Date: 2009-04-04 00:49 Subject: Garwulf's Corner: The Blurred Edge Installments #3 - Water Pistols at Dawn (2006) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: blurred edge magazine, garwulf's corner, jack thompson

This was the last installment of Garwulf's Corner ever written.  I don't think I ever got around to sending it to my editor at Blurred Edge.  As the weeks turned into months, and no first issue was forthcoming, there didn't seem to be much point.  All of other the Blurred Edge material that was returned to me I eventually sold to the Escapist; I also tried to sell them Garwulf's Corner, but they never did get back to me.  Who knows?  Perhaps one day somebody will make me a suitable offer, and Garwulf's Corner will come back to life again.

As far as send-offs go, this is a rather ironic one.  At the time it was written, Jack Thompson was a major thorn in the side of video game people everywhere.  This was intended as a playful shot across his bow, pointing out the impact he was having, and the way that issues, once polarized, are almost impossible to talk about in an intelligent fashion.  Between now and then, though, he was disbarred and as a result pretty much discredited.  I'd rather not have this installment become rubbing salt in his wounds, if at all possible.

So, when you read this, I'd like you to cast your mind back to 2006, before the disbarment, back when Thompson was a force to be reckoned with.  And when you do, imagine my plucky proverbial David facing off against Thompson's Goliath, challenging him...water pistol in hand.

Okay, I must admit it.  I’ve had enough of the man.  So, we’ll do this the old fashioned way.  Jack Thompson, I hereby challenge you to a duel to the death in the way that best suits you – water pistols at dawn.

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Date: 2009-03-28 00:01 Subject: Garwulf's Corner: The Blurred Edge Installments #2 - Points of Failure - Part II (2006) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: garwulf's corner, medal of honor, points of failure, the sims online

Looking back at this installment as an actual publisher, it is a rather fitting one.  The business strategy I use for Legacy Books Press is essentially one of letting people have creative freedom inside the general guidelines of a “history book.”  I even got John-Allen Price to write The War that Changed the World based on the question “If you had carte blanche to write any history book you wanted, what would you write about?”

Ultimately, it’s all about catching “lightning in a bottle,” as my friend Ed Greenwood would say.  You can’t do it on purpose, really - it’s the combination of a labour of love, the right topic, and the right time.  About the only way to get it is to forget about trying to make it a success, and let good people do what they love.  Hold open the bottle, and perhaps, just perhaps, the lightning will leap in.

Last installment we looked at Neverwinter Nights 2, and the risk it was taking by not releasing with everything on the disk.  As an example, I brought out Dungeon Siege, and how its release without the promised content toolkit crippled its sales in the end.  But there are plenty of games that the publishers thought would do well, and failed utterly.  So, let’s take a trip down memory lane, and look at a couple of the more interesting ones.

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Date: 2009-03-21 00:03 Subject: Garwulf's Corner: The Blurred Edge Installments #1 - Points of Failure - Part I (2006) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: blurred edge magazine, garwulf's corner, neverwinter nights 2

Considering what happened with Blurred Edge, I think it’s rather ironic that this installment was titled “Points of Failure.”  It certainly wasn’t meant to be anything other than a reference to the content, although it quite ably captures my own experience with the magazine.

Much of the format was intended to be retained from the previous Garwulf’s Corner column.  If enough installments had been written, the sixth or seventh was going to be a feedback installment, just as before.  It was an interesting feeling at the time - where before Garwulf's Corner was fairly unique, by 2002 it had lots of company.  There was no guarantee that in 2006 it would be anything more than a single voice among many.  But, if it was to be a voice in a crowd, it was a good crowd.  I know - I'd been there for the beginning of it.

As far as how history turned out, Neverwinter Nights 2 was pretty much a disaster.  I don't know if I can really pin it on the late DM client - one friend of mine who did buy it told me the game was so badly broken when it came out that he managed to crash a multiplayer game by pressing the "enter" key.  And, less than a year ago at a LAN party, I got to try the updated, patched game myself - I crashed a multiplayer game by walking through a door.

As a footnote, I did see a copy of Neverwinter Nights 2 in a bin for about $10 earlier this year.  I passed on it.  Too overpriced.

Although history may have proven me wrong by the time this column is printed, I recently learned that Neverwinter Nights 2 will be released without the Dungeon Master client on the CD – instead, it will be available for download.  I would actually say that this is a really big mistake, and it might very well cost Atari and Obsidian dearly.

