Tesh

MMO community connection:

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Tish Tosh Tesh

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is your name (your online persona/alter-ego, what have you)?

I blog as Tesh, a portmanteau of my legal names, and my most common gaming name is usually a variant of Ransom, Silveransom being the most common.

What is your connection to the gaming/blogging/podcasting community (your chance to plug yourself here)?

I maintain the blog Tish Tosh Tesh as well as make the rounds to comment sections of sympathetic or interesting bloggers, as noted in a recent article I wrote here.

I seem to have been accepted for the most part, despite having somewhat atypical views on a lot of things related to the game industry or game design in general. I get a lot of good discussion, which continues to surprise me, inasmuch as anyone bothers to read my writing, and that comments are helpful and insightful the vast majority of the time. (Yes, I’ve been spoiled by forums where the most intelligent comments are those that bother to spell out “your mom”.) I still can’t help but feel a bit like a hippo blundering through a herd of gazelle sometimes, though… and it’s nice when I don’t get shouted down for being a bit different.

Please take a minute and describe what your blog/podcast is about.

I blather at length about game design, with side trips into art, game theory, politics and economics… or whatever else I feel like at the moment. Most articles connect to games or gaming in some way, since that’s my profession at the moment, and what I’m working on in my spare time.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

I started in Spokane, Washington, then meandered through a few towns in Utah with a stint in Alabama between high school and college.

Where do you live now?

Orem, Utah

Your level (age) is somewhere in the range of (pick one): 10-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90

31-40, though I feel that’s more of an average of where I actually am, where I wish I were, and where I *feel* like I am.

What do you do for a living?

I’m a technical artist working for a great little game studio. I’m trained to be a Pixar-style CG artist, but with interests in gaming, science and literature, as well as fine arts, I’m more of a jack of all trades, which fits nicely into game development. Plus, I won’t move to California. Bleh.

If you could reroll your career, what would you be?

A university professor, likely dual classing in Physics and Art. I’d still like to do that, actually, time and budget willing.

List five random things most people don’t know about you.

• I actually *do* have ten toes. (Really, who checks?)
• My lineage is artistic and musical, but my musical taste is fairly
  unique in my family, and I can’t produce decent music on my own.
• My grandmother is 29, going on 29. Has been for a while.
• My daughter’s middle name is based on a Kingdom Hearts character.
• I am not John Tesh (don’t tell Jason!)… but I like his music.

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

My wonderful wife and two young’uns make life worth living.

Chapter 2: Origin

What kind of games (if any) did you play as a child before you got into video gaming? Did you play with family, friends or was it more of a solo activity?

Before video gaming? I’ve always played board games and card games, as well as played with puzzles of all sorts, but I started playing video games when I was 4, so it’s really just been part of the stable of pastimes. I tend to play video games largely solo, but my family does have a long standing tradition of playing board and card games at family gatherings, so I wind up doing both.

What other hobbies and/or activities did you have as a child (sports, music, etc)?

I read. A lot. And then I read some more. I also drew and painted, wrote and thought. As an asthmatic, allergic to nearly everything, the mental world has always offered me more opportunities than the rough-and-tumble reality offered to the prototypical male of the species.

Were you ever exposed to pen and paper role playing games? What was that experience like?

I played a couple of Palladium games, Robotech and TMNT, and read a little about GURPS. Those were great experiences, and expanded my gaming vocabulary well past the Mario Brothers and Monopoly palette.

Did you read much as a child? If so, what did you like to read (books, comic books, etc?) Please list some favorite authors, titles, etc.

I read a ton of books, for most of my free time. More often than not, I read fiction, but nonfiction was something that I grew to appreciate around my early teens and beyond. A short list culled from a much longer list of favorites would include Tolkien, Lewis, Stackpole, McKinley, Dickson, Hawking and Moroni.

Would you say that any of these games or books had an effect on your later appreciation of computer gaming and ultimately MMOs? Please explain.

I see games as a natural sort of Renaissance medium. Storytelling is a natural outlet for human creativity, with many cultural facets that have been important to history. Games are one of the more interesting storytelling mediums, since they are deeply interactive. They have great potential and great power, and are really only scratching a bare minimum of that potential as they exist at present. (And they are almost wholly ignoring the Spiderman lesson, dodging responsibility, for the most part.) Nearly everything I’ve read and played has something to offer the genre, and my own life experience. The notion of “what if?” plays a deep role in human learning, and I’ve been lucky to experience a wide variety of such questions, with well crafted answers.

