I'd really like to hear more about your visit to Vancouver. I've been yearning to go there ever since I started watching Smallville. I know you watch that show, did it factor into your decision at all? It seems like such a beautiful area. Any Kristin Kreuk sightings?

Unfortunately...no. A shame, really.

I only spent about five or six hours in Vancouver on Saturday -- not nearly enough, by any measure -- before driving back across the border. And while I'm aware that a lot of TV shows have been shot around Vancouver, including Smallville and The X-Files, my main reason for going there was simply to visit Canada and to see the city. I'd heard great things about it. They were all true.

I'll post some more pictures of Vancouver another day (from my snazzy new camera!), but I can heartily recommend the trip, and I intend to go back soon and hopefully see more than just the city. The surrounding scenery looks mighty inviting.  ¶ 10:42   

  A big "Happy Thanksgiving" to all you Americanese out there! Enjoy the turkey and cranberry sauce, guys. Tomorrow, the US shopping season begins in earnest. Ah, malls...what better way to celebrate the holiday than to spend a lot of money? There ain't no better way, I tells ya.

Had my last Spanish class today. Am I fluent now? No. No, I'm not. Let's not even get into that. I'm starting the next course around February of next year, I think. We'll see if that helps.

I got myself a new camera while I was in the US of A; a Canon PowerShot S40 digital camera, with a (ooh! aah!) four megapixel CCD, and a 256 megabyte memory card. What this means is that I can take lots and lots of high-resolution pictures, and rarely run out of space. Wheee! Here's a picture I took whilst visiting Vancouver (a beauuutiful city, by the way; well worth a visit if you're ever in that neighbourhood):



This picture has been massively scaled down from its original size, of course, but trust me when I say that the image quality is astounding. I'm very happy with the camera. It gets two thumbs up from Ragnar.  ¶ 23:55   

  I just checked out this thread on The Divide forums, and it appears that I'm supposed to have received an e-mail.

Uh, nope. Sorry. I just checked, and I never got that e-mail.

I tried to post a comment in the thread, but it didn't let me, so I'm posting it here:

Send me that e-mail again, guys, if you expect an answer! It's pretty hard to answer something I haven't received. Great site, by the way, and fun to see such an active community for a game that's getting on a bit. Keep up the excellent work!

The Longest Journey is actually still doing really well in retail, two years after being released in North America (and three years after its initial release in Europe). The new box, labelled "Adventure Game of the Year Edition", is small, cute, and available in most stores across the US. Which is nice. Wheee.

I read in your journal that you were going to submit a proposal for TLJ2. I already sent you a letter asking about the interface but it looks like you don't want to answer that, probbably because I'm not going to like it but could you please tell me if the proposal was accepted? i don't want to know anything about the story, gameplay, or anything else you can't talk about, just if it's in production or not.

Um, I must have forgotten to answer that e-mail, David. I get a lot of mail, and a lot of it is left unanswered, unfortunately. I'd love to answer each and every one, but I don't have the time. I usually prioritise the ones that I feel are interesting to all my readers, and then post my replies here. But I'll scroll back through my inbox and take a look at it again!

As for TLJ2, I can't say much, but I'm pretty confident it will happen. Not right away, but soonish. The proposal was written simply to have something on paper. I know where the story's going, and I have a good idea of what the gameplay will be like, but there's tons of work left to do with the concept, not to mention the actual design. I'm not currently working on TLJ2, nor is anyone else, but there's serious discussions right now about how to proceed with the sequel, and when. I'll keep y'all updated...when I can.  ¶ 18:08   

  Back in Norway. Back to snow, cold weather, and work.

I'm wiped out. Jet-lagged, haven't slept much in the past few days, and there's tons of stuff to do. Christmas vacation is looking sweeter by the day. Just another few weeks to go, and then three whole weeks of bliss...and work. Private stuff, not work work.

Not that work isn't good. It is. I can't say much about it, but I'm having fun. It's just good to get a break and do something different. Clear the mind.

