Matthew Ford’s Infernal Blog

I have finished and released a fiction project which is minor and experimental (aren’t they all?) but hey, it’s a release. See it at A Very Special Shutdown Notice. As I explain in the About page, my main goals are to popularize and explore the Simulation Argument and transhuman issues; to build an audience for my eventual game Pod Tycoon; and to drive some traffic so I can exercise my site in preparation for release of my first game. Please check it out and let me know what you think by leaving comments on the post at my company blog or the Google group mentioned on the project’s About page.

Once the site starts to show up reliably in search engines, I will make a push for a viral spread-the-word campaign. For now, don’t make any special efforts to spread the link around. Stay tuned for my request for you to do that soon!

Kat and I (and by extension, Dylan) became Australian citizens on Australia Day 2008, which is… come on, you know it! I know it! (In fact I took a citizenship qualification test which made me memorize it forever, along with the wattle and Phar Lap) …January 26th. (continued »)

I was getting too uptight about work. I had to remind myself recently that I came to Oz not in pursuit of superachievement, to work in the most perfect environment, or to fit into a perfect team. If I’d wanted to pursue those things I’d have stayed in the states. I came here to: learn about how to lead a game development team; make my mark on a company; and most importantly, to learn to mellow out a bit. All those things are still right here for me. I took this opportunity to move to Oz because the time was right for me and my family to go on this adventure. I came here to enjoy life the way Aussies do. I came here to internalize the attitude I saw when I worked in Sydney and which exists here in Brisbane too: that though work is important and we all want to do a good job, work is not everything. It’s not cool to get too uptight here. You aren’t measured entirely by the height of your achievement or profit. You don’t get anywhere by stressing out, by being bullish, by fighting the dominance game which is endemic to the US cities where I’ve worked. If there’s one thing I really want to learn by living and working here, it is to learn how to say: She’ll be right. Wish me luck.

I read an article in the Brisbane Courier-Mail about a crime victim group’s protest against the game Hitman, and decided to write my first letter to the editor here. I wrote:

Monday’s article “Hitman game strikes nerve for crime victims” struck a nerve with me, because I care about social ills and I make video games for a living here in Brisbane. I want to defend my industry and art, which employs hundreds of skilled people in Queensland. As a father, I and most in the video game business strongly support the use of game ratings, and Hitman’s “MA 15+” rating is the game maker’s strong assertion that it is not to be played lightly by the young. Parents should monitor game playing just like TV watching and web surfing. Crime victims naturally want to find a cause, and it is easy to blame entertainment as the cause of crime. Unfortunately the solution is more challenging than suppressing works of fiction. Politics and misinterpretations aside, no valid study has shown that violent video games cause violent behavior. Past panics about comic books, cowboy matinees, and pirate storybooks similarly proved unfounded. Lastly, I plead the case that video games should enjoy the same freedom of expression as any form of entertainment. Violent video games often explore and provoke thought about themes of violence, crime, and lawlessness– not merely glorify it for thrills. These games are recreation and not of huge social merit, but they also are not the cause of violence. Let’s focus on the real causes of crime and not divert ourselves by blaming the mirrors held up to society.