This blag used to be called So many things to do, so little motivation, and back then my life indeed featured a long list of things I "have" to do, or "want" to do and such. And as with everything created by the ego, those were just empty, lifeless ideas and plans, without my heart beint into it, hence the lack of motivation. I'm happy to report that's no longer the case. There's very little I want these days, and I'm very motivated to keep doing as little as possible.

Book review: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

I admit I only wanted to read this novel because of the Apocalypse Now! movie. Brando's character Kurtz is loosely based on the book character of the same name. Sadly, the book isn't nearly as engaging as the movie is. The narrative has the main charater - Marlow - talk to people while recalling his experience - a story within a story, which at times is confusing and doesn't aid the storytelling either - we know Marlow survived it all, so where's the suspense? We don't get to see much of Kurtz either, or hear him talk directly, besides few sentences, and the whole treatment of what he really did and why is very very sketchy. The book dances around the theme of darkness, darkness of the heart and soul but doesn't really explore it.

The storytelling itself is quite inefficient too. Things happen, plot moves but my emo meter wasn't moving much. Maybe it's the age, the book is over 100 years old (you can get it from the Gutenberg archive) and I'm spoiled and numb, but I'd say it just isn't written very well. I can read the works of Mark Twain or Ambrose Bierce which are roughly from the same time frame and enjoy them much more.

Book review: The Songbirds of Pain by Garry Kilworth

Garry Kilworth is an interesting writer. He probably writes some endless fantasy cycles now, like everyone else does, but back in the 80's he used to write short stories and boy, are they something. In the introduction to this collection he notes: A short story should be as precise and accurate as an acupuncture needle in hitting the right nerve. There the analogy stops, for the nerve should jangle, not deaden. Ain't that the truth. Yes, I'm looking at you Neil Gaiman.

Garry's stories often feature (what we think of as) exotic tones, oriental or asian - he's a well traveled man. And the stories where he takes the existing world and people, and puts something odd, strange or bizarre into it work the best. The title story (The Songbirds of Pain), The Disassemblers, Blind Windows or the incredibly moody Sumi Dreams of a Paper Frog are among the best stories I've ever read. You can feel the needle there and it's burning.

There are some misses in this collection too tough, and all of them deal with a situation where the author is trying to create a whole new word, be it post-apocalyptic setting (The Rose Bush), future (Scarlet Fever) or some unspecified, probably alien world (Almost Heaven). It's boring, the characters are foreign and you have no reason to care about what happens to them. Not to mention being able to guess how the story ends (this is a big no-no).

Overall, the good stories are too good to be missed, and it's a pity most of Garry's older works are out of print and very hard to get.

Boo(k) review: Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

My first contact with Neil Gaiman's work was his Sandman comics, which is brilliant. The novel Neverwhere was great as well. The subsequent books like American God or Anansi Boys were well written yet lacked something. His latest offering is a collection of short stories and other writings. And I'll be blunt about it - most of it is stuff he should have published on a blog or something, instead of wasting paper. Stories one or two pages long that lead nowhere, poems, "impressions" - blah who cares. Looks like as Gaiman is getting more and more famous, he's lowering his standards and is willing to publish anything. And that's a shame, because the man really can write. The book opens with a story which combines the world of Sherlock Holmes and the Cthulhu myths. It's fantastic and I would be very excited to read a whole novel based on this idea! The book also closes on a high note, with a story going back to character(s) from American Gods. But between those two ... read and weep. Or read and skip, which is what I did. Please Neil, turn your crapfilter back on.

However, the most distressing fact about reading this book is that (as the introduction notes) almost every work published in it won some kind of prize. I haven't been following the world of scifi and fantasy literature since the 90's but if this is what wins prizes these days ... then either the judges have gone insane, or the competition is even worse. Shudder.

Book review: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Short version: If you have a sense of humor and haven't read this book yet, go get it now! (If you don't have a sense of humor then... what are you doing here in the first place?)

Long version: I don't understand how it took me so long to actually learn about and read this book, because I would have enjoyed it just as much ten years ago. The story is set in the city of New Orleans in the 1960's and the main character is Ignatius J. Reilly, a whale-like 30 years old maniacal and somewhat autistic man living with his mother. Ignatius scoffs at the modern moral or lack thereof, his ideals being stuck somewhere in the middle ages. And he's not afraid to voice his opinions.

