Lamma Move

Two weekends ago I moved house from Hong Kong Island to Lamma Island. Lamma is a quick 25 minute ferry ride from Central, HK. It is an… interesting place, to say the least. The island’s inhabitants are an eclectic mix of Cantonese locals, expat teachers from all corners of the globe, and semi-retired/retired Methuselahs seeking shelter from chilly winters in their homelands. I’m not quite sure where I fit in to all of this just yet, but I’m enjoying the strangeness of it all and getting some good writing done, so it makes for a decent home.

The move from Hong Kong was pretty simple, partly because I’ve been trying hard not to accumulate too much stuff. A year ago, I arrived in Hong Kong with only my laptop, cat, and two bags of clothes. In the interim I’ve accumulated stuff, more than I would like, but necessary stuff. Still, everything was packed away in less than a day. The movers made short work of the boxes and furniture, hauling everything down to their truck in an hour. One of the movers was so old I thought he might die, but he survived.

leaving boxes
boxes boxes

So far, so normal. But the next bit was kinda cool. Lamma Island is only accessible by boat (or helicopter in an emergency). All my possessions were unloaded at the Lamma ferry pier. Normally each bit of cargo on the boat has to be paid for. The cargo price list is odd. It lists things like Roast Pig ($30), Coffin ($15), Playstation ($80), etc. Who decides that a Playstation should cost more than a roast pig anyway? Weird. All my stuff ended up costing less than $300! Awesome nonsense, thanks in full to my lovely Cantonese moving assistant 😉 (Btw, all these prices are in HK $, so $300 roughly equals US$36 – Cheap, considering how much stuff I had.)

Next, movers and the stuff waited for the boat. Normally, cargo is only allowed on the “slow” ferry, which travels at a pokey 16knts. By some stroke of luck the “fast” ferry (22knts, woo!) came in its place… and the movers were allowed to load the stuff! Next thing you know all my possessions are crammed into the passenger compartment at the front of the boat! It was pretty funny to witness normally unperturbed Hong Kong residents suddenly confronted with the unexpected: Furniture where they want to sit. Some brave souls actually crawled over my things to get at the blocked seats. They then spent the harbor crossing in fear of their lives as mattresses and cabinets, rocked by the waves, threatened to fall on their heads.

boxes boxes
boxes boxes

The cat hates being inside her carrier. The last time she was in there she had to endure a 30+hr trip from Los Angeles to her new home in Hong Kong. She was not pleased. Eventually, she and all the other cargo were unloaded at Lamma and schlepped, by hand, to the new abode. Once in her new home the cat was quiet happy. She now has a massive outside roof deck that she can easily access, a sea view, and lots more room to lounge around.

island view island view 2
office fish

Above you can see the new view, my new office, and the view out my office window to the street below. That woman is selling dried fish or something similar. This part of Lamma is great. It’s a little noisy and busy when compared to some of the more remote parts of the island, but also very convenient. There are no cars on this island, so you either walk or ride a bike whenever you need to go somewhere. Just outside my door are a dozen different places to eat, several grocery stores, and more than a few bars.

Living and working here has been great so far. Already I’m more than half-way through the Oz screenplay and really liking what is coming out. There are zero distractions during the day, so the island is a perfect place to write. Speaking of, need to get back at it…

BDLA Interview

A new Bad Day LA interview is up on TotalVideoGames.com. Derek dela Fuente’s article begins…

Over the last few years American McGee has started to establish himself as somewhat of a cult figure and a voice that many are keen to listen to. His latest creation, billed American McGee Presents: Bad Day L.A., is a third-person action/adventure game that weaves a wild storyline and offers a unique art style.

Cult figure? Hm.

Anyway, lots of new screenshots are available along with the article. I would post a few of them here, but sadly I am limping along on modem power. No broadband in the new home on Lamma… yet. I feel like a caveman and am so disconnected from the world!

