Vex Appeal is a weblog and collection of projects by Guy Parsons, a game designer, online community and digital strategy dude in London, England. Read more about the saucy butcher boy here.
subscribe to VA by feed or email by clicking the thingy:
projects:
law 37 / sleeper cell / lets change the game
101 things in 1001 days
psychopatch
LOLgod
elsewhere on the internets:
flickr
myspace
zoominfo
linkedin
facebook
guy.lewis.parsons@gmail.com
vexy young things:
jey biddulph
mike jewell
roo reynolds
dan hon
adrian hon
naomi alderman
steve peters
previously on vexappeal:
Back soon... Free Moshi Monsters Codes Spokeo... or spookeo, more like I'm Prove Very Where J.C Leyendecker and Team Fortress 2 Train of thought "Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin..." Links for FAME people They Tell Stories Ffffudging it slightly
Back soon...
Saturday, March 29, 2008
...but things will be a bit quiet here for a while.
Labels: epic fail
Free Moshi Monsters Codes
Friday, March 14, 2008
For the little person in your life, three free invite codes for Moshi Monsters, a game what I helped design back in the day...
- UXNW3F2ELRHJ
- J5PA7969G3Y3
- 0L28H4427YDF
Labels: mind candy, moshi monsters
Spokeo... or spookeo, more like
Friday, March 14, 2008
New service, friend info aggregator, Spokeo. Not really heard too much about it. Then this email arrives:
Pretty creepy. Dodgier still is the registration page, which rather than being a usual signer-upper takes you directly to the "share your email login/password with us!" thing, like so:
Ick, yuck and bleugh! Seriously, they have to be kidding.
Labels: aggregation, identity, privacy, spokeo, uncanny
I'm Prove Very Where
Friday, March 14, 2008
I love Improv Everywhere. For years, they've consistently created fantastic, clever, witty, exciting and inspiring scenes, from micro-dramas to flash mobs with hundreds of participants.
But suddenly, they've made this:
And it's just so flat, and stilted, and bizarrely off. I guess it doesn't help that they've introduced this slightly hammy voiceover to their videos. And that the crowd reaction is kind of lame. But still, it's plain weird. It does remind me a bit of the stuff they did for a TV pilot which also felt comparatively watered down. I know this is real armchair criticism, but the quality is usually so so high that it's just a startling break from the norm. I hope it's just a blip!
(On an separate note, they have created a Ning-based social network for people worldwide to create their own Improv Everywhere-style happenstances, which is how their Grand Central Freeze got replicated 34 times, including this great turnout in London.)
Labels: flash mobs, improv everywhere, shark jumping
J.C Leyendecker and Team Fortress 2
Friday, March 14, 2008
At FAME I talked a bit about drawing inspiration from new sources and one of the things I touched on was TF2's art originating from old school commercial illustration. Alas I couldn't find very good examples from trusty Google Image Search, but now (a day late) I've found Valve's slide deck about the design process (PDF), which is worth checking out. Although the second half gets crazy and algorithmic. Anyway, PICS - click to see full size.
Labels: design, games, team fortress 2
Train of thought
Thursday, March 13, 2008
So about three or four years ago, Alex and Matt and myself got this train back from a party. That was quite weird in itself, because the journey took about 50% less time than it should have with no obvious explanation why. Anyway, when we disembarked we saw one of these on the platform opposite:
(image from this site)
So basically it's a weird big black boxy thing with no passenger joiny-up-bit to the next carriage along with blinding white light streaming out from this thin seam that spilts it down the middle.
Basically, we stood there for ages going "whoa... what is it?" It looks a bit like a train engine from an alternate nuclear-powered reality:
"Nuclear powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within 10 years." -- Alex Lewyt in the New York Times, 1955Many times since then have we referenced in passing our vision of witnessing what no ordinary civillian ought to have laid eyes upon. Imagine my surprise when I got off the train the other day and saw it for an unprecedented second time. This time lots of other commuters noticed it too and as they walked past did a little back-and-forth shimmy as they reached the bit with the light coming out.
Anyway, this time I remembered what the code on the side said and it turned out that actually it's a thing you can drive along the track and it uses the light to sense how close other stuff (trees, the side of tunnels, etc) is to it. Then you can compare the data to the last time you did it and see if anything is getting within DANGER distance.
