where this kind of behaviour, this kind of bullying and slander can be tolerated?
Also, if TPB wins this trial it means it won't be an interesting or important win, because they didn't win because they were right. They in that possible case won because the other side were incompetent, did bad research and behaved like fools in the courtroom. And if the prosecuting side wins, well then it's just a scandal. I find it very grave, because it will hurt both sides of this conflict in the long run.
Maybe it won't matter, because the verdict will get appealed anyway, but if this continues on higher instance.... well, to quote Wallis himself, "God save Sweden". And I'm an atheist, what does that say about my hopes here?
Perception is, however, as we all know relative. It didn't take many days for this belief to start to shatter. Severely. It is by now actually, as the trial has ended and we're waiting for the verdict, that I've started to suspect The Pirate Bay cannot lose this first trial at all. And the reason is because the prosecuting side have totally failed to give at least me as a listener any confidence at all, neither in their case nor in their professional skills.
Before I begin to elaborate, just let me quote a colleague who listened in a little now and then: "Are they serious? Is this really happening in a court in Sweden? I cannot believe the prosecuting side can behave like that. Can't those companies hire better and more competent people than that? Don't they have education?". And so on. I kinda agree with her though
- my already low trust in the swedish law system has gotten even lower after this spectacle.
I didn't react initially to this personally though. I expected no lawyers on either side to be especially technologically adept. So it wasn't until the hearing of the first the accused and later the witnesses it struck me how completely lost they were. There seemed to be a total confusions on both sides of what the trial was about, but in this chaos the defense lawyers at least were keeping to point and arguing from a topic-basis and a law point of view. The prosecuting side didn't. They (as far as I experienced it listening in on the live streams) were rather making a vulgar display of power, pushing numbers, rhetorics and playing on emotions. I even dare say they used indirect slander as a offensive tactic.
I preceived especially Danowsky and Pontén this way. I pride myself of being quite good at seeing through rhetorics, and the way these two lawyers argued were rarely substantial, rather always rhetorical. Both sides used rhetorics at turns of course but the prosecution seemed to have this as their main tactic. There's many examples of it,but I think the most apparent one is Danowskys reappearing argument that the accused were criminals, because copyright infringement is criminal and TPB supports copyright infringement. It sounds like a heavy argument, but is nothing but plain manipulation of the line of thought by rhetorics. Yes, copyright infringement is illegal, but it is the courts responsibility to decide if TPB is actually supporting copyright infringement by hosting links, and if that in itself can be illegal. The prosecutions thus, in short, tries to put the verdict into the mouth of the court. But it is no argument, they are only saying "The accused are guilty because they are guilty" without adding proof or substance to the claim. They are using tautology as a tactic, and it makes their argumentation void and irrelevant.
Now, we all make mistakes, and we sometimes fool ourselves with our own rhetorics, and you can't blame a biased side for jumping to conclusions, because it's human. However, the lack of professionalism on the accusing side doesn't end there. No, they also attack the accused with claims of them being criminals because of the name of the site. That the fact it contains the word "Pirate" clearly shows it is illegal activity, or intent to support illegal activity. Well, if that's the case, isn't it time to put Sid Meier or Disney behind bars by now? How can a serious lawyer really support a stance like that? How can something so abstract as a name be used as evidence of criminal intent? I don't think I need to argue further why it's banal, because that's just common sense to most people.
Even though rhetorics or strange accusations might be common in a courtroom (I have no idea, this is the first trial I've followed live. I hope not though.) I refuse to believe slander, threats, insults and attempts at defamation are normally acceptable in the courtroom. While witnesses for both sides were pushed really hard, the methods used by the prosecution left my jaw hitting the table as I was listening. Especially grave did I (amongst many others as proven by the now legendary flower mountain) find the attacks on Professor Roger Wallis. To me, with my academic background, it is not even in this world that anyone would question the status or knowledge of a Professor emeritus. There's is few more honorable things to be in the academic world after all, and the amount of research and knowledge needed to get there is more than a normal man could bear in a lifetime. Discrediting him and his research is just not something any educated, professional and serious individual would do. And especially not something I expect from a lawyer. All it has resulted in is making the prosecutor look desperate and the opposite of serious.
And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg. It has left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and a total lack of respect for the swedish justice system. I cannot respect a judge that doesn't put down his foot and keep order in the court. I cannot respect prosecutors that attacks someones person or threatens them. How can we trust a legal system where this kind of behaviour, this kind of bullying and slander can be tolerated?
Also, if TPB wins this trial it means it won't be an interesting or important win, because they didn't win because they were right. They in that possible case won because the other side were incompetent, did bad research and behaved like fools in the courtroom. And if the prosecuting side wins, well then it's just a scandal. I find it very grave, because it will hurt both sides of this conflict in the long run.
Maybe it won't matter, because the verdict will get appealed anyway, but if this continues on higher instance.... well, to quote Wallis himself, "God save Sweden". And I'm an atheist, what does that say about my hopes here?
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Reflections on the Pirate Bay Spectrial - Introduction
Today one of the most important trials in Swedens modern history was ended. Well, important at least regarding copyright infringement and the future of internet. So, with one foot in the gaming industry (not only as a journalist, I have friends and family in that business), as well as having the academic curiosity it was impossible for me to not follow this case on a day by day, hour by hour basis, listening in on the live feeds and following the voices in the blogosphere. This has of course ended in a few reflections, which I'd like to share a few.
