Everyone's a Comedian

Team Snout has been accepted to play in the Ghost Patrol Game! I mailed off our entry fee yesterday and reminded the team to keep any receipts they may have from the making of our application video.

This was Sean's response:

Re: Ghost Patrol Expenses

So far we've racked up:
$0 bedsheet
$0 ghostbusting gun
$0 foley royalties
$0 stale Pale Ale
$0 editing software
$0 YouTube hosting fees

Plus,
$75 rental of shop vac by Acorn from the Treehouse
-$75 owed to Acorn for rental of shop vac by Acorn

Hence the title of this post.*

D pointed out that it's still July, and isn't that a bit early to be accepting teams for a Game in November? (Team Snout usually does it about a month before.) We speculated that GC may have wanted an accurate headcount before starting to build clues, or in order to book certain locations. I really hope we're not in for three months of pre-clues.

~CKL

* I'm toying with the idea of putting rimshot and laugh-track sound effects on my PalmPilot for easy playback during the weekend. Don't push me.

Ghost "Busters"

Since everyone seems to be doing it... here's Team Snout's application video for the Ghost Patrol Game:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI8uI0laCVM

And, of course, outtakes and extras (warning: explicit language and adult references):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dk2kYW2jVU

D and I weren't able to participate in the making of these videos, but we applaud our team's creativity and hard work! Especially Karl, who had to wear that gigantic shop-vac on his back, and Chris, who I'm hoping didn't need more than one take for that "slimed" shot. But what do I know? Maybe raspberry jam is good for the pores.

~CKL

Team Snout FTW

Following yesterday's tax notice, D called the California FTB this morning and set them straight--it was indeed a clerical error, and Team Snout is now officially listed as a non-profit unincorporated association. We can disregard the bill, and don't even have to file any extra paperwork! (Thanks to Loretta, Stephanie, and John at the FTB for their help.)

D also called the hotel at which we stayed in DC about an erroneous extra charge, so in effect, she just spent 45 minutes on the phone and saved us $1,100. w00t! Now we're going to go celebrate by running some errands and seeing Hellboy 2.

~CKL

Rhymes with FAIL, Part 2

(In case you missed Part 1)

Guess what we got in the mail today?*



That's right, it's a notice from the California State Franchise Tax Board saying that Team Snout owes over a thousand dollars in back taxes! Also check out the dates: the FTB gave us only two weeks to pay up, and it took the USPS nearly two weeks to forward our mail correctly.

The phrase "good enough for government work" does not come to mind.

Anyway, here's the breakdown of the pound of flesh:



We're pretty sure this is a clerical error, since Team Snout is an unincorporated association, and $800 is the annual franchise tax due from any California corporation, limited partnership, or LLC. We already paid our 2006 taxes, which is where that $5.00 credit comes from, and the reason we established ourselves as an unincorporated association was to avoid these kinds of fees and paperwork.

Whatever. D, our team treasurer, is going to call tomorrow and sort this out. Wish her luck.

UPDATE 7/14: It's all good.

~CKL

* Actually, our friends Sean and Crissy got it, since they're getting our forwarded mail while we're on the road, and they probably received it yesterday but didn't have time to sort their mail until today.

Updated Things To Do

Because I know you're so interested (roll your eyes when you say that, pilgrim)...

I voted for the Hugo Awards at least four hours before the deadline on Monday. Yay me. I didn't have time to read all the nominees, but I got through most of the novels (I'd read two of them already) and all of the novellas and novelettes. I had also seen all of the long-form dramatic presentation nominees already. I didn't feel qualified to vote in any other categories--except Fan Writer, where I knew two of the nominees personally.

I just submitted my application for the SIE Alumni Mentor Program. So that's done. This is the first time they've done this, so I'm not sure what to expect as far as being accepted. But I figure it can't hurt to apply. It also got me to update my LinkedIn profile, which serves as my résumé these days. (Weirdness: LinkedIn seems to have removed the "self-employed" option on profiles, so I couldn't update the "aspiring screenwriter" section of my employment history without making up a company name. It feels like a bug, but I can't make myself care enough to report it.)

