So, in other news, I’ve heard that some people are rather upset about the economy. There’s really nothing new about this, of course, but I understand how folks can get a little panicky when a bunch of their money goes up in smoke.
As you might notice, I’m experimenting with placing ads on newstalk. I have this hazy idea that it would be nice for my sites to pay for their own hosting (~$15 a month, currently), with the idea of eventually upgrading to a more featureful account and making some improvements in the way I currently run things.
I also have a couple of articles in the archives that have proved strangely popular, with a decent PageRank on Google and once-lively comment sections. I’m hoping that some of the contextual ads might actually prove to be helpful to the unique visitors that I get to these targeted pages.
My goal in all this is to maintain a tasteful, readable site. I’d hate to annoy you, my loyal readers. If you find a particular ad placement annoying or distracting to the eye as you read, please let me know on the feedback form, and I’ll see if I can’t improve things. Like I said, this is an experiment, and I make no guarantees that the ads will go or stay.
This is a part of "Free Sky".
Perhaps it will help to describe the throughline of Free Sky, as experienced by the player. This is an attempt at a “user story”, describing a specific play-through.
This is a part of "Free Sky".
The goal of Free Sky is to provide the player with the experience of a structured, dynamic, episodic narrative about the player character, his allies and his enemies, in the context of a gritty science fiction interplanetary trade simulation.
By a structured narrative, I mean a coherent plot with a central conflict and several secondary conflicts, producing the familiar pattern of rising action, climax, and resolution.
By dynamic narrative, I mean a story constructed procedurally from the interaction of the player, NPCs, items, environment, and prefabricated components.
By episodic narrative, I mean a story arc composed of serial adventures, each with a self-contained central conflict and resolution, spanned by secondary conflicts between recurring characters.
By gritty science fiction, I mean people living, but not often bathing, in space-ships made of banged-up metal.
By interplanetary trade simulation, I mean buy low, sell high, and keep your wits about you, because someone, somewhere is working very hard to cheat you. Between this and the characters, there should be plenty of opportunities for conflict.
This is a part of "Free Sky".
The most important design principle that Free Sky must fulfill comes from the inestimable Chris Crawford:
People, not things.
None
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
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