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Looks like a nice town. I want to go to there.

The (fictional? real?) town of Kingsmouth has popped up in connection with The Secret World – and, you know, on the official TSW Facebook page – so I guess there is an actual connection. Not that I would know. I can’t keep a secret.

Now, if this was part of a viral marketing stunt, I’d expect the Kingsmouth site to contain lots of clues to the game: important characters, key locations, lore, missions – future events. Or it could just be completely meaningless. I mean, who knows? After all, who would go to all that trouble of creating a website for a fictional town in a game? It just doesn’t make sense.

At any rate, I’m sure we’ll learn more about Kingsmouth and Solomon Island soon, so stay tuned. To, you know, whatever channel you get your information from.

UPDATE: Oh, look, we’ve tuned into one of those channels already. Massively has spoken with Mr Ellingsen of Funcom fame, and he’s confirmed there’s going to be more information – and a video – available this weekend. How about that?

Ragnar TSW TSW

My apologies to children everywhere, my thanks to Anders Finér, the artist behind this wonderfully perverted piece (and hundreds of other TSW concepts, illustrations and posters) and to the community who unearthed this abomination. You really should know better than to dig too deep, people. Now he’ll be coming for you.

Ragnar Scary shit, TSW TSW

There’s no shortage of iPhone reviews out there, and there’s not a whole lot left to say on the topic, but I wanted to highlight a few things that have changed the way I use a phone in the last month.

In brief: the iPhone 3Gs is the best mobile phone I’ve ever owned. It’s also, probably, the best gadget I’ve ever owned. Here’s why (in no particular order of preference).

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Ragnar Gadgets iphone, kindle

Several of you have asked me about the following statement, made by Funcom’s Director of Communications in a recent interview:

“Actually, we have put the development of the Dreamfall Chapters on indefinite hold. We might pick them up again, but there are no plans for that as of now.”

Which, admittedly, doesn’t sound good.

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Ragnar Dreamfall Dreamfall, funcom, TLJ

And so the three were revealed and my tiny little Twitter viral campaign – not an ARG, far from it (edit: see update, below) – finally, hopefully, made some sense.

I think the team did an absolutely wonderful job with the secret societies, creating very distinct and unique visual identities – square, triangle, circle; red, blue, green – for, respectively, the Templars, the Illuminati and the Dragon; some wonderfully sexy uniforms; headquarters to match; and (not least) intriguing and original game mechanics playing up the conflict between the factions.

Oh, and let’s not forget the test, which has been quite the viral success, spreading far and wide through forums and Facebook.

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Ragnar TSW pax, TSW

‘Trolsk’ is a wonderful and uniquely Norwegian word. Loosely translated it means trollish – of trolls, in the mythical sense of something magical and unreal – but to really understand what it means you have to experience Norwegian nature at its moodiest and most spiritual.

Ancient forests and mountains covered in a thick, swirling mist; brooding clouds; a light drizzle; pines and moss and bogs and lakes and streams and rocks – combining into the peculiarly Norwegian terrain most famously illustrated by the renowned artist Theodor Kittelsen. A landscape in any season where strange, mystical and mythical shapes emerge from nature, giving rise to the old stories of troll and nøkken and huldra.

This is trolsk. And there is something almost Lovecraftian about the darker side of it. Something spiritual, primal and eldritch, something shadowy and somber and often terrifying. Something immensely powerful. There are few things that fire up my creative engines the way this landscape does. In fact, more than anything, the Norwegian mountains and forests fuelled my early love for myths and fairy tales, for the fantastical and spiritual and dark, and it’s been a red thread through everything I’ve done.

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Ragnar Writing stories, Writing

Apologies for that awkward headline, but it’s the truth.

Amazon’s second generation Kindle – while not perfect in any way, shape or form – has made it a lot easier for me to start reading books that would otherwise have piled up on my bedroom floor. And it has made the prospect of upcoming transcontinental flights much more bearable. I’m not a huge fan of the travelling part of travelling, and I always need to bring tons of books to make sure I never ever run out, but now that will be a concern of the past. As long as the Kindle is charged – the battery lasts for weeks and can be recharged via USB – I have reading material, and plenty of it. In fact, in the past few weeks, I’ve spent almost $200 on books, some of which I already own in print form.