So, an enigma solved after three years, but I have to confess I'm a bit disappointed that it's not a government black-ops operation transporting volatile batches of Kryptonite across the country, bathed in the glow of Chekov Radiation.
Still, Alex and Matt seem pleased:
Labels: i am technically a trainspotter now, mystery, nuclear, train
"Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin..."
Thursday, March 13, 2008
"...but a bottle of gin is not like love," as The Magnetic Fields sang.
So, for the Song Chart group, I made this:
But then after a while it struck me that here both love and gin are equally dissimilar from one another, which doesn't seem in the spirit of the song, so I think this second attempt is more accurate:
Anyway, you can listen:
The Magnetic Fields: Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin (MP3, 1.7MB)
Labels: chart, graph, love is like a bottle of gin, magnetic fields, mp3, music
Links for FAME people
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Here is some of the stuff I talked about today:
Crysis Barrels, Toblo, making games in Excel, Gamasutra, Team Fortress 2's art, J.C Leyendecker, Portal and Narbacular Drop, Starry Night in Second Life, M.C Escher and Echochrome, Chorewars, 3001 from Come Out And Play, Audiosurf, 300 Game Mechanics (and other game design blogs), DEFCON, Desktop Tower Defense, Scrabulous (you know where to find it, son), Line Rider, Kingdom Of Loathing, Perplex City and Alternate Reality Games...
...and Sleeper Cell.
Heckle me virtually - my email is guy.lewis.parsons@gmail.com.
Labels: arg, fame, games, links, presentation
They Tell Stories
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Six To Start, the creative/interactive agency founded by Dan and Adrian have just released their first game-slash-thing: We Tell Stories, for Penguin Books.
Let us follow along and see what unfolds! Oh, you can win 1300 books too, which is pretty cool. I have to say, I do like the stuff that Penguin get involved with. I'm sure it'll horrify some ROI-focused beancounter somewhere, but there's a relaxed spirit of experimentation at play, in contrast with other brands that create the impression they're desperately chasing the next big thing. Without disparaging Jeremy's strategic brilliance, it's much more like "Get people to write a novel in wiki format? Yeah, why not eh? Whack something into Second Life? It'd be a shame not to!" And actually this goes beyond digital (and even their great blog) into loads of their stuff (I know it's technically marketing, but it feels more like stuff) , like the "design a cover" thing and their pretty embossed Great Ideas and the re-emergence of their classic livery or what have you. It's all done in quite a light, gleeful way. Well done Penguins.
PS: This is long to compensate for the fact that in an ideal world I'd have blogged about all these things individually.
Labels: arg, penguin, six to start, this is good
Ffffudging it slightly
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
I love Ffffound for the eye candy but it's really bad at guessing what stuff is similar to other stuff. For example:
Dan's Kitty THAT I WANNA PLAY WITH LITTLE KITTY MC'CATLINGTON!
You may also like this image:
...actually, on second thoughts, I do like this other image! Ffffanks very much, Ffffound!
Labels: ffffound, kitty, what the fuck have you done
On having a rank
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
I was just about to post that I had reached the giddy heights of #2 on Google for my own name, defeated only by the person that owns guyparsons.com. But now, mere hours since I last checked, I'm back down to 6th. Vex Appeal is, embarrassingly enough, beaten by an old profile from hackday and a bio from an event I spoke at months ago, although at least they're about me.
I am winning against guyparsons.com, though. Hell yes.
Actually I think I ought to have a chat with a few of the other Guy Parsonss in a Are You Dave Gorman?-stylee. I wonder what we should chat about, though - suggestions welcome.
PS: On a tangent to appearing in searches, it gives me a warm glow every time someone visits having searched for "it looks like you'are offline windows live messenger install" or similar, knowing they have found the cure to what ails 'em.
Labels: google, guy parsons, rank
Every time I look up at the everpresent office BBC News 24, I see a sad woman holding up a bunny. She is very pointed about it, as if the presence of the bunny speaks for itself. Look, look at the bunny. I don't think I need to explain to you gentlemen what you're seeing here.
I do not know the story behind the sadness, or the bunny.
[Also, this "storm" is pretty disappointing innit? It's basically dampness with attitude.]
Labels: 24 hour news, bunny, sad, storm
People will see me and cry
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Fame!