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Date: 2009-03-20 09:41 Subject: Garwulf's Corner: The Blurred Edge Installments - Introduction Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: blurred edge magazine, garwulf's corner

When the Garwulf's Corner column ended in 2002, I had said just about everything I had to say about the world of computer games.  But, time marched on, and the medium developed.  New issues arose, particularly with people like Jack Thompson becoming more active, and DRM becoming more prominent.  Once again, it was a good time to be a games issues columnist.

Blurred Edge Magazine was a start-up that had advertised in Writer's Weekly in early 2006.  It was founded by Ian Reynolds, who was new to the business, but very enthusiastic, and with an inspiring idea: he'd take the video game, and look at how it was blurring the edges between different types of media.  I answered his ad, and he replied with a statement that he would be honoured to have me as a writer.  So, I started working on another column.

It didn't take long before I realized that even though I had named the column something like "A Voice from the Ether," it was just Garwulf's Corner, picked back up after a few years.  So, after some discussion with Ian about the name, the column was renamed to Garwulf's Corner, and the first three installments were written and sent in.

I wish I could say that it was the beginning of a wonderful working relationship, and Garwulf's Corner had a long and happy life in print media.  Unfortunately, it wasn't, and it didn't.

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Date: 2009-03-14 00:01 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #52 - Looking into the Future (October 28, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: garwulf's corner

And here we are, at the end.  Two years after it started, Garwulf’s Corner finished on a high note.  I think it is important to talk about the future when it comes to a departure.  It’s always better to end while you’re looking forward, rather than looking back.

As for my little prediction, I was right about MMORPGs taking off, but so far no dice on the Internet of MMORPGs.  However, Tad Williams did use the idea for his book series Otherland...I took a fair bit of my own conception of that future from him.

This was the last Garwulf’s Corner installment, but it wasn’t the end of my involvement with Diabloii.net.  Only a couple of months later, I was asked to write a piece on the Lord of the Rings.  A year later, the website followed up on me with an interview about my time writing Garwulf’s Corner.

Garwulf’s Corner was over because I had said all I felt the need to say at the time, but as 2005 rolled into 2006, I started feeling the urge to explore the world of video games that had come to pass.  The attempt never really got off the ground, although it came close.  Next Saturday, you’ll get to read the first of the three Garwulf’s Corner installments I wrote for Blurred Edge.

And here it is...the final Garwulf’s Corner.  As I’ve said before, I’ve known for about a year that I was going to end it on installment 52.  Let’s face it: there’s only so much that one can write about with Diablo as a starting point, and I wanted to end the column on a high note, before it became old and worn out (or, at least, older and more worn out).

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Date: 2009-03-07 00:05 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #51 - Baby Steps (October 14, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: diablo, game design, garwulf's corner, warcraft

This is the penultimate Garwulf’s Corner installment.  I think there’s a lot of truth in it, and this one has aged quite well.

After all, it’s seven years later, and its observations are all still true.  Starcraft: Ghost never got finished as a game, though.  As I recall, it got turned into a book instead.  I can’t say I read it – I never was much of a Starcraft fan.  And, as everybody knows, World of Warcraft became the most successful Western MMORPG in history.

As I write, Blizzard has just announced its upcoming game, Starcraft: Ghost.  I’m also racing to get as much done in advance as possible, as it turns out that McGraw-Hill wants the EverQuest book released in May, a good two months earlier than I had expected.  Confusion and chaos is all around me, but it’s all connected.  I can go back and trace the roots of everything, watching them cross back and forth over each other.  It could very easily be said that the roots of my present situation have as much to do with Demonsbane and Harlan Ellison as they do with the economic slowdown and the end of Garwulf’s Corner.

It’s all baby steps in the end, so gradual sometimes you can’t even notice they’re happening.  One of the most fascinating things I’ve been able to do is watch computer games develop.  I was only a kid when the first King’s Quest game came out, with four color graphics that simply awed everybody watching it.  Now, looking back, it’s amazing how far we’ve come.  The history of the computer game is almost entirely of baby steps.  Oh, there was the occasional giant leap, such as Wolfenstien 3D and Dune 2, but everything else was a natural development.

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Next installment: Looking into the Future, the column’s grand finale.