So, the new list (with deadlines):

• Find and book a hotel room in/near Rapid City, SD. We're scheduled to arrive in the badlands on 7/26, for our visit to Mount Rushmore et al., and this appears to be the busy season there. D got a little overwhelmed doing legwork, so I'm taking over. Hopefully we can stay within our travel budget without compromising too much on amenities. (7/10)
• Solve Ghost Patrol application pre-clues. It may be time to ask for a hint on these, although if GC is using them to weed out teams, they may not be very forthcoming. On the other hand, if we're already not having fun anymore... (7/18)
• Audition for the Stanford Singer's Showcase. They want one to three mp3's of me singing, which I don't currently have since all our home computers got packed up in April. But our current hotel has pretty fast broadband, so I'm going to see if I can do a network restore from Mozy. Low priority, since the event happens in November and I plan to be busy with at least two writing projects that month. (7/20)

~CKL

Third Time's the Charm, Right?

Early this morning, I email-submitted my application for the Viable Paradise writer's workshop. Then I went to sleep, and after breakfast, went to the post office to send a hard copy of my manuscript. Yes, today is the deadline for applying, and yes, I do wait until the last minute much...ly. (Adverb? Really? Whatever.)

You may recall that I applied to Clarion and Clarion West earlier this year, but was not accepted to either. No big--it actually made planning our road trip a little easier. VP happens at the end of September, by which time we'll be settled in Portland (or at least planted in a hotel nearby, looking for an apartment).

But even if I don't get into VP, I have an idea for a year-long writing project which I plan to start this fall. More details to come. And, of course, I'll be doing NaNoWriMo in November.

Meanwhile, here's my new list of things to do, with deadlines:

1. Vote for Hugo Awards - July 7
2. Apply for Stanford in Entertainment (SIE) Alumni Mentor Program - July 15
3. Help Team Snout finish application for Ghost Patrol Game - July 18 (solve remaining pre-clues)
4. Audition for Stanford Singer's Showcase - July 20 (find audio recordings)

~CKL

You Googlers and Your Damn Puzzles

It's always got to be some kind of Treasure Hunt or something, doesn't it?

~CKL

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Ghost Patrol, apparently, to avoid any copyright issues.

Appropriately enough for an east bay-based Game Control (Lowkey and Desert Taxi), this Game is starting in Emeryville--at the Woodfin Suites Hotel, which Team Snout considered for the start of our egregiously-trademark-infringing Hogwarts Game, but decided against because of cost issues.

FUNNY STORY. We went with a nearby movie theatre instead, but the guy who was supposed to open the doors was over an hour late, and we ended up doing our start activity outside, on the sidewalk, with a tiny MacBook screen and dinky portable speakers. The flash-bang gag didn't work either, but that's another story.

(The problem was that we'd rented the theatre through a national rental program which sub-contracts out to local exhibitors, so we didn't actually have a local contact number and had to depend on the middleman for all communications that morning. It was not efficient or effective.)

~CKL

"Leon!"

First of all, let's be honest. Midnight Madness is an awful movie. It's dreadful, really. Terrible. There are only two reasons it should ever be discussed in polite company: 1) it was Michael J. Fox's first feature film; and 2) it was the direct inspiration for The Game.

At last night's Captain's Meeting, Team Snout (plus some Drunken Spiders) revealed that we are running the previously announced Game on April 5th. We had discussed keeping our identity secret for longer, but not only would that have been very difficult for us, it would also have prevented us from fully participating in the event. And, in the end, we thought it was more thematically appropriate to do the big reveal at the Captain's Meeting. We even put together our own version of Leon's slide show, as a tribute to the original presentation for "The Great All-Nighter."

But let's get back to the movie. It was made in 1980, and is chock-full of the high dairy content which distinguished many of that decade's entertainments. I suspect that Joe Belfiore and his cohorts, the first people to take on the role of "Game Control," felt that they could make better puzzles than those depicted in the movie--which is not that hard, but making everything work in a live event can be very challenging.

We, Team Snout, wanted to get "back to basics" for a few reasons. First and foremost, we wanted to run one last Game before DeeAnn and I move out of the bay area, and we had limited time to plan. A smaller, more simple event made sense and fit (barely) within our timeline for the move. More generally, GCs tend to want to one-up each other all the time, either designing more elaborate clues, finding more impressive locations, providing better meals, or otherwise adding complexity and cost to their events. (We are also guilty of this--we'll be the first to admit that our last Game was a logistical nightmare.)