MMOs in particular have unique potential among games, with greater social implications and deeper design challenges. That they have largely abdicated that potential, choosing to embrace mindless DIKU design and banal bloodthirst, is a recurring theme that I revisit in my articles.

How were you fist introduced to video games? How old were you? What was the platform?

I first played video games at my grandparents’ neighbors’ house. I was 4, and found the ability to control what was on the TV to be utterly enthralling. The Atari controller is very rudimentary compared to what we see today, but then, it was magic. I did play Pong, albeit a few years after its introduction, and I’ve been interested in video games ever since.

Did you ever play coin-op games at the arcade? What was that experience like?

I played in arcades a lot as a teenager, though I had played Pac-Man in Pizza Huts since I was 6 or so. Street Fighter 2 and its spawn were the mainstream of why my friends and I would play, but on my own, I’d just as often tinker with a Pac-Man, ExciteBike, Strider, Rampart or 720. I still don’t like the cheap “gotcha” kills/crashes and stringent time limits that made the machines quarter munchers, but those arcade games were still a lot of fun, and I still enjoy a trip to the local Nicklecade on occasion.

What was the first video game you can remember playing that really made an impression on you? Please explain.

The first one I remember was Atari Bowling. Controlling the ball after I “released” it was silly even to my 4-year old mind, but it was so much fun to play that I didn’t care. A bit later, Atari’s E.T. was baffling, but sort of fun, and it started a collector/explorer mindset that I’ve carried through the years. Even later, Final Fantasy 6 forever warped my expectation of what a “video game” could offer when it came to storytelling, and may well be the biggest single influence on my thoughts regarding the medium’s potential. (Though Kingdom Hearts, Myst and Final Fantasy Tactics have also been pivotal for similar reasons.)

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

NES, Sega 8-bit, SNES, PS, N64, PS2, GameCube, GBA, DS, Wii (honorable mention: Macintosh and PC, several models)

Feel free to share a story related to your gaming experience as a child.

Dark Castle (on the Mac) was one of the first games that I designed levels for, actively trying to extend the gaming experience. Of course, there was no level editor, so my levels were ultimately just drawings on paper, but trying to figure out what would make for a good level, or even just a fun experience, was great mental exercise, and a lot of fun. To this day, I enjoy *making* a good game as much, if not more, than *playing* a good game.

Jonathan

MMO community connection:

The Online Gamer’s Anthology | Through The Aftermath

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is your name (your online persona/alter-ego, what have you)?

Jonathan Morris

What is your connection to the gaming/blogging/podcasting community (your chance to plug yourself here)?

Host of “The Online Gamer’s Anthology” podcast and co-host of the “Through The Aftermath” podcast.

Please take a minute and describe what your blog/podcast is about.

TOGA is a nostalgiac look back at the history of MMO’s and the games that influenced their creation. TTAM is a podcast about the post-apocolyptic genre of media.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan.

Where do you live now?

Saint George, UT.

Your level (age) is somewhere in the range of (pick one): 10-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90

31-40

What do you do for a living?

Service Manager for a corporate copier/fax dealership.

If you could reroll your career, what would you be?

I always wanted to be a Navy SEAL.

List five random things most people don’t know about you.

• I inadvertantly use the word “frak” at least 6 times a day.
• I frakkin’ LOVE Pepsi.
• I was dead-set on being a movie director.
• I know the lines to just about every episode of the British comedy “Red Dwarf” almost by heart.
• I was terrible at Math in HS. Now I love game programming. How weird is that.

Feel free to discuss any family you have here.

Married with kids… a 5 year old daughter and 3 year old son. The force is strong with them, and they will be gamers like their father.

Chapter 2: Origins

What kind of games (if any) did you play as a child before you got into video gaming? Did you play with family, friends or was it more of a solo activity?

I was really fortunate to be introduced to gaming extremely early, by my Uncle. And right from the beginning, I was hooked. At age 5, I had PacMan curtains in my bedroom and drew little crayon pictures of DonkeyKong. The arcade world of the early 80’s totally shaped what would later become my world.

What other hobbies and/or activities did you have as a child (sports, music, etc)?

I loved to read. I think I blew through just about every “Choose Your Own Adventure” book they ever made!

Were you ever exposed to pen and paper role playing games? What was that experience like?

Ironically enough, my computer RPG love later LEAD me to pen-and-paper RPG’s, which is interesting because it’s usually the other way around. I played my first D&D game at a Boy Scout summer camp when I was 13. It was one of the most amazing things I’d ever seen. I remember being totally blown away by the idea that your imagination was the graphics… it was like all my CRPG experience and love for reading finally came together at that moment. I knew my world would never be the same. From there I had pen-and-paper memories right alongside my computer RPG ones. My Junior High and High School moments were full of Ravenloft, Battletech, Spacemaster, and Vampire the Masquerade. Such good times.