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Date: 2009-02-28 10:25 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #50 - The Second Year Retrospective (September 30, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: columns, garwulf's corner, retrospective

When Garwulf's Corner was ending, both Diabloii.net and I realized that the column had started something, and Diabloii.net was richer for it.  So, even though my own part on the site was coming to an end, the idea of having columnists who would talk about Diablo and its related issues lived on.  So, between my editor at Diabloii.net and I, we decided that Garwulf's Corner should be replaced by at least one other column.  I put out the call, and three of my readers took up the challenge.  They would be joined by three others, including one written by my little brother, Chris.

Those columns lasted on Diabloii.net for about three more years, with at least one of them racking up more installments than I had.  Now, with Diablo III on the horizon, the columns on Diii.net are starting up again, including another one by my little brother.  I have high hopes for all of them.

Sometimes, life just blindsides you.  At least, that’s how I felt about this past year of Garwulf’s Corner.  It was easily the most exciting year I’ve had so far; as usual, there were moral and technological issues to explore, but there were also lawsuits to write about, controversies to play with, and even a possible conspiracy!  If nothing else, it makes for a VERY interesting final year.

As with the first year anniversary installment, I’ve collected a list of moments that stood out for me as I wrote this column.  Some are very good, some are bizarre, and one or two might even be painful.  But we shall see...

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Next installment: Baby Steps, in which the author looks at the various Blizzard game series and how progress happens.

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Date: 2009-02-21 00:11 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #49 - Emails from the Edge: The Final Slice (September 17, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: emails from the edge, garwulf's corner

And now we come to installment #49 of Garwulf’s Corner, and the final feedback issue.  To a degree, these feedback columns were always a love letter to my readers.  This one was very much a goodbye kiss – the sort you see in a melodrama where the hero kisses the heroine and then watches her go away for the last time.

This was also the point where I started wrapping up the column as far as content went.  I wanted to make certain that nothing ended up being left unsaid.  Installments 50 to 52 represented my final conclusions at that time on Diablo and the computer game industry in general.  Of course, some of those would change in time.

And, as the end of the installment says, I really did read every reader letter that came in right up to the end of the column.

On second thought, the title of this week’s column sounds like the title of a bad horror movie, doesn’t it?  I had one reader write in to say that I had inadvertently copied a Pizza Hut commercial; apparently, they have a promotion going on.  I’m afraid I wouldn’t know; I’m a writer...I can’t afford pizza.

(Actually, the title is supposed to be a reference to a sword blade; I thought “slice” was a better word than “cut” or “chop”.)

But that’s the wonderful thing about my readers.  You are all quite vocal, and very intelligent.  It makes choosing letters to quote very difficult, but also a great deal of fun.  Reader letters are something I enjoy every day, and I think that’s what I’ll miss most of all when the column ends.

But never fear, my dear readers.  The column may be ending, but the Garwulf’s Corner magic will still be alive and well.  Just last week I got a contract offer from McGraw-Hill to write a book about the history and present state of the EverQuest phenomenon, and, in theory, it should be published sometime around mid-2003; as soon as I have the exact publication date, I’ll let you all know.  It will be a very long time before I’m finished with computer games (or they’re finished with me, considering how I tend to get involved with these things).

Anyway, on to my reader mail.

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Next installment: The Second-Year Retrospective, in which the author shares his favorite and memorable moments from the second year of the column.

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Date: 2009-02-14 11:19 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #48 - The Issue of Morality (September 6, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: baldur's gate, diablo, garwulf's corner, rpg ethics

And with this installment, only four more remain.  As I mentioned in my preamble to an earlier installment, the actual decision was made weeks before this - the question was, when do I tell everybody about it?

I've never was able to get a publisher to pick up the reprint rights to the column, although one interesting thing did happen.  While trying to pitch it to Osborne/McGraw-Hill, I was told that the editor there loved the writing style, but wasn't interested in the column itself.  On the other hand, they were looking at doing a book about EverQuest - would I be interested?

Of course, I told him "yes," and the EverQuest Companion was born.

I guess I should start this installment with an important announcement.  If nothing else, it will be quite obvious from the title of next issue; this column is wrapping up.  Installment number 52, which, if I don’t miss my guess, will be published sometime in October, will be the last one.

I suppose I should take a moment to explain why.  Although Diablo is one of the great game series of the last ten years, there are only so many topics that I can use the games to cover.  Around January, I realized that I would eventually run out of material.  So, rather than have the column become dull, repeating the same topics over and over again, I decided at that time that I would end it after two years.  Garwulf’s Corner is my baby; I’d rather have it go out on a high note than suffer a lingering decline.

