Hi, everyone! I had intended to get issue #2 of Ludus Perpetuus out tomorrow, but to date I’ve only received two articles. If you have any to submit (or artwork, poetry, or fiction), please do so in the next few days, and e-mail me ASAP to tell me you’ll be doing so.

Otherwise, I’ll probably end up postponing until May. Hope you’re all doing well!

Mark Pilgrim, and Jeremy Hedley have inspired me to add some new links to my blog.

is only one of them. Feel free to add this along with your “I like GNE” links, and GNE badges.

See you all in Bobbleton… and maybe it would be cool to add a Raging Platypus in the new game.

Blank page, nothin’ to say
Just smoked a lot of mash today
Thought about genomes a bunch
Now let me tell you what I made for lunch

The PARPers all hate me, the newbies out-camped me
They’re yoinking the firefields, my printer’s not fancy
Wombat heads in Central Station
A self-aggrandizing mirror I can’t see my face in

(Chorus)
I wanna be St*wart, or be Caterina
If only for a moment or two
I wanna be Eric, or even Dos Pesos
If that’s what I gotta do

I wanna be St*wart, or be Caterina
The master of my own Game
So give me a mint, give me some absinthe
I promise I won’t complain

Found a Blue Sheet from GOD today….

Just a reminder for you to come back to Paper Tiger (www.papertiger.tk) because there’s lots of new stuff going on =)

Hey Everyone, make sure you go to the GNE Discussion Board to vote for your favorite terrain type. Presently, Abstract (massive mail boxes, piles of shoes, etc.) is in the lead. Go vote!

A discussion between St*wart and AKMA about the deities of GNE.

This is one reason I love GNE: classical erudition in the
underpinnings. Very cool.

Hear, hear.

To add a little realism, you could make it so the players could mogrify how certain gods appear to small groups of other players, or convince other players that certain gods exist where, in fact, they do not. Is TRG going to have “credulity” and “piety” in addition to “strength,” “mood,” and “karma?”

Happy birthday to you:

You’re our favorite dev, Stew!

And the Real Game may be almost

As good as a MOO.

From the book The Cybergypsies, by Indra Sinha - here he’s talking about life on the game Shades, an early MUD:

Jarly has tried many times to stop, to break his modem habit. He’s tried everything he can think of but, lying on his narrow bed, he knows that sooner or later he will succumb to the whispering of the little mouth in the wall. He describes to me the self-hatred and sweetness of the inevitable moment of surrender, of giving in, letting go, of busy fingers conjuring a fix, the buzz of the modem coming to life, the whistle of connection sliding like a needle into his brain, and the rush of relief as he floats into the game.

 ‘It isn’t like a drug. It is a fucking drug. The pleasure chemicals that happen when you do drugs, Bear? Well, the same fuckers are triggered by the modem.’

Those of you not checking the “recent comments” sidebar may have missed his return, but we have an old friend back in town — in duplicate, even!

Wanna know what im talking about? Muahahaha

A Specter is Haunting Gaming. Interesting article by Greg Costikyan about the Game Developers Conference and what he sees as the general decline of the games industry (via BoingBoing)

Year by year, budgets increase. Year by year, sales increase less. And year by year, the publishers become more conservative; at $3m a pop and a 3 year dev cycle, it’s too risky to invest in any game that’s—risky. Thus only sequels and licensed drivel get funded.

Never mind the self-evident fact that the industry’s real hits have always been innovative, always been out of left field—SimCity, Balance of Power, Command & Conquer, Deer Hunter, Roller Coaster Tycoon, The Sims.

Could GNE be the kick in the pants that the industry apparently needs? We can only hope…

last night I dreamt I went to GNE again

but I woke up this morning and there was a marshmallow dagger in my hand.

Get your mouse over to the GNE Discussion Board. Stewart has posted a poll for opinions on how newbies should be incorporated into the game. This is a chance for you to help design the game. Let your voice be heard!

For any of you with a subscription or an open-minded local library - I found a bit disturbing the article on page 93 of the March 2003 issue of Playboy.

“Online Treachery; Net gaming has become a sinister playground for lukers and assholes”.

“Shawn Woollery was a 21year-old video-game fanatic - until he shot himself. Playing online games like EverQuest and Ultima, he’d run into grief players - gamers who use the forums to make their opponents’ lives miserable.”
And goes to explain MMORPGs, grief players, and other “bloodthirsty” games such as Eve Online, Lineage, Dark Age of Camelot, and Anarchy Online.

The sad part; in this particular case the game (EverQuest) took over someone’s real life, ending in his death by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

I give blessing to the peaceful existence that is GNE. And hope our own addictions will remain harmless (except for a few cases of carpal tunnel) and only a short amusing diversion out of our real lives. Peace.

‘squeek’

paperlane.net is pleased to announce the relaunch of Ludus Perpetuus, the GNE ‘zine. Issue #1 is a retrospective issue, looking back on the prototype testing experience, and features artwork, poetry, and feature articles, including an interview with several of the Ludicorp brain trust!

Sorry for the huge delay. I hope you enjoy this issue!

Submission deadline for Issue #2 (tentatively themed on “Love and Family in the GNE”) is 3/21, so start dreaming up your ideas now. :)