tim wright: digital writer

Playing MoonGolf with Jon Spooner: Hole #4 (St Albans) & Hole#5 (Capetown)

I had a lovely time last week speccing out and 'playing' MoonGolfHole #4 in St Albans with Jon Spooner: 

Jon is one of life's natural moongolfers as this video proves:

It turns out that the route we took maps onto the moon quite well, so that's one more hole sorted for when we finally get out on the lunar course:

Jon, by the way, is probably nearer the dream of getting into space than I am, damn him. And thanks to the organisation he belongs to - UNSA - it looks like he's going be taking a lot more people with him than I will.

At the moment, Jon is attending the International Astronautical Congress in CapeTown (yes, that's how serious he is) and it turns out he's keen to spec out MoonGolfHole #5 while he's there! Obviously, I have given him my full support, and even sorted him out with a letter of recommendation, just in case anyone out there doesn't quite take him seriously.

Download To Jon Spooner

Below is the proposed layout of the hole which Jon is hoping to play tomorrow (Thurs 6th Oct) at 2pm local time. If you're at the conference, do try and make it. And remember - DON'T LEAVE SPACE TO THE PROFESSIONALS.

"Preparing for life and leisure on the moon whilst being stuck here on earth is a tricky and sometimes odd business. But the MoonGolf mission is all about playing & preparing for something seemingly silly & impossible.

I sense you are someone who understands the importance of silliness and impossible dreams. All great space travellers (and invaders) understand this too, I think!

For these reasons, I am very happy to endorse the creation of MoonGolfHole #5 (CapeTown). I have studied the map of the terrain very closely and have drawn out my recommendations for a teeing-off point, a ‘green’ and a ‘hole’. Quite how many strokes it will take you to complete this hole is for you and your fellow players to discover.

Remember, it is very important that you recruit as many fellow players as you can, and that you use your time together to walk the course, sharing with each other as you go your dreams and ambitions, your thoughts about how we all might play our way into the future.

Please do record as much of your conversations as possible, map the hole and send me any ‘findings’ that come out of your game in terms of how to keep the amateur spirit of play alive: the amateur spirit that will eventually fire me (and maybe you) to the moon!"

Mount Kristos: Story versus Play

Having been invited to write an essay about an old, old project called Mount Kristos, I caught myself writing about story and play. Funny how writing stuff down can actually commit you to an opinion you didn't even know you had (or is that just the first step down the slippery slope towards becoming Toby Young/Tim Dowling/Jan Moir* et al?!):

"Even to this day, it doesn’t feel like we’ve solved the basic tension between story and play. For the most part, people are still treating online ‘theatrical’ events and interactive story projects as an excuse to party on noisily, ignoring all the wonderful trinkety things ‘creatives’ sweat blood to make for the audience’s entertainment.

Many times whilst rolling out MK, I definitely felt like an actor on stage desperately trying to be heard above the hubbub of a quite rowdy drinks party going on in the auditorium.

True, there’s a new generation of ‘digital play’ studios emerging that are clever at developing light-weight sets of tools, kits and/or basic rules rather than multimedia-rich ‘content’ – with the aim perhaps of allowing players to define their own play & story worlds, handing over control of where and when both story and game starts and ends – and defining who you get to play with and even what kind of story gets told.

It’s unclear to me as yet, though, that this DIY kit approach to interactive storytelling and play actually ends up supporting (or generating?) stories that have any serious impact or interest beyond a short period of intense play between a small group of people.

We all know the joy of banter around a card table (real or virtual) and have fond memories of goofy playground games, dressing up parties, unusual outings with friends and so on. But is this really the breeding ground for new *meaningful* forms of digital entertainment with broad appeal and longer term socio-cultural significance? For me, the jury’s still out on that one.

*Yes I did deliberately put Tim Dowling in that group. Sorry.

Maps and Skins media project

Last month, on the invitation of some very nice people at Isis Arts and National Heritage, I visited Belsay Hall. There is a fantastic festival taking place here in the late spring/early summer involving such luminaries as Mike Figgis, Tilda Swinton, Anthony (of The Johnstons), and my mate Tim Hopkins, the very talented opera director and new media artist.

