Acid for Blood

Shadow Over Kingsmouth

Last week, the clever members of The Secret World community were busily deciphering cryptic clues posted on the @thedarkplaces Twitter account. One of the notable clues was this telling post on 21st January:

From a king, in the king's version, about a king. The signs are converging. The future holds only darkness for them.

And then the next day, this clue:

Daniel 4:31. Listen. They will depend on you all.

Which led players to the King James version of the Bible, book of Daniel, chapter 4, verse 31, which reads:

While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.

After that, a few searches turned up the official website of the (fictional) town of Kingsmouth, located on the coast of Maine, and otherwise known as a viral website for The Secret World.

The Kingsmouth website is charmingly and almost convincingly amateurish, as if it was truly made by someone at Kingsmouth who just happened to have the best web skills in the small town of 1 547 people. Although the website is built on WordPress, it is crafted to appear as if each page was built by hand-coded HTML, as were most amateur websites back in the ye olde days of the information superhighway.

The writing style on the website presents Kingsmouth as a quaint, peaceful, welcoming place to spend a holiday. A place where everyone is very neighbourly and knows each other well. But looking deeper, there's a sinister undercurrent to the town's history...:

The 2000 census noted 1,547 citizens, a very stable number since the population tally before that. We are proud to remain a typical New England small town.

...

Kingsmouth was founded under its current name in 1667 by Solomon Priest, an English pilgrim. The population quickly rose to over a thousand people, a number that hasn’t changed much since!

...To the interesting factoids:

Did you know...?

• Kingsmouth has the tallest lighthouse in the entire north-eastern United States!
• There are rumours of secret tunnels linking important buildings in town with other sites on Solomon Island!
• Some people claim Kingsmouth was founded by a secret order originating in Europe!
• Solomon Island is home to Innsmouth Academy, an exclusive private school for students with very special and unique talents!
• Local legends have it that the mountains are cursed by a dark and mysterious force!
• There have been numerous sightings of Bigfoot just outside of town!! ;-)

...And to some of their recommended activities:

7. Step into the beautiful Kingsmouth Congregational church on Main Street and have a chat with the Reverend Henry Hawthorne about the history of town – Pastor Hawthorne knows more than most, and he might even let you in on a little conspiracy theory or two

8. Stop by the Franklin Foundation Mining Museum and learn more about the strange and often dark history of the Blue Ridge Mine

14. Visit Ash Forest and Black Goat Woods where rumors have it that strange magical rituals were once performed, and feel the mystery of the New England forest

Could these and other activities point to locations and quests? The most obvious information is located in the gallery, where you can view screen shots of The Secret World.

Anyone familiar with previous Secret World viral campaigns or ARGs will see a nod here and there. For example, in this screen shot, we see a banner image advertising a local establishment, the Old Harbor Shrimp Shack. Look closely at its location. Belmont Street. This could be a reference to Aveline Belmont, one of the protagonists for a previous ARG:

Those familiar with H.P. Lovecraft's work, of which I'm a fan, will see many references to the horror writer's body of work. Indeed, the town's name itself combines the names of two fictional towns referenced in Lovecraft's stories: Kingsport and Innsmouth. Innsmouth Academy, also located in Kingsport, is a definite reference to Lovecraft's story, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Drummer Hills might be a nod to several H.P. Lovecraft stories, in which drums are heard late at night throughout hills in the countryside, as a prelude to sinister supernatural or demonic events. The Miskatonic River in Kingsmouth shares its name with the Miskatonic River, which appears in Lovecraft's stories. The Miskatonic River has a university named after it in Lovecraft's stories, Miskatonic University, a fictional university set in Massachusetts.

There are several clues that may hint to Kingsmouth being a stronghold for the Illuminati (one of the in-game factions of The Secret World) or at least a place where the Illuminati have a strong interest. For example, the town motto is the Latin phrase "Lux Omnia Vincit" or "Light conquers all, and "Illuminati" means "enlighted" in Latin. On the Activities page, one of the suggested fun things to do in Kingsmouth is "19. Build a sandcastle on Pharaoh Beach – perhaps a pyramid?" The symbol of the Illuminati is a triangle or pyramid. One of Kingsmouth's signature features is its lighthouse, boasted as the tallest lighthouse in New England.

