saijo.DATAPLEX: Recent Topics

saijo.DATAPLEX: Recent Topics http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ saijo.DATAPLEX: Recent Topics en Sun, 20 May 2012 16:01:43 +0000 Spin on "CO2 Extractor" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=15#post-21 Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:24:10 +0000 Spin 21@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ The now-destroyed Brunswick Air Processing Facility used technology like this to clean up the air in the heavily polluted Northern Addition. <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/carbon-dioxide-extractor.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/carbon-dioxide-extractor.php</a> Spin on "Ficlets and Saijo story shards" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=14#post-20 Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:27:21 +0000 Spin 20@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ I missed this somehow, but the AOL site 'Ficlets" had closed down on the 15th of January. I had discovered this by finding a 'memorial' site for Ficlets when I was searching for some Saijo lore. Since the work on the site was Creative Commons licensed, I'll copy story fragments over here and place in appropriate areas. For those unaware, Ficlets was a site where a user could write a short story fragment, and another user could write a prequel or sequel fragment. Much love for them, let's hope it can rise again with the Ficly site that Ficlets' creator appears to be working on. Spin on "Steelbox Ridge" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=13#post-19 Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:20:20 +0000 Spin 19@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ Steelbox Ridge was the name given to one of the hilltops that was used to store unused and broken shipping containers. Every kid's dream was to be able to play in a maze of such awesome stature-- even the homeless ones that lived there; for they were the living, breathing, human NPCs for every visitor to the ridge. Spin on "Spin Martin, New Journalist KBI" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=12#post-18 Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:43:05 +0000 Spin 18@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ I will go back and edit this post, but for brevity, Spin Martin is a New Journalist with the KBI (KSSX BROADCASTING INTERNATIONAL). Much of common knowledge and lore is delivered through his point of view as narrator, but then again, if the shoe fits, heh ;) He is one of the four main characters in the official lore. More later. MemaMorigi on "Hello hello" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=11#post-16 Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:37:50 +0000 MemaMorigi 16@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ Mema here-- I stumbled across (the now defunct) Saijo City in Second Life. Thought I'd write a short story or two. MemaMorigi on "Mema's Story" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=10#post-14 Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:31:19 +0000 MemaMorigi 14@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ [[I'm posting this here because I can't seem to find any other place within the Saijo City framework to do it... Spin, do inform me if this story gets off in the wrong tone. It's mapped out as Gibson-style cyberpunk. I use Oxford-style commas. Live with it.]] Everyone was trying to be elsewhere in a hurry and with the storm dropping smog-flavored drops on everyone, hurried became almost frenetic. Saijo City sidewalks were a crowded, sweaty mix of commuters, street hawkers, whores, and homeless this time of day. In spite of the crowds on foot, little motorized traffic crabbed along on the road or above the tangle of powerlines. Fanjet cars were expensive enough to be out of reach of most of humanity and gas had peaked so long ago that plastics had been plant extract-based for decades. These days, most people just walked. Mema herself was a simple systems engineer for the life support backup section of her Company arco. With no way to afford something like a fanjet, she commuted on foot like everyone else, everywhere she went, every day. Of course, it seemed like everyone got off work at precisely the same moment, jostling each other and flooding the streets and sidewalks, locust-like, twice a day. So Mema Morigi thought nothing of it when the large-built, gray Corporate suit sideswiped her arm with his own as he angled past a greasy chorizo vendcart rusting its way to oblivion. Mema strode for the relative shelter of construction scaffolding erected against a burned-out bank. The first floor was being turned into some kind of synagogue or mosque in miniature. Impossible to tell which kind, Mema thought as she caught a glimpse of herself in the freshly installed window. All the religions had blended to indistinguishable Corporate-sponsored sludge long ago. The reflection in the window nodded. She looked plain soaked, she admitted to herself. The long walk from her zaibatsu’s arco toward Hollow’s Point had dragged her through the rain almost the entire way. Her straight, dark brown hair was caught up into a sopping ponytail that leaked water down the groove of her spine. She suppressed a shiver. She couldn’t see much of her face in the construction dust-covered window, but she knew her features, composed more of her mother’s full-blooded Chippewa than her father’s Russo-Anglo, must have been broadcasting forlorn dampness just like everyone else’s. At least, she thought, the zaibatsu’s mandatory exercise regimen (A Healthy Worker is a Productive Worker!) had her moving through the crowd at full speed, even after the several miles she’d just covered. She cut a slim, athletic figure and she knew it, but tried to school her features into detached concentration. The sex prowlers turned out earlier and earlier these days. Mema let herself attract as little attention as possible. The crowd pressed in on her like a wet, stinking stray dog as she wove her way through the unceasing maze of bodies. I’m making good time. I’ll reach Ginny’s by nine, latest. Virginia Durham was Mema’s dear friend and confidant. They’d met five years ago as members of the same cohort in their computer engineering degree program. Both lovers of long distance running and swimming, they’d become inseparable friends; even vacationing together and-- The