how.

If you've ever wondered how I write - or don't write - well, you can take a look at this. Upon reading this, my brain immediately wrote a short script for a four-page parody comic. Of course, I 'd read Alan Moore's parody of Daredevil less than a week before.

But still. This is the process. Merzbow vs. Daredevil: that's a good way of explaining cruftworld to people.

[Aside, to secretary]: Honey, can you get Jer or Troy or Moil or Rusty on the phone?

new age weekend.

Sigh. Cold weekend and I'm listening to serious amounts of satellite radio. This Spa station is like synth sandbox pads that rotate endlessly.

Cutedump.

Sorry, too many cute animals on my hard drive, gotta get rid of them...

Dreamsand.

Saw some lovely screenshots for Killzone 2 (PS3).

Most of these competitive-mindset FPShooters only have "Normal" as their easiest setting. I wish there was an Easy and Easiest.

Plus I don't own a PS3 but hey, I never thought I'd buy a PSP either.

Astro Fighter Sunred is the best thing on TV.

The series really hit its peak with Ep. 7, but I just saw Ep. 8 and it was really good too. Check it out here - http://a.scarywater.net/anbu/

Why is it sandboxed tv? Well, the plots don't seem to follow any particular ... uh ... no that's not it. Well, maybe sandboxing doesn't apply but I sure am watching this show and now you know that.

crufthuang; i cavrenman ERRORDATTA!!!!%$&!

The "R" button on my PSP doesn't work and I can't get my Sim to cook a fish. It's inaccessible and the buttons cannot be reassigned.

So I offer you this image. Anon's not wrong.

Sandboxing: The Sims 2 / Castaway (PSP)

I had intended to start with a classic sandbox like AOE1. But in my recent downloading, I got my hands on one of the few sim games for PSP. I've just played it for an hour so far, but it is closer than I've gotten on the PSP so far.

I chose not to send a party to the island, but instead to live out my personal abandonment fantasies and send a single Ranger (odd occupation) who looks like one of the Flight of the Conchords dudes. The tutorial seems to be mostly over but i am collecting driftwood and eating coconuts and to be honest if I can subsist at this level I swear I'll become a master of coconut powergrinding.

Plus, though the three dee model isnt flawless, there are no enemies to fight so my incompetence does not impede. And it looks good enough for me, so far, honestly.

i am a caveman: 02.

You completed another quest!
Return the North Korean Propaganda Poster to That Guy - Level 2
It is his poster after all. You've forgotten it too many times.
Culture +4 ~ ~ SKILL UP!!!
Furniture -1
Bulkiness +1
Friendliness +0

i am a caveman: 01.

sometimes.... well, all the time, I like to LARP as a low-level rogue caveman/dwarf (neutral evil) living in a futuristic world he never made. For example, today I found a magical coat that was given to me 10 months ago, when it wasnt cold. It would never occur to me to buy a coat but I tried this one on and its warm and the caveman fights off the elements for another day.

You found a new item!
Warm Cowichan Coat +2
This coat doesn't look too good but it is clean and brown and itchy if you only wear a t-shirt underneath.
Culture +2
AC +2
Agility -1
Charisma -0

it takes many forms.

This comic actually addresses a kind of sandboxing.

(I didn't mention this yet, but I am reading all of human culture out of order, and I tend to quote things people know rather than things they don't. )

What's sandboxing?

Well, the traditional conception of gaming seems to have gone like this:

The gaming console will be a machine placed in a public location that charges about 25 cents per play. The difficulty of the software will be optimized to induce the player to continually insert quarters; that means making the game not so easy that it can be finished on a couple of quarters, but not so hard that a player will give up after a few bucks.

Gaming seems to me to have been influenced by this to an unrecognized amount. I offer a different way of approaching gaming - sandboxing.

I assume that the player already owns the console, and will be running it while simultaneously doing something else - surfing the web, watching DVDs, playing another game, etc. I am interested in games that don't require the full attention of the player, in which the player cannot lose or is very unlikely to. Sandboxing, as a name, refers to the 'sandbox' setting on RTS PC games like Rise of Nations, where one may play without an enemy, with no realizable ending. An associated worry of software coding was that a program would run endlessly, without any conclusion, until the player decides to "give up" (although no enemy exists).

Sandboxing made little sense in boardgames; imagine a game of chess where you and your friend each have only a king, and every day you play the game, the kings having discussions among themselves, while their exterior appearance is modified by the user, not for points but just for aesthetic purposes.... such a game sounds ridiculous, but in sandbox-setting computer games that's essentially what happens.

This blog will address my attempts to 'sandbox' games on a Vista PC, a cracked PSP, a Gameboy Advance Micro and a Gameboy Color - the four consoles I currently own. (Hopefully I'll get a cracked Wii soon, too.)

Few of the games I will review are intended as sandbox games, but I'll try my best.

What's cruft image capture?

It's a scrolling slideshow of various game-related images.... grabbed while I was sandboxing, actually. It will change regularly; keep watching. Plus there'll be scifi stuff, forum images.... whatever ends up in my screenshot machine.

cruftstatement.

Just want to jot down various musings on 'sandboxing,' my unconventional approach to videogame playing. That's the main reason for this blog. But I will upload various images that I have archived and will also discuss my cruftworld project as it relates to zines, music, etc.