(But never fear, my dear readers.  Even now, I am contacting publishers and trying to arrange to have the entire collection of columns, including one or two that didn’t make the cut, put into print.  As soon as contract negotiations start on one of them, you’ll be the first to know.)

And, with that longer-than-average preamble, it’s time to get to the meat of this issue’s topic.  Let’s talk RPG ethics!

I am absolutely positive that my Icewind Dale paladin would have been arrested by now if it was the real world.  I know that in theory he has a Lawful Good alignment (which, according to the manual, means that he is a goody two-shoes who would never even speed on the highway, much less commit a serious offense).  However, any time he and his party enter an icy tomb in the game, they rob it blind.  If the party of adventurers was to have a name, “the synchronized looting team” would be pretty apt.

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Next installment: Emails from the Edge - The Final Slice; in which the author answers his reader mail for the last time.

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Date: 2009-02-06 00:07 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #47 - Double Standard (August 19, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: diablo, fanfiction, garwulf's corner, lord of the rings

I know this is going up a day early, but I’m in Richmond Hill this weekend for the Viking village at the Winter Carnival, and I won’t be able to post this on the usual Saturday.

Not a lot to say about this installment.  Just my luck that way back when I could look at fanfic, the Lord of the Rings fanfic I found was the slashfic.  And, frankly, I still think that anybody using fandom as an excuse for Boromir and Aragorn gay sex needs to have their head examined.  Expecting others to treat it like literature probably deserves institutionalization.

Keep in mind, though, I started out in fanfiction.  The first stories I showed the world were Doctor Who fanfic, and no doubt they’re still out there somewhere.  I even won a couple of online awards for them.  It can make a lovely training ground for writers, but if you think Boromir and Aragorn gay sex is a pretty decent substitute for a good story, then perhaps you should be putting down your pen.

(One update - since Doctor Who has now returned to the screen, I have no idea of what the BBC’s stance on who fanfiction is.  Back in 1997, though, they were on the tolerant side.)

It is amazing how important Lord of the Rings has become in my life.  From the party I threw the day the DVD was released to the Lord of the Rings-inspired Ranger sword I’m helping to fine tune for Last Legend, I’ve been eating, drinking, and breathing Tolkien’s world (which has really frightened some of the Hobbits, who want to know where their houses went).

And, being the curious sort, I just had to see what the creative part of the fan community was doing.  Since I’m not going to be writing anything set in Middle Earth, I figured I could read about one or two pieces of fanfiction without running into trouble (sad to say, one of the sacrifices one makes upon becoming a professionally published author is that one can no longer read most of the amateur fiction s/he used to write).  So, I went looking for fanfic reviews.  It was an easy enough search; ever since the movie came out, you couldn’t take a step online without falling over some copy of the One Ring.  Nothing could have prepared me for what I found, though.

What I saw horrified me.  In fact, it made me feel nauseated.  How anybody could write that garbage and call it flattery through imitation is beyond me.

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Next issue: The Issue of Morality, in which the author examines in-game morality.

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Date: 2009-01-31 09:31 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #46 - A Matter of Freedoms (August 5, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: battle.net, cheaters, garwulf's corner

It seems to me that Blizzard bans giant blocks of cheater accounts from World of Warcraft on a regular basis now, and nobody so much as bats an eyebrow.  Back in 2002, though, they did it to some Diablo accounts, and it was a big deal, and caused quite a bit of controversy.  This installment was my take on that.

And, as far as updating some of the stuff mentioned in this one goes, I once again upgraded WordPerfect a couple of times, and I'm now on WordPerfect X3 for my writing.  And, Amber Benson never did correspond with me, which was a pity - she was doing some interesting things (at the time, as I recall, she had also just published or was about to publish a comic book).

Just before I begin, there is a bit of follow-up business from my last installment.  A few days ago, Thomas Van Kooten sent me a copy of a column he had been asked to write for Apolyton.  For those who aren’t familiar with it, Apolyton is one of the larger Civilization fan sites, and Mr. Van Kooten had been asked to write a rebuttal of what I had said last issue about FreeCiv.  Although I don’t agree with everything he says (and he missed the point about the videotape principle...I guess I should have made the joke about cable television a bit clearer), he does raise some good points, and it is all overall quite well written.  So, if you have a chance, you might want to wander over and take a look.  That said, onto today’s column.