Which is the backronym of "Fashion, Arts, Media Eastmidlands" (points for effort), an event at De Montfort Uni on Wednesday, where I am speaking about games and specifically games outside the traditional developer->publisher->PC/console framework. And maybe I will get around to putting something online about it too.
Labels: games, presentation, work
Let's all go fly a kite
Sunday, March 09, 2008
BRING IT:
"gusts of wind up to 70mph, locally 80mph"
Labels: gale hale epic fail
One Word
Monday, March 03, 2008
It's quite clever how what I call
"clothes"
and
"make-up"
have turned themselves into
"fashion" (or "style")
and
"beauty."
The Sunday Times even has their TV listings as "Culture."
I reckon money ought to become "Wealth."
They could make the News Review a glossy A4 supplement and call it "Wit."
Maybe puzzles should have rebranded themselves "intellect."
Coffee could be "awakeness."
Conveniently, you too can adorn yourself with these adjectives for a very reasonable price! For a short time only, buy "bullshit" and get "eat it, sucker" free!
Garfield minus garfield
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Garfield comics with the stupid cat removed.
"an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life..."
Genius.
Bert says Ernie's bringing *heat* on him?
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Labels: bert, casino, comedy, ernie, mashup, video, youtube
Come change the game with us
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Woohoo! I'm proud to announce that the endlessly wonderful team I founded, Law 37, has won the Let's Change The Game competition with our proposal for a game codenamed Sleeper Cell.
We - by which I mean Mike, Juliette, Shane and myself - are really rather excited. Met up over the weekend, hosted by our generous benefactor Adrian, and got a bunch of plans made, although as tends to happen at this stage one ends up with more questions than answers - but it's nice to be (tentatively) dealing with the detail of the thing.
Anyway, the concept is really fun, and we're hoping to really push the boat out in terms of what's considered possible in the realm of grassroots ARG-making - insofar as our game can be considered an ARG, anyway! But to turn the dream into a reality, we need HALP. Wanna make something awesome? Read on:
We're a group of volunteers currently designing an ambitious web-based game to raise funds and awareness for cancer research. It's going to tie in storytelling, online communities, websites, real-world events and more, creating an unforgettable experience for thousands of people while supporting a profoundly important cause.
So, we need a bit of help! We can't offer you money, but we can offer you the camaraderie of our team, the experience of creating something awesome, the good karma of supporting CRUK's important work and suitably glowing testimonials.
Here are some of the folk we're especially looking for:
* PHP/MySQL developers - we're looking for people who have a reasonable amount of experience and can write good, clean, secure codeAlso if anybody reading knows any web/digital agencies who'd like to buff their portfolio with a lovely bit of pro bono work for some nice guys who'll let them go wild with a ton of creative freedom, to point them towards this post. Thanks all. ONWARDS!
* Design for web: designing our graphics and website, somebody who can create an eye-catching look and then implement it in HTML/CSS. Fancy UI skills (AJAX, Flash) even awesomer.
* Flash developers - opportunities to contribute to general UI and site stuff, and also create full mini-games
* Guerrilla film types: Someone with the equipment, shooting/editing chops and the visual imagination to create fantastic-looking viral video
* Productive generalists - working on a particular area of the game and making stuff happen, from arranging live events to building relationships with supportive companies
* All hands - people who can help out in the future with testing, community participation & player support, event support, and so on
* Creative people we haven't even thought of yet. This means you!
If you want to help make the magic happen (and we know you do!) email Guy at guy.lewis.parsons@gmail.com letting us know a bit about yourself - skills, experience, any stuff you've made, what you'd actually like to help with, where you're based - and we'll get back to you ASAP.
Labels: arg, cancer, law 37, let's change the game
Mixed business
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Some stuff I've meant to be blogging...
First. I'm working for a PR agency at the moment. It's good, and not just because of the office doggins, who is frankly adorable. Online stuff is all a bit new for them (and PR is likewise new for me) so we're making it up as we go along, in the best possible sense. I think the main difference is that most bloggers and social media types aren't sitting there at 2pm going "fuck, I have to file something in 45 minutes time" desperate for anything vaguely resembling a story. It's just a tougher sell, and rightly so.
