RagnarTornquist.com

Cacoethes Scribendi (by Oliver Wendall Holmes)

If all the trees in all the woods were men;
And each and every blade of grass a pen;
If every leaf on every shrub and tree
Turned to a sheet of foolscap; every sea
Were changed to ink, and all earth’s living tribes
Had nothing else to do but act as scribes,
And for ten thousand ages, day and night,
The human race should write, and write, and write,
Till all the pens and paper were used up,
And the huge inkstand was an empty cup,
Still would the scribblers clustered round its brink
Call for more pens, more paper, and more ink.

@Wandrew: I’ll give you half points on Whitey. But I’m pretty sure some of it has to be innate.

@tore: absolutely. She’s at least got her Spidey Sense.

@wandrew: Kin Senses tingling!!

xD

That´s it. My final exam is coming up tomorrow, but am I reading? Am I refreshing my knowledge of semantics in preparation for the test to come? No. I am installing Dreamfall. Again.

I hate you, Ragnar. I hate you so much.

@Guyra: Heisann!

Skarn: Trodde du var ferdig med eksamenene på mandag eller noe, jeg..? o.O

Thanks for updating your blog.

I also find it good to hear nobody will be hijacking your universe.
Monkey Island is a good example of later sequels being really different due to them no longer being made by the same creator(s).
I’m not saying the later games were bad, but I would have much rather had another Ron Gilbert game to finish the story.

Too bad we’ll have to keep waiting without any indication of a Chapters release date, but basically that means nothing changed, so I’ll just wait.

Nei nei, siste var i dag. Ikke at det betydde stort, da fakultetet ikke hadde laget eksamensoppgave til meg. Det er nesten så jeg mister litt respekten for NTNU.

Back to Dreamfall, for min del. Kanskje jeg rekker å gjennomføre det før jeg stikker hjem i morgen. :p

Ah, riktig.

Well, perhaps I should play through it again soon myself, now that I’ve found my Dreamfall Limited Edition again, and everything..

I have to say at this point I’m more intrigued by The Secret World. How’s that project coming along? When do we get to see more of it? At E3 perhaps?

Nooooessss!! :/

For the the most beautiful unfinished story in a video game, the following really makes me cry :
“Dreamfall Chapters – and, by proxy, The Longest Journey – isn’t Funcom’s highest priority at this point.”
“the project is currently on the back burner – but it hasn’t been abandoned.”

I don’t know what is wrong with Funcom that is leaving a beautiful story aside like this. Nobody had to wait for years for the second part or last part of The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars or Matrix.

Well played good sir. =) We all eagerly await the epic conclusion.

Govroche: Yes, but LOTR and Star Wars and Matrix were all extremely popular, mainstream and well-funded. No matter how beautiful the TLJ story is, Funcom is a tiny little fish in the pond of massive sharks like EA and Ubisoft, etc. I’m happy to wait. April Ryan was my idol when I was young, and I want to hear how her story contines. (Because it WILL continue, won’t it, Ragnar?) It’s funny, I was remembering only the other day when I bought TLJ. The manager said the copies had been flying off the shelves. He even offered to pay me so he could keep it and play it himself. Ahh, memories…

Other news: I don’t know what some of you are complaining about with Indy 4. I loved it, but I might just be easy to please.

This is cool , maybe Dreamfall chapters will be something to fill the generation gap,i mean what kind of kids won’t love to play the latest video game with their grandpa?
Year 2060 : in other news Funcom offers to buy EA for 350 dollars. EA CEO bursts in tears of joy : “Mommy we are saved” !

Damn. For a small company with two MMO’s as priority, it sounds like new Dreamfall isn’t coming out this decade. I hope I’ll still be excited when it will finally comes out. From the bright side, it gives you a long time to polish the story I guess.

Anyway, for Age of Conan I have a level 40 Guardian called Vorenus at Doomsayer server. It’s my first mmo and I find it pretty enjoyable.

Perhaps we should start a petition where people can sign up for wanting Chapters AND buy it. (Only people with original Dreamfall allowed to sign up!) xD

@Rafal: Oooh, Happles!

