141–150 of 167 posts
This is notable not just because of Neal Stephenson, but because his blog post contains what I think is the most detailed public description of the tech so far: --- Here’s where you’re probably expecting the sales pitch about how mind-blowingly awesome the demo was. But it’s a little more interesting than that. Yes, I saw something on that optical table I had never seen before--something that only Magic Leap, as far…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I loved The Diamond Age as well, although I remember mostly bits and pieces now: * cult sex scenes * a forced-participation theater that humiliates you using Occulus Rift-technology * the Kill Bill-esque ending * ... and, most of all, the idea of continous education using an immersive Minecraft-like book/world that expands in complexity as your education grows. Too bad we (the hackers) never completed even a crude ve…
Someone endowed of clue should get going with a kickstarter for at least a film version of TDA, if not a lot of what was described therein :) Damn, I'm going to have to read it again now. Still, it's about time for a refresh...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Clang just couldn't raise nearly the budget it needed... Neal Stephenson had a whole blog post about how it turns out that just because you're Neal Stephenson doesn't mean people will give you money to make a sword fighting video game.
I thought the entire point of Kickstarter was to absorb the failure-to-acquire-enough-funding risk? If Clang failed because of a lack of budget, then the failure was on the part of the project owners to set their funding threshold appropriately.
Of course that's on Stephenson, and he acknowledges it. He didn't understand the investment market. It probably wasn't a great plan in retrospect. But this seems like an odd place to complain when a risky investment doesn't pay off like you'd like.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Clang just couldn't raise nearly the budget it needed... Neal Stephenson had a whole blog post about how it turns out that just because you're Neal Stephenson doesn't mean people will give you money to make a sword fighting video game.
No. I don't agree with this at all. We had like 160k with kickstarter for Road Redemption and have made a game on early access that has sold enough to easily continue development. The problem 100% was that Neal Stephenson was incapable of doing the project himself and was just hiring devs to do it and then ran out of money. It was poorly managed because they had lots of traction and risked basically no capital on dev…
(Even if you are able to donate a year of developer time, valued in the six figures, which in fairness to your point is not something Stephenson brought to the table along with his relatively modest personal assets. Semi-famous authors aren't as rich as people think, either.)
I'm not saying I'm impressed with what they made, but I'm not too surprised either.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>just because you're Neal Stephenson doesn't mean people will give you money to make a sword fighting video game. Infact, that is specifically why I funded that kickstarter.
Did you receive any refund?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you not read 'The Diamond Age'? IMO it is one of his best works. Nanotech/Networks/Crypto for the masses to understand. I read, loved and was caught up in the VR fever of the 90's via Snow Crash, and love his other books, but TDA is the one I'll never get rid of.
I loved The Diamond Age as well, although I remember mostly bits and pieces now: * cult sex scenes * a forced-participation theater that humiliates you using Occulus Rift-technology * the Kill Bill-esque ending * ... and, most of all, the idea of continous education using an immersive Minecraft-like book/world that expands in complexity as your education grows. Too bad we (the hackers) never completed even a crude ve…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A sword fighting video game Stephenson kickstarted for $526k and failed to deliver anything playable on. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/260688528/clang
I happily kickstarted it, but I had no belief it would actually deliver. $500k is 5 software devs or artists for a year. That's not very much money for a 3D game.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
All are fantastic. I was put off by the beginning of Snow Crash initially, as there are some tongue-in-cheek bits that struck me as too campy. But I might not say that now, having read it a few times. The Baroque Cycle is a massive piece of work spanning 3 volumes, comprised of 8 nominally independent books. If it seems intimidating, just try the first one and see if you're not hooked. I'd love it if there was twice…
I'm reading Snow Crash at the moment for the first time. The beginning is actually really tough going as a completely new reader today. It's just so ridiculous. I can see where he was coming from, as I grew up in that era, but it's actually pretty bizarre now given the reality is nation states, religion and banks turned out to be so much more powerful than corporations. Which is one of the perils of predictions in ag…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8J5BWL8oJY
It starts off kinda weird, you gotta give it a few minutes.