An amusing note in a Diane Duane book

[Andrew Plotkin]

I just started reading _Omnitopia Dawn_, her latest -- start of a
brand-new series. (Which I hadn't heard about at all. Sigh. Internet,
you fails me.)

It's about online MMO games circa 2015. (Yes, Walter Jon Williams just
did this story, and Stross before him. I'm sure editors are asking for
it by name. I don't mind.)

Anyhow, in an early scene, one of the viewpoint characters -- a gamer
-- has just gotten his hands on the content-development tools. Someone
is giving him an overview:

-----------------
"About the programming language. All of the Microcosm templates are
based on a very cut-down version of ARGOT called WannaB. It reads like
English, and you work with it in paragraph-sized chunks called
'modules'. They describe everything -- shapes, textures, mass and time
relationships, the works. [...] If you can speak English, you can work
in WannaB."
-----------------

And earlier, discussing world design: ("Macrocosms" are realms built
by the MMO company, "Microcosms" are player-created content.)

-----------------
"[The Microcosms are] just -- more quirky. Maybe a little less, I
don't know, *polished* than the Macrocosms. Funnier, sometimes. In
fact, funnier a lot of the time." He laughed. "A long time ago I
stumbled into Million Monkeys and had a lot of fun there. And I
started to get, I don't know, impressed. It never occurred to me that
Omnitopia would let people do *text* games in here."

Jean nodded. "Yeah, I like going there myself. I bet Shakespeare would
like it too, once he got over the idea that people were writing
turn-based collaborative fanfic in his universe."
-----------------

I don't want to overplay this: the book is not describing Inform or
anything like it. (The games are traditional-future full-sensory-VR
immersive environments, and the programming process, as briefly
described later on, is more of a lego-block-assembly construction
metaphor.)

But it *does* get at a whole mess of familiar notions: game
construction for non-programmers, the experimental nature of indie and
small-community game designers, natural-language programming, fanfic,
and the fact that a whole lot of people out there are into a whole lot
of Internet activities that are primarily text. And now I'm wondering
what Duane's been playing with, the past few years.

(I have not yet finished the book. For all I know there's an afterword
that will tell me.)

--Z

[George Oliver]

Post by Andrew Plotkin
But it *does* get at a whole mess of familiar notions: game
construction for non-programmers, the experimental nature of indie and
small-community game designers, natural-language programming, fanfic,
and the fact that a whole lot of people out there are into a whole lot
of Internet activities that are primarily text. And now I'm wondering
what Duane's been playing with, the past few years.
(I have not yet finished the book. For all I know there's an afterword
that will tell me.)

I've never done more than scratched the surface, but it seems like
fanfic and forum RP ('turn-based collaborative fanfic' isn't too bad a
description of most forum RP) goes on for miles and miles.

Lately I've noticed a lot more CYOA-style collaborative sites springing
up too, but I don't have a good handle on the size of the community.
Regardless,

I think nearly all of this goes on without much, if any, notice of IF --
not to say the genres (and tools -- compare using a forum to writing
Inform code) aren't different.

I wonder if there's space for some cross-over there though.

[Poster]

Post by George Oliver

Post by Andrew Plotkin
But it *does* get at a whole mess of familiar notions: game
construction for non-programmers, the experimental nature of indie and
small-community game designers, natural-language programming, fanfic,
and the fact that a whole lot of people out there are into a whole lot
of Internet activities that are primarily text. And now I'm wondering
what Duane's been playing with, the past few years.
(I have not yet finished the book. For all I know there's an afterword
that will tell me.)

I've never done more than scratched the surface, but it seems like
fanfic and forum RP ('turn-based collaborative fanfic' isn't too bad a
description of most forum RP) goes on for miles and miles.
Lately I've noticed a lot more CYOA-style collaborative sites springing
up too, but I don't have a good handle on the size of the community.
Regardless,
I think nearly all of this goes on without much, if any, notice of IF --
not to say the genres (and tools -- compare using a forum to writing
Inform code) aren't different.
I wonder if there's space for some cross-over there though.

IF would do well to steer clear of anything even remotely approaching
fanfic. Fanfic is dreck. Go read some and you'll see what I mean.

[S. John Ross]

Post by Poster
IF would do well to steer clear of anything even remotely approaching
fanfic.

Your warning comes a couple of decades and a thousand or two works of
IF too late :)

[Adam Thornton]

Post by Poster
IF would do well to steer clear of anything even remotely approaching
fanfic. Fanfic is dreck. Go read some and you'll see what I mean.

Sturgeon's Law applies there as everywhere else.

Adam

[namekuseijin]

hmm, found this by accident. Any chances you finished the book? Any disclosure in the afterword?

2015 was just last year and consumer level VR gear is the new fashion. author was pretty spot on...

Post by Andrew Plotkin
I just started reading _Omnitopia Dawn_, her latest -- start of a
brand-new series. (Which I hadn't heard about at all. Sigh. Internet,
you fails me.)
It's about online MMO games circa 2015. (Yes, Walter Jon Williams just
did this story, and Stross before him. I'm sure editors are asking for
it by name. I don't mind.)
Anyhow, in an early scene, one of the viewpoint characters -- a gamer
-- has just gotten his hands on the content-development tools. Someone
-----------------
"About the programming language. All of the Microcosm templates are
based on a very cut-down version of ARGOT called WannaB. It reads like
English, and you work with it in paragraph-sized chunks called
'modules'. They describe everything -- shapes, textures, mass and time
relationships, the works. [...] If you can speak English, you can work
in WannaB."
-----------------
And earlier, discussing world design: ("Macrocosms" are realms built
by the MMO company, "Microcosms" are player-created content.)
-----------------
"[The Microcosms are] just -- more quirky. Maybe a little less, I
don't know, *polished* than the Macrocosms. Funnier, sometimes. In
fact, funnier a lot of the time." He laughed. "A long time ago I
stumbled into Million Monkeys and had a lot of fun there. And I
started to get, I don't know, impressed. It never occurred to me that
Omnitopia would let people do *text* games in here."
Jean nodded. "Yeah, I like going there myself. I bet Shakespeare would
like it too, once he got over the idea that people were writing
turn-based collaborative fanfic in his universe."
-----------------
I don't want to overplay this: the book is not describing Inform or
anything like it. (The games are traditional-future full-sensory-VR
immersive environments, and the programming process, as briefly
described later on, is more of a lego-block-assembly construction
metaphor.)
But it *does* get at a whole mess of familiar notions: game
construction for non-programmers, the experimental nature of indie and
small-community game designers, natural-language programming, fanfic,
and the fact that a whole lot of people out there are into a whole lot
of Internet activities that are primarily text. And now I'm wondering
what Duane's been playing with, the past few years.
(I have not yet finished the book. For all I know there's an afterword
that will tell me.)
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*