I read on your journal that you aren’t involved with the storyline of AO anymore. What happened? Why does it seem like the entire game is being run by a different group of people than who worked on it originally. Like for instance whatever happened to Tommy Strand? (I believe that was his name)

People move on, and that's usually a Good Thing. Change is important. Fresh blood, new initiatives, new teams -- AO will continue to thrive. Besides, the game's still run by its original game director, Gaute Godager, so there's a large degree of consistency. Tommy Strand, AO's ex-producer, is actually sitting in the same office as me. As for what he's working on, I can't tell you. But he's very much involved.  ¶ 15:11   

  Most of the e-mail I've received since last week -- as well as the e-mail sent to me until next Monday or Tuesday -- will remain unread until I'm back from the US of A, I'm afraid. I've had waaay too much to do (I'm totally exhausted; good thing I don't have to get up at 4 AM to catch a plane to Amsterdam, and then spend 10+ hours in a cramped seat-- oh, wait...), and personal stuff -- including this site -- is temporarily put on hold.

Exhausted. Yeah. Truth be told, I'm really not looking forward to a long trip right now. If I could stay a week in my apartment, just sleep, eat, write, and watch movies, I'd be a Happy Boy. Well, that's what Christmas vacation's for, especially the 'writing' bit. That's happening real soon. Can't wait.

Played around a bit with the new Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets game for the Xbox the past few days, and it's not as much fun as it could -- should -- have been. It's all right. It's fun, albeit a bit too kiddish (much more so than the book, and, I presume, the movie) for my refined, adult taste (pft!). It got some really good reviews, so I was expecting a lot more, especially the exploring Hogwarts bits. The school just doesn't feel...real. And even though it isn't (real, that is), it should feel real. That's the key to great storytelling, be it for games, novels, TV, or movies. That's the appeal of the Potter novels: that the world feels real, solid, populated, logical, and complete. The game doesn't. Hogwarts feels like a set. It feels fake. It feels like a collection of walls and doors and paths that don't really lead anywhere, except to a series of "authorised" locations. You can't explore it like a real place. And the students and faculty populating the school feel like robots. They don't say much. They don't do anything.

Maybe I expect too much, but that's what I want from a Harry Potter game. That's what I would have tried to do with the game. Not that the developers have done a bad job: Like I said, the game's pretty good. But it's nowhere near great, and it should have been, given the setting, the characters, and the story.

Right. Sleep soon, then travel. I probably won't be able to post anything until next Monday, so...sayonara!  ¶ 22:39   

  From Kyall:

2% hits Aussie,,, I think not, ;D

Maybe 1.98%

You may or may not know but Aussie and New Zealand have a friendly war against each other that has been going on for many more years than I have been around, And I'd jsut like to say that I stop by your site about 4 times a week to check out whats happening in your part of the world, and I'm studying in Aussie, but I'm from NZ, and I feel like I have betrayed my counrty because my hits have counted as Aussie and this is jsut not fair ;(

Looks like that friendly war is about to heat up. From David:

2% of hits from Australia.

And I make up most, if not all of the hits from Australia. I visit your site at least once a day. And by the way Ragnar, if I were you I wouldn't make those Vikings angry. Hurry up and make TLJ2 or I will catch the 1st plane over there and help the Vikings to rip you apart limb from limb.

We appear to get a lot of visitors from Down Under -- Australia and New Zealand both -- so we'll call it a tie! And while I don't play favourites, and I'd love to visit Australia some day soon, they did shoot The Lord of the Rings in New Zealand, and that's scored them some extra points in my book. Preferably, I'd spend a month down there, and visit both countries. I just need time...and money. Money would be good.

Still really, really sad about that doggie who waited twelve, long years on the pavement outside the pizzeria for his owner to return... *Sob*  ¶ 11:30   

  Would you believe that one of the saddest stories I've seen in a great long while was an episode of the animated show Futurama?

Well, it's the truth. The latest episode, Jurassic Bark, was a nicely crafted, melancholy story about the eternal love of a dog, and despite the laughs (of which there were plenty, as usual), it had the most depressing ending you could possibly imagine...in a good way, that is. Really, truly, awfully sad. Old Yeller sad. Really heart-wrenching.