I can’t belive I actually worked for you guys for one day. I even got to meet you! I seriously doubt you remember me, but I was bug-testing Dreamfall on “Operasjon Dagsverk” in 2006. It was (one of the) the best day(s) of my life!
Ever since that day I’ve wanted to come back sometime…
But anyways, back on topic, great to hear that Dreamfall chapters isn’t dead! I was worried for some time with the lack of updates…
I can’t wait!

Guyra: That’s rather discriminatory, don’t you think? Besides, TLJ and Dreamfall aren’t games to be hidden. They ought to be played by everyone. Anyway, isn’t what you’re talking about basically this blog?

@Ophelia: Actually, no. It’s more a way to convince Funcom that those who sign up have actually bought the game, and therefore, in signing up, show that they are highly likely to buy Chapters, too. A standard petition with “who wants Dreamfall to be released?!!” would not have the same weight to it, because Funcom would not be able to know how many of them would actually BUY the game.

Also, though I take the joke, a petition would actually include a lot more people than the few willing to register and write on this blog.

And anyway, the whole thing was more of a joke.

Obviously, the next chapter of TLJ will be a mash-up between Dreamfall, Portal, and Clean Asia. XD

Other news: I don’t know what some of you are complaining about with Indy 4. I loved it, but I might just be easy to please.

There was certainly quite a bit of silliness in the movie, but there was even more entertainment. From one fairly rational mind to another, rest assured that yes, the hate for the film is just overblown. It’s not the best Indy movie, but it’s still an Indy movie. (It’s also not the worst to a lot of us)

Yeah, Indie 4 is watchable. Especially considering how there’s nothing better in the cinema right now.

If someone is going to Indiana Jones 4 screening with the expectation that it’s compatible with a rational mind, then they must have not seen the first three.

I can’t wait ’til the next game in the series comes out, and am actually excited about it being released episodically. All I ask is that the combat system be improved. Please?
I bought a USB controller to be able to handle the controls in the game better, and it works, but it’s still kind of unwieldy and difficult (again, especially the combat system). I actually liked the fact that there was a combat system, and that it was used sparingly throughout the game. My brother just got AoC, and he loves the combat system in that (among other things), so I have reasonable hope that things will work out.

I just finished playing Dreamfall, and I think I’m gonna play it over again because I love it so much. XD I just wanted to say thank you, not only for making an extremely enjoyable game, but for making the characters and plot so complex and moving. I’ve seen a lot of comments (especially pertaining to April’s character) disparaging how certain characters evolved and changed in the second game. But I think that is one of the more enjoyable things about the games; the characters are, and always have been, relatable and real, even in a fantasy/sci-fi setting.

I especially enjoyed (Theoretically) Blind Bob.

P.S. Have fun with The Secret World! I’m looking forward to that one too.

I also must say, i don’t care about any game from funcome/ragnar other than the TLJ series, Ofcourse i’ll look to the secret world but nothign compares my anticipation on drealfall the second (or maybe.. spore creature creator rightnow)

I guess when I first played dreamfall I was waiting too much for the draic kin to play the same important role as in TLJ, but it seemed to be widened, and there’s s just so much that can happen when april and zoë begin to tap into their powers of going inside and out of the story time. There’s so much potential in there for those two protagonists to grow stronger and manipulate the universe, maybe time travel ?

but you always keep their abilities just low enough so it doesn’t become too easy for them to achieve heroic tasks. It’s always this kind of “oops i didn’t mean to do this or arrive here” kind of thing, which is very appealing to me.

Whereas in TLJ this was more about april being a shifter, the plot thickened and there’s just so many question, we can imagine what he azadi tower means, we can imagine how faith was instrumental. I think she was more than a test person for morpheus. They knew she could “do things”.

One of the strenghts of the tlj story is that you’ll never really hear face to face explanatiosn that tell you everything. You always hear bits from other people and that’s very addictive in a way.

I don’t wee alvin peats drawing a map for you from a to b to c, about how he conceived of his dark plan, What about the role of westhouse ? You only really see vague hints and that gives a strong imaginatio and participation in the universe. I like this in tlj. It’s as if you are using the protagonist’s intuition (either by suggestion or visual cues) , to find out additional info on the story.

I like this all, and I like it to continue sooner than yesterday

Well, personally, I am a bit interested in The Secret World, but just a little. Age of Conan doesn’t hold much interested with me, though I might try it out.

The Longest Journey and Dreamfall are the big reasons I’m here, without a doubt. I don’t care much more about the other stuff than any other regular game.