It’s amazing how thin the line actually is.  In fact, it is so thin that you sometimes have to walk on a razor edge.

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Next installment: Double Standard, in which the author talks about where the line is between flattery and butchery.

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Date: 2009-01-24 00:13 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #45 - A Copy of a Copy (July 22, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: civilization, diablo, garwulf's corner, videotape effect

And thus we come to Garwulf’s Corner #45, seven installments away from the end of the Garwulf’s Corner column.

When I look back at this one, I still agree with most of what I wrote.  I would say that perhaps I did boil down the Civilization series a bit too far, and I would also add that while I eventually acquired Civilization III, I couldn’t bring myself to get too excited about Civ 4 – the graphics were just a bit too “for the kiddies” for comfort.

This was a column that showed just how much the world of online game criticism had changed, though.  Shortly after this installment appeared, a fellow named Thomas Van Kooten sent me an email.  Somebody had read my installment, and asked him to write a rebuttal (this will mentioned again in #46, but it is more relevant now).  It was honest-to-god dialogue, and it felt wonderful to know that somebody was reading, and had decided to answer on another site.  A year beforehand, that wouldn’t have happened.

It’s a bit strange, thinking about what it was like back then.  Today bloggers are a dime a dozen, and we are drowning in content.  When I started this column in 2000, the struggle was to get noticed because a game commentator was a lone voice in the wilderness.  Now the struggle is still to get noticed, but instead because there are so many other voices shouting up to be heard, and all with something to say.

And that’s just how it should be.

So there I am, starting a new job as a writer at a software company, and I find out that we’re allowed to play computer games during the lunch break.  Being in a Civilization phase at the time, I suggest a multiplayer game of Civ 2 (as I don’t actually have Civilization III).  The Chief Technical Officer states that it’s not a bad idea, but that there is a better one out there.

And that was my introduction to FreeCiv.

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Next installment: A Question of Freedoms, in which the author examines what rights a player has in an online game, and where the line is drawn.

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Date: 2009-01-17 10:34 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #44 - The Paradox of the Internet (July 8, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: garwulf's corner, spammers

I wish in this case I could make the statement that "the more things change, they more they stay the same," but I can't.  When it comes to the content of this particular installment, things haven't changed at all.  The dating sites are still more or less a waste of time, people are still paranoid, and spammers are still impersonating other email addresses.

Although, I have to admit I do come across as a bit on the naive side in my lead-in for the meat of this issue.  Even in 2002, spammers "spoofing" email addresses weren't anything terribly new (although, admittedly, one's first encounter with it can be a bit on the shocking side).

The minute I saw the name on the email, I knew I hadn’t sent it.

Perhaps I should back up a step.  I’m sitting in front of my computer, checking my email as I often do during the day, when I get an email from a website I had never heard of, saying that they had gotten something from me infected by a virus.  Attached was a header with my email address, and the name “Delric”.

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Next installment: A Copy of a Copy, in which the author looks at mods and clones, and what works and what doesn’t.

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Date: 2009-01-10 00:00 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #43 - The Fate of Siggard (June 24, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: angels of darkness soldiers of light, demonsbane, diablo archive, garwulf's corner, siggard

Amazing the difference eight years can make.

Among other things, the events that had not yet happened when I wrote this installment have now happened.  There was a reason I alluded to in this issue about why I never really lobbied or pursued an additional Diablo novel after Demonsbane.  I did inquire – make no mistake, in 2001 I very much wanted to get onto the full book roster for the series as soon as possible.  And, also, it was fun enough that if I was offered it today, I would snap it up in an instant.

Back in 2001 and 2002, though, the Diablo novels were new, and everything except Demonsbane had sold like gangbusters (Demonsbane sold poorly because it was an e-book – for the record, even today e-books occupy less than 1% of all book sales, and they took eight years to approach that).  Pocket and Blizzard decided that they wanted to do another set of three books, but instead of stand-alones, they wanted to try a trilogy, and then they were going to wait and see what happened with those.  This meant two things – the first was that for at least a good three years, there would be a single author covering the series (trilogies with volumes broken up between multiple authors tend to be bad ideas), and second, they needed an established author to cover it, who they knew could carry a trilogy.

That wasn’t me.  To this day, I don’t think I could carry a trilogy – a book is as much of a journey for the author as it is for the reader, and I don’t like spending three of my own books in the same place.  That may change one day, but for now, I write stand-alone books (and yes, I have two finished fantasy novels waiting for a publisher to pick them up, and yes, one of them is on an acquisition editor’s desk right now).  Back in 2002 I couldn’t tell anybody about it – the official announcement hadn’t been made yet, so it was a secret I had to keep for the time being.

