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Neils Clark: July 2015

http://neilsclark.blogspot.com/2015_07_01_archive.html

Is probably playing videogames. instead of posting regularly. Games with Friends on a Saturday Night. Married on a Pirate Ship. Bep’s boyfriend Space, sadly, would not attend. I’d meet in person. Bep's Horde-side friend Unctuous would preside over the seaside ceremony. Because many screenshots were saved – World of Warcraft. Making me both groom and wedding photographer – I know that the text looked a bit like this:. Hawtgrrlirl] says: afk bio. You are now AFK: bio. Unctuous points at you. Holiday based ...

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Neils Clark: February 2014

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Is probably playing videogames. instead of posting regularly. Vaguely remember dinner with Corvus Elrod, a smart indie game developer who sports a monocle and finely-waxed mustache. More than that, I remember him getting hit on by a muscular African American transvestite while waiting to be seated, outside the Taphouse Grill. 8220;Got any coins for Hot Chocolate? 8221; Asked the transvestite, referring to himself in the third person. After Corvus politely deferred, Hot Chocolate could not help but persist.

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Neils Clark: April 2014

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Is probably playing videogames. instead of posting regularly. Ot an hour after James, Jared and I said our goodbyes, I was back in Galaxies. It wasn't long before I had prime merchant real estate in Coro-Compton, and the loot one needs to become a Jedi. Once I’d gotten around to it, the esoteric mysteries were thoroughly uncovered, dissected, and loathed. The sacred path to Jedi. 8211; softly glowing blue boxes – revealed all but the last profession, where they offered the text,. I slowly surrendered har...

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Neils Clark: May 2014

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Is probably playing videogames. instead of posting regularly. He last thing I’d do in Galaxies. In fact, when I logged in for the last time – just before getting on a plane to grad school – the mind fire was still going. By conservative estimates, it’d be 28,678 Earth years before my fish could fully recover. Magni had been next in line for a duel. Phobius presented the lance. Magni took out a 200-foot-tall death monkey. As with my fish, three hits and Magni was down. The monkey? Happiness seems to be th...

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Neils Clark: Intro to Pt.5: Community

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Is probably playing videogames. instead of posting regularly. Intro to Pt.5: Community. There is a message contained in the true role-playing game. It is the message of the difficulty in surviving alone, and the folly of trying to profit from the loss of others. The inability of any lone individual to successfully cope with every challenge is evident in RPGs and reflects life.". 8216;Tis new to thee. Married on a Pirate Ship. Hands Off the Loot. Start at the Introduction. Back to Part 4: Manipulation.

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Neils Clark: Deprivation

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Is probably playing videogames. instead of posting regularly. Rather, satisfying all the needs on the pyramid gives a human permission to, according to Maslow, “just be.”. Block called problematic computer use a “Slow Bleed.” A subtle de-skilling that, left long enough, could be just as serious and severe as major depression, anxiety, eating disorders, really any major mental health issue. It may also help to not live with your parents. I say from much personal experience. Back to Chapter Introduction.

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Neils Clark: ‘Tis new to thee

http://neilsclark.blogspot.com/2015/07/tis-new-to-thee.html

Is probably playing videogames. instead of posting regularly. 8216;Tis new to thee. My first World of Warcraft. Wife and I had an unlikely meeting. Not far away, players smothered each other in blankets of ice and fire, or filled each other with arrows and bullets, or hit one another with axes and daggers and all sorts of Very Dangerous Things. We were supposed. To be killing each other. A few more odd bits of game humor with Bepbep – weird gestures, messing with the killers who came to kill me &#8...

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Neils Clark: Into to Pt4: Manipulation

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Is probably playing videogames. instead of posting regularly. Into to Pt4: Manipulation. Tim Rogers, Who Killed Videogames? Raiding, and Other Acts of God. Nilhouse Had a Daughter, Apparently. Start at the Introduction. Back to Part 3: Engagement. To Part 5: Community. 4/17/15) I've been less busy writing about games, and more making them. Prototyping them, anyway. I'd written out this big theoretical model for the game experience after In Play,. There's also a half-finished piece on Sunless Sea, about S...

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Neils Clark: Introduction: A Pickle

http://neilsclark.blogspot.com/2014/01/foreword.html

Is probably playing videogames. instead of posting regularly. Introduction to In Play. 8217;m driving through the creepy forests outside Redmond, WA, feeling that very particular anxiety of being lost for awhile. I left the paved arterial for (what I hoped) was the correct turn, and the cratered gravel road dumps me at a house that’s somehow too modern to be this far out. It was ReSTART, America’s first inpatient treatment program for “problematic” gamers and internet users. In 2009, the reSTART website ...

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Neils Clark: April 2015

http://neilsclark.blogspot.com/2015_04_01_archive.html

Is probably playing videogames. instead of posting regularly. Sometimes, games are the stories showing us who we want to be, and how to get there. They’re like any good book, song, or movie character in that respect. At other times, we get lost in the points and places and ponies. I think that it’s best explained by Abraham Maslow’s handy graphical pyramid chart of human needs. Players will raid endlessly for the small chances on very powerful items, or very adorable pets. Back to Chapter Introduction.