Before going into that however I'd like to make a little disclaimer, so noone will come and try to put words in my mouth later. And so you people reading this also am aware of my policitical and academical stance in this matter. I am a supporter of copyright, and I believe in the creators primary right to their work. However, I do not support the way copyrights are used by the corporate world as a power tool. I have in many chronicles in the past argued for the gaming industry to adapt to the consumers needs and not turn potential customers into criminals. An opinion that I find rare in the swedish gaming industry, surprisingly.
I'm not going to dive to deeply into that debate right now though. However I will point out that while I sympathise with those who, like the swedish Pirate Party, criticise our current copyright system as well as IPRED and FRA, I am not siding with them politically. My political views stand firm in a socialist fundament, and my opinions in this matter are colored by my academical knowledge regarding both computer and IT-history as well as digital commerce.
That said, tomorrow I will start my first rant regarding the TPB trial. I'm not sure I will come to a point, but there are plenty observations I really need to get out of my system. Stay tuned.
Before going into that however I'd like to make a little disclaimer, so noone will come and try to put words in my mouth later. And so you people reading this also am aware of my policitical and academical stance in this matter. I am a supporter of copyright, and I believe in the creators primary right to their work. However, I do not support the way copyrights are used by the corporate world as a power tool. I have in many chronicles in the past argued for the gaming industry to adapt to the consumers needs and not turn potential customers into criminals. An opinion that I find rare in the swedish gaming industry, surprisingly.
I'm not going to dive to deeply into that debate right now though. However I will point out that while I sympathise with those who, like the swedish Pirate Party, criticise our current copyright system as well as IPRED and FRA, I am not siding with them politically. My political views stand firm in a socialist fundament, and my opinions in this matter are colored by my academical knowledge regarding both computer and IT-history as well as digital commerce.
That said, tomorrow I will start my first rant regarding the TPB trial. I'm not sure I will come to a point, but there are plenty observations I really need to get out of my system. Stay tuned.
How things develop
It is interesting how things turn out. After my last post here I was thinking in the line of mostly keeping it for game-related post and musings on mmorpgs and the sort. That never happened, instead after some brainstorming with Thord Daniel Hedengren at Pakten and my co-blogger Andreas Uppling, we instead gave birth to the swedish mmo-focused blog-project MMOnly.
That blog is just in it's infancy still, but our hope is that it will evolve into something more than just a mere game-blog.
So, this blog once again became true to it's name, Unfinished Project. But I've decided to use this blog for more serious discussion, not necessarily dedicated to just the gaming world anymore. But rather for some more general reflection about things in either a grander scale or a microscale.
We'll see how that goes ;)
That blog is just in it's infancy still, but our hope is that it will evolve into something more than just a mere game-blog.
So, this blog once again became true to it's name, Unfinished Project. But I've decided to use this blog for more serious discussion, not necessarily dedicated to just the gaming world anymore. But rather for some more general reflection about things in either a grander scale or a microscale.
We'll see how that goes ;)
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
ASOS is dead
While going through my links and updating them accordingly, I noticed that the once popular Att skriva om spel-blog has been shut down. It was a place where swedish game journalists freely and openly could discuss game journalism from all possible angles. It served it's purpose a long time and was a good place to brainstorm and argue.
Sadly it's end wasn't as glamourous. It kinda stopped dead in it's tracks, ending up as a place a few select individuals could use for their own holy crusades. Of course the vast majority was still serious and using the blog in the way it should be, it's just that these one or two individuals (who I'm not gonna name, they know who they are, but I'm not here to pick a fight) managed to completely destroy the atmosphere and drag everyone else into aome sort of bitch-mode.
It's a damn shame.
Anyway, they didn't kill the blog, they just made then end more sad. What probably killed the blog was that, in the end, everything had been said. Most discussions ended up regurgitating the same arguments for or against different approaches over and over again. And by that time, what role were ASOS playing then?
I will miss ASOS, since it was a wonderful time when one could discuss interesting matters with colleagues from other publications. But all good things must come to an end, and I wonder if not ASOS was stretching it that last year after all.
Sadly it's end wasn't as glamourous. It kinda stopped dead in it's tracks, ending up as a place a few select individuals could use for their own holy crusades. Of course the vast majority was still serious and using the blog in the way it should be, it's just that these one or two individuals (who I'm not gonna name, they know who they are, but I'm not here to pick a fight) managed to completely destroy the atmosphere and drag everyone else into aome sort of bitch-mode.
It's a damn shame.
Anyway, they didn't kill the blog, they just made then end more sad. What probably killed the blog was that, in the end, everything had been said. Most discussions ended up regurgitating the same arguments for or against different approaches over and over again. And by that time, what role were ASOS playing then?
I will miss ASOS, since it was a wonderful time when one could discuss interesting matters with colleagues from other publications. But all good things must come to an end, and I wonder if not ASOS was stretching it that last year after all.
Oh yeah...
...I have a blog. I almost forgot.
So what have I been up to the last years? Well, much of my supposed blogging time is swallowed by other priorities. Most goes to my work for Gameplayer still, but I have been helping THD out with his Pakten-project a lot (especially during spring I was very active there), as well as other game-related stuff. And of course, I have a private life too, believe it or not.