So we view this Midnight Madness Game as a sort of encore to the Hogwarts Game, and a reminder to everyone in the community of what makes these events fun in the first place. You don't need train rides or fancy meals or electronic gadgets to put on a great event. All you need is...well, you'll find that out on April 5th. But feel free to speculate in the comments. :)

~CKL

No More Secrets, you see

Better late than never, right? Here's Crissy's highlight video from last year's Game:



My favorite of her photos is this group shot:



But Karl re-enacting a scene from the movie runs a close second:



I'm also looking forward to Jan's NMS post-mortem at next Friday's GC Summit. As noted previously, Team Snout were not huge fans of the "field office" structure, which slowed down faster teams by holding them at certain locations and throwing "bonus clues" at them until it was time to move forward. But we did enjoy most of the rest of the event, especially the many entertaining variations on word puzzles. It'll be fun to hear GC's perspective.

~CKL

The Cake is a Lie

This was the front page of yesterday's San Jose Mercury News:

 

Aaaaand for tonight's performance, the part of GLaDOS will be played by Hillary Clinton. She does what she must, because she can, for the good of all of us...

Oscar Fever

On Sunday, D and I threw our annual Oscar Party to watch the Academy Awards with friends. Favorite moment: our audience's boo/yay/meh cheers for each movie during the 80-years-of-Best-Pictures montage. (Gladiator: BOO! Lord of the Rings: YAY! Crash: meh.)

Nearly thirty people showed up, which is more than we've ever hosted. A thermometer at the edge of the crowd topped 74 degrees Fahrenheit, but I suspect the temperature was higher near the center of the room. And that's with an air conditioner and two fans running.

Even our TiVo was feeling the heat. Here's the internal temperature log from tivoweb:



As you can see, it always runs pretty hot, but 118F is unprecedented. Of course, the drives could have gone up to 50C (122F) and still been within acceptable operating limits.

That's hot. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

This was our last shindig in the bay area. We'll continue throwing Oscar parties in Portland next year, but Ken has offered to carry on the tradition down here. He, and anyone else who's interested, is welcome to use my Oscar Acceptance Speech BINGO cards for future events--I'll continue updating them every year and improving the word-sifter algorithm.

Last but not least, some photos from the evening:

View Album

Get your own

~CKL

Madness? THIS. IS. THE GAME!

Game season is here! In addition to the GC Summit in March, there's another Shinteki on May 3rd and 10th, coed astronomy just announced a mini-game on April 19th, and last week I received an invitation for "Midnight Madness: Back to Basics" on April 5th:


(click through for more photos)

D and I are moving to Portland in April, so we're going to miss Shinteki and the coeds' mini-game, but we'll definitely stick around for Midnight Madness, which appears to be based on the movie that started it all.

I played my first one of these puzzle hunts in 1996, and still have fond memories of those older events, which were more secretive and mysterious. You didn't know who GC was, and teams had to be invited to play. (There was a talk about this at last year's GC Summit--perhaps someone was inspired?)

Of course, "Back to Basics" could be good or bad. One of the oldest complaints from players is "too many paper clues." And though some teams say they miss searching locations to find clues, we've found (as GC) that they get frustrated within ten minutes. Also, we have no idea who's running this Game, and while I'm all for more people running more Games, I'm not so keen on rookie GCs with limited experience trying too many wacky new things.

But, as the saying goes, cold pizza is better than no pizza. And on the plus side, these guys made their invitations look less like junk mail than The Genome Game (whose postcards several teams discarded at first). I guess that suggests a non-newbie GC, or at least someone who's been active in the Game community since 2004. Or earlier. Hmm.

Joe Belfiore, who started the tradition at Stanford and carried it on to Microsoft, has more to say about the history of The Game...

#

UPDATE, 20 Mar 2008: Team Snout have revealed that we are the ones running this Game. Thanks for putting up with our charade. :)

~CKL

Also Overheard at PAX: Rated-MA Edition

If you're under 13, it's past your bedtime.

Seriously, kid, get outta here.


"My name is Wil Wheaton, and Jack Thompson can suck my balls."
- from the start of his keynote speech (download MP3)

"Any corporate lawyers here can suck it."
- a non-profit lawyer, before asking her question

"How firm do you like your tip?"
- Tycho, sleazing up Gabe's answer to an innocent Photoshop question

"Well, there's no barrier to entry..."
- Gabe, sleazing up his own answer to an innocent art student question

"Cockthirsty."
- Tycho & Gabe, having a Kevin Smith moment with the sign language interpreter


One of my favorite things about Penny Arcade is that they don't just use profanity; they are gleefully profane. They celebrate the myriad ways in which language can be made more colorful through the use of metaphor, analogy, or nearly musical sequences of primal vocalizations.

