ThePhotoshop on 22/8/2012 at 03:13
Exactly what the title says. I'm thinking of writing a Masters of Doom-style book about Looking Glass.
Well, not just Looking Glass, but the immersive sim manifesto and everything it encompasses. This means Origin, Looking Glass, Ion Storm (briefly), Arkane, Irrational, etc. Basically the story of the immersive sim as a subset of the broader gaming landscape.
Thinking of releasing it for free as a self-published eBook. It's not something I'll be making money from.
Why? Because I'm mental and clearly don't value my free time. But also because I've been chatting quite a bit with Warren Spector and Harvey Smith and already have a dearth of material.
Why do I need your help? Because I don't know everything, nor can I do everything on my own. If you're willing to help, it should be because you'd like to see this kind of thing exist. Equal co-author credit is also a given. This will be a collaboratively-written book.
Before I go on, please tell me whether or not you think this is a terrible/impossible/great idea, because I haven't had my coffee yet and things are blurry.
Okay with that out of the way, here's how you can help:
- Collecting and compiling Looking Glass ephemera. Anything and everything. Every tiniest detail. Think of this thread as a giant cork board.
- Writing section / chapter drafts or even outlines. If you have a particular affinity with a particular period of the immersive sim, or anything described above, then I will want to talk to you.
- Interviews.
-- Harvey Smith and Warren Spector - already done. Can do more.
-- Richard Garriott - can organise
-- Ken Levine - can organise
-- Doug Church - I have no idea with this one
-- All other important Origin, Looking Glass, and other development staff. I'd really like to chat to then-Eidos staff too.
- Structure. How would this be written? Is there a more interesting format than chronological? etc.
- Thoughts on the entire endeavour in general?
TTK12G3 on 22/8/2012 at 03:50
This would be great, but you are definitely going to have to do a ton of work tying this in with modern work or timing it with Thi4f release or something. Apart from Ultima, I don't know if many of the other titles linked to the studio really have that much weight. Almost no one I know has played Thief, System Shock, the original Deus Ex, or even heard of Ultima. When I mention any of that or eventually show it, I have to get to have the graphics argument or whatevers. Bioshock is the closest I am able to relate.
Doom was installed on every damn machine on the planet for a brief period and set back productivity for a decade. It is installed on my machine right now.
I really would like to see this man, but you have to make people care.
ThePhotoshop on 22/8/2012 at 04:00
That is a good point that I forgot to address: the audience.
I'd like to write this a little bit more for gamers, rather than the masses. But more than that, gamers who are familiar with Thief, Deus Ex, Ultima, etc.
If that limits the audience then so be it. But I think it would make for a better read. Rather than spending half the book explaining why these games are significant in laymen's terms, and such. It would also make it more interesting to actually write.
demagogue on 22/8/2012 at 04:08
LGS was influential among game developers and within the industry. That's your audience, people that care about good game design and the history of game development from the insiders' perspectives. You don't have to make gamers care if they don't already, or you're just going to water down the book I think. Make the best report you can on LGS's story as it happened, and it'll be more valuable.
Edit: For the record, I wrote this before I saw your last post ThePhotoshop, but I think it's the same kind of punchline. Write to an audience that already cares.
Also, part of the whole point of the story was that LGS games were awesome but weren't marketable. They treated game development more like a university course than a business, and they paid the price. Anyway that's the received wisdom -- maybe you'd look at that thesis from a critical perspective, and reaffirm it or question it in the book.
I really like these kinds of books, so I'm happy you're taking on the task. I'm too busy with my own projects to help out much though. Sometimes I do think about working on a book about the ethos of LGS-style games, and what the (few) fans of them found so inspiring about these kinds of immersive sims, which is a little different than this project but connects in a lot ways too. But I'm not sure I'll ever have the time to really work on it.
faetal on 22/8/2012 at 11:26
Quote Posted by ThePhotoshop
Why? Because I'm mental and clearly don't value my free time. But also because I've been chatting quite a bit with Warren Spector and Harvey Smith and already have a dearth of material.
Definition of DEARTH
1: scarcity that makes dear; specifically : famine
2: an inadequate supply : lack <a dearth of evidence>
ThePhotoshop on 22/8/2012 at 14:18
Quote Posted by faetal
Definition of DEARTH
1: scarcity that makes dear; specifically : famine
2: an inadequate supply : lack <a dearth of evidence>
Wow, that was meant to say 'wealth'. I blame the dearth of coffee.
Stitch on 22/8/2012 at 14:56
My only advice is this: drop this "self published e-book" idea like last resort it is. Keep it on the table, yeah, but aim higher. Write the book with the greatest degree of quality possible, submit it to a proper editing process, and try to get it published through non-vanity channels.
"From the start" is no time to start making concessions.
Jason Moyer on 22/8/2012 at 16:18
Quote Posted by TTK12G3
This would be great, but you are definitely going to have to do a ton of work tying this in with modern work or timing it with Thi4f release or something.
LGS has been getting name-dropped constantly basically since the studio opened. I've probably read 15 articles in the past month masturbating over how great LGS was. Unless he's trying to make the NYT best seller list I don't think there will be a problem finding interest in such a book.
faetal on 22/8/2012 at 16:21
There was that LGS panel at Quakecon recently too. Whether or not the book gets done in time to catch the rising air is anyone's guess, but it seems to be as good a time as any.
june gloom on 22/8/2012 at 19:41
Don't just write it for people who care about LGS -- you'll sell all of about 10 copies that way. LGS isn't id, and System Shock doesn't have the same place in childhood memories like Doom.
You don't have to write for the masses. Just write it for people who care about gaming and would be interested in seeing how LGS is placed in the industry pantheon.
