--- /dev/null
+---
+postid: 023
+title: Maybe I was wrong about that commenting thing
+excerpt: Re-dissecting the thorny issue of blog comments.
+date: June 8, 2014
+author: Lucian Mogoșanu
+tags: asphalt
+---
+
+Almost a year ago, back when The Tar Pit had just ceased to be a collection of
+ideas on a whiteboard, I delved into [technical details][1] related to
+blogging; mind you, nothing as philosophical as "why blog?"[^1], but rather a
+discussion on the right tools and the right approaches for blogging. While I
+never implied that the way I considered doing it was the right approach for
+everyone, I was back then fairly sure that the technical tidbits behind The
+Tar Pit were not only the right way, but that they were the only feasible
+approach for myself.
+
+One specifically bothersome detail was the issue of comments:
+
+> On the other hand comments, I admit, are kind of a big issue. For a while, I
+> looked into third party commenting systems, or writing my own, or even using
+> the one from Wordpress, but I realized this would bring back the spam
+> nightmares I had previously had with it. I also thought about proprietary
+> alternatives such as Disqus, but Disqus is a service with terms that I don’t
+> necessarily agree with. So no, I wouldn’t have them owning the comments of
+> my readers.
+>
+> Therefore, I have given up comments altogether. Once the blog has a contact
+> page, you’ll have the option of commenting on my stuff by sending me an
+> e-mail or a message on whatever social network I’m on. Moreover, feel free
+> to link my posts to Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and whatever social network
+> you’re on, and drop me an e-mail if you feel like I should give my
+> input. Other than that, I don’t really feel like turning back to comment
+> moderation, I think that I should focus on writing and not much more.
+
+More simply put, commenting platforms, especially the proprietary
+"in-the-cloud" ones, are a bitch. They either make it considerably difficult to
+moderate content, due to the horrendous amount of spam (as seen in Wordpress),
+or they lock your data into their services, a fact that I for one find
+unacceptable, to say the least. Thus my idea involved delegating commenting to
+whatever platforms lie on the Internet, closed or otherwise, given that
+historically speaking, my blogs haven't received much "engagement" from their
+readers anyway[^2].
+
+Of course, that didn't really work. So far, exactly zero people have contacted
+me on The Tar Pit's [e-mail][4], and only a few people have discussed the
+blog's subjects with me on social networks and other public forums, although
+others may have been discussing them among themselves, who knows. On one hand,
+people prefer to do it the "convenient" way rather than the "right" way. On the
+other, Facebook is one example of a [completely useless][5] publishing
+platform, while Twitter's 140-character limit encourages only linking, not
+discussions. I haven't really tried posting my writings on Reddit and the likes
+and I'm not planning to, but feel free to do that if you think it's a good
+idea.
+
+Now, while I'm living in my own writer's bubble, Robin Ward (also known as Evil
+Trout) comes and announces that [Discourse][6] can now be embedded in static
+sites. This is of course very dissimilar to the classical way of commenting:
+you can view comments on the blog, but you have to actually access a forum to
+post comments, implying that you also need to make a virtual identity, i.e. a
+user, and become part of a community. Anonymous posting is thus turned off by
+default, a fact which I don't wholeheartedly agree with[^3].
+
+I've thought about this long before creating The Tar Pit, and I must admit that
+it is an interesting concept. It's also one that might not work here, since
+creating a community around a single blog would require that blog to be more
+active (I write 0.5 to 1 post per week on average), and it would also require a
+critical mass of posts and/or categories. People wouldn't gather there simply
+because they're readers of The Tar Pit, but because they'd have found something
+worth debating, which I am skeptical of.
+
+Despite my skepticism, I will confess that maybe I was wrong about that thing
+about commenting. Maybe this Discourse thing is indeed the right tool to
+enable commenting on arbitrary (non-Wordpress) blogs, maybe even my blog. And
+even if it isn't, maybe it's worth trying to use it and failing, I'm sure the
+experience itself would count. I don't agree with [Jeff Atwood][6] that "a
+blog without comments is not a blog", but it is definitely *less* of a blog,
+which I guess The Tar Pit is.
+
+I can't say I'm ready to give this a try yet, but who knows, sometime, in the
+future, maybe...
+
+[^1]: [Steve Yegge][2] has already discussed the subject rather well, in my
+opinion.
+
+[^2]: While I'm aware that we live in the age of "virals", "user experience",
+"engagement" and other such mildly annoying buzzwords, I find this phenomenon
+to be perfectly normal for my personal blog. I hardly expect that a massive
+number of users read The Tar Pit, simply because I deal in more or less
+esoteric subjects. Moreover, I hardly expect most of my readers to "engage" in
+discussing the content, since I've given up writing stuff that will stir up
+sensation. The reason is quite simple: asking for attention in a time when it
+(that is, attention) is so expensive, and when attention deficit is so
+widespread, is simply wrong. Either you read this or you don't. To put it in
+the words of [Simon Peyton-Jones][3], I'm avoiding success at all costs.
+
+[^3]: It solves the spam problem by default, though.
