A better update this week.  I’m trying to think of a sensible way to resort the list every week, but I cant decide if it makes the most sense to sort by “work done in the last week” or “percent complete” so I’m just going to keep the list as is for now.

1. Shambles – Quiet last week, should see more art this week.  A bit of a holding pattern here as we’re just waiting for the art to come in, not much else to do.
2. Obnoxious Howler Monkey – MAJOR movement.  I went from “I understand in theory how I would get this to work” to “fully functional prototype” last week.  I’m probably 75% done now.  I need some parts to do a final version, and there’s a little more software work to do, and then I can case it and show it off.  Exciting stuff!
3. Simulated Jocular Anaconda – Unchanged.
   
4. Insignificant Diversionary Anaconda – Unchanged.
   
5. Shambles Source Material – Unchanged.
6. Codename: Unwashed Repeat Pedestrian – Managed to get a little more writing done on this.  Not a whole heck of a lot though.
7. Codename: Enormous Intersected Automaton – Unchanged.
8. Codename: Gremlin Persistent Malice – Unchanged.
   
9. Codename: Cackle Smash Soup – Unchanged.
10. Codename: Tactical Plastic Laser – Unchanged.

Excuse Of The Week: I got kicked in the head by a muse and have been working on something that’s not on the list.  I’ll post about that later.

I promised I would do this, even if it hurt.  This one hurts a little.

1. Shambles – Art continues to trickle in.  Should be more this week.
2. Obnoxious Howler Monkey – I came really close to working on this a couple times this week.
3. Simulated Jocular Anaconda – Unchanged.
   
4. Insignificant Diversionary Anaconda – Still in playtesting.  Did a little bit of work on it.
   
5. Shambles Source Material – Created a google doc to hold this.  Currently consists of the titles for the 6 sections.
6. Codename: Unwashed Repeat Pedestrian – Unchanged.
7. Codename: Enormous Intersected Automaton – Unchanged.
8. Codename: Gremlin Persistent Malice – Unchanged.
   
9. Codename: Cackle Smash Soup – Unchanged.
10. Codename: Tactical Plastic Laser – The only problem with using code names is when you forget what they stand for.  OH YEAH.  Unchanged.

Excuse Of The Week: I had to do a lot of work on the site.

So I had said yesterday that there were impending changes coming to the site, within the next week.  And that there would be a new domain, and probably a new theme.

I don’t mess around.

Well, you’re looking at the new domain.  As for the new theme?  Bollocks to that.  Just getting this site to look halfway like the old one reminded me why I never, ever want to make a new theme again.  Don’t get me wrong, I am sure I will eventually.  But for now, you’re getting more or less what you had before, but with a brand new name.

Yeah, that name.  Let’s talk about that.

Me, I love it.  You may be scratching your head.  It’s a bit of an in-joke.  I have no idea how it got started.  I blame Will.  “That’s A Terrible Idea” is sort of a passphrase among my closest friends, that is exactly the same thing as saying “You Know You Have To Do It Now.”

Also, now I can print on the back cover of my games, right at the bottom:

“This Game Is A Terrible Idea.”

Feedback appreciated, post in the comments below.  I’ve set discussion to not require registration for now, but as soon as the spambots return I’ll have to require registration again.  Please click around the site and let me know if anything looks broken, or if you get kicked off to chaoticneutral.net

I really didn’t want to do this. But I’m forced to agree that it’s a Good Idea.

I was positively gleeful when I got this domain.  I knew as soon as I started really writing games that I wanted to use this domain as my ‘Gaming Face’ as it were.  I was always a little bothered that I only had the .net domain, as two other people had the .org and the .com domains, and having just the .net domain is a little like winning Most Mobile Patient In The Leg Burn Ward.

But, domains are what you make of them, and in the end most people are just following links anyway.  So I was determined to make a run of it.  When I saw the .org domain was expiring, I contacted the previous owner and they said they were done with it and were happy to transfer it to someone who would put the domain to use.

When I looked at doing the same thing for the .com domain, I asked a friend if he thought it was worth pursuing, and he raised a very valid point: That while the alignments (including Chaotic Neutral) had been released under the OGL, and while WotC probably couldn’t legally keep me from using the term as the name for a business, and while they probably would not actually win a court battle, what they COULD do is make me prove it.  And that would easily cost me more money than I would ever hope to make from a game.  WotC would probably not care at all if it was just some website where I talked about games. When I start selling games as “Chaotic Neutral” they may decide they care.

Let’s be honest for a minute – I should be so lucky as to be even recognized by WotC as anything at all.  If I were ever to sell enough games as to even be a tiny blip on their enormous radar, I would be successful beyond imagination.  And the odds of this, if I am realistic, are somewhere between Seeing A Human Spontaneously Combust and Waking Up Covered In GOOOOOOOOOOOOLD.

But.

At this stage, when I haven’t really released much other than a demo, and when I’m ramping up to build and write and do all sorts of things, does it makes sense to just change the course now, before I lay all the track, and avoid a situation where even if I managed to win, I would lose?

Yes.  Unquestionably, it makes sense.