As soon as full power is restored I’ll post some info about the move. My favorite part was seeing the lower deck of the Hong Kong->Lamma ferry jammed full of my stuff.

Video Games & Murder

A reader recently commented on a previous post entitled “The Goodness of Bad Day LA” as follow:

Wow, I guess school shooting and gang shootings just aren’t enought for some people. I guess there are just too many people out there making good wholesome games and you figured you had to balance the scale a bit and make a mindless killing game. Well good luck with it. When you read about the next teacher who died at the hands of a child you can sit back and say “hey, I helped do that!”

I am baffled whenever someone implies that I might derive pleasure from senseless murder simply because I am a video game designer. It makes me wonder how and why some people have such a negative view of games and their impact on society. Where do people get the idea that video games actually cause murder? How many murders were linked to video games in the US last year? To the best of my knowledge it is zero. Can someone show me otherwise?

I can find a lot of stories that talk about murderers who play video games. For instance:

Ralls nonchalantly described to police investigators his role in the deaths of five people and the robbing of at least 23 others as the Nut Cases terrorized Oakland for 10 weeks ending in their arrest in January 2003, police said.

The suspects told police they would spend their time getting high and playing the violent video game “Grand Theft Auto III” — which rewards players for committing crimes — and then would act out what they’d done when they grew bored with the game.

Full story at: SFGate.com

Here we have a couple of maniacs who went on a killing spree in San Francisco. The crimes they commited were senseless and horrific. The article clearly calls out the fact that they played the “violent video game” GTA3. And it points out that the game “rewards players for committing crimes”. But does this mean that GTA3 caused the crimes? Does anyone honestly believe that these guys would have led a crime-free life of public service if it weren’t for video games? Here we have maniacs who played video games. Video games did not make them maniacs.

In addition to playing games these guys also “got high”. I would imagine that as they drove around on their killing sprees they were listening to something other than Mozart – perhaps something a little more rage filled? They probably enjoyed the a few violent movies. The point is that these kids, and a lot more on top of them, are exposed to violent media day in and day out. When one person snaps why is it entertainment content that receives the blame? People have been going on killing sprees since long before the invention of digital media.

People get road rage and kill one another. We do not blame cars or traffic or poorly designed road systems. A friendly game of golf gets too competitive and someone ends up with an iron lodged in his or her brain cavity. We do not blame golf club manufacturers or the greens keeper. I could keep going, but the point here is that when someone goes nuts in those contexts we rightly blame it on the person, not the cereal he ate for breakfast or his favorite sit-com.

As for how all of this relates to Bad Day LA, I’d like to point out that far from being a “murder simulator” this is a game where the player is actively encouraged to help people in need and rescue people in distress. Killing innocent people results in the player being punished. So unlike GTA3, this is a game that “rewards people for committing acts of heroism.”

Alice Film Update

Film producer Scott Faye gives an update on the status of the Max Payne and Alice films. From the Yahoo Games (John Gaudiosi) article:

“The script that we have now blends the spirit of the original work by Lewis Carroll with American McGee’s unique vision of the mythology to create a story that is very compelling,” said Faye. “What makes this different from other situations is that we have our Alice and we have a director that has a very visceral sense of how this game world should look on the big screen.”

The article goes on to say that filming on the Alice film could begin as early as this summer. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed!

Year of the Dog

Another Happy Chinese New Year! Last year it was fireworks in the streets of Shanghai. This year some friends and me watched the fireworks from my roof deck high above Hong Kong. The main display lasted for something like 30 minutes! To be honest, I got a little bored halfway through and went back to BBQ’ing. There were just too many fireworks! After a while there was so much smoke that you could no longer see the fireworks. The picture below will give you some idea just how much smoke there was. This was taken a half-hour after the show. You can see that most of the city is still blanketed in a massive cloud. If it hadn’t been for the fireworks none of that haze would have existed.

Anyway, should be a great year. From what I understand, my “Rat” sign “does not anger the God” this year. Woof!

HK Smoke