But, with the Diablo series essentially locked off for the next three, or even four years, and with Garwulf’s Corner spinning off into the EverQuest Companion book, I made my decision.  It was time to move on.  I left Diablo fiction behind me.

But, as I said, what a difference eight years makes.  When this installment was originally published, it barely made a ripple – more people read Garwulf’s Corner than had ever read Demonsbane.  With the publication of Diablo Archive, people became interested in the future adventures of Siggard, and in their own small and unofficial way, my outlines provided here joined the Diablo canon anyway.

I like that.  Siggard deserved to have his story told.

Call it a need for closure, if you will.

You see, way back when, I wrote this little e-book titled Demonsbane.  It inaugurated the Diablo fiction line, and went on to become a bestseller in its own right (which, for e-books, means it sold more than five hundred copies).  The hero was this tragic character, a man named Siggard who had so much vitality that death literally could not touch him.  Stab him, burn him, decapitate him, he would come back for more.  The only way he would finally find some rest is if his soul found peace, which is about as likely as a computer showing up and asking for a convenience store in the Diablo world.

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Next installment: The Paradox of the Internet, in which the author looks at why the same network that revolutionized communication also increased the sheer paranoia in the world.

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Date: 2009-01-03 01:23 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #42 - Yet Another Emails from the Edge (June 11, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: bnetd saga, diablo, emails from the edge, garwulf's corner, stephen n. limbaugh, swords

And now we come to the second last feedback installment.  There's not a lot left to be said about these installments that I haven't already said.  I will, however, say just one last thing, at least for now.

As much fun as these installments were, they also elevated the column.  Instead of being just one man's opinion, thanks to Emails from the Edge, the column was able to become a full discussion.  It was with these issues that I was able to know that I had well and truly succeeded in my ultimate goal with this column - I'd raised the question.  And I wasn't the only one trying to answer it.

One thing I should mention is that there is a link towards the bottom of this installment to some testimony of Bruce Wiseman, president of the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights (CCHR).  The CCHR is an advocacy organization founded in 1969 by Scientology, which has traditionally been very hostile to psychiatry, and it is the same organization that opened the "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death" museum.  At the time I published the link back in 2002, I didn't know about the group's relationship to Scientology.  Regardless, the testimony here has some merit, and I certainly think it should be read and considered.

Now, without any further ado, the second-last Emails from the Edge.  And with it we enter the last ten installments of Garwulf's Corner that were published on Diabloii.net.

It has certainly been an interesting three months in the Diablo world.  First there was the Bnetd lawsuit issue, which even trusty ‘ole Garwulf managed to misunderstand, then there was the release of Dungeon Siege, hailed by certain gaming magazines as the “future of the genre”, and finally a judge in St. Louis ruled that video games as a whole are not communication.

Is it just me, or are people doing bizarre things just so they can get into my column?  Nah...it’s probably just my over-inflated ego talking.

And, as usual, as things kept developing, readers kept writing in with great points and intelligent letters.  Once again, I’m stuck with the mammoth task of sorting through a mountain of mail to share some of the brightest stars.

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Next installment: The Fate of Siggard, in which the author explains where the Demonsbane story arc had eventually been intended to go.

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Date: 2008-12-27 09:21 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #41 - To Judge a Medium (May 27, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: free speech, garwulf's corner, stephen n. limbaugh

What are growing pains without a lawsuit here and there?

The 2002 St. Louis lawsuit was one of those moments that shook the gaming world.  It also meant that somebody was taking video games very, very seriously.  Furthermore, for just over a year after Limbaugh's ruling, the video game had become a free speech issue.

Of course, as I and several other commentators predicted, the decision was overturned, and video games were granted first amendment protections.  No surprise there.  In fact, it was so unsurprising that in preparing this little bit of commentary for this installment, I had a very easy time finding commentary about Limbaugh's initial decision, and a very hard time finding the result of the appeal.

That also says something about how much video game commentary had grown by 2002.  When Limbaugh brought forward his controversial ruling, it was not a few voices that rose up to discuss the issue, but a multitude.  And most of them got to it before I did.  There could be no doubt - not only was I no longer a lone voice in the wilderness, but I was in very worthy company.