So, I got a new set of domains.  I’ll be hanging on to this domain (for one thing, I need it to redirect to the new site for a while). But new domains means new setup, means I need to change at least the logo, and if I’m changing the logo then I may as well just change the whole dang theme.  Which is a shame, because I bloody loved this one.

Maybe I’ll keep it mostly the same, but that just feels cheap to me.  So I’ll probably be making a more drastic change, within the next week or so.  Once it’s done, we’ll have a party.

In addition to the project I laid out yesterday, I have decided to add some things to the list.  These are gaming projects that are in various states of completion or initiation. My goal in listing them here is that I will provide a weekly update for all projects in the list, and that I will be motivated by seeing the projects with the word “Unchanged” after their status.

You should understand, I have a “Crazy Schemes” list in my docs, that is a spreadsheet of things I want to work on.  As I write this there are 56 items on this list.  The list is incomplete.  So, what appears below is the list of things I want to work on next, after I complete work on Shambles, Obnoxious Howler Monkey, Simulated Jocular Anaconda, Insignificant Diversionary Anaconda

Shambles Source Material – This is a set of source materials that can be purchased to use in Shambles.  I have several ideas for what will go into this, but vowed I would not work on it until the main Shambles book was done.

Codename: Unwashed Repeat Pedestrian – This is a the Paranoia scenario I wrote about earlier. This scenario is about 20% complete.

Codename: Enormous Intersected Automaton – This is a complete new game using the same dice system as Shambles.  I have a very clear picture of how this game works mechanically, and have the atmosphere worked out, but the setting is proving to be a challenge.  That may not make any sense on the surface.  I’d say this game is about 25% written.

Codename: Gremlin Persistent Malice – This is a complete new game that also uses the same dice system as Shambles.  I have a nearly-complete first draft of this game, and it’s fully formed in my head.  I need to write more setting and color text before I can call for art and have a functional first draft.  This game is 65% complete, most of what remains is Art.

Codename: Cackle Smash Soup – This is a miniatures combat game of the non-painted, non-collectable variety.  There are some loose rules defined, but the problms I face here are more mechanical in nature.  This game is probably 10% done.

Codename: Tactical Plastic Laser – This is a sort of board game I’ve been kicking around in the back of my head for a few months.  This game is maybe 5% done.

That’s not all the projects I have in mind, but these are the next 10 I plan to work on.  Starting next week, there will be status updates on each one.  Until I give up in despari or start getting things done.

Do you remember back in September when I said I had been approached to put together an electronic, gaming related prop?  And remember back in October when I said there was a new project that was similar, and that there was another new project that was similar but not quite the same, and there was a fourth project that I also couldn’t talk about, but it wasn’t new and a couple people knew about it?  Remember all that?

I want to update you about those projects.  But it’s a little hard to do it so ambigiously. So I’m going to give them code names.

The first project I mentioned, the one from September, is an electronic, gaming related prop.  It has been designated Obnoxious Howler Monkey.

The second project I mentioned, the electronic gaming prop that was somewhat similar, that project was in fact the Arduino-Based Laser Tag Game that was designed to be used as a prop in a Paranoia game. This project needs no further codename.

The third project I mentioned, which was not a prop but was useful and game related, was in fact the 3d10 Game Scripts You Can Write In PHP series that I wrote.  This project also needs no further codename.

The fourth project I mentioned was not a new project, and had come up a few months earlier (in point of fact, almost a year ago).  This project is ongoing, is game related, and a couple of you know about it but cannot talk about it.  This project is codenamed Simulated Jocular Anaconda.

Since that post, there arose a fifth project, not previously mentioned, that intersects Simulated Jocular Anaconda. This project is also game related, and is codenamed Insignificant Diversionary Anaconda.

These codenames will help to avoid future confusion.  Trust me.

Now, STATUS UPDATE:

Obnoxious Howler Monkey – This project has not yet left the cocktail-napkin stage. Parts have been acquired, and the theory explored, but no prototyping, assembly or proof-of-concept work has been undertaken.

Simulated Jocular Anaconda -Initial work that was done for this project was promising, but has had to be scrapped.  The project proceeds forward, but was placed on the back-burner for some time to allow work for other project.  Namely:

Insignificant Diversionary Anaconda -This project is currently under test, and is 90% functionally complete.  I genuinely hope to provide earth-shattering news for this project by the end of the summer.

I have a large number of other projects in various stages, but I will leave them off for now.  Soon I hope to create a master list of project codenames, which I can update as projects get touched.

I woke up this morning to learn that during the night, AlphaComplex had posted this on Twitter:

#iranelection has been redacted and is now considered Unhistory.

The odds are about 1:000 for that specific posting coming up, assuming #iranelection is always a Trending Topic and that the script will post anything at all.

I’m growing increasingly nervous that Paranoia will become a game we look back on and remember when it was satire.

From the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” department, this morning Amazon, at the request of the publisher, remotely deleted copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindle devices.

I’d have LOVED to be in the room when that one was pushed through.