I'm not gonna write much for Pakten anymore though, but me and TDH has been brainstorming about a MMO-related swedish blog among other things. It's supposed to be casual and broad (although of course focusing on the largest titles), so if you're interested in joining up, holler at us. We feel very enthusiastic about it and have a few people with us already.
Anyway, I've been thinking of re-vitalising this blog instead, now that I'm not actively writing for Pakten anymore. We'll see how that goes. There's a reason this blog is called "Unfinished Project" after all.
So what have I been up to the last years? Well, much of my supposed blogging time is swallowed by other priorities. Most goes to my work for Gameplayer still, but I have been helping THD out with his Pakten-project a lot (especially during spring I was very active there), as well as other game-related stuff. And of course, I have a private life too, believe it or not.
I'm not gonna write much for Pakten anymore though, but me and TDH has been brainstorming about a MMO-related swedish blog among other things. It's supposed to be casual and broad (although of course focusing on the largest titles), so if you're interested in joining up, holler at us. We feel very enthusiastic about it and have a few people with us already.
Anyway, I've been thinking of re-vitalising this blog instead, now that I'm not actively writing for Pakten anymore. We'll see how that goes. There's a reason this blog is called "Unfinished Project" after all.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Monday, October 08, 2007
Facebook is a virus
I got in contact with Facebook just a little more than a month ago thanks to a guild friend in World of Warcraft (thanks a bunch Aggro). At first I wasn't really impressed, and could hardly find anyone there I recognized. A week later it all just exploded and goddamn acquaintances and old friends were everywhere int hat place. I was intrigued and for a week or two I enjoyed the freshness of the community a lot. Until I realised what it really was: A disease.
Now, before I get started, I should point out that Facebook has a lot of things that older/earlier communities lacked, such as MySpace or LiveJournal and the likes. All those were based on profile focuse where the profile was all about marketing you. Older communities are all about what you are, what you do and think, and reflects the world through your visions. That made them quite limited in the sense that it was harder to create networks in them than in Facebook. You had to wade through thousand upon thousand of individuals (that more or less served as their own ads for themselves) and figure out who's who. If you added someone it was usually because you were already networked through some other means first.
Facebook changes that entirely, because Facebook changes focus totally. Facebook isn't about you anymore, Facebook is ALL about who and what you are in the context of who you know. It is in fact perfect for networking. Finding friends and people is way easier and it expands with you as your profile and network grows. You share your applications with your friends and you are instantly compared to anyone else you know if you happen to use the same applications.
But still Facebook is just a facade for a much more deceiving principle; that of disease. For every contact you get you expose him or her for other contacts, that add them to their network to expand their own community and further define themselves by who they know. And as such it is the perfect place for contamination. Everyone knows everyone and is but a click or two away. If you add an application, you will expose others for this "disease", leaving them a risk to be "contaminated". Those who get contaminated they expose their contacts in the same way, and plagues are literally born on Facebook every day.
It is totally genius. But it is also in the end boring, trivial and lacks of personality. You are deleted from your own context as you define yourself by others. And, to be honest, how fun are those small applications, really?
I mean, REALLY?!
No. I thought so. They aren't.
Now, before I get started, I should point out that Facebook has a lot of things that older/earlier communities lacked, such as MySpace or LiveJournal and the likes. All those were based on profile focuse where the profile was all about marketing you. Older communities are all about what you are, what you do and think, and reflects the world through your visions. That made them quite limited in the sense that it was harder to create networks in them than in Facebook. You had to wade through thousand upon thousand of individuals (that more or less served as their own ads for themselves) and figure out who's who. If you added someone it was usually because you were already networked through some other means first.
Facebook changes that entirely, because Facebook changes focus totally. Facebook isn't about you anymore, Facebook is ALL about who and what you are in the context of who you know. It is in fact perfect for networking. Finding friends and people is way easier and it expands with you as your profile and network grows. You share your applications with your friends and you are instantly compared to anyone else you know if you happen to use the same applications.
But still Facebook is just a facade for a much more deceiving principle; that of disease. For every contact you get you expose him or her for other contacts, that add them to their network to expand their own community and further define themselves by who they know. And as such it is the perfect place for contamination. Everyone knows everyone and is but a click or two away. If you add an application, you will expose others for this "disease", leaving them a risk to be "contaminated". Those who get contaminated they expose their contacts in the same way, and plagues are literally born on Facebook every day.
It is totally genius. But it is also in the end boring, trivial and lacks of personality. You are deleted from your own context as you define yourself by others. And, to be honest, how fun are those small applications, really?
I mean, REALLY?!
No. I thought so. They aren't.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
I'm back
After having this blog lying dormant for almost a year I've decided to return and start blogging again. Maybe not as actively as when I started it, but at least a few times a month.
It's a real shame though I haven't been able to post here. I've had tons of ideas, thoughts and stuff over the past year I have thought of writing about here. Such as my view on what elements that make a good mmo, well, good. Rants about Mutant Chronicles... you know that old swedish sci-fi/horror-rpg that's about to become a b-movie, and worries of what Paradox will do with the game-license.
