Walking the Edge of Reality

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Walking the Edge of Reality

A look behind the curtain to my world...

***DISCLAIMER***
Nothing... NOTHING... mentioned on this blog should EVER be considered
"in game" for any games being operated by myself or Darklight Interactive

Buried by Design
Thursday, August 28, 2008 1:19 PM

Bet some of you are wondering what's going on, and why there is yet another delay.

First off, this week has been hell work-wise. They're doing a major presentation to a multi-million dollar client and I've been working non-stop. Also haven't been sleeping much as a result, so I'm borderline non-functional from a mental standpoint.

Secondly, as I mentioned before I have a new idea that I am going to implement, and the general response has been to implement it regardless of how realistic it may be. But it does involve a little design work, a little creative writing work, some site updates, etc... It's rather large scale in the grand scheme of things. And, because of the aforementioned reason of mental incapacity, it's been sort of difficult to concentrate on and do.

Hopefully in the next day or two things will resolve themselves. But I am working on big things behind the scenes; hope they're worth it.

Posted by David "Nighthawk" Flor on Thursday, August 28, 2008 1:19 PM

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A Powerful Lobby
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 4:40 PM

Yesterday and today have been hell at the office, and compounded with the fact that I got no sleep last night (literally) I'm somewhat of a non-functional wreck. But, since I don't have the option of going to sleep at work, I'll type this instead as a distraction.

-=O=-

First of all, let the record show that I'm not political. I've never followed the campaigns, the platforms, the issues, nothing. I am the single most oblivious person you will ever meet in this regard: the world could end tomorrow in a massive nuclear fireball and it would probably catch me by surprise. I mean, I know who the two candidates are, but I have no idea what they stand for or which one is better.

It's just as well I guess: I'm not a registered voter either. I figure there wasn't a reason to register; I would rather not vote at all than to vote blindly just because it's some sort of duty. I am not like other family members who have told me in the past that they have selected candidates they've never heard of in the booth because they liked their name ("Rodriguez... that's a nice Latin name..." *PUNCH!*). And "not voting" is simply a concept they don't seem to realize; I think that might be in part a sense of freedom. After all, people have fought for hundreds of years to give you the right to vote, so you'd better go do it even though you are completely ignorant of who you're voting for. So they have to go through the entire sheet, answering every option including the oddball propositions and amendments that sometimes read like a excerpt from a Chilton's manual.

But somebody recently asked me who I think would win, and I have a strong feeling that McCain will. Why do I think that? Not because of the issues or anything, or who he is or what he stands for. He's going to win because he has a very powerful lobby and group of followers that will make sure he wins.

I'm referring to people I call "the crazies."

I've you've ever ridden public transportation for an extended period of time you know who I'm talking about. There's always one on every train or bus, the one guy that's always talking (sometimes arguing) to himself, or rocking back and forth in his chair, or making comments at people that pass by, or asking new boarders for money to get a bus transfer, or whatever. They usually look a mess, unshaven, and smell of fresh urine. These are the dregs of humanity, be they homeless people that live on the train or just bats*** crazy people on their way to work... but who would have guessed they are so opinionated?

If any sort of political conversation occurs within earshot, they will usually find it necessary to voice their opinion. Loudly. To themselves in case nobody's listening. And they are adamant about their position, and there isn't anything in the world you can say to sway their opinion no matter how ludicrous their "argument" might sound.

And it's never a well formulated opinion. "XXXXX is going to be President... 'cause the other guy sucks" is pretty much what all the justification boils down to. "Sucks how?" you ask? Woe is you if you try to engage them in this intellectual conversation. Check all your logic and reasoning at the door 'cause it's going to be a wild ride. Don't expect to have a debate on issues or anything; you'll get attacked by things coming out of left field.

Yesterday I heard this argument: "McCain's going to be the next President because Republican's can't win another eight years!" Think about that for a second, and maybe your brain won't explode.

And it's almost unanimous amongst the crazies. I've seen dozens of them, and when engaged in political rhetoric they are almost always McCain supporters. Well, there was that one guy that wants Obama to win because McCain "...doesn't care about white people..." (I swear I'm not making these up). And never have I seen one that is indecisive or "on the fence"; they're always dead set in their choice, and will do everything in their power to convince you to vote in the same way.

