Comments on: World of Jesus

By: Tim Carmody

Tim Carmody — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:34:25 +0000

Don't underestimate the Christian public's desire for blood and gore in the proper eschatological context. The Passion of the Christ did gangbusters business, despite 1) being horrifying and 2) it already being pretty clear that Mel Gibson was a sadistic, anti-Semitic douche. In a slightly related note, I didn't mention the two appearances of Mary in Scheme. Hu's first description and her eventual reappearance - the one character who crosses the threshold -- are, when I'm being honest with myself, my favorite parts of the book, in part because I never saw them coming. Robin tapped this poor lapsed Irish Catholic's soul.

By: Shaun

Shaun — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:39:01 +0000

I hope some game developer is reading this and taking your idea and running with it. The Sims meets Fable. Tim, you’re right, World of Jesus could be a huge hit, IF it could get past the initial religious overtones of it’s title. Although can you imagine the parents who buy it for their small child thinking it nice and wholesome only to discover their kid crucifying criminals and usurpers?

On a semi-related note, Dan mentioned Civ. A prof at MSU got a grant to create a Civ 4 mod of Ancient Egypt. It’s intended to be a teaching tool/experiment in learning from games. He’s anthro (anthropology of gaming) and telecom/game design prof. I’m hoping to get a copy of it for testing. ;)

Back to the topic at hand, that moment of discovery for Hu was one of my favorites. Think it was a toss-up between that and the climax scene of Jack coming in to battle the demon at Grail HQ. In both cases, the picture created in my mind was so vivid that my eyes started to water a bit from the bright sunlight and I found myself cowering a bit to hide from the raging battle. This discussion makes me want to read Scheme again and really analyze it, because until now, I’ve just enjoyed the story. :)

By: World of Jesus > Robin Sloan

World of Jesus > Robin Sloan — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:43:33 +0000

[…] bit from Tim over on the Snarkmarket, and the ensuing comment thread, is my favorite thing written […]

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:10:28 +0000

(This post & thread is the best thing that has been written about Annabel Scheme yet, anywhere. I totally love it, and I guess you can sign me up for “the death of the author” b/c there are things you’re seeing & drawing out here that I was not, myself, aware of — things that enrich & enliven the work for me as much as anybody else. Wow that’s really cool.)

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:08:46 +0000

Also, just to expand on this point -- in struggling with virtual reality, Hu is basically articulating the fundamental problem of literature. How can you experience the full physical, visual, emotional, kinetic universe in a system that's optimized for processing big batches of text? How can words make a world? At the same time, Hu *is* capable of this in a way that we -- and, most likely, other Grail servers, aren't. Hu is embodied, intelligent information, more like the ghost of Jack Zapp than Annabel, typing away at her keyboard and clicking her mouse. What's more, Hu's capable of communicating it. Early in Scheme, Hu says something like: I could just give you all the notes and recordings in my databases, but it wouldn't make any sense. Telling the story in a narrative is very nearly the same exercise as going into the virtual space of "World of Jesus": an indeterminate, intermediary point of contact where information and embodied experience can be transcoded into one another.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:36:49 +0000

I loved the idea of a game for the pious. The character that brings us into The World of Jesus would never play WoW or GTA or any sort of game we would normally think of as a video game. But playing a game as an act of piety is something really powerful. We already know people can be entertained by rote gameplay (any of the Facebook-based –villes) — what if your MMORPG was also your daily act of prayer (and sponsored by Trinity Broadcasting Network)?

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:31:43 +0000

That is a terrific bit of Scheme. Ah, Hu.

I have always enjoyed Civ for the feeling of being part of the myth of human development and plurality. I liked Animal Crossing because picking fruit was fun. It seems like World of Jesus would hit my sweet spot.

That story about the kid and GTA: wow. Now I want to play that too.

By: David

David — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:10:41 +0000

A hefty portion of Assassin’s Creed takes place in 12th century Jerusalem, though it’s definitely about how many people you can kill. It also features a virtual virtuality (within a memory!) storyline, but it’s mostly an unfortunate distraction from the engaging exploration of period Holy Land.