From the Island of Video, Emeralda Region

Back Story

2010-02-01T07:33:00.000-08:00

A great game needs a great story behind it - The path to making a great digital game is a long one, beginning with a story and setting in motion a hero’s journey. The same is true for a learning game. A game for teaching printmaking is uppermost in the author’s mind as he writes a back story for it. 358 Words. ri100201. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Printmaking Edublog

2010-01-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

Getting to know what it is - After a Texas woman told him about a service called “edublog,” the old professor logged in and created one for Printmaking World—a classic situation where a person formerly considered a “student” teaches something to someone formerly known as “professor.” 544 Words. vi100112. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Millionaire Printmaker

2010-01-02T12:40:00.000-08:00

How to make a million dollars in printmaking - There’s only one pathway to riches in printmaking now and the author tells what it is in this essay. He writes from personal experience—not as a millionaire printmaker but as one who sees the pathway that leads somewhere over the horizon and is taking it. 1269 Words. vi100102.©2009 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

About Video

2009-12-23T07:07:00.000-08:00

First day on the video domain-of-expertise - The old professor ruminates on times gone by, when video as an art form was still something new to introduce to his students. He merged video with his printmaking world and, therefore, today, as he designs a videogame for printmaking, video is part of it. 905 Words. vi091223. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Clockwork Press

2009-11-28T10:05:00.000-08:00

Secret of the Plasteel - It was late in the day when it came to light there was a secret clockwork in the Plasteel press. Not a clockwork as such, but obviously inspired by that book, Longitude, the story of the mariner’s wooden clockwork. Turn the wheel, and ghosts came to life. 803 Words. vi091128. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Everything I Needed to Know I Learned After College

2009-10-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

Reflecting on a golden era - He didn’t think about it until now, but what he learned in college reached its pull date at the onset of the age of digital reproduction. The older age of mechanical reproduction was the stock basis of his college education, so he had to return to school. 1106 Words. vi091019. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Ted Fun

2009-06-01T07:31:00.000-07:00

Searching for reasons to cooperate using Ted - The author takes the directive from a co-operative co-worker and visits TED the first time. In searching for lecures on cooperation, he finds Clay Shirky and extracts key phrases that fit his own need to answer the question posed yesterday: Why Cooperate? 1330 Words. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. vi090601. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Killing Harris

2009-05-22T06:46:00.000-07:00

Harris Sweed disappears on Two Dog Island - Pursuiing a video game backstory, Harris Sweed sees himself disappearing into the plot of the tale itself. Ten protagonists of the “Hunt for the Emeralda Treasure” conspire to digest him, as it were, like feasting cannibals. Harris’ role merges in theirs. ©2009 Bill Ritchie 1145 Words. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Knowledge Workers of the World Unite!

2008-02-13T09:49:00.000-08:00

A call for video
Peter Drucker is a thinker on the subject of work, economics and society as a whole system and technology which, like economics, bypassed the knowledge worker generation. Ironically, knowledge workers over 50 skipped education in economics and technology. 795 Words. Copyright 1998 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com.

Emeralda Seminar

2008-02-01T07:23:00.000-08:00

Listing structural members of a game design
He received a spreadsheet from a collaborator enumerating the hours that they have spent together working on the invention of the game, Emeralda. Something about the number of hours resembles an investment in a mutual enterprise, and invites continuation. 760 Words. Copyright 2008 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request.

Hear Say

2008-01-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

Aural dimension gets an airing
An aged artist is surprised to discover his ideas are being discussed online. In a forum on Seattle’s ArtDish, he found a running dialog started when someone said the author was partly responsible for a trend in art in the region—and someone got it right. 822 Words. Copyright 2008 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request.

Fusing Worlds

2008-01-12T09:46:00.000-08:00

A role for video
On a regular basis the author takes walks with a friend to discuss the possibilities of a game-based experience revolving around the making and exchange of art in the age of digital reproduction. This essay springs from his friend’s comment about patents. 986 Words. 4467 Characters. Copyright 2008 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request.