(Actually they almost wasted it on a crapgame some years past.. I did some research and came up with some scary facts about that embarassing project.. good thing they pulled the plug tho. Hmm.. might actually still write that rant.)
What else.. oh yeah. I thought of making a long comment on Neil Strauss 'The Game - Penetrating the secret society of pickup artists', and all the theories in that book about male and female interaction, and of the whole pick-up artist society. (Yeah made some research into that too.. morbidly fascinating I might tell you. There's a lot of that stuff on Youtube actually.. try searching on terms like "PUA". "Style", "Mystery" and "Juggler" and you might find some of it at least).
One of the reasons I never got down to write the stuff down here is because I really didn't give myself the time. And much of my writing-time gets spent on Gameplayer and the newschronicles I prepare for every friday there. Of course they aren't as personal or interesting as a real blog. But they somehow drain the blog-energy out of me. Which somewhat is related to my return here. I need to start write more for myself, and not only others as of late.
Anyway, I'll be back in a couple of days with a more proper update. This is just a small headsup. And I promise, this time I'll be back for sure.
It's a real shame though I haven't been able to post here. I've had tons of ideas, thoughts and stuff over the past year I have thought of writing about here. Such as my view on what elements that make a good mmo, well, good. Rants about Mutant Chronicles... you know that old swedish sci-fi/horror-rpg that's about to become a b-movie, and worries of what Paradox will do with the game-license.
(Actually they almost wasted it on a crapgame some years past.. I did some research and came up with some scary facts about that embarassing project.. good thing they pulled the plug tho. Hmm.. might actually still write that rant.)
What else.. oh yeah. I thought of making a long comment on Neil Strauss 'The Game - Penetrating the secret society of pickup artists', and all the theories in that book about male and female interaction, and of the whole pick-up artist society. (Yeah made some research into that too.. morbidly fascinating I might tell you. There's a lot of that stuff on Youtube actually.. try searching on terms like "PUA". "Style", "Mystery" and "Juggler" and you might find some of it at least).
One of the reasons I never got down to write the stuff down here is because I really didn't give myself the time. And much of my writing-time gets spent on Gameplayer and the newschronicles I prepare for every friday there. Of course they aren't as personal or interesting as a real blog. But they somehow drain the blog-energy out of me. Which somewhat is related to my return here. I need to start write more for myself, and not only others as of late.
Anyway, I'll be back in a couple of days with a more proper update. This is just a small headsup. And I promise, this time I'll be back for sure.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
About time...
...I update this blog. I haven't written in it for about half a year. Oh, well that isn't absolutely true, I do have written maybe 20 posts for it, all in my head. Things I thought of while walking with my dog or riding the bus or working. But I haven't really had the time nor the spirits to actually write all those thougths down. So now they are gone... well most of them at least...
Anyway, aiming to get back and blog some more from now onwards again... but it's a bit weird keeping up two blogs at the same time, one in swedish and this one. I'll ponder on how to solve that.
Anyway, this is just a heads up to show I still live and breathe.
Oh, and I got my Wii this week. Only got Wii Sports for it yet, and Mikaelas been occupying it most of the time, but it's fun. And a damn good exercise too.
Anyway, aiming to get back and blog some more from now onwards again... but it's a bit weird keeping up two blogs at the same time, one in swedish and this one. I'll ponder on how to solve that.
Anyway, this is just a heads up to show I still live and breathe.
Oh, and I got my Wii this week. Only got Wii Sports for it yet, and Mikaelas been occupying it most of the time, but it's fun. And a damn good exercise too.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Catching breath
Haven't blogged in what feels like two months time. Probably is two months also. Haven't had the time to read other blogs neither, which feels like a huge loss really. But there's been to much stuff going on, on a personal level, for me to really give time to blogging. Contradictory, because at times I really could have needed to vent a little. God knows I have had a lot of ideas for blogposts, stuff now more or less forgotten or irrelevant.
And in the midst of this I get order from my chief editor on Gameplayer: You must start using our internal blogsystem. Whop-de-do. Yet another blog to keep updated regularily. But I have a plan. I'll post more personal and interesting stuff here (although I have a tendency to never get to personal.. I shun from exhibitionistic behavior. The virtual Johan is quite different from reality Johan.) and leave the fun rants and easier stuff for Gameplayer. After all they have different audiences. You can find my GP-blog here.
I can already hear some wise-ass mongrel starting to object and say, "So you guys are gonna promote your writers via blogs just like Loading.se". You couldn't possibly be more out there grasping at straws than that. Our blog system has been integrated since day one of GP 2.0, and we've discussed our plans for it internally for a long time and when it is all finished it will be a lot more useful feature of our site than the halffinished solution we gave Loading.
Actually the reason to why you are seeing Gameplayer getting a lot of new functions right now is because we had to take a break working with the site just to prioritise finishing the new Loading for Reset Media. They are really the copy of us, since the backbone for all their features are the GP-core.
Anyway, was gonna keep this short, but went on ranting. So I'll stop.
And in the midst of this I get order from my chief editor on Gameplayer: You must start using our internal blogsystem. Whop-de-do. Yet another blog to keep updated regularily. But I have a plan. I'll post more personal and interesting stuff here (although I have a tendency to never get to personal.. I shun from exhibitionistic behavior. The virtual Johan is quite different from reality Johan.) and leave the fun rants and easier stuff for Gameplayer. After all they have different audiences. You can find my GP-blog here.