+
+[1]: /posts/y00/002-technicalities.html
+[2]: https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/you-should-write-blogs
+[3]: http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/261007/a-z_programming_languages_haskell/
+[4]: /images/email.png
+[5]: http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/03/the-filtered-feed-problem/
+[6]: http://eviltrout.com/2014/01/22/embedding-discourse.html
+[7]: http://blog.codinghorror.com/a-blog-without-comments-is-not-a-blog/
--- /dev/null
+---
+postid: 024
+title: Broken Age
+date: June 21, 2014
+author: Lucian Mogoșanu
+tags: gaming
+---
+
+*Meta*: While this is a post standing on its own, it also happens to be, by
+some strange twist of fate, the sequel to one of my previous writings, more
+specifically the one where I describe the beauty of [Grim Fandango][1]. Unlike
+other posts in the [gaming][2] category, however, this one has no motto. We
+will see why in the following paragraphs.
+
+<span class="imgleft"><a href="/images/2014/06/broken-age-01.png"> <img
+class="thumb" src="/images/2014/06/broken-age-01-thumb.png" title="A beautiful
+decor."/></a></span> So, once upon a time, there was this guy called Tim
+Schafer. While working as a producer for LucasArts, he made some of the
+greatest adventures ever created, of which I won't remind any right now, but
+I'm sure you know them all, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this. Anyway, as
+I was [previously hinting][1], Schafer went along with the whole
+downfall-of-the-adventure-genre thing and gave birth to some really ugly
+gaming experiences, of which we shall once again remind Grim Fandango. My,
+those were dark times indeed.
+
+But here we are in our Lord's year 2014, a year of so-called "indie" games:
+back two years ago, Schafer started a crowdfunding campaign that gathered well
+over three million bucks and resulted in hype, heaps of hope and many promises.
+That's when the idea of "Double Fine Adventure" came to be, mostly from the
+name of Schafer's new studio, Double Fine Productions, or something like that.
+
+So Double Fine get funded beyond their wildest expectations, then they start
+working on this adventure game, and well, at some point find out they're out of
+the shitloads of money invested by their backers. About two years later, that
+is, in our Lord's year 2014, they manage to release the first act of this game,
+which they now name Broken Age. And here we are.
+
+<span class="imgright"><a href="/images/2014/06/broken-age-02.png"> <img
+class="thumb" src="/images/2014/06/broken-age-02-thumb.png"
+title="Vella."/></a></span>
+Broken Age tells the story of two people, or children, living in what appear to
+be two entirely different worlds. One of them, Vella, is part of some kind of
+fantasy world populated with monsters and sacrificed maidens, while the other,
+Shay, is a lonely, bored kid, living on a spaceship for as long as he's known.
+As an aside, the two characters (and not only them) are played by what most
+people would consider to be top-notch voice actors, namely Masasa Moyo and
+Elijah Wood.
+
+Thus, the player embarks in what appear two entirely different adventures, each
+with its own story; and what boring stories the two seemed to be, and how
+utterly disappointed I was at about halfway through the game -- luckily, the
+game is really, really, really, really short. Remember the old LucasArts
+adventures? Remember Grim Fandango? Hell, remember Day of the *fucking*
+Tentacle? Well, I'll tell you, Broken Age is none of these. The humour is
+bland, the scenes make no sense -- and that's okay for a comedy, except,
+y'know, the humour is bland --, the characters are ephemere despite being
+played by such good actors, but wait, that's not all.
+
+<span class="imgleft"><a href="/images/2014/06/broken-age-03.png"> <img
+class="thumb" src="/images/2014/06/broken-age-03-thumb.png"
+title="Shay."/></a></span>
+All things considered, the game's atmosphere is not bad at all. The orchestral
+soundtrack is a lovely piece of art, while on the other hand, the graphics are
+great: both seem to have been conceived with much attention to detail, and this
+shows, like it should in any good movie[^1]. On top of it, the game's interface
+blends with the story so well: the inventory is there only when it's supposed
+to be, all the important objects and characters are obvious, while the
+mechanics are definitely no-nonsense, which really brings out the fun in
+point-and-click.
+
+So you know, this really isn't such a bad game, except it's too damn short and
+the story/stories are way too forgettable; with the notable exception of the
+first act's ending[^2], which is a really good cliffhanger and, honestly, it's
+pretty much the best thing in the whole game. Seriously, I loved it and can't
+wait to see what happens next[^3].
+
+I shall conclude my short post by answering to the question posed at its
+beginning. So, why no motto? Unfortunately I have failed to find any memorable
+quotes within the first act of Broken Age. Does this mean that it can't live
+up to its predecessors? I don't know, maybe not; or maybe. Time will tell.
+
+[^1]: Only I've always thought that, in terms of narrative, games are much
+closer to books than to movies. Maybe that's why Broken Age is so short after
+all, while old LucasArts games are so long. This, however, has nothing to do
+with the games' actual quality, I've played short adventure games that have
+stuck with me forever.
+
+[^2]: At the time of writing, Broken Age has only one act released. Out of two,
+I suppose.
+
+[^3]: I bought the "season pass" as they call it now when they sell an entire
+game to you. If there's one thing that makes Broken Age less of an adventure
+than the old ones, it's this whole dubious marketing tacting. Seriously, Tim,
+this looks like nothing more than a cheap scam to us old farts.
+
+[1]: /posts/y00/01a-grim-fandango.html
+[2]: /tags/gaming.html
projects / thetarpit.git / commitdiff
