March 12 2004 -
Episode I (of III) The give and take of any online world - By
Allen "Delsyn" Rausch with assistance by Dave "Fargo" Kosak, This is
a story about Jedi. Not from a galaxy far, far away, of course. We're
talking about the digital Jedi within LucasArts and Sony Online
Entertainment's Star Wars Galaxies, a group of players who more than any
other embody both the promise and frustrations of a massively
multiplayer online game (MMOG). Development of any MMOG is a careful
balancing act, like spinning a thousand plates on poles at once and not
letting any of them fall. In a single-player title, game developers can
tailor the game experience to one player. Not so online, where everybody
is a paid subscriber and one player's fun can't take priority over
another. In Grand Theft Auto players can steal cars; in an online game,
players couldn't steal cars without the owners getting upset and
canceling their subscriptions. It's (literally) a whole different world.
Making an MMOG is tough...
March 23 2004 -
Cruelty
of Children - "This American Life" from WBEZ Chicago 1996,
This show gets off to a fast start, followed by one of David
Sedaris's funniest stories, and then two other equally strong stories
that counter-balance David's story with two very different moods and
conclusions. Also, an excellent short story, "The Man in the Well.
Original fiction by Ira Sher about a group of children who find a man
trapped in a well but decide not to get him any help. First published in
the Chicago Review...