But there are plenty of issues.

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Ragnar Books, Gadgets Books, Gadgets, kindle, review

Since childhood, I’ve been deeply fascinated by numerous stories about the world inside our world – the Hollow Earth – a place of great wonders, eldritch mysteries and untold dangers

From Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Pellucidar, to ancient legends about Agartha and modern conspiracy theories about a master race of humanoid reptilians, the concept of a hidden world – a secret world – beneath our feet has both fascinated and horrified us surface dwellers.

It’s been revealed (ostensibly by mentally unstable people who seem to believe that our game in some way closely mirrors real events) that the subterranean realm known as Agartha will feature – quite prominently – in The Secret World. We’ve dug deep (but not too deep, I hope) into all available literary and historical texts to find what we believe to be The Truth about the Hollow Earth. Or at least a truth. (There’s never just one, is there?) Exactly how Agartha will feature in TSW, I’m not about to reveal here, at least not now, but this is a golden opportunity for all of you to read up on the myths, legends and – possibly – facts about the forbidden lands below our feet. To prepare yourselves, so to speak, for the future.

Who knows, you might just stumble upon The Truth yourself. After all, there are many mysteries in this world that have yet to be revealed, and only the curious and tenacious may unlock those ancient secrets. Post your findings and recommended reading (or viewing, or listening) material in the comments for others to see. If there is a deeper truth here, it’s probably good to share.

I’ll certainly return to this intriguing topic at some point in the near future, so stay tuned.

Ragnar TSW agartha, TSW

Right. Time to answer a few of the many questions that have piled up in the past few months.

I’m sorry but I have to get this out. What the hell are you doing with The Longest Journey and Dreamfall?! Is it really going to take another 6-7 years for you guys to finish another chapter? I know you’ve used the excuse of being involved with other games, several times but C’MON! We, the fans made you famous, we bought and loved your game. And to repay us, you (possibly) kill April, leave the story unfinished and say there might be TLJ2? Awsome. When? 2045? Cool, I’ll be dead by then. Oh well, would’ve been nice to see the story end in my life-time but clearly you’ve got more passion for money than art.

Well, to the extent that I have to eat and pay my mortgage and buy clothes for my daughter – then yes, I have more passion for money than art.

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Ragnar Q&A ao, Dreamfall, nyc, nyu, TLJ, TSW

I haven’t blogged in over a month and so the most natural thing to blog about is, of course, coffee. After all, coffee has been a recurring theme of my tweets and it’s also the key driving force behind The Secret World. Forget my contributions: without coffee, that game would never see the light of day.

Yesterday I bought myself a Nespresso machine. A Nespresso machine makes espresso using little capsules containing vacuum packed coffee. You don’t have to do much. You stick the capsule in, close the lid, make sure there’s water in the tank, and push a button. Voila – extremely tasty espresso in less than thirty seconds. It is, by far, the most amazing coffee you could possibly make at home without some serious barista skills, expensive equipment and tons of free time. It also comes with a brilliant milk frother which means you can make latte and cappuccino and, well, latte and cappuccino. And it takes less than two minutes in total. And doesn’t require you to be any good at anything whatsoever. It doesn’t even require any cleaning.

Did I mention that this is possibly the greatest invention of all time? Second only to penicillin and, possibly, the internet.

Today I’ve had three different espresso drinks and the only reason I stopped was because I was going into caffeine shock. It’s. That. Good.

I feel like I’ve joined some sort of cult because I keep telling people “oh, you must try it, it’ll change your life, honest, you’ll never look back”, and also because you need to join the sinister sounding ‘Nespresso Club’ to order capsules online, but then I’ve always wanted to be part of a cult, and at least this cult doesn’t require you to donate all your money to someone wearing sandals.

Recommended. Oh, and “hi, everyone!”.

Ragnar My life coffee, TSW