This quote from the About page may indicate strong Illuminati ties, because the Illuminati are strongly associated with business and industry within The Secret World lore:

We are a Town built on tradition, a strong community and a great will to come together. An example of the spirit is how the citizens pulled together when a fire devastated the town in 1712. Almost all the homesteads and several of the principal buildings were lost, among them the church and the town hall. The townspeople rebuilt everything with the financial aid of the prosperous businessmen and organizations with interests in Kingsmouth.

For the most part, the site conveys a very genuine atmosphere of a small New England town wishing to stake their claim on the internet, and promote it to tourists. There are a couple of small cultural details, however, that point to the fact that this site was made by Europeans (though, any people from New England, please correct me).

On the Activities page, the phrase "packed lunch" is a phrase I've never commonly heard Americans use, but which is exceedingly common in Britain and in Europe:

10. Hike up to the Blue Ridge Mine. Although the mine is closed for visitors, it’s a beautiful and scenic area of Solomon Island – bring a packed lunch!

And the term "take away" as seen in this advertisement for the Sunshine Deli, is another commonly used British phrase. Americans say "take-out" rather than "take away":

Apart from those details, I didn't spot anything that appeared off in terms of the site's "authenticity" which speaks highly of Funcom's research skills. Indeed, several New Englanders on The Secret World forums have remarked how authentic the website and accompanying assets feel.

To top it all off, some people apparently received postcards from Kingsmouth through the mail, which was first discovered in November 2009. This means that the Kingsmouth reveal has been months in the making. How cool!

I really have to hand it to Funcom. The Kingsmouth campaign is a really clever and engaging way to reveal lore information. I am so super stoked about this game, and I'm looking forward to more viral campaigns in the future.

More information:

• The Secret World official forums - a massive thread containing the information and theory-crafting above, as well as more speculation.
• The Secret World Wiki - the entry on Kingsmouth
• The Secret World Wiki - the entry on The Dark Places riddle campaign

The Border House: Breaking Down Borders in Gaming

I joined forces with a group of cool people to start a feminist-friendly and inclusive group gaming and virtual worlds blog. After weeks of planning, setup, and flurries of emails all around, The Border House is now up and running.

The majority of group gaming blogs tend to be exclusively run by, written by, and implicitly written for straight, white males. Whether those barriers are erected by design, or (more insidiously) by coincidence stemming from the warm, comfortable blinders of privilege, this situation marginalises those who don't fit in those categories and doesn't speak to the diversity of gamers (or games bloggers).

The Border House, created from the ground-up to be inclusive, aims to be a platform for marginalised voices to talk about their experiences and perspectives of games and virtual worlds—all through a feminist lens. Our contributors are: female, male, people of colour, white, multi-national, multi-cultural, bisexual, lesbian, gay, queer, heterosexual, trans gender, gender queer, cis gender, disabled, temporarily able-bodied (TAB)—the list goes on and on.

There should be a lot of discussions ensuing from the exploration of sex, race, gender, sexuality, and other social issues within the sphere of gaming and virtual worlds. It's shaping up to to be an exciting and awesome project. If you'd like to read about the experiences of gamers who don't fit into the SWM box, you're invited to check out the blog and join in the discussion.

[Read]

Sakura-Con 2009

Sakura-Con took place last weekend, from 10 - 12 April in Seattle. I took a bunch of pictures, and met up with some friends.

I didn't buy anything. I wasn't even remotely tempted to buy anything. I haven't been watching much anime in recent years, and a lot of the merchandise was related to anime that I'm not familiar with. These days I try to be selective about the merchandise I purchase, not just because I'm trying to watch my expenses, but after two long-distance relocations, as well as a slight shift in attitude away from the collector mentality, I just feel less inclined to accumulate a lot of the stuff I would have bought in a heartbeat five or ten years ago.

I didn't even recognise half the costumes at the con. Sometimes I wonder whether I should keep going to anime conventions, given the fact that I'm out of touch with what's popular these days.

There were several anime series that were well-represented in terms of cosplayers, and they decided to take group photos.

This is the Bleach group:

This is the Pokemon group:

I do really like seeing people dressed up in costumes. This is one of my favourite parts about attending fandom conventions, and I think anime cons are amongst the best in terms of quality and quantity of cosplayers. I certainly think that the calibre of costumes at Sakura-Con outshone the cosplay at Emerald City ComiCon 2009. In general, I think that anime cons are much better places to go if you're interested in looking at people dressed-up in costume, than comic book, science fiction, or gaming conventions. Fewer people at the other types of fandom conventions seem to dress-up, but I am biased since I've been attending anime cons for a very long time so I'm most familiar with the culture there.