It is something to think about, though - nowadays, we worry about Digital Rights Management, about Intellectual Property laws, patents...all the concerns you get with big, established business.  Back in 2002, though, the video game industry had to fight for the right of free speech.  Six years after the fact, I think it was that lawsuit that truly marked the entry of the video game into established media.

And, as much as this is an amazing time to be a games issues columnist, and as much as I'd love for somebody to pick up another run of Garwulf's Corner so that I could really sink my teeth into it again, I miss those early days.  Somehow, DRM and the DMCA don't hold a candle to being part of the fight for basic freedom of speech.

Perhaps it’s just the lingering scent of the X-Files finale, but I smell a conspiracy here.

In April, around the publication of my second Bnetd issue, I received a heads-up from one of my readers.  As it turns out, a county in St. Louis passed a law enforcing the ESRB ratings system.  The Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), while agreeing in principle that the law was a good idea, did not like the degree of content control being placed on the games, and took the county to court.

And here is the kicker: Stephen N. Limbaugh, the federal court judge hearing the case, not only denied the IDSA’s motion to strike the law, but ruled on April 19 that video games are not capable of communicating ideas, and therefore not protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

( Read more... )

Next issue: everybody’s favorite installment, Yet Another Emails from the Edge, where the author gets to show off some of his favorite letters, and the controversy he’s managed to cause.

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Date: 2008-12-20 01:13 Subject: Coming soon to Garwulf's Corner - the Blurred Edge installments... Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: administrivia, blurred edge magazine, garwulf's corner

I hope that everybody has been enjoying reading through the old installments of Garwulf's Corner.  And, as everybody knows, the last Garwulf's Corner will be reprinted here in about twelve weeks.

So what happens after that?

Hopefully to at least some people's delight, more Garwulf's Corner.

You see, back in 2002 I stopped writing Garwulf's Corner in large part because I had run out of things to say.  But, the computer game evolved, and things changed.  Around 2005, I once again had something to say.  And that brings us to Blurred Edge Magazine.

Blurred Edge was one of those magazines that could have been a contender, as the old line goes.  Unfortunately, due to mistakes made on the publisher end that I am not allowed to discuss in detail due to an inconvenient non-disclosure agreement, the magazine never published its first issue, and I ended up having to take what money I could extract and running (I do hope that one day it corrects those mistakes, and resurrects itself).  It now exists only as a web forum.  However, before it fell apart, in 2006 three installments of Garwulf's Corner were commissioned and written, and have remained on my hard drive, sitting and waiting, ever since.

So, the week after Garwulf's Corner #52 is reprinted, the Blurred Edge installments of Garwulf's Corner enter the weekly rotation.  The first one is titled Points of Failure - Part I.

(Considering what eventually happened to Blurred Edge, the title is very ironic - however, I assure you, it was never intended that way.)

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Date: 2008-12-20 00:41 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #40 - The Future of the Genre? (May 13, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: crpgs, diablo, dungeon siege, garwulf's corner

And now we come to the last dozen columns.  At this point in time, the decision to end the column on installment #52 had been finalized, and what was left was wrapping it up, as well as covering the few new points that came up here and there in the last weeks.

It's always interesting looking at one of those predictive columns.  The RPG has continued to develop, although more and more it seems that once a game company hits the big business level, innovation more or less stops.  Although, I also have to admit a problem of my own - I've now been gaming for long enough that so little of what comes out manages to excite me.  Almost all of it has me sitting there thinking "been there, done that."  Neverwinter Nights 2, which could have been spectacular, ended up being a badly-implemented version of Neverwinter Nights, with less refined multiplayer and graphics that would be prettier, if they worked on anything other than a supercomputer.  Now that Diablo III has been announced, I'm excited about that - but that's the first game I've been truly interested in for the last few years.

What has become the thing to watch is the indy game circuit - interesting things are happening there.  I've come to believe that the next incredible success, and, for that matter, the future of the genre, will ultimately be from that sector, rather than any place like EA.  Although, I should say that I think we did see the Lord of the Rings of the CRPG...and it was Neverwinter Nights.

I always shudder when some game company or magazine claims that the latest RPG is the “future of the genre.”  Besides being remarkably pretentious, the number of times it actually proves true can be counted on a single hand.  The most recent offender here is Dungeon Siege, Microsoft’s answer to Diablo II.