This is probably the best place to ask, so…

I am a little bored so, which game do you recommend?

To help with the search:
I recently finished Beyond Good & Evil, I also played TLJ (recently the 3rd time), Dreamfall (only once), Syberia 1 and 2, Monkey Island series, Psychonauts, Advent Rising, Full Throttle, Ankh 1 and 2, Grim Fandango and others

Guyra: Then we shall have to go into physical negotiations at our next rendezvous, until such a time where you aren´t simply “slightly interested” in The Secret World, but hail it as equivalent to the Coming of our Lord and Saviour, Duke Nukem (Forever). I call this technique “impression through strangulation”. Very successful, and with only a 10% death rate. We will make a believer of you yet.

Personally, I am really looking forward to TSW. I have followed it since the first viral campaign started, and I can not wait for it to finally get done. Conan is like the pacifier I use until I can get my greedy, occult-loving fingers on a copy of The Secret World. AoC had a Limited Edition — here´s hoping TSW will have an Esoteric Edition.

Can someone please make an MMO that doesn’t entail killing anything you’re not teamed up with? Then I might consider playing… Not sure what kind of concept it could be, though.

@Skarn: Try it – I dare you! xD

@toremygg: Might just be a rumour, but I read somewhere that TSW wouldn’t be action focused.. And that’s my main concern for interest in that game. (Second is the “Lovecraft-ish” stuff.)

There’s so much potential in there for those two protagonists to grow stronger and manipulate the universe, maybe time travel ?

I sure hope not.

“Can someone please make an MMO that doesn’t entail killing anything you’re not teamed up with? Then I might consider playing… Not sure what kind of concept it could be, though.”

Focused on economics and resource management perhaps? I’d call it umm… Midgard!

@toremygg

Look up Uru: Online Ages of Myst
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uru:_Ages_Beyond_Myst

It’s been done, but the problem is the lessons learned from this project are usually short sighted. At first glance, one can say that a non-competitive MMO can’t work. But the problems weren’t so much on audience demand, but on the production choices. This isn’t the forum for such a discussion, but there was an non-competitive MMO with a very rewarding experience.

@GyRo567

not so obviously controlled like in star trek, but surely it could be an element? even if it was kinda like unforseen, and not even clear at first.

It’s just a route, obviously Ragnar will have something better

Hi Ragnar, hello everyone,

I just realized how painfull is to be TLJ/DF fan. When you’re 15 you got this game. You love it, it’s gorgeus, it simply the game as good as those tales you always created in your childhood. Then years passes and you get the news, that there’s gonna be sequel. You are grown-up now and you still can’t help but feeling shivers. What is gonna be? And here you are – the game is simply wonderful. It’s something else, but it doesn’t really matter, until you have those brilliant characters, great world to explore, wonderful dialoges, amazing soundtrack, plot that takes you away from everything, and – what’s the greatest things about all of it – it brings some emotions really hard to find in games. It’s hard to be explained – it’s all about THE FEEL. And then…

Then it’s over.

It’s not like you are greedy to get more and more of it – well, you were ok with the first one, as long as it ended. ENDED. That was some part of story, from the beggning to an end, complete and closed, at least on satisfying level. Satisfying enough to wait some years for another part. But then sequel ends with “To be continued” manner. Ok – I can wait, you think first. But then you realize, how LONG it will take. It’s like reading the great book, finishing first tome, and finding out that 2nd won’t be here soon, and you wait with all those questions that makes you crazy. You are wondering if author is some kind of sociopath, that enjoy you suffer (of course you know that is not truth).

Ok, here’s the deal: it’s ok, I don’t blame you Ragnar, I’m not frustrated or mad. I just can’t stop but think, how it’s possible for company to made a game, end it in a halfway and not even start to work on another part. It’s like “Oh, they like it? I didn’t expect that…”. Or even worse: “You like it? You’re freaking out to know what will happen? You can’t wait? Well, sorry, but we have some other, more important things to do and we don’t know when we’ll gonna finish the story. Bye!”. It is simply UNFAIR. It’s like the company don’t really care about the people, who bought the game and love it. It’s some sort of really subtle cruelty.