There are loads more photos in the Flickr photoset I created.

Vexation

After I started my new job a couple of months ago, I was going to respond immediately to the bigoted, ignorant, and narrow-minded views of several people in various gaming communities. Since then I've been busy at work and at home, and frankly I haven't been in much of a mood to blog, nor have I been able to gather the mental focus to sit down and organise my thoughts on this topic until now.

When I introduced myself to the Guild Wars community, I did not discuss my personal life or my personal worldviews at all. However, after some Google searching, some people decided to take it upon themselves to bring up issues related to my personal life and ideological beliefs.  Hearsay being what it is, a few even accused me of starting these discussions about my personal life in the first place.

It made me angry that people, who know nothing about be apart from what they found through Google, targeted me with sexist, misogynistic, anti-feminist, racist, and homophobic comments.

It made me angry that people made sexist and objectifying comments about my appearance. Apparently I am supposed to welcome comments from people (I assume they are males) saying that they'd "hit it" or "tap that" because they found me attractive. Comments that reduce me to an object without agency or will are compliments, right?

It also made me angry that people made racist comments. Oh wait, fetishising me because of my race is supposed to be a positive thing as well? Get a clue, people -- it's not acceptable. It's racist and ignorant.

It made me angry that people who don't have any clue about feminism believe that feminists are a threat to their "fun". Following that line of logic, apparently sexism is fun? Eh, not so much. I find it depressing that the most basic tenet of feminism -- equality between the sexes -- should be viewed as a threat to the existing (un)acceptable behaviours in gaming communities.

While I am on the subject of feminism -- I am a feminist. So what? There are games industry women, more famous, more high-profile, and with more widespread influence, than I who identify as feminist. Feminists are out there.

It's irritating to read comments from people who mindlessly swallow all the stereotypes they've heard about feminism. Moreover, the idea that all feminists are ideologically identical is both stupid and ignorant. The main belief that all feminists hold is simply equality between the sexes. That's it. Anything beyond that depends upon the individual.

It made me angry that at least one person did not welcome the fact that I am female. It's a surprising attitude to find in 2008, but it exists. What was almost as surprising as this attitude is the fact that before and after I joined the game, the ratio of female and male Community Managers was identical. Why one would oppose maintaining the same female/male ratio is beyond me; god forbid the ratio ever be equalised at some point in the future.

It made me angry to have people speculate on and make assumptions about my sexual orientation, too. It was not acceptable for people to make the assumption that I am a lesbian, assume that I am out to everyone in my life (including work), and parade these assumptions around as fact -- publicly to the internet. News flash: being a feminist does not mean that one is a lesbian and conducting an interview with a founder of LesbianGamers.com doesn't necessarily mean that one is a lesbian either. One a sidenote, it irritates me that people continue to cling so desperately to their narrow, black and white views of sexuality and sexual orientation, assuming that if someone isn't heterosexual, they must surely be homosexual because nuances in the human condition apparently do not exist.

Furthermore, the homophobia that some people showed, after they assumed that I was a lesbian, was absolutely repulsive and apalling. There was even a comment from a homophobic "concerned parent" who was convinced that I was personally responsible for corrupting their child because some random members of the Guild Wars community decided to speculate on and discuss my sexual orientation.

Another thing that these people didn't think about or probably even care about is: what if I was a lesbian and wasn't out to everyone at work and at home? Did they even care that their comments and discussions could have an impact on my career and personal life? Not everyone in the world is equally tolerant, as evidenced by the "concerned parent" above, and unfortunately gay people often have to choose the terms under which they come out. To rob someone of that choice, regardless of the correctness of the facts, is wrong and thoughtless.

To make things perfectly clear: I am not a lesbian, but I am not not a lesbian. My sexual orientation, whatever it is, isn't something that I'd even consider discussing with the Guild Wars community at large, much less any other random gaming community.

I did know that people would do Google searches on me. I knew they would find articles I'd written, interviews I'd participted in, and so on. My blog is public, and it's not hard to link my handle to my real name. However, just because I expected some of these responses doesn't mean that sexism, homophobia, racism, or all the rest of that shit are remotely acceptable.

Some gamers really need to grow up.

P.S. -- Before someone tells me that I'm being too sensitive or that I'm too uptight and just need to get laid... News flash: I am sexed quite regularly, and yet sexism, racism, homophobia, and all the other bigoted and ignorant attitudes that fester in gaming culture still piss me off.

