Out of Character

I'm Angelika's player, Marion. Before you complain, I don't claim to control any of her actions...

I'm a university lecturer from South Africa. I started playing CS after overdosing on Oprah while held hostage for an extended period by a cruel and demanding tyrant, my (then) one-year old son.

Appeasing the little autocrat: As you can see, he has teeth

Playing CS started as a fascinating hobby, but it always bugged me that the appeal was somewhat ... hard to explain to most people I know in real life. (Which, I think, is why CS players tend to seek out other players to regale with their IC exploits.) That was one reason I did the documentary project, which ran several months over schedule, cost a monstrous amount of cred to make, and which I only managed to complete thanks to the assistance of Kirsten and Blue. Naturally I'd never have done it if I'd known how much work it would involve...

Subsequently, I've decided to start a research project around CS - I think text worlds like CS which have been evolving under player control for the past 30 years or so have a lot to teach the designers of the new 3D worlds. I'm working on the design team for a South African VR project, and so hope to try out some of the things which make CS work, but using 3D interfaces.

Other people have researched CS, notably Frank Schaap (Eveline Edz), whose Masters dissertation "The words that took us there" focuses on gender in CS RP, and has recently been published as a book. I'm not planning to write anything as beautiful as that, but if you're interested in finding out more about my research project, or helping me, by answering my questions, please let me know - I'll chat on email or ICQ 148360789. I've also finally set up a LiveJournal to document the process of my research.