I know that there’s many things that make it looks like it – I just tell how it looks from fan’s point of view. It’s some sort of slow and painfull torture to not even know WHEN you will see the end – or just some part – of beloved tale. Then, I really apritiate your messages here, that’s the signal that You care. But please, just don’t let Us wait another few years. With the story left opened like that, it’s just too much. Best regards and sorry for all language mistakes.

The real secret about the next game is that Funcom has been working closely with 3D Realms to release a box-package includeing all of the previous games and Duke Nukem Forever.

Just watch, you’ll see.

Yay, I have just finished Dreamfall (after mere two days playing … guess I played way too much old school adventures from Sierra and Lucasfilm) and to be honest I am deeply disappointed – there are tons of open clues with no replies and having my favourite characters in bad shape at best – April, Zoe… doh, just hoping you won’t let them die or rot in some paralel what-so-ever dimension (Stark & Arcadia = allowed )

Anyway, crossing fingers you can continue on TLJ – the sooner the better and make single episode at playtime of TLJ (after all it’s the LONGEST journey, not stupid latin-american TV serie).

Good bye and good luck… and btw if FunCom puts TLJ world to ice, shout if you need a coder – some things are not ment to stay closed in drawers even if they don’t earn such profit like some other game genres.

“Fortunately for me, and perhaps unfortunately for you, nothing will happen with either Dreamfall or TLJ unless I’m directly involved, and right now my days are packed from beginning to end with The Secret World (and a few other things that I can’t talk about).”

Lol, it almost makes me wish that The Secret World will be a big flop, so you’ll be free to care for your baby – the virtual TLJ one, not the real-world baby girl I understand you’re so proud of

I truly hope Funcom will soon be very, very, veeery successful with all their projects. I wish Ragnar will make a load of money for himself as well as for his publishers. Then, and ONLY then, there is a chance he’s going to finish the story of The Longest Journey.
Unfortunately for all the fans, it’s not the kind of game that sells in millions of copies, not even its first installment (which was absolutely great). Then we had the pathetic attempt of adding some console-style action elements to Dreamfall, which surely didn’t generate any new fans for the series.
What gives? Even if the story’s conclusion is going to be perfect and (this time around) really continue the legacy of the first game, it is going to be commercial failure. Unless of course developers find a way to make the game very appealing to average PS & Xbox player. Sadly, the great story alone is just not enough.

I think if you make game very appealing to average console player (= teen fat kid), then the game will lose so many on it’s atmosphere, complexity etc. that it won’t be appealing for people who like TLJ world currently.
Let me example it on WoW… it’s a game for average ‘console’ player. No doubt about that and no doubt it earns good money. But, honestly, level of that game in means of complexity and possibilities is nothing compared to games ~ 15 yrs old. Current game evolution goes the way of more&better graphics, possible more&better sounds (which is strongly questionable… when was the last time you singed some game theme song?), but while the devs focus on those two marketing-friendly aspects of the game, there is less and less … playability in their games.
Fortunately this decay is much slower with Adventure genre compared to RPGs for example. If adventures start to force their position among average consolists, it’s the beginning of the end.
So… I rather pay three time price for a good adventure (=with good story and playability) than pay normal price for a package of HD wannabe adventure.

Hi well i just finished playing Dreamfall on my x-box and i was astonished at how amazing the story was. i havent played TLJ yet put i plan on getting that somehow….anyway….i cant wait for Dreamfall Chapters to come out i dont care how long it takes the story has me hooked.

I have now been surfing for almost 30 minutes scared to death that the Dreamfall episodes never would be a reality.. I remembered something about a Funcom person quiting and I though it was you (the brain behind Dreamfall).. It was however Gaute who left… and that does hopefully mean that Dreamfall episodes still may be right? Please.. use Sam and Max as an example and start making the episodes. I am ready to pay! Please please prioritize this! And for gods sake do not let it be on ice forever. Make sure that 100 persons in Funcom knows the storyline so it does not fall with single people changing jobs or anything like that! Please please

Greetings from the plane of thought, master.
I came a long way to visit this site, your fine realm.
With great sadness I could not oversee your overlord’s current course of actions these days, hindering your true path.
Travelling through the depths of time, I visited hyboria, too, and it was blunt and empty compared to arcadia so I finally left the hyperborean timeline forever.
Is there still hope? Will the great story of dreamfall continue, ever?
The dwellers of my plane pray and hope…
Dream vastly, storymaster and let us follow.