social gaming experiments

This is me, as a deer-human in The Endless Forest. The Endless Forest is a non-violent social experience. It transcends the definition of gaming, I’d call it a social experiment. It should be known that I’m not a gamer. I’ve repeatedly and stubbornly refused World of Warcraft, and I think I’m slowly losing touch with my friends because of it. I’d like to offer something to my friends as an alternitive to WOW. Something not so 20-sided-die would be nice. Warcraft interests me, but what impresses me is the social element, not +45 magic, or Leroy Jenkins.

If the world has any suggestions for experimental multiplayer, I’m all ears. and and antlers.

kupper parker closed

Kupper Parker, a publicly traded advertising agency in St. Louis, seemingly closed it’s doors earlier this month. Word spread quickly through the small network of agencies in St. Louis. I gather it was an expected event from an insiders perspective. My three bits of evidence that Kupper was no more were as follows:

1. industry buzz
2. the fact that the company’s website was down
3. a morning star stock report show’s the company worth $0.01.

Low and behold, is that a phoenix rising from the dust? Kupper’s website is back up at the time of this posting. Probably not telling of the agencies return, but noteworthy. Why did the big agency fail?

turning down work

I’ve slowly climbed the ranks of freelancer. I used to take on every scrap of side-job meat thrown my way to padd my portfolio and get experience. Lord knows it wasn’t for the money at the rates I was charging.

And good experience it was. I would consider the things I’ve been through a freelancer’s rite of passage. Here’s a few notches in the belt that really have to come from real-world experience.

1. drastically underbidding a project just to get it. you pay the price ultimately.
2. letting the creative lead out of your hands and turning into your clients production artist. “move the logo over, change that to blue, etc.” a dangerous road to go down.
3. saying “I can do it” when you cant. Sometimes this can be a great way to learn, just make sure it’s something you want to learn. If learning how to write coldfusion doesn’t interest you or add to the skillset your trying to develop. skip it.
4. poor project radar. there are some projects that just smell a little funny. tight deadlines are sometimes the problem, other times it’s a client who wants something for nothing.

I’ve been turning down work left and right lately. It took me a while to get used to it, but once I did, it felt great.

It’s important to know when you’ve become better than the projects your working on. Don’t feel guilty, that small low-pay design gig will get done by some low-rate basement dweller. Believe me, I used to be that guy.

clayton vs. maplewood

This weekend I attended both St. Louis art fairs for the first time.

Friday night, I visited the Clayton art fair, which is the biggest art fair in St. Louis County. I saw some amazing work. I was even able to pickup a nice woodcut print by this artist. While strollers were being pushed by Polo clad suburbanites a more alternative rebellious fair ensued in Maplewood, just a few miles away.

On Saturday I spent a couple hours at my old stomping ground, the Schlafly Bottleworks in the eclectic yet up-and-coming neighborhood, Maplewood. The Shclafly Art Outside is a newbie, this being its third go-round. This fair concentrates on providing a completely local lineup of art & entertainment. Schlafly, brewer of the finest pale ale, had happily sponsored the Clayton fair for many years. About six years ago Shlafly’s privlages and booth location at the Clayton event began to diminish due to the request of the other St. Louis giant brewer, Anheuser Busch. After several years Schlafly was eventully “weeded out” of the Clayton fair and Art Outside was born. The highlights from this years Art Outside include local boutiques KungFu Chicken and Firecracker Press. Two new artists I really was impressed by were the paintings by Josh Crow and the screenprinted wearable art by Lull.

I have always supported the Outside mostly because I know a couple of the participating artists and have had my checks signed by Tom Schlafly in a previous life. I’ve always felt at home at Schafly, so I naturally found myself protesting the “snobs” in Clayton. After visiting the Clayton fair this year I found my Schlafly alliegance fading. What I found in Clayton was top-notch talent and an acceptable amount of yuppie.

The Clayton event is able to attract a higher caliber of artist due to its history, size, and national scope. While I still enjoy the company of the folks at Schlafly, this year’s event felt like a re-run. They have a limited stable of talent, commiting to the purley local theme. In the future I’ll remember to have my expectations set when going to these two events. I’ll go to Clayton to see fresh concepts and great national talent, and I’ll visit Maplewood to go to visit my friends and see what the St. Louis talent has been up to.

benny smith dies

This weekend we lost yet another man that helped found the sound of the St. Louis Blues.

Benny Smith saw mild success throughout his career. He never reached the same fame as his river city counterpart Johnnie Johnson who also passed somewhat recently, but he definately left his mark on this city and the music that made it famous. I’m no blues expert but I am definately a fan. Benny Smith frequented such haunts as BB’s in downtown St. Louis.

I had the opportunity to see him a few times during his regular set on Sunday afternoons at Hammerstone’s in Soulard. It was always a treat to watch local blues musicians sit in with Benny. They would develop a riff and once it was established they would take turns deviating and playing with the riff. The audience enjoyed it thouroughly but you could tell the musicians were on a whole different level, conversion through this riff and making it their own.

I’m not sure what will happen to the St. Louis Blues as we keep losing these great guys. But one thing is certain, Benny Smith will be missed.

mlb gamecast

Whew! We just got through a tough one with the Padres, or as Cate likes to call them the St. Louis Browns. Luckily Sir Albert served up a crucial homerun in the 8th. And the little guy made an appearence, didn’t do much, but it was good to see him out there. All the while we were fighting for our lives, Pittsburgh and Houston battled it out in a marathon. I watched my redbirds on FSN and I had my eye on the Houston game on my lap through ESPN’s MLB gamecast to make sure they stayed at least a full game back.

This gamecast is one hell of a way to watch a game. Perfect for stats junkies or someone (like me) who like to follow games at work but don’t want to have full blown audio or video pipin’ through the computer.

The ESPN MLB game cast is a thing of beauty. Masterfully built though a delicious flash interface, this application delivers real-time stats in a perfect sized window. Not to be confused with what mlb.com has going on. They have a similar format, but this espn version is glossy, easy to follow, and even has animated plays. I’d be interested to see what’s under the hood. Possibly a Flash communication server? Slide-Show Pro claims to have some kind of stake in the process but where or how much is not quite clear. With any luck I will be making similar kick arse flash apps at my new gig.

Next time you need to catch a game at work, check out this page and click gamecast on any one of the active games. It’s a great way to experience a game. Does anyone know if they provide a similar service for pigskin? I’m guessing not enough audience b/c more people can get infront of a TV on sundays.

what is swift 3d for?

I have a 3d/web background. It seems I would be the perfect person to put Swift3d to good use. I was very excited when I heard the concept, “3-d delivered through .swf”. It sounds great. The only problem is that Swift3d has been hanging around for a couple years and I still haven’t found a super practical use for this seemingly useful app.

I have been inspired by some uses of the product, such as the tokyoplastic website. But other than a nice portfolio piece, I’ve found few useful applications for this product. E-rain hasn’t produced a case study worth a second look. Here is the best thing I could come up with. A simple rotating character. With the way flash video going these days the only benefit Swift has is the scalability, which I must admit is pretty cool. Vector lines in 3d that can scale to any size must have some practicle application, but the only thing I could come up with is a rotating character. Be sure to drag the window to see the vector animation scale.

Any practical ideas out there for this application?