I have not given up on blogging, despite all appearances to the contrary. It’s just that, well, I’ve been busy.

Lots of great stuff going on at work. As you may have heard, we announced our first product and have been talking about it at various shows. I know many of you are anxious for more news on the MMO, but our promotional efforts are focused on the RPG right now. All good things to those who wait.

If it counts for anything, I have started (or thought about starting) several articles over the past few months, but never finished writing them for one reason or another. So for your own amusement, please pretend that you read timely, thought-provoking, and highly entertaining posts on the following topics:

• Are used video game sales a blight upon the industry?
• The subscription MMO isn’t going anywhere
• “Truth, Lies, and Frogloks: A Cautionary Tale”
• Please buy me an iPad

That last one isn’t really an article; I’d just love for someone to buy me an iPad.

But honestly, you should really be grateful that you’re getting a break from my ramblings. You’ll probably be sick of me again soon enough.

Speaking of which, I’ll be on a panel at GDC Online next month talking about transmedia stories. Looking forward to it!

On Tuesday, March 23, I’ll be speaking at the IEEE Virtual Reality 2010 Conference, taking place in nearby Waltham, MA. The panel is titled “Design for Experience?!” and if you look at the list of speakers, I am clearly the dumbest guy in the room. I can only assume they had some quota of locals that needed to be filled.

My contribution has the uncharacteristically academic title “Memorable Experiences in Virtual Worlds.” Don’t worry–I’m not going all Raphtastic on ya. I’m building upon the basic premise of my talk with Owlchick last year at GDC Austin, where we asserted that the player’s stories are more compelling than those made by game designers.

Why does this fit a virtual reality conference? The panel is all about designing user experiences, and I submit that currently the most accessible form of virtual reality is found in massively multiplayer online games. Now I just have to convince the audience of that fact.

I recently did an interview with Stephen E. Dinehart that was just published to his site.

In an age when I can’t talk about the details of what I’m working on, Stephen asked some very good questions that let me talk about the philosophy of what I’m working on.

Thanks to Mr. Dinehart for the opportunity.

As reported by Gamasutra, my old nemesis Owlchick and I will be doing a presentation at GDC Austin with the antagonistic title “Writing for MMOs: You’re Doing It Wrong.” Doing the panel was Tracy’s idea; the title was mine.

I have no idea how we suckered the GDC folks into accepting our proposal. No doubt they’ll live to regret it. Hopefully we think of a few interesting things to say in addition to rehashing the drivel from our contribution to that book with the horrible cover.

It will be my first trip to Austin and my first presentation at a GDC. Somebody better buy me one hell of a steak for all this trouble.

Money well spent!

People occasionally wonder what kind of stuff I’m working on. This about sums it up:

“The aim is to create a cathartic immersive interactive world with a meta, or arch, narrative facilitated through designed dramatic play.”

What the hell does that mean? It comes from an article titled “Dramatic Play” by Stephen Dinehart, in which the author was kind enough to refer to several companies interested in expanding the definition of narrative gameplay, including the studio where I work. While it’s no secret that I’m not a fan of the academic study of game design, I found this a very interesting article. Because at the risk of sounding self-serving, I think the industry is on the brink of finally finding ways for games to truly become a medium for delivering a rich story experience.

Certain entrenched paradigms and assumptions need to be broken or discarded, because early generations of MMOGs proved that they don’t translate well to a fun gaming experience (example: HUGE BLOCKS OF TEXT DON’T WORK). But if we make this leap, games can grow as a legitimate art form and more consistently deliver the same emotional journey as movies, books, or plays–but in their own unique way.

There… I said it. I want to make Art. With a capital A. Yes, I am that pretentious.

However, I will take the quote above and rephrase it a little more plainly:

The goal is to immerse players in a great story which they don’t just read, watch, or see acted out, but that they actually play through and impact in a meaningful way.

That’s really all there is to it.

I was recently interviewed for an article on IP creation by Cody at Ten Ton Hammer. Along with several other developers, I discuss the fun and challenges of building an IP from the ground up as opposed to licensing an existing property.

This was one of the better interviews I’ve done, in part because I could talk freely about this subject without detailing anything about the game I’m working on. Though it’s not as clear when one game is the sole face of an intellectual property, IP development is distinct from game development. The goal is to build something that can live across a number of mediums and feel like it was crafted solely for whatever incarnation you’re experiencing.

When it works, you don’t notice it. When it doesn’t, you’re left with a movie that doesn’t feel like the game, a game that doesn’t feel like the movie, a movie that doesn’t feel like the book, and so on. Examples of the latter are much more common than examples of the former.

It’s a big day at 38 Studios! This announcement is really cool news, and though I can’t talk about any details just yet, the press release hints at what this means for our IP going forward.

While I’m spamming company news anyway, note that we’re currently hiring a number of positions.

Some guy named Salvatore did an interview with Ten Ton Hammer, and he even mentions me by name! Therefore I had no choice but to link it here.

Seriously, working with Bob is one of the best things about being at 38 Studios. Someone with his career could have come in and said “You schmucks will do it my way.” Instead, he’s been collaborative from day one, just as eager to hear what we have to say as we are to listen to him. And I think when people see our unique take on storytelling, they’ll understand why we had a heavy-hitter like Bob on board.

But that’s a tale for another time.

I’m back from NYCC and had a great time. The panel on 38 Studios went well, even though there have been a few complaints about us not talking about the game–this despite the very first slide and the panel intro making extremely clear that we would not be talking about the game. Most people attending understood what we were trying to accomplish, and our discussion of studio process and answers to the fan questions actually hinted at quite a lot of what we’re doing, if you knew what to listen for.

NYCC is great. It is smaller than the San Diego version, but in a good way. The crowds are still huge but you can actually make your way down the aisles reasonably well and interesting things can stand out rather than get lost in the crowd. I would recommend the show to everyone, but then NYCC will keep growing in size and soon it will be just as unruly as SDCC.

I didn’t see as many costume tragedies as last year. Sure, there were a few Slave Leias that shouldn’t have left the house, but on the whole there were few attrocities. The best costume was one I saw on Sunday: a young woman bravely dressed as Poison Ivy wearing only some carefully placed leaf appliques and a flesh-colored thong. I don’t think she had an ounce of fat on her body, and needless to say she drew quite a crowd.

Not that I was leering, mind you.