And for some reason it hit me particularly hard, in a moist hankie sort of way, because it's Futurama -- it's supposed to be light and funny, dammit! -- and because sad stories about animals always, always, always get me. Just like everyone else, I have my share of sad pet stories. My first and only dog died only months after I left to study in America, and was buried under a tree in my parents' garden. She was really beautiful, and really loyal, and I always felt guilty for leaving her. And my previous cat Smelly (he wasn't; that was just his name) got run over by a car one Saturday night. I found him by the side of the road the next morning, after I'd called his name a number of times. I just knew that something had happened to him. It was the strangest, most awful feeling in the world.

So I guess that's why. More to the point, I'm an extremely melancholy person, and when stories describe loss and loyalty and an enduring, eternal sadness...well, there's nothing better and nothing worse. I empathise. Loss is very personal to me. My own stories are like that. My best stories are about losing someone or something, about sacrifice, about abandoning everything for what's right or true or necessary, and about being left behind or about leaving other people behind. Because that's life, in all its beauty and all its sorrow, and it's something that we humans have to go through and endure. Loss is the only certainty. For that reason alone we should learn to take better care of each other when we're here.

*Sniff*

I guess I've gone all soft after watching that episode. It was really, really good, though, and if you're not too afraid of feeling a bit melancholy yourself (you shouldn't; it's important to feel that way once in a while), check it out if you get the chance.  ¶ 21:53   

  Check out the best review of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City I've read so far. It's spot on:

It's fun to kill guys wearing acid-wash and Members Only jackets!

Busy now. Back later, maybe.  ¶ 18:36   

  Howdy.

Sunday. It's been a warm weekend, which, combined with lots of snow, means it's a big wet mess outside. Melted snow equals awfulness. Me hopes it's all gone soon; more cool, crisp, dry days would be perfect. Of course, I'm leaving the country on Wednesday, so no worries -- but I'd love to come back to a Norway all dried up.

Left my cat with my parents today, and that always sucks. Not that my parents won't take good care of her, but it's always a bit emptier in the apartment without her. Yup, I'm a big softie (in a manly way, of course). I live alone, so I love company any way I can get it, and the cat's pretty good company most of the time. Besides, she's pretty lost without me, I think. She doesn't exactly have a large circle of friends.

Watched the latest episode of Buffy on Friday, and boy-oh-boy, I like where this is going. It was a tensely plotted and extremely well-written (when isn't it?) episode. The conversation between Buffy and her would-be slay -- the psych-student vampire -- was a stroke of genius; a perfect example of how the writers blend fantasy and real life in an engaging and original way. But most importantly, we're getting some terrifying glimpses of this season's Big Bad -- the morphing thingy -- and this ain't no "Nerds of Doom" (from last season; back again in this episode, actually). In fact, this seventh (and possibly) last season of Buffy may be up there with the best of 'em. I look forward to the next episode.

One last thing: Anyone out there live in Seattle or is familiar with the city at all? I'll be spending the weekend, and it'd be nice to know where to go, where to eat, watch movies, shop, sightsee, and generally, uh, hang out on a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Any and all tips would be much appreciated!  ¶ 20:02   

  Ow. Headachy tonight. Better now, after eating, but still: Ow.

It's been one of those Saturdays where a) Time passes unreasonably quickly, and b) I've done nothing, nothing whatsoever. Yeah, all right, I've spent a couple of hours playing around with -- but not playing -- Vice City (it's one of those games you can play without actually playing; just drive around, listen to 80s music, and, uh, cause a bit of mayhem. Hey, it's better than causing mayhem out in the real world! I need to vent too sometimes, you know). I've watched a movie -- Eight Legged Freaks; stupid but fun, in a lazy Saturday afternoon kind of way, but no great shakes -- and I've...uh, no, that's it.

That's it.

There were plans of sorts, but the tired got me, and the lazy too, and so I've ended up here on my bed with the laptop and the cat. Weekends are supposed to be for the non-work work; the private projects, lots of writing, lots of thinking. Lately though, it's been more about sleeping. I so need a vacation. Funny thing is, I have 20 holiday days left this year, but no time to spend it. Funny. Not ha-ha funny, but still...  ¶ 22:05   

  I declare this day to be Faroe Islands day (on my website, at least; I'll have a hard time convincing the nations of the world -- aside from the Faroe Islands, of course -- to play along). From Jon:

I hereby raise my hand!