It's not cursing just for the sake of cursing--Tycho, the writer, uses all sorts of words to achieve his desired effect, and the juxtaposition of ten dollar words with drunken-sailor-speak only emphasizes the importance of his choices.

Is a game bad?
Is it shit (but not "the shit")?
Is it shitty?
Is it so godawful that it ruptures the very fabric of space and time with the sheer overpowering force of its mediocrity?

These, dear reader, are important distinctions.

Overheard at PAX

"This is the new E3."
- an attendee coming out of the exhibition hall

"Have you had breakfast? You look hungry!"
- the barker at the "Win Your Weight in Ramen" merchant booth

"They think they're going to be playing Karaoke Revolution. That's certainly what we told them."
- Gabe & Tycho, introducing Round 4 of the Omegathon

"OH NOES!"
- Jonathan Coulton, ad-libbing at a crucial narrative juncture during his performance of "Creepy Doll"

"There are a lot of DSes here, huh?"
- Jonathan Coulton, after witnessing a swaying sea of glowing cell-phone and handheld console screens during "Baby Got Back"

"See, now you're just a johnny-come-lately."
- Tycho & Gabe, denying the second request for photos on stage during a Q&A panel

"You can't say Bioshock."
- a questioner, making an amendment to "What's your favorite game?"

"It's gonna look real pretty."
- Greg Rucka on the upcoming Whiteout movie

Today was the last day of Penny Arcade Expo 2007, the first I've attended, and it was quite awesome. I'll post a more detailed account later, but Wil Wheaton rocked the house with his "we are gamers" keynote speech; Jonathan Coulton soft-rocked the crowd while opening the Saturday night concert; and Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (a.k.a. Tycho and Gabe, respectively) killed whenever they were on stage, whether it was answering questions, considering strange requests, or drawing a Penny Arcade strip live.

In many ways, the event combined the best of both worlds: the glitz and professionalism of an industry trade show with the scrappiness and flexibility of a fan-run convention. This is a show created by gamers for gamers, and I expect it to get bigger and better, without compromise, for many years to come.

Go See THE KING OF KONG

Opening this weekend at the Lumiere in SF and Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley: A most excellent documentary about two gamers competing for the world record high score on Donkey Kong!

I saw a screening of the film today, and it's more gripping than you might expect. Most impressively, even though it features some real nutters, it never pokes fun at them or the video gaming community or makes anyone into a caricature. A couple of people do come off as real jerks, but they dig their own graves.

The filmmakers are now working on a fictionalized version of the story for New Line Cinema, but here's your chance to see the real story, on the big screen, before it gets tarted up by Hollywood.*

ObURLs:
Showtimes
Official site
Interview with Steve Wiebe



* That said, my dream cast includes Tom Cruise as defending champion Billy Mitchell and Alan Tudyk as challenger Steve Wiebe. Alan would need to put on a few pounds, Raging Bull-style, and get a dye job; Tom could pretty much just reprise his character from Magnolia. With a beard.

Worst. Game. EVAR

No, I'm not talking about the Ravenchase Great America Treasure Hunt, about which many of the participating teams have already complained.

I'm talking about the "secret illegal cross-country road race" depicted in the short-lived TV series Drive. I watched the final two produced episodes last night--mostly because of Nathan Fillion and Melanie Lynskey--and y'know, I wish someone would make a puzzle-hunt show which actually deals with the puzzles. If I want melodrama, I'll watch Gray's Anatomy.

Although it would be interesting to compare and contrast the event actually run by Ravenchase last week, and the one imagined by the producers of Drive. Let's see...

Ravenchase: required several hours of driving between checkpoints each day.
Drive: featured truckloads of green-screen "driving" footage every episode.

Ravenchase: used obscure ciphers and symbols like the Ogham alphabet to encode messages.
Drive: used ambiguous phrases like "Surrender USA" to indicate specific locations.

Ravenchase: allowed teams to take time penalties in order to get hints on difficult clues.
Drive: did not offer hints.

Ravenchase: changed their own scoring rules several times in attempts to make up for puzzles which hadn't been adequately playtested and often contained errors.
Drive: blackmailed players into performing mysterious and arbitrary tasks to satisfy the whims of the shadowy organization running the race.

