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Topics - droqen

#242
Close reading / Generation Dread
June 22, 2022, 01:04:45 PM
regarding this book i found in the bookstore
#243
Tenets / dexterity tasks & monolithic puzzles
June 21, 2022, 07:27:01 PM
uurnog uurnlimited
la-mulana
#244
Close reading / Drowning Practice
June 20, 2022, 12:51:33 PM
Regarding Mike Meginnis'
"Drowning Practice"
#245
Primordial soup / Venues & Purpose
June 19, 2022, 06:02:27 PM
Venues, or platforms, activate creative work
#246
Close reading / Stop brainstorming
June 18, 2022, 02:35:16 PM
Regarding Matthew Ström's
"Stop brainstorming"
#247
uncategorized projects / The Meta-Manifesto
June 10, 2022, 10:12:14 AM
In the style of the Symphony in Acid official video, flicker between manifestos, keeping only the parts you like. Mix and match. Cut and paste. Find the diamond in the rough. Destroy the rest.

Quote from: https://rhmnc.itch.io/northhead-starhead-spearhead-manifesto9 ✦ be contemptuous towards all artists except those whose art you use

14 ✦ use other people's art as your own weapons
#248
I want to write a little thank-you note to everyone who supported me on Patreon. I ended it without much fanfare and I never quite felt like what I did lived up to the promise of Patreon? The idea of it?

In 2018 or 2019 or so, I was trying to figure out what to do with myself... Could I get '''support'''? What could that even mean? What kind of support was I missing?

On January 28, 2018, I tweeted:
Quote from: @droqenwas i driven to make games out of loneliness? then what will i do when i am no longer lonely?

On November 25, 2018, I started a private Discord server that as of this article's writing has 52 semi-inactive members. I remember I made it because of a conversation with [redacted friend], about an internal system used by [redacted company]... Everyone posted what they'd worked on that day, and everyone else had access to this daily feed. So I made an experimental server and there are a handful of people in there hanging out posting -- not usually every day, but often someone does make a post, and it's quiet but nice.

By May 3, 2019, I had started trying to put a Patreon together.

On June 7, 2019, I had created another Discord server for my patrons, for those people generous enough to see across the internet to me, asking for money in exchange for (what, exactly?) and saying "yes, I want to give droqen some cash every month." But I never felt comfortable with it, not really.

On December 8, 2020, I made another Discord server, Droqen's Paradise, which grew and grew of its own messy volition, until it no longer felt like a place that was "mine" as much as it was a place belonging to its inhabitants...

On October 14, 2021, I officially renamed it Paradise and not so long afterward Paradise Collab was born, which was cool.

All this time I was still wondering, what was I looking for??? What should I do with myself??? Did I want to be validated on Twitter, by patrons, on Discord by friends, on Discord by a larger group of peers? What was the Patreon for, if it was making me something like $100-150 / month?

This whole time I was making and printing droqen was here, about eight copies every month, truly a joy to produce. I (re?-)learned the value of making something for myself.

Right... I have to remember to keep the focus. Why did I even start writing this? I wanted to thank you.

I printed 31 issues of droqen was here, a reflective zine that built up my habit of note-taking and note-reflecting and note-distilling. And I would occasionally get a word back from someone, I'd hand a friend a zine in real life and we'd talk about it briefly, but I think because of the weird social dynamic of it I don't think I ever really talked with anyone who supported me on Patreon about the zines, except for those who I already knew in real life ahead of time. I didn't quite know what I wanted, but I know now that I was desperate to feel relevant (again), to revive that extremely visceral feeling of being noticed by the world like I had been when Starseed Pilgrim came out.

I made the dynamic weird, because I don't really like the idea of taking money for making art, least of all from those most willing to give it. I feel unsettled about taking money from the people generous and good enough to offer it to me, and giving... what, in return? I was making art because I wanted attention, and some people were giving me attention. And then, on top of that, some of them were giving me money.

