Dispatches

- Superstruct is entering its third week and there’s a lot to see and do, and some truly brilliant ideas – but so far players seem to be struggling to put ideas into motion. This week I’m focusing on creating missions and having people enact them in real life (for example, creating and displaying posters).

- I’m participating in both 24 Hour Comics Day (technically this took place last Saturday but I was out of town) and NaNoWriMo, both of which rely on generating a certain amount of content in a set time frame…not unlike a game mechanic, really. Is content over quality the writing equivalent of WoW level grinding?

- Just got Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I have been waiting it to arrive for WEEKS, painstakingly tracking the shipment, and am now more than ready to bust out the DS every night. I’ve been missing it ever since I finished Phantom Hourglass.

A time to work, a time to play

No time for gaming, lately, but I hope to return to a regular posting schedule some time this week. I’ve started a new job with shorter hours, and (my next big time investment) Superstruct launches on October 6.

I’ve been spending a lot of time preparing my back story and materials I’ll need as a Community Leader-type (not sure of my official title), although I’m not going to introduce it until the official game start – but lots of people have dug in deeply already. There are a handful of blogs listed here, many with some extremely in-depth content – check out this entry from Ark_Keeper, which talks about gaming ten years from now:

. . .Speaking of WoS, my guild decided to join up with many of the other guilds in supporting the ReDs relief. We’re trying to raise money in game for medicine, respirator systems, and other supplies for ReDs victims. We’re also trying to get Blizzard to match our donations, or give a percentage of the daily auction traffic to ReDs relief. With the strength of the WoS dollar, it would be a huge step to help all of those struggling to breath while we play games in comfort.

- and there are already over a thousand members of the Facebook group. It’s a little overwhelming to fathom, honestly, but that’s exactly why I’m taking time to plot out my story and blog content for the six week gaming period.

Another quick note – I’ll be using this blog to discuss the meta aspects of playing the game, helping the community, building superstructs and telling stories. But all of my “in-game” action – things taking place in 2019, commentary and links to other stories – will be at http://laura2019.wordpress.com.

The game hasn’t even started it’s already making me deal with incredibly detailed examinations of both my current life, and what I imagine and hope my life will be like ten years down the road. This is going to be an intense six weeks.

Gearing up for Superstruct

Over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’ll be doing for Superstruct, and it feels like everywhere I look there’s material to use and sources of inspiration. However, my activity so far has been resigned to merely researching and reading – so I am very inspired by the person in Birmingham, England who took the initiative to send a 2019 weather sample-collecting package to the Institute for the Future headquarters, as part of a continued project from 2008. I signed up for a kit myself and am looking forward to writing about it on my in-character/in-game/in-future blog. (Still need to figure out exactly how to refer to it, though.)

The Superstruct story doesn’t start until Sept 22 and the game itself begins on Oct 6, but now is a great time to start the motor running. Join us on the new Facebook group, where we’re discussing our futurefood entries and what we’re doing to prepare for the game, and to receive announcements and news throughout the game period.

And while you’re at it, there’s also this great article from Discover Magazine (Digg the story using this link):

“We want to ask questions where we have no idea of the range of outcomes,” McGonigal says. In Superstruct, the players will be presenting their ideas on how to cope with the crisis of 2019, and McGonigal hopes they’ll come up with solutions and outcomes that she never imagined. “That’s why the tagline for the game is ‘Invent the Future,’” she says. “Because the future doesn’t just happen, somebody makes it.”

I’m happy to announce…

…that I’ll be a Supporting Community Leader/Game Master for California-based non-profit Institute for the Future’s upcoming massively-multiplayer forecasting game, SuperStruct, a creation by futurist James Cascio and games creator Jane McGonigal.

By playing the game, you’ll help us chronicle the world of 2019–and imagine how we might solve the problems we’ll face. Because this is about more than just envisioning the future. It’s about making the future, inventing new ways to organize the human race and augment our collective human potential. Superstruct FAQ

I’m really looking forward to the solutions and structures that the players develop as a way to deal with these terrible events, and seeing what we’d need – not just as professionals who are paid to think about the future, but as normal people.

There’ll also be some great awards given out by a committee of celebs, including Heroes’ Tim Kring, Ze Frank, Chris DiBona and Warren Ellis.

The game launches in late September; visit http://www.superstructgame.org/ to sign up for more news and a reminder when the game begins.