Gaming goddess Roz Clarke has posted an interview with me about my part in the first Homeworld game, and the relationship between gameplay and narrative. I don’t think I’ve ever gone on record regarding my experiences with Homeworld, beyond simply saying that it changed my life. But now the full story can be told.
It’s been ten years since Homeworld was released, and Uberjumper over at Relic News has a great thread to commemorate it. It’s tough for me to express how honored I am to have story concept and co-writing credits on the game; the comment thread is a moving testament to the game’s emotional impact. It certainly had an impact on me—my involvement in the game was all moonlighting while I was in Vancouver trying to escape the banal reality of my corporate job back in D.C., and in the wake of Homeworld, I had to wonder why I was stuck doing P&L spreadsheets while friends of mine were inking space-fleets for a living. In many ways, that was the motivation for what ultimately became Autumn Rain . . . and it seems like only yesterday me and Rob Cunningham were poring over spaceship drawings in his warehouse-loft over Hastings Street trying to figure out what the thread was that tied it all together while junkies howled and gibbered in the alley beneath us and we contemplated endless galactic suns.
Starting close to home: or rather, Homeworld. Which was the videogame I worked on back when the idea of writing a novel had yet to even occur to me. The folks at Relic News did a little sleuthing a couple weeks back and realized that I was the same guy who received co-writing and story concept credits on what went on to win PC Magazine’s Game of the Year for 1999; earlier this week, a more comprehensive article appeared in gaming blog The Big Download, in large part as a result of their efforts, I’m told. Thanks guys!
Moving into the news: the Louisiana Senate has passed a bill which essentially acts as a trojan horse for creationist teachings. (Thanks to the inimitable Pharyngula for the tip.) The thing that always boggles my mind about this kind of thing is that believing in Christianity doesn’t automatically entail believing that the Earth was created five thousand years ago. Nor does it mean that one has to subscribe to a world in which dinosaur bones are all part of some elaborate scheme to test our faith.
Because otherwise faith in the next world will inexorably undermine our position in this one. The New Scientist reported last week on the speech of Nobel laureate David Baltimore at the first World Science Festival, who commented on the damage that creationism is doing to the U.S.’s international scientific stature. There’s no doubt this fear is totally warranted; there’s also no doubt that this issue is very much THE issue in the culture wars now underway. Virtually everything else admits of compromise; this one does not. This is at the heart of what kind of nation we’re going to be in the 21st century.
‘Nuff said for now.
