A big colourful cloud filled with happiness and energy. That’s how that last ten days felt like. Being a prisoner of monotony of work, this break was my parole. Just enough to breathe life into my dying creative thoughts.

Four extremely long bus journeys which afford sleep in semi-recliner position gave me enough time to mull over my pet project. I realized that the MMORPG is just an approximate term for something I have in mind. Role-Playing be it text based or graphical is only as interesting as the environment. The environment I have in mind is hardly original – Ancient India. Carrying the tradition of RPGs we could invent (or rather discover) races such as Rishis (similar to wizards), Devas (no analogy, except say Elves) or Asuras (say Orcs?). I really don’t know if this would appeal to our audience. This concept is helpful to differentiate participants by trying to identify them with a sub-culture. We, Indians, I daresay already co-exist with different sub-cultures. It’s a debatable question. On a more practical note it tends to provide repeat playability.

I would like to clarify that my pet project named Agony will essentially involve sub-plots and multi-linear gameplay. In my personal opinion, purely immersive playing with infinitesimal pathways can get quickly boring. This would also mean that we get to make a universe with its own physics/economic laws and a decent storyline. And lest do I forget, engaging 3D graphics (no we are not recreating “The Matrix” here ;) ). The biggest giveaway would be the “creator” mode in which you can perform level editing. Not having played a single MMORPG myself, I do not know if any game server supports this. But to me, game servers are nothing but persistent finite state machines. This makes them suitable for rapid prototyping of user-made levels. This is one experiment which I would definitely try out.

Regular readers of my blog would notice that my research is slowly creeping into my regular blogs. This is was not forced and it seems it is far more common than I had imagined.

Time to switch to other more worldly matters. The organization in which I did my NGO project Janaseva Sisubhavan (designed by me :) ) is getting greater media attention than ever. NGO project is basically a part of my MBA programme in TAPMI involving social work. It must be one of the most important organizations in social work in Kerala. I promise to add more pictures of Kerala in my gallery soon.

Wow, its finally happening. I’m going home for Diwali! A major inauguration happened yesterday, the Phase 2 of Pune DC was inaugurated. Everyone came in ethnic wear. There was a competition for best dressed male and female. It seemed there were too many contenders. Thankfully, we were in the food court all the while, where it was being staged. It was sometimes hilarious with patriotic and clichéd Miss World style one-liners.

I’m writing this from Mangalore all the while thinking about my game project ‘Agony’. Past few days I’ve been reading a lot about MMORPGs. My proverbial fears have turned true. There is deep relationship between EAI and MMORPGs. There is a concept of rules and facts and rule engines here. More than that, making an MMORPG required exhaustive knowledge of many social sciences like history, geography, phsycology etc. Amazing! And how many MBAs are actually making one. Very, very few. Why? Because of the immense depth of knowlegde that can be conveyed by the medium of the game. For e.g. many bright guys (no sarcasm here) in my MBA batch tried to make a financial simulation, but they had very cumbersome tools like Excel spreadsheets. As a result the game was very linear and turn-based (as opposed to real-time). In fact one of our profs tried using a game called MarkStrat (a commercial product nothing close to an MMORPG in terms of UI but a multiplayer simulation nonetheless) and it was a big hit. Many described as the single most important course in Marketing that mattered. So I’m pondering to get behind the camera of a multiplayer game. Lets see how crazy this project gets ;) On a unrelated note, it needs a more telling name, like ‘SimDesh’ or something.

Mumbai. The city of dreams, of glamour and of opportunities. The film capital of India. No wonder that a movie buff like me felt getting excited as I prepared to visit this city for the first time. As expected, the city was abuzz with activity despite the odd hour of 10 pm when we entered the city. As the bus snaked through the brightly lit roads, an army of autos could be seen waiting impatiently at each traffic signal. Life never stops here in this vast concrete jungle. Nonetheless every nook and corner seemed familiar. Perhaps, Bollywood has subliminally immortalized this city. Parag (my project mate) sitting beside me gave a concise yet highly useful guide to the city’s topography. Mumbai is essentially a narrow elongated strip of land. Local trains are its lifeline (yes, once they declared a holiday when it got disrupted).