The Patreon Discord, droqen's daydream, was a quiet place because I felt uncomfortable with myself for doing what I was doing. For creating this channel and profiting off of it, but not enough to be fully invested. It couldn't support me, and I wasn't appreciative enough, and I felt uncomfortable. Surely I should appreciate.
#249
Close reading / Designing For Problem Solvers
June 05, 2022, 08:31:05 PM
Regarding Zach Gage's
"Designing For Problem Solvers"
#250
Regarding Polygon's Jenna Stoeber's
Cheating in video games used to be fun
#251
Tenets / Anyone Could Have Made This
June 01, 2022, 07:30:40 AM
Something common between The Timeless Way of Building & The One-Straw Revolution is that they both exude the feeling that 'anyone can do this.' Of course, so do many self-help resources and scams -- they want to rope you in by making you believe that you too are capable of making $5000 a week from home.

But at the heart of TTWOB is this idea that architecture has made itself artificially inaccessible. The result is that people are alienated from their homes because they no longer feel that "I could have made this."

And TO-SR has a similar message: farmers are making what they do too complicated. This hurts the people alienated from the basically human act of farming, including (especially!) the farmers themselves.
#252
I previously left some notes about Deadgames and Alivegames here: http://newforum.droqen.com/index.php?topic=2.0

Our conversations at letterclub.games have started to gravitate towards The Timeless Way of Building, which uses the adjective alive, which dug this up out of memory...

How does Christopher Alexander use the word alive, and how does Melos Han-Tani use the word alive?
#253
Primordial soup / design fiction at ground level
May 28, 2022, 11:30:32 AM
I can write anything I want.

This is a problem in the field of game design.

It's hard, at a distance, to tell what is fiction and what is reality.

  • A team of four friends are going to get funding for and make a low-key MMORPG. This is their second game together, but they'll make it work, and the game will release and be successful - perhaps only modestly so, but enough that they can make a third game together.
  • An individual is going to make a game about mental limbo, but it won't tell you that, and it won't actually tell you damn near anything, but there will be a correct way to play and lots of things to uncover in directions you had not even thought to look. It will be wildly successful and beloved in some circles.
  • One person can make a 10-hour videogame.
  • One person can make a 100-hour videogame.
  • One person can make a 1000-hour videogame.
#254
Recipes & Ingredients / Chinese Tomato Soup [2]
May 26, 2022, 08:49:33 PM
2 whole tomato, chopped into chunks (2-bite size)
2 garlic, mince
2 green onion, chopped
separate green and white
the amount of bouillon stuff for 4 cup water
oil
sesame oil

fry garlic, white onion bite in oil for a bit, till it's sizzling?
add tomato
fry till it's like... red mush
water or foam comes out
then add bouillon + water
boil for a few mins
add white pepper if you want

you can all as much water as you want really, just long as bouillon scales to it

egg and green onion parts are for when you serve
#255
stairs, alleyways, and birds.
long shadows in a dead city.
beautiful playable systems.
#256
Close reading / The Only Unbreakable Law
May 22, 2022, 04:22:36 PM
Regarding the 'Molly Rocket' channel's
"The Only Unbreakable Law"
#257
Where my old blogs at? I just retired my wordpress site, and with it I've sorta lost access to a large number of old blog posts... I'll try to recover them but I'm not sure if I can.
#258
Close reading / The One-Straw Revolution
May 19, 2022, 07:30:34 AM
Regarding the New York Review of Books' English translation of
Masanobu Fukuoka's The One-Straw Revolution
#259
Primordial soup / Attention Seeking Technology
May 17, 2022, 09:16:22 PM
"Attention seeking behavior is to act in a way that is likely to elicit attention."

The article 'Look at me' summarizes several expert opinions into the basic idea that "people have been shown to need [..] attention that is positive and accurate." In this case I'd like to emphasize need. It's absolutely crucial.

brittanica.com describes technology as "the application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life," and in this case I'm identifying technology which is applied to the practical aim of acquiring attention that is positive and accurate, or as 'Look at me' calls it, 'belonging'.
#260
Close reading / Look at me
May 17, 2022, 08:31:49 PM