I infact know very well where the Faroe Islands are! They are all around me, surrounding me every day, everywhere I walk, everything I do, I live, breathe and sleep the Faroe Islands!

No, random silliness aside, I live in the Faroe Islands, and I have been visiting your site, for, oh, the last year or so. In all likelihood, all the 40 hits from the Faroe Islands are from me! YES ME!!!! MUHAHAHAHAH!!!! Whoops, megalomania intruding... must back down.... ahh... better...

An interesting tidbit of history. The Faroe Islands were once part of the Norwegian kingdom, and were in fact colonized by norsemen in the eight century (or so).

So watch out - we are a bunch of grumpy vikings, who do not take well to snide remarks about the relative insignifance of our beloved country made on webpages written by gamedesigners, who don't even have the dignity to release the sequel to TLJ, and thus fulfulling the dreams of said vikings :o)

Thanks, Jon. There were no snide remarks, just so you know. I just happen to be reasonably certain that most people wouldn't be able to point out the Faroe Islands on a map of the world. And that says more about people than it does about the Faroe Islands, because it really is something everybody ought to know.

I'm not trying to be funny. I'm really not.  ¶ 10:41   

  All right, so today I was pissed. Not British pissed. Not drunk. 'Pissed' as in "pissed off". In a pissy mood. Angered. Cheesed.

I won't get into why I was so bloody angry, because you never know who reads this frikkin' journal. The FBI, the CIA, Playboy Bunnies, mates, family, the Vatican...hey, you never know. Besides, it's not particularly interesting. Just frustrating. And absolutely, totally unnecessary. But I guess I'm generally in a pissy mood these days -- months, whatever.

Let's leave that be, then, all right? All right.

Interesting factoids about this site:

- 2% of all visits are from Australia.
- We have 40 hits from the Faroe Islands. Raise your hand if you know where the Faroe Islands are.
- There's a single hit from both Belize and the Seychelles.
- There have been 16 searches for "sophocles crack" on my site -- sorry mate, you'll find no fishy stuff here.
- There have been 2 searches for "sex interaction hints in sims hot". I mean, come on! How pathetic can you be? And what's that got to do with me, anyway?

Bed now.  ¶ 23:39   

  I read your book quite some time ago and wonder when the next volume will be published...

Please say that there is one scheduled... Sniff... Would be a pity if it stays without the next part.

Unfortunately, there will not be a second volume.

I'm no longer involved with the Anarchy Online story, and since it's being written and run by other people, I think it's safe to assume that the story will change and grow into something different and new (and hopefully better). While the Big Picture -- the rules of the universe, the conflict, the history, past events, and so on -- will remain the same, the Future will probably not.

If there's enough popular demand a few years from now, I might publish my notes for the second and third volumes in the proposed series. Can't do anything before then, because then I'd spoil all the surprises. And I'd hate to do that. I'm not a spoiler, me. Totally against spoils.

Sorry for the bad news. I did enjoy writing volume one, and it won't be my last novel. I can guarantee you that there will be more stories from me in the future, in several different media. Consolation or threat -- I have a million stories to tell. No chance of running out anytime soon. Nope.  ¶ 17:15   

  Snow.

It's beautiful and cold, like a sexy Russian spy. Also (quite unlike sexy Russian spies), it here's in abundance. There's simply way too much of it.

It's everywhere. It's on the street. It's on the roof. It's on my windowsill. It's covered my car until it looks very much like a big, white beetle (it's usually a big, blue Beetle). It makes everything look real purdy, but I don't like it. It's fine on Christmas Eve -- part of that whole wonderful holiday experience -- but it shouldn't be allowed to brighten up an otherwise beautifully grey and drab autumn.

See, I like the rain and the leaves and that whole autumn-y thing. It's romantic. It helps my writing. Which is good.

