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Chris
Outsider philosopher, game designer and author
Recent Activity
Hi Daniel,
We have, of course, already spoken via another venue, but I thought I'd reply to this to once again express my admiration for the line of approach "I'm a real person, not a bot", which tickles me! It's also poor that it's taken me a month to spot this comment, but then, this particular corner of the internet is clearly entering its twilight years...
Chris.
Wikipedia in Exile: Chris Bateman
From 2006 to 2016, Chris Bateman was deemed 'Notable' by the Wikipedia on account of his work as a professional game designer, and a page was maintained about him. In 2016, nine days after announcing his book Wikipedia Knows Nothing, a Wikipedia Czar called a tribunal that resulted in the deleti...
The Minds of Squirrels
Posted Nov 15, 2023 at Only a Game
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Origins of Ghost Master, Part Three
Posted Oct 27, 2023 at ihobo
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Hey Njordy!
It wasn't, I knew of this game but never played it. As I've discussed in Origins of Ghost Master, Part One, the main influence on the gameplay was more from Pokémon, and the haunting aspect came more from films than from games.
Thanks for asking!
Chris.
Ghost Master - Worth Waiting For
Having debuted at this years E3, Ghost Master (designed, level designed and scripted by International Hobo Ltd) attracted some extremely positive press from this years ECTS. Trusted industry newspaper MCV reported "journalists are now tipping it to be a surprise Christmas hit" and one critic de...
ihobo at Gamescom 2023
Posted Jul 31, 2023 at ihobo
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Ten Player Motives
Posted Jul 31, 2023 at ihobo
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It is quite remarkable that this piece didn't age - I could have been eating my words soon afterwards! Thanks for stopping by, Kermond!
Games Are Not Shoes
Earlier this week, Nicholas Lovell argued that the consequence of Steam allowing developers to set their own pricing will be the price of PC games heading for zero, as free-to-play economics effectively vanquish the opposition through market competition. His argument draws against classical ec...
How The Left Stopped Thinking
Posted Jul 20, 2023 at Only a Game
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Aesthetic
Posted Jul 19, 2023 at ihobo
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Agency
Posted Jul 12, 2023 at ihobo
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Thanks for your supportive comment, Don! I truly appreciate it.
Were You Born This Way?
Can you be 'born Christian'? 'Born gay'? 'Born trans'? This is a perilous question to ask, because frankly everyone reading will already have an answer to these questions. What's more, the more certain you are about how to resolve these questions, the angrier you will get when you confront thos...
Narrative
Posted Jul 5, 2023 at ihobo
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Eighteen Today
Posted Jul 1, 2023 at Only a Game
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Were You Born This Way?
Posted Jun 22, 2023 at Only a Game
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Social
Posted Jun 21, 2023 at ihobo
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Park Beyond Out Now!
Posted Jun 20, 2023 at ihobo
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Thanks Ian! It is indeed a beautiful view here, with the only disappointment being the light pollution from nearby Nashville. But frankly, compared to the light pollution from living in Manchester, it would be churlish for me to complain!
I Am A Farmer Now
Dear Players of the Game, I have now completed my fifth international move, restoring the circumstances for the name of my company back at that very first move. I am not so much the 'International Hobo' these days, though, it is more of a 'rags to riches' tale than I expected. As I always said,...
PPS: I just reached this part of the book with my boys (my youngest hadn't read it with me before) and I now have much more sympathy with your position! I was thinking off the event I mention above, the attack on the secret door, but of course there is an encounter with Smaug - admittedly at long distance! - earlier in the same chapter, when they run and hide in the secret passageway. So I now think there is a case to be made for the dwarves 'encountering' the dragon, albeit never in close quarters - and certainly never in a fight with the Worm!
Thanks for the opportunity to explore this issue!
Chris.
Fifty Differences Between The Desolation of Smaug and Tolkien's Work
Caution: contains indescribably massive spoilers for both The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and the book, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again - don't say I didn't warn you! The second of Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations of The Hobbit is in the cinemas now, but is it a faithful adaptation o...
I Am A Farmer Now
Posted Jun 15, 2023 at Only a Game
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Hey Will,
This one is a technicality - it's true that Smaug tries to attack them, but the dwarves do not see the dragon as they are on the other side of the secret door. The implication as I read it is that if they had directly encountered Smaug, they'd have been toast. So I guess this comes to the definition of 'encounter', doesn't it! Does having a dragon smash its body against a mountain you are inside really count as an encounter...? Perhaps I could have added the qualifier 'directly' as in 'the dwarves don't directly encounter the dragon'! 🤣
Thanks for commenting!
Chris.
PS: From the end of Chapter 12, Inside Information:
Darkness grew deeper and he grew ever more uneasy. "Shut the door!" he begged them. "I fear that dragon in my marrow. I like this silence far less than the uproar of last night. Shut the door before it is too late!" Something in his voice gave the dwarves an uncomfortable feeling. Slowly Thorin shook off his dreams and getting up he kicked away the stone that wedged the door. Then they thrust upon it, and it closed with a snap and a clang. No trace of a keyhole was there left on the inside. They were shut in the Mountain!
And not a moment too soon. They had hardly gone any distance down the tunnel when a blow smote the side of the Mountain like the crash of battering-rams made of forest oaks and swung by giants. The rock boomed, the walls cracked and stones fell from the roof on their heads. What would have happened if the door had still been open I don't like to think.
Fifty Differences Between The Desolation of Smaug and Tolkien's Work
Caution: contains indescribably massive spoilers for both The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and the book, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again - don't say I didn't warn you! The second of Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations of The Hobbit is in the cinemas now, but is it a faithful adaptation o...
Horror
Posted Jun 14, 2023 at ihobo
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An odd idea... I can't imagine saying 'white bread will win', and that seems to be a parallel kind of claim. If we insist on seeing matters as a fight between communism and capitalism, the one certain thing is that economics will win.
Chris.
The Last Citizens
The Last Citizens may already have been born. The ideals that made it possible to be democratic citizens of a nation protected by international human rights have become so corrupted, and indeed purposefully distorted, that it is far from clear that anyone is still a citizen in the sense that c...
This is a brilliant commentary, E - I quite agree. As I put it in Chaos Ethics, 'we are all nomads now'. I'm not sure this is a 'peculiar misfortune', however, so much as the inevitable trajectory of 'technology' such as it is.
Many thanks for your thoughtful comment!
Chris.
An Abundance of Useful Idiots
May contain traces of snark. The accusation that someone is a 'useful idiot' is one we deploy against our political opponents. As a result, we miss all the ways that we ourselves are the most useful of idiots - because in seeing stupidity always in others and never in ourselves, we are easily...
Curiosity
Posted May 31, 2023 at ihobo
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Origins of Ghost Master, Part Two
Posted May 23, 2023 at ihobo
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