I probably sound like an old fogey when I say that I’ve seen it all before.  The problem is, it’s true.  I HAVE seen it all before.  I remember the gold box AD&D games from the late 1980s.  I remember what I think was the very first real-time RPG combat back in the early 90s, in a little-known game called The Four Crystals of Trazere.  I remember Legend of the Red Dragon when it was NEW.

(Wow...I AM an old fogey.  I guess I just set the speed record for that.)

I must admit, I have been fascinated by Dungeon Siege.  I’ve spent hours reading reviews, previews, and little notes found in secret locations in an ever increasingly diabolical...er...let’s just say, I’ve been keeping informed.

Is Dungeon Siege the future of the genre?  Not really.  It represents the past far more than the future.  Almost every element advertised as interesting and new I have seen before.

( Read more... )

Next installment: To Judge a Medium, in which the author examines the recent court ruling in St. Louis.

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Date: 2008-12-13 00:45 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #39 - The Lawsuits of April (April 30, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: blizzard, bnetd saga, garwulf's corner, vivendi

And now we come to the final part of the BnetD saga - The Lawsuits of April.

Reading over it for the first time in six years, it's amazing just how relevant this installment has remained.  BnetD has long since faded back into obscurity - in fact, come to think of it, it was getting into trouble with Vivendi that managed to make them famous in the first place - but the issues are still there.  Reverse-engineering, EULAs, we're still grappling with them.  And we don't have too many more answers today than we did back then.

There is also this odd tendency of people to either turn the players in an incident like this into heroes or villains.  At the height of the BnetD issue, Vivendi was being depicted as a sort of evil empire, and BnetD were the plucky heroes.  But neither was quite true.  We see it even today with modern DRM.  The DRM is stupid in many cases, and most frequently a sort of overreaction, but there are also a lot of people out there who are pirating games, movies, and songs because they just don't want to pay for them - nothing noble or revolutionary, or even particularly evil, just getting away with free swag.

And, for those who are wondering, I did get my hands on The Guns of August, and it did not disappoint.  It is a spectacular book.  And if the First World War is something of interest to you, there's an even better book that came out recently that really does justice to the conflict called A World Undone, by G.J. Meyer.

The Guns of August, a book about the beginning of World War I, has just made it onto my summer reading list.

As I begin writing, it is only a couple of days after the announcement that Vivendi/Blizzard had apparently committed the absolutely baffling action of suing their own customers by filing suit against the Bnetd project.  Looking over the information at hand, my mind keeps slipping back to two events:

The start of World War I in 1914, and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

( Read more... )

Next installment: The Future of the Genre?, in which the author examines where fantasy CRPGs may be going.

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Date: 2008-12-06 10:54 Subject: Garwulf's Corner #38 - Having the Edge (April 15, 2002) Security: Public Location: In my chair Tags: garwulf's corner, swords

This column marks an interesting point in my life - the beginning of my days as a serious sword collector.  Prior to getting this sword, I had managed to get my hands on a sword here and there, but they were either stainless steel wall-hangers, or one of those cheap swords you see that could never actually stand hitting something.

Nightfire was the beginning of a long road.  There was another major step, when I moved from low-end functional swords to high-end swords, and it was just about as big.  Most of the cheaper swords have been moved on now.  Now I've got blades by Angus Trim, Christian Fletcher, and Al Massey.  For my Viking re-enactment, I use a sword from Armour Class.  It's an expensive hobby, but a fun one, and one that I wish I could spend more time on.

As I begin writing, it is April 9th, and I am sitting on pins and needles, waiting for a package to arrive.  It’s something I commissioned back in January, and I just can’t wait for it.

It’s my new sword, a functional war sword that I’ve since then named “Nightfire.”

(For those who just had the Diablo II version of a war sword pop into your heads, let me just clear this up.  A Medieval war sword has a cutting blade between 36" and 40" long, and a handle between 6" and 8".  The guard is usually a standard crossguard, and the pommel tends to be a wheel pommel of some sort.  Nightfire is a variation; it has a 38" blade and a 9.5" grip.  And yes, I am shamelessly showing off here...)

If you haven’t already guessed, swords are one of my passions.  It’s been that way ever since Corey Keeble in the Royal Ontario Museum put a seven hundred year-old broadsword in my hands back when I was in high school.  It was light, wieldy, and I could FEEL the history on it.  I’ve never regretted the road it sent me down.

( Read more... )
Next issue: The Lawsuits of April, in which the author attempts to make some sense of the new developments in the Bnetd case.

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