Ravenchase: did not require teams to do anything illegal.
Drive: did I mention that the exact phrase "secret illegal cross-country road race" is spoken at least once per episode?

Ravenchase: no players were seriously injured, not even during white-water rafting.
Drive: one player, dead; one player, shot in the stomach; numerous others threatened.

Ravenchase: gave the winning team a model sailing ship trophy.
Drive: claimed that the winning team would receive a $32 million prize.

Ravenchase: ended at a bar in New Orleans, where teams partied until the wee hours.
Drive: didn't end so much as just stopped after six episodes, with nothing resolved. At least Amy Acker got a couple of lines.

~CKL

Ancient Greek Espionage (and Girl Power)

From Cary's translation of Herodotus' The History, Book VII (Polymnia), Chapter 239:

When Xerxes had determined to invade Greece, Demaratus, who was then at Susa, and had heard of his intention, communicated it to the Lacedæmonians; but he was uanble to make it known by any other means, for there was great danger of being detected; he, therefore, had recourse to the following contrivance. Having taken a folding tablet, he scraped off the wax, and then wrote the king's intention on the wood of the tablet; and having done this, he melted the wax again over the writing, in order that the tablet, being carried with nothing written on it, might occasion him no trouble from the guards upon the road. When it arrived at Sparta, the Lacedæmonians were unable to comprehend it, until, as I am informed, Gorgo, daughter of Cleomenes, and wife to Leonidas, made a suggestion, having considered the matter with herself, and bade them scrape off the wax and they would find letters written on the wood. They, having obeyed, found and read the contents, and forwarded them to the rest of the Greeks. These things are reported to have happened in this manner.

I love primary sources. And I have to ask: why wasn't this bit in the movie?

Maybe Zack Snyder just isn't a big Alias fan. But dream with me for a moment: Just imagine, in the next James Bond movie, Daniel Craig's 007 seeking help from Helen Mirren (as Queen Elizabeth II, natch) to decode a mysterious transmission from an ally. I smell a buddy movie!

Anyway. I did enjoy 300, in the same way I enjoyed The Untouchables--knowing that they were both complete fiction coated with a thin veneer of history. Sean Connery's Untouchables character didn't exist in real life, and the Persian king Xerxes was not actually a hairless, effete giant. Just let it go. Even Herodotus has been accused of presenting a biased, pro-Athenian viewpoint in his writings. Facts can't compete with mythology.

~CKL

Child's Play (not the charity)

A while ago, Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) magazine gathered some kids between the ages of 10 and 13 to play classic video games like Pong and Tetris and give their opinions.

I suspect many have seen this already, but I thought it was pretty damn funny. Especially this transcript from the Space Invaders session:

Tim: This is nothing compared to Grand Theft Auto III, because you can't steal a taxi cab, pick up somebody, then drive into the ocean with him.

Kirk: And you can't pick up an AK-47 and go kill—hey, those aliens on the top row, you use them in EGM for stuff.

EGM: Yeah, we use them to end our articles. They do kinda look like they're from Space Invaders, don't they?

Tim: They're going to sue you.

Kirk: I'm sure everyone who made this game is dead by now.

Part 1: http://www.lyberty.com/blog/articles/childs_play.htm

Part 2: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3137498

~CKL

Yup, I'm a nerd

Final score, 6 out of 7, and 22 seconds left on the clock:

Aquaman Left Spyware on My Hard Drive

I used to love You Don't Know Jack on WebTV--even if nobody ever wanted to play with me. (Can I help it if I have quick reflexes?) I'm glad Jellyvision is still producing content, but they really need to find a better delivery/distribution method. No RSS feed? Banner ads? That is so Web 1.0.

Child's Play 2006

If you're looking for a way to take the edge off your liberal guilt this holiday season, look no further than Child's Play, a charity organized by the Penny Arcade guys to benefit sick children in five countries-- and, as a bonus, combat the public perception that gamers (and video games) are good for nothing.

In their own words: "We collect no administrative fees [my link -ed.] or other charges, 100% of all gifts and donations go directly to our partner hospitals, to help make life a little brighter for a sick child... When gamers give back, it makes a difference!"

Can't handle the pressure of actually selecting which games or toys to donate? You can also make a monetary contribution via PayPal.

~CKL