Sundays are for energy leveling. Don’t be a hero now. Get that base 60. You’ll need it. Before you get to the motivational climax of turning a two-shot into a three-shot, let’s read this week’s best writing about games (and things related to games!)
For Eurogamer, Graeme Mason told the story of Captain Blood, not to be confused with Captain Blood, Captain Blood (2024) or Cap’n Blood (my cat*). This is a quirky gem of a 1988 Atari game about tracking your clones across the galaxy and killing them, with a fascinating communication interface.
“Captain Blood’s challenge was to create a universal text adventure game, playable by every player on the planet and transcending languages,” notes Ulrich. “I loved the icon-based language, like ‘I love you’ and ‘You beautiful, strong.'” It worked in any language, and I realized that by combining a hundred words/icons, you can express a real humorous script. .” This communication tool, called the Universal Communication Protocol – UPCOM – became Captain Blood’s main game. “We simulated intelligence using big data – I wrote hundreds of sentences with icons representing the characters’ knowledge, history, secrets and, of course, the precious coordinates of inhabited planets.”
This piece on coolness, scarcity and subculture by Ryan Broderick of Garbage Day resonated with me quite a bit, as what ‘subculture’ actually means in an age where you can fit into a scene within a few hours of Googling is something to which i think often. I don’t mean this entirely as a negative, of course. Artists, game creators and the like, reaching an audience without having to rely on publisher labels is a beautiful thing. But I also think that perhaps the feeling of being part of something small, special and new can create precious experiences with both art and community that may not be repeated when these roads are removed. I’ve never been particularly into vinyl – my dad ran a record store, and as Broderick points out, coolness is in short supply – but, to give an example, the phrase ‘online crate digging’ always seemed to me to be missing something essential.
All that said, I think something weird is going on with the way we understand subcultures. These communities, of course, still exist. There are punks and metalheads, hippies and weird kids, geeks and ravers and everyone else. And, thanks to the internet, there are more sub- and sub-subcultures than ever, with platforms like TikTok generating new ones every day. But also, thanks to the Internet, the barrier to entry into these communities has been effectively eliminated. You can go consume their respective knowledge on Reddit or YouTube, go to Amazon or Hot Topic, pick up some gear and go.
In Futurism, Frank Landymore wrote about the copywriter who found himself “the last human standing” as his team of 60 was slowly replaced by AI. Gloomy.
Months later, management decided to lay people off almost completely. Next, the AI model would generate articles in their entirety. Bad automation was here, and as a result, most writers lost their jobs. Miller kept it – although his role would be a little different than before.
Now, he was tasked with polishing the AI’s poor prose and, to quote the BBC, “making it sound more human”. If only there was a way to do this with, uh, human writers.
Stop Elevating Mediocre Indie Games is a thoughtful and, frankly, quite moving video from Pixel A Day, a million miles away from the misinformed bait that its title might suggest. No shade, YouTubers have to eat. I’d recommend just checking out the Why It All Matters section if you’re short on time, and also because then you don’t need to hear bad things about the beautiful cat game. I’ll think about the design intent distinction made here between ‘indie’ and ‘miniature AAA’ for a while.
The Earth Has Terrible World Building video is a fun little celebration of the planet’s many oddities. I haven’t finished the new Folding Ideas I Don’t Know James Rolfe video yet, but you’ll be pleased to know that it’s quite manageable in a slim fifteen hours. The incredibly dedicated fan who was remaking the entirety of Final Fantasy 7 on Little Big Planet seems to have finished the project. This week’s music is “Cut Your Hair by Pavement” because it’s never a bad time to listen to Pavement. Have a great weekend!
* Not a real cat. However, I am very warm to the name.