Running alongside the festival is a very exciting new media education project that I have been helping to specify: 

"a group of young people will work with a professional artist to develop, devise and create a virtual game. As part of creative workshops, led by the artist (and assisted by an education heritage worker) the young people will visit the Belsay site, take part in heritage-themed workshops, and devise creative scenarios, which will form the basis of a computer game creating an interface, which can also be used on the internet and via a touch screen console at the site. A first stage game will then be produced by a professional media company with experience of producing games, which will be launched at Belsay in July 2007."

Isis has now published tender documents for both the artist position and the media development partner. The deadline for submitting proposals is 28th Feb 07. More details can be found at http://www.isisarts.org.uk/opportunities.html

MaliceBoxQuest Update

MaliceBoxQuest is now in its final phase, and I'm pleased to say that it's generally been received positively (see forums). Here are some links to the blogs of the other people who worked on the project: Tom, Iain, Cookie, Paul.

"I'm not on the top 20 leader board; I'm probably not in the top 20%, but I've finished the quest! I'm probably miles out but I don't care. The idea of the quest was fantastic, so more please, with some genuine mind-benders to solve!"

The Malice Box Quest

I had a hand in devising, developing & scriptwriting this:

"Work out a series of puzzles over 30 days in order to find the location of the mysterious Red Gold and stop the Malice Box from detonating and unleashing an unimaginable evil (as well as having a chance at winning a bunch of prizes)."

http://www.maliceboxquest.com

Insync Xmas party

On the back of the fab PlayTime event, I was very honoured to be asked to be part of the Insync Xmas party, developing some of the ideas for my MoonGolf project as a set of simple and discreet exercises that people could engage with whilst also doing all that stuff that people do at xmas parties (i.e. drinking).

Here's a Download golfonthemoon_summary2.pdf with info about the different exercises I'm developing for all budding moongolfers.

Here's the flickr set from the evening (you'll note that I have a number of 'action man' re-enactments to think about)

Here are some YouTube videos that demonstrate that Bowie simulation can be fun and telling. I'm particularly pleased with my own 'Fantastic Voyage' recital:

A loss of precious hours...

Thanks to Dave Green for finding this great quote from film critic Roger Ebert:

"I am prepared to believe that video games can be elegant, subtle, sophisticated, challenging and visually wonderful. But I believe the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art. To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers. That a game can aspire to artistic importance as a visual experience, I accept. But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic."

Gamer theory

"The Institute for the Future of the Book is pleased to announce a major networked book experiment with McKenzie Wark, author of A Hacker Manifesto (Harvard 2004). Wark has shared a draft of his next book, GAM3R 7H30RY (Gamer Theory), in an open web-based environment designed to gather feedback and spark discussion.

GAM3R 7H30RY 1.1 envisions a new kind of book that evolves over time and brings authors and readers into conversation."

http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/

Entropia: real money in a virtual world

"People who play the online game Entropia Universe can earn and spend real money in the virtual world. The launch of a new type of ATM card means gamers can now access virtual Project Entropia dollars and withdraw them as 'real' cash at certain Versatel cash machines.

Dave Birch, director for Consult Hyperion, a company that works on electronic payments, told silicon.com: "What's interesting is these virtual economies are getting so big they are bound to start impinging on the real world.

Birch added: "There is a blurring between this world and the virtual one. There's a whole load of legal issues around property rights, the legal validity of these trades. Things such as buying stuff that doesn't exist from people who don't own it."

The heart of Entropia Universe lies in a distant planet named Calypso. Members can create their own identity and then choose a lifestyle for their character. In 2005, the turnover for Entropia Universe, which has 400,000 registered accounts, was an estimated $165m."

http://www.silicon.com/financialservices/0,3800010322,39158659,00.htm

Tennis pro turns to gaming

"Scotsman David Kinnaird is swapping his tennis racket for a railgun. A keen gamer, Mr Kinnaird has packed in life as a pro-tennis player to try to make it in the world of professional computer gaming. He has become one of the latest recruits to the Quake IV squad of the UK's leading pro-game team Four-Kings. Explaining the decision, Mr Kinnaird said the rewards for pro-gamers were far better than those available to pro-tennis players."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4675114.stm