UPDATE : Engadget has reported that the copies where in fact removed by Amazon because the company that put the volumes up for download did not own the rights to do so.  So, removing the volumes was probably the right thing to do.  But Amazon still made the decision to pull the books from the Kindle devices without somehow notifying the people who had bought them. I’ve downgraded the offense to Second Degree Irony.  Someone should have realized that, especially given the books in question, this would raise some eyebrows.

The Computer has taken time out of a very busy schedule to do an interview in a great post on the Official Paranoia Blog. This interview provides some information about the new edition of Paranoia, set to be released in the very near future (The Black Missions Limited Edition is supposed to ship next month.  Can’t wait to see it.)

Excerpt follows :

Friend Computer!
At your service, citizen. How may I help you?

I feel uneasy about the rumoured new editions of PARANOIA.
Fear and apprehension are not permitted. Joy is mandatory. If you not experiencing mandatory joy, report for chemical joy enhancement therapy.

Would you mind answering a few questions about the new edition?
Not at all.

I’ve heard there are going to be three books.
There will now be three core rulebooks in the PARANOIA line. These are the TROUBLESHOOTERS book, the INTSEC book, and the HIGH PROGRAMMER’s book. Each of these books is self-contained and focusses on a different way to play PARANOIA.

Personally, I’m pretty intrigued and excited by the prospect of delving deeper into the world of Paranoia.  But I’m a little apprehensive as well.  Perhaps I need to be medicated.

In my own microcosmic set of experiences (largely limited to my own gaming groups, local game conventions, and what I read on the dirt sheets), it seems to me like what people expect when they sit down to play a Paranoia game is crazy mayhem, nonsensical plotlines, a lot of doubletalk and, of course, an opportunity to shoot Team Leader in the back.  I argued earlier that this could be considered the collective fault of Paranoia GMs, myself included, who have run these kinds of games for years.  One might counterpoint that this style of play is so popular because it’s fun, that gaming should be fun, and that these insane games are Paranoia’s greatest strength.  I think there’s a great deal of merit in that position.  One of the things that made Paranoia so popular was that is was (and still is) such an antithesis to the other games on the market.  If players want deeper, serious or more meaningful games, there is no shortage other systems in which to play.

So in a way, I’m concerned that some of what makes Paranoia so popular may be lost in an effort to make Paranoia into something ‘more.’  My concern isn’t that people won’t be able to play Paranoia the way they want – the GMs can handle that on their own, and it’s not like all our old books will catch fire when the new ones come out.  I think there is a great wealth of material in playing Paranoia as IntSec or High Programmers, I just hope there’s a big enough market for those flavors of Paranoia.   In order to keep the line rolling, popular and profitable, I’m sure a new edition and some new material was necessary.  And there has been a LOT of material written for Paranoia, certainly no shortage of material int he last 5 years.  So something fresh was necessary, and these new core books do sound like they will be something new, even if the IntSec books draws heavy on Hil Sector Blues.  I just hope that the concepts play well to Paranoia’s core audience.

I know that I’ll buy the books, and I know many loyal citizens will.  And I know I’ll run at least one game in each style.  And I genuinely hope that the new core books are wildly successful and that people explore new ways to play Paranoia and that it all goes stunningly and that some High Programmer will come back here in a year just to post an “Oh ye of little faith” comment.  Anything else would make me treasonously sad.

I made a few changes to the site layout today, the most significant of which was to add the comments links on the front page.  You could always comment on a post by clicking on the title of the post and viewing the whole thing, but since I wasn’t excerpting posts, there was never really a need to do this.  I also changed the way the comment-related links and forms are displayed, to make the layout a little more consistent.

This will make it easier for all my nonexistent readers to leave nonexistant comments.

Making this change was sorta a big deal for me.  If you flip through the archives, you’ll find that last year, I posted less than once a month.  The year before, I posted less than once a quarter.  In 2006, I posted less than once a year.  One might infer from this that I’m not an avid poster.  Which isn’t really the case.

Before there was a word for such a thing, I used to keep an online journal pretty regularly.  A convergence of various factors caused me to give it up.  One of those factors (though not the most significant factor) was that there was a tremendous explosion of people doing more or less the same thing, only rather than writing meaningful entries, most of them wrote about their sandwiches, sexual escapades or how they didn’t like that person they used to like.  Of those three topics, only the sandwiches were really interesting.  I got hives just hearing about what other people were writing, and stopped keeping a journal out of a desire to keep my medical expenses down.  My allergies only got worse when people starting using the word Blog

One might infer from this that I’m a bit of a pretentious snob.  That may really be the case.

As time has gone on, I think I’ve finally admitted that my attitude about the whole thing was, and still is, pretty damn silly, and that the reason I gave up keeping an online journal probably had more to do with a few specific people, and much less to do with anything else.

There was one other governing factor: I guess I didn’t really feel like I had much to say.  As I’ve started posting updates here, I’ve discovered that I have more to say than I thought.

So, I’ve made it easier to comment.  I know that might not seem like it follows naturally, but having more to say has meant I’m more interested in hearing what you think.  Let’s see how that goes.