I can already hear some wise-ass mongrel starting to object and say, "So you guys are gonna promote your writers via blogs just like Loading.se". You couldn't possibly be more out there grasping at straws than that. Our blog system has been integrated since day one of GP 2.0, and we've discussed our plans for it internally for a long time and when it is all finished it will be a lot more useful feature of our site than the halffinished solution we gave Loading.
Actually the reason to why you are seeing Gameplayer getting a lot of new functions right now is because we had to take a break working with the site just to prioritise finishing the new Loading for Reset Media. They are really the copy of us, since the backbone for all their features are the GP-core.
Anyway, was gonna keep this short, but went on ranting. So I'll stop.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Why buy a PS3?
Haven't updated this blog in a while... but I've just been busy with other stuff. Will get back tot hat in another post though.
Today I wanted to bring the topic of PS3 up. Why should anyone buy one? When it was announced together with Wii (revolution back then) and 360 I ruled Microsoft out as a competitor. I knew Nintendo would succeed because of their smart audience targeting strategies. But comparing the Xbox to the Playstation the Playstation looked like a winner. On the paper.
Today we know better.
I am actually not gonna debate this myself, because others have don it so well before me. One of my most favourite arguments are those of Gaming Steve. Here's a post he did the 2nd of October:
As the PS3 launch fast approaches I keep asking myself a very simple question ... why would I want to buy a PS3? And if I'm asking this question, a person who has owned every single game console released since the Telstar, the so-called "hardcore" segment that Sony is banking on to buy their $600 monstrosity, I have to wonder who is going to buy the PS3 and why? I keep thinking to myself, why do I need to buy a $600 console which doesn't offer me anything I don't already have?
Blu-Ray? I already have hundreds of DVDs thank you very much.
Online access? I already have the Internet and Xbox Live.
New games? I already have more games than I can play for my Xbox 360/PC/PS2/DS. The last thing I need is more games.
Unique PS3 titles? I will say that Resistance: Fall of Man looks and plays great ... but so does Gears of War. And Gears of War doesn't require me to buy a new console to play.
So why do I need to buy a PS3 exactly? Why should I kill myself looking for a PS3 this holiday season and spend $600 for this system? Why?
I can not think of a single reason that I would want to buy the PS3 right now. Not a single one.
Perhaps in a few months if/when the PS3 gets its legs and finds its place in the console landscape. But right now all I see when I look at the PS3 is a bloated, overpriced console which offers me nothing new. I truly hope that Sony manages to get their act together and releases some awesome unique content in 2007, but right now I just don't see the need.
Now the Wii ... that's a different story.
Today I wanted to bring the topic of PS3 up. Why should anyone buy one? When it was announced together with Wii (revolution back then) and 360 I ruled Microsoft out as a competitor. I knew Nintendo would succeed because of their smart audience targeting strategies. But comparing the Xbox to the Playstation the Playstation looked like a winner. On the paper.
Today we know better.
I am actually not gonna debate this myself, because others have don it so well before me. One of my most favourite arguments are those of Gaming Steve. Here's a post he did the 2nd of October:
As the PS3 launch fast approaches I keep asking myself a very simple question ... why would I want to buy a PS3? And if I'm asking this question, a person who has owned every single game console released since the Telstar, the so-called "hardcore" segment that Sony is banking on to buy their $600 monstrosity, I have to wonder who is going to buy the PS3 and why? I keep thinking to myself, why do I need to buy a $600 console which doesn't offer me anything I don't already have?
Blu-Ray? I already have hundreds of DVDs thank you very much.
Online access? I already have the Internet and Xbox Live.
New games? I already have more games than I can play for my Xbox 360/PC/PS2/DS. The last thing I need is more games.
Unique PS3 titles? I will say that Resistance: Fall of Man looks and plays great ... but so does Gears of War. And Gears of War doesn't require me to buy a new console to play.
So why do I need to buy a PS3 exactly? Why should I kill myself looking for a PS3 this holiday season and spend $600 for this system? Why?
I can not think of a single reason that I would want to buy the PS3 right now. Not a single one.
Perhaps in a few months if/when the PS3 gets its legs and finds its place in the console landscape. But right now all I see when I look at the PS3 is a bloated, overpriced console which offers me nothing new. I truly hope that Sony manages to get their act together and releases some awesome unique content in 2007, but right now I just don't see the need.
Now the Wii ... that's a different story.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Tilt the universe with Tiltor
We got a post from one of our users over at the Gameplayer forums where he linked to a small but fun game he and some others had put together. It's a simple but challenging puzzle game in cosy pixel-graphic retrostyle. I have taken a liking to it and I urge you all to download it.
It's hosted here.
It's well worth the download. Tilt on. Oh, and if you solve level 32, give me a hint. I'm stuck.
It's hosted here.
It's well worth the download. Tilt on. Oh, and if you solve level 32, give me a hint. I'm stuck.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Those crazy germans
Ok, this is from Starmania, the german equivalent of Idol. During the early takeouts this guy enters the stage and starts to sing "The Brimstone Gate", a song made by the Umeå-based black metal band Naglfar.