After an accident he's forced to look for a job and that starts a whole avalanche of events. All the characters in the book are pretty much hideous caricatures with character traits over the top and each one of us will probably see parts of himself there, echoed and amplified, with all our agitation and visions of grandeur. It's a bitter bitter mirror to look into. The plot is no less convoluted and improbable. But what makes it such an enjoyable reading are the brisk dialogues and hysterical rants of the colorful characters. Prepare for tears of laughter rolling down your cheeks.

Story idea: the world of balance

Life is unfair. People don't get what they deserve. Good things don't balance the bad ones. And so on and so forth. I think a world where every bad and good things happening to people are in balance would be awesome, for the evil-doers!

So the main character of the story would go around and help people, trying to do as much good as possible. A noble goal you think, but! All the good things happening to the people would be balanced by bad things. Imagine you have a house and some stranger mows your lawn when you're not at home. That's good for you, which means you will probably slip and hit your head or something like that. Or someone gives you a new car, which will result in you crashing it. Good thing happens, bad thing happens. The bigger the favor you receive is, the bigger the disaster that hits you afterwards.

The main character would do good to cause harm, and after a while people on the receiving end of this altruism would probably chase him off with forks and torches (probably hurting him in the process, causing good things happening to him). It's an interesting inversion on the good vs. bad motive and could be quite entertaining in a short story.

Is storytelling hurting gameplay?

There's an age-old debate about the role of storytelling in computer games. The games industry always had this sort of Hollywood envy, and for years they've been chasing realistic graphics, lifelike animations and generally the 'movie look'. While the looks are getting better and better every year, the way stories are told didn't progress a lot in the past ten years, much to the dislike of people like Ron Gilbert and Greg Costikyan, who are strong proponents of stories in games. And I also used to belong to this camp. But some of the games with strong story I've played last year are changing my opinion.

Bioshock
Bioshock is a beautiful game. The underwater city in retro-futuristic style is packed with details and the art direction (both architecture and sound) is breathtaking. Add an intriguing story and what do you get? You might get me playing the game on easy because while I was eager to see more of the city and piece more of the story puzzle together, I didn't care at all about shooting the poor creatures who got in my way. Despite the rather original system of plasmid upgrades, the combat was neither enjoyable nor interesting. Bioshock would make a great animated movie. Once you know the full story, there's no reason to play it again.

Half Life 2 Episode 2
We've been stuck in the same world of Half Life 2 since its release in 2004 and the zombies and antlions are getting extremely boring. I almost stopped playing the game in the beginning. It was the story that kept me going, in later stages too. The combat is more satisfying than in Bioshock, but again, the very element that makes up for a lot of the story telling mechanism in the game - in this case the presence of a companion character, be it Alyx or the vortigaunt - makes the playing itself less interesting. Yes, the feeling of immersion is very strong. Yes Alyx and other characters are very believable. You care about them. Yet, your companions are nearly indestructible and it's too easy to stand aside and let them take care of the enemies. This is supposed to be a first person shooter! The best parts of the game - play wise - were the ones with your character solving problems alone. Replayability - again close to none.

I was somewhat surprised by my reactions - more story is supposed to be good! But I want games to be games, something you play because you enjoy the core mechanics, not an interactive movie where playing becomes only means for reaching the next chapter. Game developers - please make games that are fun to play and replay ... and if you mix in a bit of story I won't mind but ... there are always books and movies for that.

You know, like Guitar Hero has no story, but is more joy to play (again and again and again) than anything else I've played in the last 10 years.

Second Life has too many sims!

Given that the concurrency numbers peak at about 60K and according to the economy stats there are over 12K privately owned sims (plus several thousands of mainland sims), the result is that most of those sims are empty. And indeed, when someone joins SL, their third question (after "how u make money here" and "wanna have sex with me?") tends to be where is everyone?

I think with 60K users there should be like ... 1200 or at most 1500 sims. Crowded sims! Lindens insist on this ridiculous analogy of real world land "ownership" and restrictions, so they should insist on the real world non-emptiness of the places where people live and "live"

Converting polar bears to cartesian ones

Everyone has ideas! Mostly very bad ones but at least not everyone feels compelled to realize them. I do. However, the old experience is that as soon as you tell someone about your idea, the pressure disappears. Ain't it nice?

Towards the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind...