Deus Ex Machinatio

And Now For Something Super!

So yeah, that soup thing is pretty crazy, right? Just to spite Campbell's, I totally ate a 320-calorie frozen meal for lunch today. 

This is the kind of post that was on my mind when I was talking about personal and professional personas a few weeks ago. I've traditionally shied away from talking to much about ideology, unless it's related to my work. But this is something that is important to me, even though it doesn't have much to do with games, and certainly is only a tangent from my career as a storyteller. 

Which brings me to today's topic: My Super First Day! I'm gearing up for another round, folks! If you're an MSFD alumnus, you're free to build onto your Super Second Day, work with others on a big collaborative Rashomon piece, or start fresh with a new character. 

If you haven't participated in MSFD before, it's dead easy! Just scribble out the story of your Super First Day and email it in by... oh, let's call it Feb. 7 at 6pm EST. 

Read the MSFD FAQ for our guidelines and other important info. Get cracking, supers!

The Sims & Second Nature

I am thrilled to tell you that I have an article on The Sims and narrative in the current issue of Second Nature, or as they call it, the 'International Journal of Creative Media.' It was an interesting piece to write, and I hope you enjoy it as well.

The Institute for Human Continuity

Several weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to join a truly amazing project. I'm incredibly excited to tell you that I've begun consulting with the Institute for Human Continuity.

This tremendous responsibility began with a bang -- as some of you may already know, the IHC is conducting a search to find the Leader of the Post-2012 World. The entry phase of the election isn't that far away, so if you hope to be the Leader of the Post-2012 World, sign up now, before time runs out. 

Meanwhile, my work at the IHC is only just beginning. I'm tremendously proud of the plans I've made with the IHC. I do hope you'll join me on this journey.

Insomniac

Yes, I read about the Insomniac in the papers, too. --Actually, I know her, can you believe it? We went to high school together. Yeah, for real.

I can't decide if I want to look at diamonds or sapphires today. It's for a blue gown, but I wouldn't want to be too matchy-matchy, you know? Why don't you take them all out so I can see?

Right, the Insomniac. She was just a mom at the same school as my girls, you know? We weren't close friends or anything, but there wasn't anything really unusual about her. Always tired, but that describes all of us when they're that age.

Hey, that pin with the rubies just caught my eye. Maybe what I need is a little contrast. Let me try it?

Anyway, the morning that the nanocytes broke out, she said she felt like a million bucks, but I was tired just being around her. Of course nobody knew what was going on at the time, and it took us a few weeks to figure it out. I mean, it's not like she could do anything showy, not like Astounding Man or Origami Girl. She just made you really tired, and she got more and more energetic. Some of our friends called it manic, but I didn't see it, myself.

Oh, goodness, I'm yawning. See, and now you're catching it too. Ha! That would be funny, if the Insomniac struck here while we were just talking about her? What are the odds?

No, it's not ten jewelry stores, it's eleven -- twelve -- and nine banks. Oh, and that art gallery in Stockholm. That was amazing, wasn't it? I always had a soft spot for a good heist film, how about you?

Goodness, I can't decide which of these I like better. Which do you think, the chandelier earrings or the hoops?

There you go yawning again!

Do I think they'll catch her? Oh, probably they will one day. They'll have to catch her off her guard, though, and you know she doesn't sleep anymore, right? Sorry to point out the obvious. Real shame about that officer who fell asleep at the wheel last week. I hear she sent half a million dollars to him at the hospital. She must feel really awful about the whole thing. I would, too.

Oh, goodness, no apologies necessary! It must be the cold air in here, it makes me yawn, too. Oh, you think I should try the opals? Certainly, I'd love to take a look, I adore opals.

Aw, look at you putting your head down. Poor baby. I promise you'll wake up in a couple of hours. I'll just help myself to a few things while you're out, don't mind me.

Sweet dreams, honey.

Another Step Toward Global Domination

I've got a guest post on the blog over at Luxurious Animals. If you've been reading me for long, very little of it will be new to you, but I'm proud of the piece because it contains the most succinct description of what the heck an ARG is that I've ever come up with. 

Check it out and let me know what you think. I'm sure there must be at least one or two of you out there who don't quite agree with me. 

After These Important Messages—

If you've been expecting email from me for the past several weeks, I'm sorry I've neglected you. Routes ate me whole during the run, and I'm only slowly coming back to life now that it's all wrapping up. Right now I'm suffering through the inevitable post-project stress illness with all of its phlegmy charms. That'll probably take me the rest of the week. 

From next week, though, if you've been waiting on email from me, then email me; if you've been wanting to meet me for lunch or coffee, let's set that up soon; and if you're angry that my irregular posting has grown only less irregular over time, I'm very sorry and I'll try to do better going forward.

Stay tuned, and in the coming days (or possibly weeks) I will bring you:

• Some ruminations on why ARGs are inconvenient to play, and how to design around that 
• Exploration of the expectation of privacy vs. the expectation of anonymity 
• Some closing thoughts on Routes 
• A video explaining just how you pronounce "Deus Ex Machinatio," anyway 

Meanwhile, I was a bad, bad girl toward the end of Routes, and so overwhelmed with the process of making stuff that I failed to point you toward it so you could enjoy it. And that means i never showed you Ginger Dawn, the most incredibly wrong but oh-so-hilarious minigame of the project. I don't want to spoil the killer intro, but go have a play, you'll love it!

Routes: DNA Heroes

The Routes Week 5 Challenge is up: DNA Heroes. I'm fantastic at DDR but miserable at DNA Heroes, how do you stack up?

While you're there, be sure to register to win tickets to a comedy gig starring the divine Canadian funny girl Katherine Ryan. If you're already registered on the site, sign in and go to your profile to tick the box that says you're interested in going. It's sure to be a good time!

And speaking of Routes, our man on the scene Fluffy has been keeping us updated on what's been happening with Rachel in her search to find out what happened to her uncle. Take a look at the latest, why dontcha:

Routes: The Plot Thickens

Have you seen the Week 3 game up at RoutesGame.com? It's called ExperiMental, and it's a social media/photohunt challenge. You try to capture a photo of the most awesomest science experiment at home and upload it, and then go through and vote on the ones other players have uploaded that you like the best.

But that's not all that's going on over there. (and if you're a curtain purist, so to speak, you may want to avert your eyes right about... now.)

My heavens, it looks like there's some sort of cross-media interactive experiential cool thing going on! Not that I'd know anything about... OK, OK, who am I kidding?

Ladies and gentlemen, this is where I walk the talk. There's a game going on! Don't worry, I'm not going to start spouting off about design goals and overarching priorities at this point. But I DO think the time is right to say "Hey, looky here, I has a game, and if you generally like my work, this is what you need to look at." You see? It didn't hurt a bit.

So right, if you want to go digging up treasure, you need a map. Allow me. Right now, courtesy of Fluffy Bickles, we have a video summary of Week 1:

Annnnd hot off the presses, Week 2:

It's a great point to jump in, and we'd love to have you. If you're interested in playing along, there are of course a few more links you might like to see. I'd love to hear what you think, but I'm afraid I'm not going to enter into much of a dialog about Routes until the show is over, so to speak, so I apologize in advance if I'm uncharactersitically silent.

Have fun!

People I Admire Week

Given my last post on Teresa Nielsen Hayden and a post to go up shortly on Amanda Palmer, I've decided to make this a full-blown People I Admire Week here at DeusExEm. If you want to play along, that would be just peachy; feel free to link to yourself in the comments. I'd love to see who you all are looking up to these days!

Here are the rules I'm using. If you're playing the home game, of course you can play by your own rules, but I think this framework will lead us toward much more interesting responses:

1. Friends and family don't count. It would be easy to fill a week with the obvious stuff: I could say I admire Sean Stewart and Jan Libby, my mom and dad, Naomi Alderman and the Brothers Hon. But I want to dig a little deeper, here. If you know somebody well enough to have their IM information, or if they'd likely know who you were if your name came up in conversation, you know them too well for this purpose.


2. You really want to be like them. Look, we all admire Mother Teresa, but not many of us get fired up over giving our lives over to helping the sick and poor. I want this admiration to be actionable in a more than theoretical way.


3. Your lifetime and their lifetime have to at least overlap at the edges. Even better if the person you admire is still alive! This keeps out people we've been taught by rote to admire since we were small; your Abe Lincoln and Jesus, Isaac Newton and Benjamin Franklin and Hammurabi. I want to hear about admiration you probably don't have in common with millions of other people.


4. They have to be real people. Seriously, folks, no Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Captain Kirk, OK?

We're cool? Awesome. Ready... set... go!

Ah-CHOO!

The next game at Routes is up: Sneeze!

I can't claim much of any credit for this one, so it's not bragging to say it's a fun little chain-reaction game covered with a gooey layer of snot. I've made it all the way to level 10, but not yet cleared it, how about you?