Not only is it such a sorry call for attention, he really sucks at it too. Has he ever heard of lungs? The jury seems kinda unaffected tho.
Not only is it such a sorry call for attention, he really sucks at it too. Has he ever heard of lungs? The jury seems kinda unaffected tho.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Friday, September 08, 2006
Doom 4 life!
Well, as promised here is the link to download my Doom 2-levels: ZIPPED ARCHIVE
I'd recommend using the Doom Legacy engine to play it since that's what I optimised it for some time ago (Using DoomEd and ZenNode. It was however originally built with a fairly early version of DCK for DOS).
The levels are not 100% finished. Some are more final than others, but in a few you'll find some texture misalignments and other oddities. They are all 100% playable though. All seven of them. There is an eight map that I began designing but never finished. All in all the .wad was supposed to have like 15 levels all in all, and I had a storyline, proper levelnames and everything written for it, but all I have left is the raw levels in this wad. I wish I had finished it because I'm quite sure I will never get to it now. I have forgotten half of the concepts I had in mind and besides, I doubt anyone will actually play it anyway, even though I post it here.
The levels are all designed to be a challenge (or at least a challenge to me and my own skills back then), and to keep the player on toes. I implemented many ideas where I wanted to challenge the traditional gameplay encouraged by the Doom-games. The players usually had to think a bit extra about what they actually were doing, so it is wise to be careful and pay extra notice. Although I think some of my ideas were fresh back then, by todays standards they are fairly simple.
All levels can be completed even though you only start with a single gun. It was one of my most important designchoices and personal challenges. Make every level being completeable by starting from scratch, while not giving too large an advantage to people that play through them all subsequently. There's also a lot of thought put into making it enjoyable in coop-mode. A lot of secrets and stuff are much more easilly revealed in coop. Oh, talking about secrets, I love secrets. There's lots of secrets, all over the place. If ever stuck, just try pushing or shooting walls or panels that look suspicious. You never know what will happen, a trap or a reward? You'll find out.
Level 1: Castle 1 entrance
This was actually the third level I ever designed. It was after I started to flesh out the concept and story I had in mind when I made my first two levels. Anyway, this level is a parantesis. It's there to introduce the type of gameplay style I expected to base my levels on. Everything is not what it seems. It doesn't hold in itself any concepts or ideas that make it unique, but rather a simplified version of everything else I made. Not too fond of this level and was always thinking about giving it a proper update, but never gotten around to. In my book it is a raw incomplete version of what it could have been.
There is both a double barreled shotgun and a chainsaw on this level. Can you find them? Not that you need them anyway, if you save your ammo that is. The exit is that diamondshaped hole.
Level 2: Castle 1 basement
This is the first Doom-level I ever made. This means that almost everything in it is ideas that appeared when I wanted to exercise the Doom-engines possibilities and limitations. It is therefor a weird mix of typical Doom-design and some really unorthodox thinking. The level has a small bug regarding an early secret area if you play coop, but you really need to mess up to do it anyway. I really like this level, it is hard and fun to play. First half is pretty straightforward (if you find the lightbutton to the left) with a few surprises while the second half is really starting to mess around by morphing parts of the level. I love my corridor of slaughter, where the chaingun or plasmagun comes in very handy (if you can find the latter that is). I just love to kill those marine zombies in dozens.
Since it's my first level ever the gameplay at a few instances tend to be a little trial an error, much because it's an uneven mix of many ideas and concepts. I was learning as I went on. Anyway, a small tip: exit is just by the entrance.
Level 3: Mountain outpost
This is a level I like a lot but that some of my friends found confusing because of it's labyrinth nature. The story behind it is that you must activate the generator that powers the outposts electric system to get in, so you can get the key you need to progress. It's fun and it has some nice traps I really like as well as some bonus secrets that are just flavors, like a small blood waterfall in the end that you can access if you click the right pillar. Anyway, it introduces the Wolfenstein nazi troops, which made sense with the storyline I had for it, but might be confusing otherwise. I needed more human-type models. They fit the purpose. Here are some areas that are ONLY accessible in coop if you know how (Another of those concepts I was playing around with a lot).
Level 4: Castle 2 entrance
Begins like most of my levels exactly at the point where the previous ended. Some of my favourite traps are implemented in this level. It also probably has the most sadistic exit of all my levels. You'll understand when you get there. Gameplay in this one differs a lot in coop since you can work around the traps in completely different ways. Although I love some of my concepts in this level to pieces I was never truly satisfied with it. It lacks something to spice it up a little, and the end might just be over the top annoying to most.
Level 5: Castle 2 interior
This is my personal favourite of all the levels I made. It tries to simulate a feeling of true 3D-space in a medieval castle environment. The objective is to raise the 2 bridges to the tower at the far side of the lavafield. Not as easy as you think, since it requires exploring both attics, cellars and towers of the castle. If you ever play these levels I'd really want to get feedback on this one. It has a weird bug though, just by the exit all sound is muted. It's just for that sector which is weird. Never figured out why.
Level 6: Mining Facilities
Here I tried mixing up my own designstyle with the traditional Romero-style of Doom. It has a small bug with lightvalues in a few sectors. I tried fixing it with DoomEd recently, but didn't get it to work properly. If you find it too dark, just up the lights. Anyway, the yellow key can be found in two places. One obvious, and one not so obvious. Oh. Traps. Beware. Can you get into that lonely tower by the way? Oh, and the puzzle to raise and lower the ramp seems harder than it is. Trust me.