Did you read much as a child? If so, what did you like to read (books, comic books, etc?) Please list some favorite authors, titles, etc.

Everything I could find. Books in particular that I remember the most were the Dragonlance series, Lord of the Rings, and John Christopher’s “Tripod” trilogy! And once, a kid in 5th grade threatened to kick my ass because he saw me reading Arthur C. Clarke’s “2010″… which was sad since I was not necessarily the “super-smart kid” he accused me of being… I just really loved sci-fi!

Would you say that any of these games or books had an effect on your later appreciation of computer gaming and ultimately MMOs? Please explain.

They were so intertwined, I honestly have no idea where I would have been if I hadn’t had both. I had always dreamed that someone would combine my favorite games with the ability to play online with someone else. I remember playing Ultima IV and talking with one of my friends (who was also playing U4), and saying how cool it would be if we could walk around in the Ultima world together. Little did I know that less than 8 years later Ultima Online would be one of the first MMO’s and we’d being doing exactly that!

How were you fist introduced to video games? How old were you? What was the platform?

Aside from the arcades (which my Uncle and my Dad took me to alot), my first video games were on the Texas Instruments TI99/4A playing Parsec and Donkey Kong. I was about 7 years old, if I remember right. And from there came the Atari 800 and then the Commodore 64, and it’s just kept right on going.

Did you ever play coin-op games at the arcade? What was that experience like?

I LOVED the arcades. It’s so sad that the arcade experience is all but gone now. The arcade world of the early 80’s for us was like our parents fondly looking back at the drive-in/cafe world of the 50’s. It was piece of history I wish even the younger gamers could have been a part of. I have extremely vivid memories of the “Timezone Arcade” down the street from where I lived when I grew up (alas, that place is long gone). Rows upon rows of Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, and Dragon’s Lair! Beeps and explosion noises from everywhere around you! And of course, pizza. There was something about eating greasy pizza and then jumping over to Galaga that made life seem perfect. Though the arcade world has made a slight comeback, it will never be quite the same as the arcades of the 80’s. Those were truly magical times. And remember when Chuck E. Cheese was brand new? That place was kid heaven!

What was the first video game you can remember playing that really made an impression on you? Please explain.

Though PacMan and DonkeyKong were my loves as a kid, “Montezuma’s Revenge” on the Atari800 was the first ones that made a HUGE impression. It was one of the first adventure-style games I’d ever played that had a final boss character and an open-ended world. I had that game down to a science! The other one I remember being completely influencial by was the first “Ultima”. That game was the start of what would later become a complete obsession with CRPG’s. And it has never stopped!

What gaming consoles have you owned in the past?

You name it, I owned it. I kid you not. Anything from the Atari 2600 to the big clunky first-gen Gameboy (man, I loved that Gameboy). Because my Uncle was continually passing on his older computers to me and I also had close friends who were console gamers, I was really fortunate to be able to have both computer games (like Ultima and King’s Quest) alongside all of the console games (like Zelda and Final Fantasy). Some of my fav’s were the NES and SNES, and the original Gameboy. Remember how exciting it was when the “Nintendo Power” magazine showed up in your mailbox?

Feel free to share a story related to your gaming experience as a child.

Of all the memories of growing up with games, one of my favorites was the day my Uncle and I played Kings Quest 5 together. It was an absolutely stunning game… it was one of the first to have full 256-color graphics and it took the computer world by storm! One night my Uncle and I started playing the game, and we just didn’t want to stop. We were so drawn into the world and the characters, we never looked at the clock once. And when we finally did stop playing (right before the end level) it was 4:30 in the morning. That game was one of the most amazing adventure experiences I ever had. And playing it all night with my Uncle made it even better. To this day, we still talk about that game.

The other one I always think about was I played ZORK one night with my Dad. My Dad pretty much hated video games, but one day he saw me playing the text-adventure goodness that was ZORK, and was intrigued. Before long, we were running around the Great Underground Empire together and having a great time. My Dad never played a game with me since then, but even he remembers how much fun that time was. And he was the first to figure out that there was a trap door under the carpet in the white house! How did I miss that?! Do you have any idea how many times I walked around the forest or tried to jump off the cliff into the rushing river to find a way underground?? And then my Dad just shows up and does it. “>KILL TROLL WITH SWORD” indeed…