But now the city is covered in white, a giant (bad cliché alert) funeral shroud, and autumn has passed into winter. In a few days, it'll all turn to sludge, and it'll be awful, and the people who're saying "oh, snow is so much better than rain!" will have to eat their words while I gloat. Yes, gloat. I'm petty. Snow is never better than rain, unless: a) It's Christmas Eve, in which case I'll allow it, or; b) You're skiing -- but I never am, so I won't allow it. There was originally a c) but I'm tired of the funnies. Hardly surprising, is it?

The end.  ¶ 22:31   

  Actor Vin Diesel starts his own game development studio. "I've been playing videogames forever," says the Diesel. Now those are solid qualifications, Vinnie.

All right, you've got to respect a man who strives to control his public image 100%, to the degree that he wants to produce games based on his, um, "persona". And it would be petty to scoff at his ambitions. After all, why shouldn't he be able to assemble a talented group of developers to make kickass games? It's not that hard. It takes time, money, passion, and an understanding of games, yes, and I'm sure he's got, like, one of those. At least. He likes his Grand Theft Auto, so that's a start.

Seriously, though. This is a Good Thing. It really is. Now, when pretty girls ask me what I do for a living, I can tell them I'm in the same industry as Vin Diesel. We're colleagues. We hang with the same crowd...at least when we're attending E3.

And the sticky, oily sheen of geekdom is washed off, just like that.

Yay Diesel! You go! Make us legit, cool, and attractive by proxy! About time this industry got a bona fide sex symbol. Old Shigeru just wasn't cutting it in that department.  ¶ 11:03   

  Trying to ween myself off the coffee (extra tall cafe latte with whole milk and a double shot of espresso every morning), but the flesh is weak, and I have a hard time resisting the Call of the Caffein. I get withdrawal symptoms. Seriously. Addiction's a bitch.

Been meaning to post an entry all weekend long, but obviously that didn't work out. I don't feel guilty about it. At all. Time away from the PC is time well spent, believe me. I get enough screen-time during the week to last me a lifetime. On weekends, I actually get to see that mythical place known as "Outside". It's wonderful.

The week. Ah, yes. Another working week has begun, and aside from the getting up and going outside parts of the experience (it's bitterly, cruelly cold), I'm happy to be at the office. There's a lot going on, a lot of fun stuff happening, and I look forward to writing about it...at some point in the future.

Heading off to the US in about a week -- next Tuesday or Wednesday, probably -- to the green and rainy northwest. I've never been very far north of San Francisco, so I'm absolutely looking forward to that. After that, it's almost December, and I'm planning to take an extended Christmas vacation. "Vacation" meaning I'll work on other things than games, like polishing off that long-overdue screenplay, for example. I look forward to that.

Played a lot of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City this weekend (it's oh-so-brilliant, and a great example of linear gameplay in a non-linear environment; I'll explain more about that some other time, it's an important design issue), but I also watched a couple of movies: Red Planet, which was okay (some great ideas, but lousy payoff), and Ring (the Japanese original Ringu, not the just-released Hollywood remake), which was great -- I've seen it before, but it remains an eminent creep-fest. If you like getting your willies (and who doesn't like getting those willies?), it's a must-see. It's not gory, no explicit violence, but it's still amazingly scary. I have Ring 2 and Ring 0 on DVD, but I haven't seen either of them yet. Will do so soonish.  ¶ 12:28   

  I looked at your little review of the Harry Potter books. Was a little shocked that you said they weren't brillant books. (Dead on brillantly entertaining). Then I realised you just started the third book. So I forgive your not praising the books as the most incredible writing since the 60's.

Don't get me wrong: I think they're really very good books. I just finished the third one, which is generally considered to be the best of the lot, and I loved it. I think they're great fun to read, with interesting characters, entertaining plots, and an almost perfect setting (who wouldn't want to go to Hogwart's?). But I wouldn't say they're as brilliantly brilliant as the hype would have it. Anyone who's read a lot of fantasy can see where Rowling's gotten her inspiration, and that's fine, but a little more credit to other writers -- like Neil Gaiman and his "children's fantasy" novel Coraline, for example -- might be in order. Mr. Potter has a tendency to overshadow everything else around him, and that's not always so good.