Anyway, I won't be voting this year. I would rather not choose than make an uninformed choice. And, besides, I'm in Florida; it's not like my vote will be counted... "Vote early and vote often!"

Posted by David "Nighthawk" Flor on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 4:40 PM

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Justifying the Absurd
Monday, August 25, 2008 11:34 PM

I'm having somewhat of a personal and moral dilemma regarding the next step of my game.

As some of you may know, I'm usually not a fan of having puzzles for the sake of having puzzles. Most of the puzzles I have had are, to some degree, justified because of the playfulness and the need for affirmation for confidence by a juvenile artificial intelligence system. But that only goes so far.

I had a hard time justifying the whole firewall "puzzle"; I kept saying to myself "this would never happen in a real company." Then again, I guess suspension of reality has already taken place; one of the largest security companies on the planet is already sending ultra-secret emails to field agents blindly, without verification of recipient, and unencrypted; this, technically, can also be attributed to the reliance on technology and the organization believing anything their controlling computer network (Janus) says to them.

Then again, suspension of reality is commonplace. For example, do you really accept that an ultra-powerful, rare artifact from the first Olympiad would be hanging in a bathroom stall in Buenos Aires? Or that the information to retrieve one of the pages to an all important book of ultimate knowledge would be stuck underneath a table of a cafe in Copenhagen?

ARGs have a fickle audience sometimes. As many of you know, there are two extremes as to what players like: puzzles or storyline. Puzzles are arguably easy for the most part, because puzzles could be as simple as creating a Vigenere or ROT-13 cypher. Storyline is hard, and it involves a lot of work and planning.

The difference between the two is the main reason why most ARGs devolve in to puzzle solving, but people are use to that it seems. Without puzzles, it seems like less people are interested. But one thing that I have noticed is that, if you're going to have puzzles, make them so comparatively massive that, for the little time that you're working on the puzzle pretend the storyline doesn't exist. LGL had a lot of activity through its run, but during the eight day run nothing compared to the twelve hours of chaos that was the "four paths" puzzle set. During that time, the storyline didn't matter and didn't advance at all; all that there was was the puzzle. And I had a similar reaction with the most recent "Papyrus" puzzle and the Umbrati trials (although, admittedly, those took a lot less time than I would have hoped): they stood on their own, and had nothing to do with the underlying storyline until they were completed.

I just had an idea for a puzzle, and am trying to justify to myself that it's something I should do. I guess I have the benefit that the storyline in this game has kind of gotten out of control, so much so that I don't even know how many details matter anymore. There have been clues and revelations (not to mention an Easter egg or two), but it seems like most of that has been glossed over; I don't know if it matters anymore. And, because of that apparent lack of concern for closure, I'm having a hard time finding a storyline conclusion beyond putting a big red sign that says "the end - time for the next one".

So I ask you to do what you've done in the past with this and many other games: check reality at the door. Don't expect things to make logical sense, at least from a functional standpoint. The largest security company in the world will still be mailing people blind, doing every single line item in the "what not to do in terms of network security" checklist, and will continue to use firewalls that would get network admins fired or arrested.

Deal with it, and game on.

But that's not to say I'm not going to have a little fun with a character or two in the meantime. I'm not the "save the cheerleader" type, but I'm going to have a field day going setting the "save the former adult film star" standard...

(Can you believe I have to use the term "adult film", and not the usual short term, so that Kinko's filter can allow me to post this?)

Posted by David "Nighthawk" Flor on Monday, August 25, 2008 11:34 PM

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Queen's Ransom
Monday, August 25, 2008 9:55 AM

I kind of got kidnapped by my family over the weekend and was offline for all of it. Sorry.

They don't quite understand what I'm doing, but I admit I've been having a hard time explaining this. I mean, how does one explain this? If this was a profitable career with steady revenue it wouldn't need an explanation other than "it's my job," but that isn't quite the case yet. Hopefully, in time, it will be.

Anyway, time to get back up to speed. I only have 120 emails to go through... Slow weekend...

Posted by David "Nighthawk" Flor on Monday, August 25, 2008 9:55 AM

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"They Broke My Watch!"
Friday, August 22, 2008 3:11 PM

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-11091460-businessmen-in-black.html

Is Shutterstock missing the boat here? Because I honestly don't think that these two are businessmen...

Posted by David "Nighthawk" Flor on Friday, August 22, 2008 3:11 PM

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