Level 7: Old Mines
Last level I ever finished designing. Also one of my absolute favourites. It ended up exactly as I had anticipated, and encourages exploring in the same way the castle level does. It's probably my most straightforward level though, but that is what I wanted to achieve with it also. If all levels follow the same patterns it becomes too obvious.
Level 8: Scattered Outposts (unfinished)
In this level I aimed to work with contrast. Big landscapes and small narrow corridors mixed together. Shame the Doom-engine isn't really made for landscaping, but at least I tried (and yes, failed utterly). Big antclimax though, for the level ends quite abruptly, just as things get interesting. Never got time to finish it.
I'd recommend using the Doom Legacy engine to play it since that's what I optimised it for some time ago (Using DoomEd and ZenNode. It was however originally built with a fairly early version of DCK for DOS).
The levels are not 100% finished. Some are more final than others, but in a few you'll find some texture misalignments and other oddities. They are all 100% playable though. All seven of them. There is an eight map that I began designing but never finished. All in all the .wad was supposed to have like 15 levels all in all, and I had a storyline, proper levelnames and everything written for it, but all I have left is the raw levels in this wad. I wish I had finished it because I'm quite sure I will never get to it now. I have forgotten half of the concepts I had in mind and besides, I doubt anyone will actually play it anyway, even though I post it here.
The levels are all designed to be a challenge (or at least a challenge to me and my own skills back then), and to keep the player on toes. I implemented many ideas where I wanted to challenge the traditional gameplay encouraged by the Doom-games. The players usually had to think a bit extra about what they actually were doing, so it is wise to be careful and pay extra notice. Although I think some of my ideas were fresh back then, by todays standards they are fairly simple.
All levels can be completed even though you only start with a single gun. It was one of my most important designchoices and personal challenges. Make every level being completeable by starting from scratch, while not giving too large an advantage to people that play through them all subsequently. There's also a lot of thought put into making it enjoyable in coop-mode. A lot of secrets and stuff are much more easilly revealed in coop. Oh, talking about secrets, I love secrets. There's lots of secrets, all over the place. If ever stuck, just try pushing or shooting walls or panels that look suspicious. You never know what will happen, a trap or a reward? You'll find out.
Level 1: Castle 1 entrance
This was actually the third level I ever designed. It was after I started to flesh out the concept and story I had in mind when I made my first two levels. Anyway, this level is a parantesis. It's there to introduce the type of gameplay style I expected to base my levels on. Everything is not what it seems. It doesn't hold in itself any concepts or ideas that make it unique, but rather a simplified version of everything else I made. Not too fond of this level and was always thinking about giving it a proper update, but never gotten around to. In my book it is a raw incomplete version of what it could have been.
There is both a double barreled shotgun and a chainsaw on this level. Can you find them? Not that you need them anyway, if you save your ammo that is. The exit is that diamondshaped hole.
Level 2: Castle 1 basement
This is the first Doom-level I ever made. This means that almost everything in it is ideas that appeared when I wanted to exercise the Doom-engines possibilities and limitations. It is therefor a weird mix of typical Doom-design and some really unorthodox thinking. The level has a small bug regarding an early secret area if you play coop, but you really need to mess up to do it anyway. I really like this level, it is hard and fun to play. First half is pretty straightforward (if you find the lightbutton to the left) with a few surprises while the second half is really starting to mess around by morphing parts of the level. I love my corridor of slaughter, where the chaingun or plasmagun comes in very handy (if you can find the latter that is). I just love to kill those marine zombies in dozens.
Since it's my first level ever the gameplay at a few instances tend to be a little trial an error, much because it's an uneven mix of many ideas and concepts. I was learning as I went on. Anyway, a small tip: exit is just by the entrance.
Level 3: Mountain outpost
This is a level I like a lot but that some of my friends found confusing because of it's labyrinth nature. The story behind it is that you must activate the generator that powers the outposts electric system to get in, so you can get the key you need to progress. It's fun and it has some nice traps I really like as well as some bonus secrets that are just flavors, like a small blood waterfall in the end that you can access if you click the right pillar. Anyway, it introduces the Wolfenstein nazi troops, which made sense with the storyline I had for it, but might be confusing otherwise. I needed more human-type models. They fit the purpose. Here are some areas that are ONLY accessible in coop if you know how (Another of those concepts I was playing around with a lot).
Level 4: Castle 2 entrance
Begins like most of my levels exactly at the point where the previous ended. Some of my favourite traps are implemented in this level. It also probably has the most sadistic exit of all my levels. You'll understand when you get there. Gameplay in this one differs a lot in coop since you can work around the traps in completely different ways. Although I love some of my concepts in this level to pieces I was never truly satisfied with it. It lacks something to spice it up a little, and the end might just be over the top annoying to most.
Level 5: Castle 2 interior
This is my personal favourite of all the levels I made. It tries to simulate a feeling of true 3D-space in a medieval castle environment. The objective is to raise the 2 bridges to the tower at the far side of the lavafield. Not as easy as you think, since it requires exploring both attics, cellars and towers of the castle. If you ever play these levels I'd really want to get feedback on this one. It has a weird bug though, just by the exit all sound is muted. It's just for that sector which is weird. Never figured out why.