But, heck yeah, they're greatly entertaining books, all of them (so far), and I can heartily recommend them to anyone. Rowling deserves every bit of the success she's had, no question. She's a smart writer. I'm also looking forward to the new movie, which -- from early reports and reviews -- sounds much better than the first one.  ¶ 17:18   

  As a writer yourself, I was wondering which games you think have excellent stories. In particular, I haven't played any Final Fantasy games before, so I've been gathering opinions of people who have, as to which one I should go for.

To be honest, I wouldn't call the stories in any of the Final Fantasy games "excellent". They're very simplistic, often confusing, and often incomprehensible to a Western audience. I don't play FF games for their stories, but rather for their intriguing and graphically stunning worlds, spell effects, monsters, and epic scope. Most importantly they are (were) fun to play. Some of the characters in FF games are annoyingly clichéd, or just plain...annoying. The protagonist in FFX is a good example of how not to design, write, and cast a lead. He's just an ass. A complete and total ass. I'm embarrassed by the things he says and does. I don't want to play him.

The best of the "modern" FF games is probably number VII (for the PSOne), although I have a soft spot for number IX (again for the PSOne) also. I'm not very happy with X (PS2), mostly because of the extremely annoying lead (see above), increasingly linear gameplay, and somewhat dull setting and story.

Games with excellent stories? Most of the LucasArts games of yore; Day of the Tentacle in particular, but also Full Throttle, the first two Monkey Island games, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis...most of those classic adventures. They're comedies, but good stories nonetheless. Sierra's first Gabriel Knight game had an excellent, adult story, but the sequels got progressively worse (IMO). Shenmue and Shenmue II for the Dreamcast (and now Xbox) have good, emotional, spiritual, personal stories; the first one in particular. Impressive stuff. Deus Ex -- another prime example of a good story, although I'm not a huge fan of the voice-over work on that title. And let's not forget Eternal Darkness, on the GameCube. Great story. Epic, spooky stuff. What else? Uh...I'm sure I'm forgetting lots and lots of good titles. Point is, there's a lot of games with excellent stories out there, across all genres -- even first-person shooters (Half-Life had a good story, as did Halo). How's that for an answer?

Another thing, you're watching TLOTR just by yourself in December??!!

I sure hope not! I bought six tickets, so I'm counting on company.  ¶ 17:07   

  Been stingy with the updates lately, but there will be a sizeable one tomorrow, so hang in there. Time to answer some reader mail again, and there's been a lot of that -- thanks for taking the time to write me. I appreciate it.

It's raining. A lot. And I'm soaking wet. Getting home will be a drag. A very wet one.

I got my tickets for The Two Towers. Last year, I waited five hours in line to procure tickets for opening day, but this time I forgot that they were going on sale, and I probably wouldn't have lined up in any case. Too cold. Too early. I don't mind waiting a few days to see the film. My tickets are for Friday the 20th of December, two days after release, and they're right smack in the middle of row five in Oslo's biggest theatre. Great seats. Lovely seats. I'm getting all giddy with excitement.  ¶ 19:50   

  November, and it's been lovely thus far. Cold and lovely, with a fine, wheet sheen on everything, like glazing on a cake. Not saying I like glazing, here. It just happens to be quite...lovely. But it's enough now. Winter doesn't have to go any further than this to prove a point. Yup, you're lovely, now bring on spring. I like spring.

Been busy since Friday playing the. Best. Game. Ever.

Well, sorta. It's great. It's even better than the last one in the series. But it is just more of the same, even though that 'same' is better than most of the new stuff out there.

What am I talking about? Why, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, of course. Duh. Just the year's biggest title. 500,000 sold on day one in the US, 5 million (or thereabouts) pre-orders. Success doesn't always translate into quality, but in this case there's definitely a correlation. It's a buncha fun...for adults. One of the best things about the game is the soundtrack, which is a real trip back to the 80s. Huge nostalgia factor, and it might be totally lost on those under 25.

Right. Back to playing. Only about one hour left of my weekend. Aaaaaaaah!  ¶ 22:42