gray suited man was next to her, easily keeping pace with his long stride. “Mementa, go into the soba shop two buildings ahead. Do not say one word.” He spoke softly with a friendly and light tone—the sidewalk was still crowded-- but his glance at her was nothing but threat. She caught a glimpse of metal in his grip, almost completely concealed by his massive hand. He shook his head grimly, seeing her reflex to cry out. She complied wordlessly as her traitor legs carried her, unwilling, ahead. The soup joint was a smoky hole of a place. Dozens of empty 3LF beer bottles obscured the greasy patina covering the bar. Cigarettes had been outlawed a half-century ago, owing to the costs to public health, but places like this were festooned with hookahs and bowls of every kind. The owners made enough in illegal sales to keep the local Corp forces nicely paid off, thank you very much, and everyone kept the uneasy silence about it well enough that way. The air was cloyed thick with cannabis, tobacco, cloves. Nearly all the wobbly secondhand tables were full, but nobody seemed to want to look at anyone else. The man held her chair out for her to sit, saying something about ordering miso to the waiter passing by. Mema, her entire body buzzing with surprise and dread, forced herself to sit woodenly at the table. Then the man’s hand was on her shoulder in a bizarrely gentle way, almost fatherlike, as he stood behind her. A flash of pain radiating along her arm and up her neck, then nothing. Spin on "Q&A about Saijo closing in SL" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=8#post-9 Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:18:19 +0000 Spin 9@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ I'll give credit where credit is due. A good part of the inspiration for how Saijo is constructed (at a conceptual level) had to do with the freedom to build something unlike anything easily within our grasp. By this, I don't mean 'build a cyberpunk city', but 'build a 3D city in a multiplayer space that is drag-and-drop simple'. Not being a megacorp gaming studio, this kind of thing was, for the most part, unreachable. Some of you may remember that Saijo was a chain of islands (four) in Second Life, and at the beginning of 2009, I closed the last one. This was a decision that took six months of personal back and forth. Reasons to keep it open were authentic and superficial alike. Many people considered it 'home'. Many people roleplayed there and treated it as a very freestyle gaming space. People wrote stories and wove the fabric of the city into their own personal storylines (and that's a core of what Saijo is all about). The superficial part was the press coverage, acclaims, TV appearances, mentions in books, and the successful coexistence of real life megacorps and celebrities. I suppose that wasn't all superficial, but combine IT with the power of the community and their personal relationship to it, you can probably see why it was tough. The reasons are relatively simple and almost banal in nature. Some are technical, some are ideological. 1. Performance of the software: I've used SL for almost five years and have seen some changes for the better and the worse-- not necessarily where the changes should be. Even most of the open grid versions of the SL software are still too deeply rooted in that model. For example, the 3D world runs the same physics as many major games, yet performs nothing like it. Regardless of whether or not the SL world at large is a game, there is a certain expectation of how moving around, driving, and existing in 3D *should* be. SL's tech isn't it, and probably won't be for a while. 2. Proprietary, closed software: I probably swing closer to the ideology of open source and Creative Commons than many traditionalists. Yet, traditionalism runs into problems. The RIAA has been fighting an uphill battle in trying to control digital goods-- something which can be done, but as a negative to a consumer. If someone came to me and said, "I'd like to put Saijo on the XBOX", I would, in a word, be completely hosed. Nothing is exportable *legitimately* nor compatible. Can it be done? Sure, with a lot of hacking and toolkits and things that would otherwise open a can of worms I just don't want to deal with. Virtual worlds have this problem which is as if each website required its own browser to visit. That's no way to build a metaverse. It's a Microsoft-ian move. What is built in SL is trapped there. 3. SL doesn't make my skills better: I won't for a minute deny that the drag-and-drop interface helped me (and others) get to where we are today. But it ends there. As I dive into the world of standard building tools, I'm lost. Building in SL isn't really rooted in any standard that I can tell, and at the very least, the backend output isn't something I can use elsewhere. So this is related to #2 a little. Honestly, at the end of the day, I don't know even close to what I should about building properly, with optimization in mind (and this is part of what makes SL so laggy-- we AREN'T 3D modelers of any stripe to know how to build *properly* (read: efficiently). 4. Money, but not because I'm broke: SL costs quite a bit, and those costs can be offset by business activity in SL, but that keeps everything inside and not outside. I was lucky enough to subsidize this project by outside work, but when I look at if I'm spending my money wisely, the answer is no. For the hundreds of dollars per month, per year, I could have easily picked up a couple copies of high-end, industry standard 3D software-- the type that is used in business and entertainment, and exports to all the formats that virtually everything *else* in the world uses. 5. Cyberpunk is not dead/Marketing against SL's stigma: I'm not a fan of fantasy and sword and sorcery, but damn, if we aren't going to be barraged by it until we die. I think cyberpunk is alive and well-- we are living it more or less-- and I want to get it outside. I also can do a better job with that if I don't have to battle SL stigma. I've spent a considerable amount of time fearing that Saijo would be considered 'an SL thing', which from day one, has never been my intention. Even Sony Home can't escape the SL comparisons and inevitable furry jokes. That's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk cyberpunk. (disclaimer: I've had plenty of TV time and speaking engagements about SL, and it was hard work steering the conversations to normalcy, srsly.) 