Talking about journalistic desperation for a story, another office feature is the big widescreen TV permanently tuned to News 24. I think it makes us look up-to-the-minute when clients come in or something... anyway, you sense a deep and abiding longing for stories to Go Big. They spent a whole day filing reports from the North of England about how it was "almost flooding" and how "nervous" the populace was. And of course the Heathrow "crash" was reported on exclusively for 4 hours solid. You end up rooting for the reporters who are in turn rooting for something to burst into flames, go bankrupt or resign from the very highest levels of government. Something, anything, to not play the Amy Winehouse crack-smoking footage for the fifth time that hour. Charlie Brooker, as always, is damningly accurate on the topic of 24 Hour "News":
Warren Ellis, meanwhile, shows us that television is best not just ignored but destroyed completely.
Another side effect of the new PR gig is that I'm now the proud owner of all of the RSS feeds Anthony reads (for it's him I'm covering for, while he's in Brazil) imported into my Netvibes wholesale, so I'm reading a metric ton of new blogs. It turns out there's this whole sphere of ad /marketing people blogging very interestingly about all sorts of things, but ultimately every time I see the word "creative" used as a noun it makes me want to vomit blood out of my eye sockets. (As in "that's a great piece of creative" or "I'm a creative" or whatever.)
Onwards. Two great articles about the otherwise opaque world of financial trading have been doing the rounds recently: this quasi-walkthrough at the London Review of Books and an interview with a hedge fund manager at n+1, and although a bit dense in places is actually all the more interesting for it. There's something good about jargon. I always like to look over the bridge column in yer quality paper:
Borker (North) and Doub were using the weak no-trump, opening one no-trump with 12-14 points. So North had to start with one club. South used an inverted minor-suit raise, promising at least four clubs and game-invitational or stronger values... Now West entered the auction with a two-diamond overcall, leaving North unsure what to do. He contemplated doubling, but was not certain how it would have been interpreted by his partner.Absolutely no idea what's going on there, but it sounds great. It's like calling the final card in Texas Hold 'Em "the river" rather than, I don't know, "the final card." I played some poker with my mates the other day and cleaned up thanks to my erratic, n00bish betting that remained impervious to any reasonable analysis. Emboldened by this victory (and then reading all about kids younger than me making millions) I had a quick go online for play-money and found it to be the dullest gaming experience of my entire life. I had to go and play Team Fortress 2 for twelve hours straight just to take the bad taste away, seriously.
J.J Abrams (of Lost, Alias, Cloverfield... and Mission Impossible III)giving an entertaining talk on 'mystery' at T.E.D:
Now, I think this is interesting, because it helps explain the central failing of Lost, which is the lack of answers, or satisfying answers at least. Basically he's saying that speculating and wondering is such fun, why bother with actual answers? It's a bit like saying "being hungry for something to eat is a pleasure... so let's just never eat." The problem with Lost is it never committed to the idea of an unsolvable mystery, or a central Rorschach blot of a mystery which we could interpret as we'd like. (cf. the Blair Witch in the epynomous project, where it's clearly an intentional blank page for you to ascribe your worst fears to.) Instead it keeps the viewer hooked with the promise of finally finding out what's going on. So all told, I think Abrams' idea of a Mystery Box is more likely to crop up in specific, constrained instances (like film) to create a particular effect. He seems to think that "what happens next?" is itself a Mystery Box - I disagree. It's the difference between the box you open and the box you don't. Lost, of course, is a series of nested Matryoshka-doll style Mystery Boxes.
= = =
OK, I think I'm about done here for now. Oh, I think I'm moving to Oxford soon, so if you know
of any two-bed places or thereabouts going free in the next three months or so, give me a nudge. And in a week's time I'll let you know the outcome of the Let's Change The Game adventure!
Labels: 24 hour news, j.j abrams, jargon, lost, me, poker, PR, warren ellis
So So Modern
Thursday, January 24, 2008
I went to go and see So So Modern with a pal the t'uther day:
Really quite good boppy electro stuff, with loads of on-stage energy. Here's an MP3 for your enjoyment - it has that instant classic feel which makes me feel as if it's actually a thinly disguised version of a more famous tune, but is probably just an indicator of deep awesomeness.
So So Modern - The New Internationale
Oh, and a cover version for Krystyn:
Act Dead covering A-Ha: Take On Me
Labels: a-ha, act dead, music, so so modern, take on me, the new internationale