EDIT: 31 July 2008: Some kindly person has linked this on the forums, and I'm receiving an influx of comments. I don't know why people feel the need to resurrect discussion on a post that I wrote well over a month ago, about stuff that happened nearly four months ago. I have moved on. You should probably do the same.

Fear not. The response that I received from the bigoted members of the community has decidedly not affected the way that I approach my job. I practice the fine art of keeping my personal life separate from my professional life. This may explain why, ya know, I haven't expressed my displeasure about these bigoted members of the community in the forums.

Positives of Women-Oriented Gaming Communities

The September issue of Cerise Magazine included an article on "the positive aspects of women-oriented gaming communities". I know that many gamers, men and women, are against women-only or women-oriented gaming communities, guilds, and clans on the basis that these communities segregate and that they divide women gamers from the gaming community as a whole. They argue that the only way for women to be accepted by mainstream (e.g. male-dominated) communities is not to go off and form their own communities, but to jump right in with the men. No one's saying we're not already participating in mainstream gaming communities. Most women gamers I know, myself included, participate general communities. However there are discussions that general gaming communities are less receptive to, and this is partly why some women gamers also participate in women-oriented gaming communities. There are many positive aspects of women gamer communities as the article reveals.

[Read]

P.S. -- There is also an interview with me in this month's issue.

PAX: Cosplay

Phoenix Wright:

Guild Wars Monks:

These Monks won the Guild Wars costume contest. Their prize pack contained a Logitech gaming keyboard and a Logitech gaming mouse. The male Monk wore his costume in response to a dare from Gaile Gray, ArenaNet Community Relations Manager, yesterday.

Exanimus Forums Down for Reasons Unknown

I've been following the development of the zombie massively-multiplayer online game, Exanimus, for over a year now. They have been in pre-production, so there are few details. The forums, however, had some pretty active hardcore zombie fans speculating on this game. Some of the game design features that have been discussed on the forums included:

• Permadeath: whether it should exist at all, and whether there should be dedicated servers for permadeath
• Clans and guilds
• Safe houses
• Resources and weapons
• PvP and game balance issues between zombies and humans

A couple of months ago, the forums, and indeed the entire Exanimus website, went down. The website displayed the following message:

Sorry, ExanimusTheGame.com is currently unavailable.

We are performing updates and fixes to the website.
Please check back soon for more information.

The site is still down. I checked the Exanimus wiki and found the following cryptic message on the main page:

The website was impaired by something we have not yet determined, not sure if it was a hack, or just a software database failure.

The forums, for the time being... are gone. Hopefully this is only a temporary thing.

The reason for the time taking so long, is, well, a reason I cannot go into as it would violate the privacy we enjoy in our family lives, suffice it to say, that there is a concrete, non-game related reason for the site being down for as long as it has been.

Please feel free to spread this around to any of the fan sites or other community members you speak with.

I will have a dev log on a the main page hopefully by the end of the week.

Odd. I hope the forums are restored soon.

Dark Days Are Coming

I must say, following the mystery games of Funcom's new MMORPG, The Secret World, has been incredibly fun. I didn't come in at the start of the games, which began earlier in the month. The clues lead to an ominous website displaying a Flash-based puzzle. Solving the puzzle revealed concept art and a link to the official forums. I'd only registered to the forums after the press release was posted on a few days ago. 

I have been lurking on the official forums. The members have been working diligently on every clue that Funcom throw at them. They are very clever, mature folk from what I have seen. There have been little to no hints of trolling or flames at all so far. When someone suggests that another may be wrong, there is no defensiveness, no insults hurled back and forth. There is a collegial goal-directed Esprit de Corps. They decipher clues with amazing speed. This morning, I received a mysterious message from "A friend". Initally, I thought it was spam, however knowing that Funcom has been promoting The Secret World with these mysterious clues, I knew it was not spam. A visit to the forums confirmed this, and the forum members were deeply engaged in unraveling this latest mystery. It was solved in about 7 hours, which I suppose is a relatively long time in internet time.

Very little is known about The Secret World. What we do know is that the setting is modern and dark. It incorporates "modern conspiracy theories and ancient mysteries":

For there really is a world within ours, a secret world, where magic exists, monsters roam and ancient forces are fighting for the dominance of earth. It is a world of legendary stories, ageless conflicts and powerful cabals. In this world, even modern cities hide secrets. In this world, players can take part in the greatest conspiracies of our age, and battle the forces of darkness across the world and throughout time.