Click here for the snaps

Finding Suneja’s place was quite easy. A road sprinkled with his landmarks, all restaurants :). The apartment, a cozy place nested up in the tenth floor. Big enough for Crisil people: Anshu, Yogi and Ashwinder and my TAPMI roomate Suraj (who works in UTI). The next day we (Me and Suneja rather) hit the road. We settled for a movie at NOrbit with Rachana. One of Asia’s largest malls I’m told and it was really, really big. Later that evening, we met Sethi and DP. Sethi left off soon, but we visited an amusing pub, “Toto’s”, which was decorated like a garage. In fact the drinks are served under a suspended Beetle. The music was awesome with most of the numbers beings ‘ol TAPMI favourites. Later, we got hungry and came across a Punjabi dhaba which amusingly enough called itself ‘Papa Pancho’ (no jokes)!! Nevertheless, the food was simply out of this world. I stayed over at Anvesh’s place that night.

Sunday, we (everyone at Suneja’s) simply took a walk down the breezy Mumbai sea coast near Band stand. We soon realised that his place has far too many exotic dogs. And exquisite women too ;). Early next morning it was time to return to the drudgery of reality. Slowing cruising into the highway, as the light of dawn was softly breaking in, I wondered - when will I return to this city of dreams again…

Click here for the snaps

How much of homework is necessary to purchase a piece of latest gadgetry? For my camera it took about 2 months. The process was simple: Aim at the best (means expensive) and keep watching the market. Read every possible review/testimonial you can lay your mouse cursor on ;). As the old saying goes, “Premature optimisation is the root of all evil”

For me the result was sweet, today I became a proud owner of a 5 Mpx Canon Powershot A95. It is my creative device before graduating to a Digital SLR. My groundwork tells me that nothing can beat Canon in terms of sheer functionality and features. My so-called amateur model can keep me busy for many, many weeks exploring various permutations and combinations in the nook and corner of the device. Canon has even passed down the features like macro shooting (extreme closeup) or manual focus option from its higher end models such as EOS 300D. This trend is now visible even in mobiles.

I got the piece for Rs. 17, 500 compared to Rs. 28, 500 official prices. I stumbled across this lead after a lot unsuccessful attempts. But as luck would have it, things feel into place in time (my target was Dec 30th, 2004).

My immediate learnings could be quickly summarised as

• An LCD is difficult to see at odd angles, so a swivel LCD is tremendously useful
• Buy memory cards with their sealed and unbroken packages
• Keep more than 1 camera in mind. You might change your mind after the touch & feel experience

So good luck to everyone at Still Photography!

Today, I saw Vaastu Shaastra in E-square multiplex just 5 rows behind the screen. From start the movie was strongly reminiscent of Bhoot and hence will draw comparisons by default. However, Bhoot scores over VS in terms of acting, characterization and cinematography.

For horror fans, the styles of horror utilized have been slightly expanded. It is a familiar formula. Perhaps, gruesome makeup has been added to the series of close-ups of hysterical characters, sudden appearance/disappearance of strangers and conservative use of ambient light. The really killer is the sound effects. Personally I felt that it has been overused. The script was heavily flawed. There is no direct connection between the movie and its title and there is no motive or a good explanation for the events. The only notable performance was that of the boy Master Ahsaas, who contributes a lot to the spookiness of the movie.

Surprisingly, the best thing about watching this in a theatre is the crowd. When I was watching The Exorcist, I was in the balcony circle and you could hear genuine gasps and squeals. But the VS crowd was a lot more mischievous. Their witty comments made the dragging scenes quite entertaining.

For me, the most amusing part was the location. The story is set 23 kms from Pune. Hey that’s where I live! Seems I have to check my Vaastu soon ;)