6. Force the game industry to change if they aren't already: I used to think it was a noble cause to poke Big Gaming with a stick. Big Gaming = EA pretty much owning everything and if you don't have thousands of people and tens of millions of dollars, YOU CAN'T PLAY. Gaming could learn a lot from virtual worlds (and vice versa). But now that noble cause seems a little less eager as game companies could start to embrace the user and what they do/want to do. And they certainly have the power and resources to do that. I want Saijo to be a model of that, with a genre people think is dead, standing up to them and saying 'it's dead when we SAY it is, megacorp!' I think that's about it. It's a ridiculously difficult journey, and I'm faced with doing things I've been too scared or worried about. It's a new year and a lot will change. I hope that those that have supported Saijo in the past continue to do so, and never let those stories die. My goal is not only building up the Big Saijo property, but to contribute as much as I can so that the Community Saijo property (which belongs to everyone) so that it may thrive in ways that no content franchise has ever seen the likes of before. :) Spin on "The five basic types of people (FACTIONS)" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=9#post-10 Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:31:53 +0000 Spin 10@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ I'm hesitant to use the word 'factions', since that implies potential 'warring against', but it's a term we can relate to. Generally, you fall into one of a few categories: 1. Corporate (and everything IS corporate, it's how you live and what runs everything, even gov't. Almost everyone is in a Corp, some take it to the nth degree. Most of us work for, shop from, and are protected by Corps. Money rules all.) 2. Street (You reject the system, the system rejected you, and are basically the gnarly underbelly of life. You have beliefs and you enforce them, but you are kinda out-gunned. That won't defeat your spirit. You scare people.) 3. Freelancers (A pragmatic class of rogues who are like one- or two-man corporations, effective on the street, reports to no one, but can be bought) 4. Mystics (With religion being a big business, you probably have more in common with the street people, just not as angry about everything. You actually believe in things in an honest way. In fact, you might even be pure of heart. Although, you can be a little too metafruity for most people, but you are gentle enough, so we'll forgive you) 5. Common People (there's nothing special about you, you just exist. Welcome to your mundane exist amongst 50 million of your fellow neighbors) Spin on "Dataplex is the forums" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=7#post-8 Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:48:10 +0000 Spin 8@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ Dataplex is the first iteration of forums for Saijo City. I'll be honest, forums aren't my forte, so please bear with me. I got over the fear of wikis, so heh, why not forums? Since Saijo is a project that spans a whole ton of media and platforms, and the content is divided up as well, many posts will come and go and be shuffled around as new forums and topics are created. That might be annoying at first, but I beg your patience. Spin Spin on "Living on grids" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=6#post-7 Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:04:03 +0000 Spin 7@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ What you like to do virtually, might say a lot about you, or your character, as a person. For example, I've found that certain genres and roles fit me as a person. Racing games always capture my attention, as does playing around with the vehicles in a game (like Halo, for example). When it comes to shooters--a genre I'd never bill as my favorite-- I find that I like choosing a role that's a bit of a hybrid class: support technician, medic-- never something so 'front-line'. Same goes for MMOs like Warcraft. I prefer the flexibility and diversity in the Druid class. Not pure healer (like a priest) and not pure front-line (like a Warrior, etc). Take a look at what/where/how you play and apply it to your own character as meta-experience. This is the concept of the 'overlay' that I tend to mention quite a bit in regards to the Saijo universe. A game company might own the intellectual property of a game, but not your *experiences* across the endless grids of games and worlds. Use this forum to seek out advice and share experiences with others. Your character will thank you for it. :) Spin on "The Saijo City shared universe" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=5#post-6 Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:22:52 +0000 Spin 6@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ ****This post is a work in progress.**** Saijo City is a creative platform and work based around a fictional city in the near future, roughly themed around the science fiction sub-genre of cyberpunk. The two main components of Saijo City involve original content and characters for deployment across a vast amount of media, and a shared, public commons of content created by and for the community. This is akin to the author of a work, eg. Harry Potter or Star Wars, where derivative works, fan fiction, etc, is not only encouraged, but contributed to by the official authors themselves. Official lore will be located at the Infocalypse wiki: <a href="http://saijocity.com">saijo.INFOCALYPSE</a>, and public commons lore and story fragments here on saijo.DATAPLEX. Share and contribute only what you are comfortable with. Like any city, it's not so much the buildings and geography that gives a place a soul, it's what happens inside. The people, places, events-- all intertwined and connected, and even disconnected and disjointed-- are what makes cities come alive. Our goal is to accommodate as much as we technically can, in a coherent manner. Welcome home! Spin on "Saijo City Skyfeed/Dataplex shared login" http://saijocity.com/dataplex/topic.php?id=4#post-5 Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:52:06 +0000 Spin 5@http://saijocity.com/dataplex/ If you create a login at Saijo City's <a href="http://saijocity.com/skyfeed">Skyfeed</a>, it will also work here in the Dataplex.