I would call it a mix of Neil Gaiman and H.P. Lovecraft. I'm incredibly intrigued by this game, and I can't wait to find out more. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this.

If you want to catch up, here are a couple of useful links: 

• Just the facts -- Collects all of the known facts so far, starting with the hints that Funcom scattered throughout the gaming community, up to the most recent developments. 
• A work in progress. Important Links -- Collects all important links relevant to The Secret World.

Cerise Magazine Launches

The first issue of Cerise, an online magazine dedicated to electronic and non-electronic games, is now up. Cerise is a feminist (Is that still a "bad" word?) publication focused on gender issues in games and games culture. It was created by women gamers, with the intended audience being primarily women gamers. Although the focus is on gender, they have a policy of inclusiveness, so issues that affect other traditionally underrepresented groups in games culture, such as members of the LGBT community, people with disabilities, etc. will likely see discussion as well. They have an open submissions policy, and are accepting articles for the next issue.

Cerise is a publication of Iris, a gaming community for people interested in discussing and exploring gender and other issues. Since its launch in March, the Iris forums have seen discussion on a variety of topics related not only to gender, but also sexuality, sexual orientation, race, class, disabilities, and more. If you're interested in discussing these issues or learning more about issues important to underrepresented members of the gaming community, check out the forums. I'm a moderator there. Please play nicely. :)

There are many communities around that have been created as welcoming spaces for women gamers, free of the immature and (frankly) alienating bullshit that tends to pop up with alarming (and disappointing) regularity in many gaming communities. Why do we need another community for women gamers? One could ask the same question of gaming communities as a whole. Why do we need so many of those? Why not just have a few large gaming communities on the internet. Where's the fun in that? Women gamers, like men gamers, have diverse interests. There is enough room on the internet for all.

The IRIS Network is Live

Friday, 23rd March marked the launch of The IRIS Network. "The IRIS Network? What's that?" you say? The IRIS Network is a new website that brings women, other underrepresented gamers, and their friends together to discuss, network, and share perspectives in an inclusive, safe (zero tolerance for harassment, etc.) environment. People who enjoy electronic and/or non-electronic games are welcome to participate.

The mission of The IRIS Network is as follows:

After yet another bout of the "where are all the women gamers" on the internet gaming communities, The IRIS Network (TIN) was finally born. Though there are many individual women gamers who write about their experiences, and many sites for women who game to connect and play with each other, none of these sites are there for the express purpose of highlighting gamers (both in the industry and outside of it) and bringing women's perspectives into the mainstream. Though it may be a lofty goal, that's exactly what we here at The IRIS Network aim to do.

The IRIS Network Forums

The forums are for women of all walks of life who count gaming among their passions, men interested in networking with women gamers and perhaps learning more about inclusive game design in the process, and, really, anyone who has ever felt that they have been excluded from most games and/or gaming communities at large.

The IRIS Network Directory

The IRIS Network's Directory is a directory of websites of women who discuss gaming. This is both to help foster a sense of connectedness with each other "we're told so often that women just don't game/talk about gaming that we begin to believe we're the only ones out there" and also to help bring awareness to the community about the women who are in it, but for various reasons are overlooked by many big-name community sites. We have everything from blogs, to organizations, to LiveJournal users and communities listed there. If you're a woman and you have a corner on the internet where you talk about games, please consider adding your site!

Cerise

Cerise is The IRIS Network's monthly magazine. In it we highlight women gamers, publish interviews with industry professionals, and discuss gaming related issues. We also take submissions for articles, art, and more. ... Although gender is the foremost focus of Cerise, we are dedicated to creating an inclusive space for individuals of all identities traditionally underrepresented in the mainstream, and for our allies who support our movement to increase our presence and representation in the game industry. We are a feminist publication and oppose all forms of oppression and the ways in which that oppression manifests itself in game communities in ways that hurt women, transgender individuals, queer-identified people, people of color, people with disabilities, and other marginalized individuals. We hope that our inclusive philosophy will propagate to help the game industry and culture at large become an environment welcoming to people of all identities.

Cerise is now accepting submissions for Issue 1. The theme is "Getting Women 'Out There' In Gaming Journalism." I'm fairly sure that this theme was a response to Kotaku blogger Brian Crecente's wonderment that there aren't more well-known women game bloggers. The deadline is 15th April. For more information about the issue and about the submissions policy, please go to the Cerise homepage.