Level 6: Mining Facilities
Here I tried mixing up my own designstyle with the traditional Romero-style of Doom. It has a small bug with lightvalues in a few sectors. I tried fixing it with DoomEd recently, but didn't get it to work properly. If you find it too dark, just up the lights. Anyway, the yellow key can be found in two places. One obvious, and one not so obvious. Oh. Traps. Beware. Can you get into that lonely tower by the way? Oh, and the puzzle to raise and lower the ramp seems harder than it is. Trust me.
Level 7: Old Mines
Last level I ever finished designing. Also one of my absolute favourites. It ended up exactly as I had anticipated, and encourages exploring in the same way the castle level does. It's probably my most straightforward level though, but that is what I wanted to achieve with it also. If all levels follow the same patterns it becomes too obvious.
Level 8: Scattered Outposts (unfinished)
In this level I aimed to work with contrast. Big landscapes and small narrow corridors mixed together. Shame the Doom-engine isn't really made for landscaping, but at least I tried (and yes, failed utterly). Big antclimax though, for the level ends quite abruptly, just as things get interesting. Never got time to finish it.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Is this guy weird or what?
Ever wondered what my last post was about? Well, thing is, I was rummaging through my harddrive searching for some old mp3s of the last band I was in to send to my friend Kristoffer that used to be a drummer in the very same band. While finding the mp3s, I also found my library of lyrics I wrote for all different bandprojects I was in. Slow Aggressor was one of those songs that never got finished. Anyway, I once got accused of writing to obscure and nonsensical lyrics on a forum. So, that's why I explained the thought behind each line of lyrics. Problem is, I think I never got down to actually post the damn explanation. So, quite some years overdue, there it is: The explanation and defense of my lyrical style.
Anyway, more interesting is, while being in that dark corner of my harddrive I found some even more exciting (well for me it is) stuff just lying around collecting virtual dust. Something I thought had been destroyed in a harddrive crash way back. My old Doom 2 level designs; a wad file of 7 complete levels that was never shared properly outside my own circle of friends. It's just a novelty today, of course, but it brings back lots of fun memories of fiddling with level designs and concepts.
I'm thinking of posting it here later. Since I think they deserve to be spread. They never really got the chance back in the days. I designed them with an early version of Doom Construction Kit back when Doom 2 was fairly new, and stuck with a 14.4k modem and no real possibility of hosting them online. Internet back in -95/96 was primitive and limited, mark my words, compared to today although we tend to forget that.
I also found most of the units I designed for Warlords 3 Dark Lords Rising, although they actually did get their chance. I used to have a site over at Angelfire where people could download them, and I had made some like 16 or so unique units for the game, some with original graphics, some modified from existing game units. Some became really popular in the community, such as the Plague Lords, Hay Golem, Succubus, Halfling Braves and Halfling Warriors and made it into some of the largest fan-additions for the game. However, my Warlords 3 site met a grisly and grim fate, as anglefire pulled the plug on it. They said it hadn't been active for over half a year and withotu warning shut it down. Mark my surprise as I had edited it just a month before and had at least 5-10 visitors each day. Shame, since I forever lost my campaign map that I had taken a lot of time to design and balance, as well as 2-3 units I never took backups for. Oh well. Shit happens.
Anyway, I'll get back to the Doom 2 levels when I finish out which version of my wad is the most complete. Not that I think anyones really that interested, but if someone actually is, it'd be a shame to not post it.
Anyway, more interesting is, while being in that dark corner of my harddrive I found some even more exciting (well for me it is) stuff just lying around collecting virtual dust. Something I thought had been destroyed in a harddrive crash way back. My old Doom 2 level designs; a wad file of 7 complete levels that was never shared properly outside my own circle of friends. It's just a novelty today, of course, but it brings back lots of fun memories of fiddling with level designs and concepts.
I'm thinking of posting it here later. Since I think they deserve to be spread. They never really got the chance back in the days. I designed them with an early version of Doom Construction Kit back when Doom 2 was fairly new, and stuck with a 14.4k modem and no real possibility of hosting them online. Internet back in -95/96 was primitive and limited, mark my words, compared to today although we tend to forget that.
I also found most of the units I designed for Warlords 3 Dark Lords Rising, although they actually did get their chance. I used to have a site over at Angelfire where people could download them, and I had made some like 16 or so unique units for the game, some with original graphics, some modified from existing game units. Some became really popular in the community, such as the Plague Lords, Hay Golem, Succubus, Halfling Braves and Halfling Warriors and made it into some of the largest fan-additions for the game. However, my Warlords 3 site met a grisly and grim fate, as anglefire pulled the plug on it. They said it hadn't been active for over half a year and withotu warning shut it down. Mark my surprise as I had edited it just a month before and had at least 5-10 visitors each day. Shame, since I forever lost my campaign map that I had taken a lot of time to design and balance, as well as 2-3 units I never took backups for. Oh well. Shit happens.
Anyway, I'll get back to the Doom 2 levels when I finish out which version of my wad is the most complete. Not that I think anyones really that interested, but if someone actually is, it'd be a shame to not post it.
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