ZZT mentioned on Slashdot

[Quantum P.]

Slashdot story.

The article is an interview with Tim Sweeney, a good chunk of which is ZZT-related discussion. We didn't get linked directly, but there are a couple of links to the ZZT Wikipedia article (which links to us), and at least one Slashdot comment links to us.

Someone saw the "ZZT is dead" post and thought we were shutting down the site. Hope they don't worry too much.

[Zenith Nadir]

maybe we should just officially recognise that post as Retarded and change it

[nps]

nadir's true and wonderful feelings for the fate of zzt are exposed. a chink in his armour.

[Ceri JC]

I hope in the inevitable influx of new ZZTers that this brings I won't be lost in the flood and will be remembered as the last n00b before the rampaging hordes of slashdotters arrived.

[Zenith Nadir]

nadir's true and wonderful feelings for the fate of zzt are exposed. a chink in his armour.

racist.

[RobertP]

In the future, people will wear T-shirts with the text: "ZZT'S NOT DEAD!". There will also be a million generic bands making POP-ZZT and ZZT-ROCK.


edit: The interview with Sweeney made me smile. He seems like a nice guy. Almost makes me feel guilty for working on a game that sends you out to assassinate the good man.

[Zenith Nadir]

tim sweeney is one of the few decent guys in american game design from the nineties, as far as i can tell (although i'm mainly bitter about what a bunch of colossal idiots almost all of the doom guys were, barring carmack)

i remember working on the esp graphics. i had a lot of fun drawing that Sweeneyworld stuff because it was self-referential to zzt

i seem to remember that Brian "Elig" Strait interviewed sweeney for dmzx a couple years back? someone link to that, he mentions a zzt mmorpg, which has been the standard zzter wet dream since like 1996 (nobody will ever make it)

[Zenith Nadir]

Exophase thinks graphics matter in video games. That's absolutely insane. The worst part is he think's he's right. He's just crazy. And he's just posting in the hopes of pissing me off.

But this is really stupid.

He even said Nethack sucked. That means his opinion doesn't matter.

Also everything he said was stupid anyway. It was just crazy. He's gone crazy.

Worst part is he doesn't know I'm high every post. I don't know why that's the worst. It seems to be.

I'm cold and lonely. I don't like arguments on the boards. I wish this thing with Exo would get over. He's always so angry at me. Nevermind he dated my wife. Now Asgromo seems angry. They take it so seriously. This is all they care about. Like I've insulted everything they love. It's strange.

You'd be crazy thinking after all these years that graphics mattered to gameplay.

I'm hungry. There's not much to eat. There are some things. I don't want to eat. Nothing I really want. Spoiled, maybe. I've been smoking pot for a while. It's making me very hungry.

I'm so happy being a writer.

No one understands how important writing is. It's very important. It's everything. My generation doesn't understand. They don't read. They don't write. It's terrible.

I'm a good writer. I can be a good writer. I'm not good now. I can be later. I'll only get better. It's the most important thing. I'd give almost anything to be good at writing. It must sound strange. It's important to me.

I don't know what to write though.

I want to write something. A book. Something good.

I can't think of anything.

Nothing.

I've been copying a lot of Dr. Thompson. It's a good thing to copy. Brilliant. For a few moments everything I write is good. It's not my writing. Still it's nice. Hard though. Have to look at every word twice. Always feel bad getting things wrong. It takes forever. Chapters are long. In Dr. Thompson they're short. It's more enjoyable to copy. I can take more breaks.

I hope it'll do something.

It feels good, but maybe it's useless. Maybe I'll never be better.

It's hard to explain.

Still hungry and not sure what to eat. I was going to play video games. Don't want to. Almost scared to. Should be writing or copying. Video games make me sad anyway. I might play Daggerfall. I'm not sure.

I need something to write about.

I need something good. I'm afraid. Not sure why.

There are lots of nerd things I could write about. It'd be terrible though. I don't want to be a nerd writer. I don't do much though. That's my problem. I need to do more. I need to do things so I'll write about them. Or something. I'm not really sure. Maybe I need to stop being afraid of fiction. I need to not be afraid of lieing. Making things up. I have to eventually. It scares me.

I could write a lot like that. If I made things up I'd write. I'd write a lot. I'm so afraid to lie. I hate lieing. I hate lieing more than anything. It's ironic, really.

A writer who won't lie.

It's an irrational fear. I need to write fiction eventually. Literature, that is. That's different slightly.

Maybe I just need to write. I need to forget about good and bad writing. Just write. Keep writing. Write anything, everything. Have the most experience.

But I'm afraid of writing bad things. I don't want to write bad things. I'm terrified of it.

I'm terrified of programming bad things too.

It's similar.

I don't want people to know me for the bad stuff I've made. I'm terrified of it. Everyone will think I'm an idiot. I don't want that. It's egotistical but I want people to like me. I do. I won't lie about it. I want people to like me or even respect me. It's too much to ask. No one is ever liked or respected. I still want it. So badly. I've always wanted it. In everything.

I want to be known for good things. I want people to like me. I want to be respected author or journalist. I'd kill for people to like me. I don't know why it's important but it is. But more than that I want to be a good writer.

I don't want to be a bad writer. I want to be a good writer. If I write bad things, I'm a terrible writer. It sounds strange and stupid, maybe.

I just want to be a good writer.

Specifically a good writer. Not just a writer. Anyone can write. I want to write well.

Maybe eventually.

If I copy enough.

* Mood:hungry

[Seventh Shade]

Imagine him saying that out loud.

[zamros]

You know, every time there's an interview like this with Tim Sweeney and the interview veers towards ZZT, it only ever gets to the point where the interviewer says something like "Well, MY favorite thing about ZZT was the level editor. I used to spend all day makin' those crazy ZZT worlds!" and Tim Sweeney will smile and lean back with a knowing grin and say something like "Yeah. It's incredible that the game started with an editor. It's how I made Unreal, blabhlabh." Yet, never a mention of what people have done with ZZT, the community or anything. I've never heard Sweeney acknowledge that in addition to his shitty editor people have hacked his little game to make it even better.

[Zenith Nadir]

epic megagames pretty much officially washed their hands of zzt in 1998, right before the seeds of what it is today were planted

coincidence? probably. anyway i'm really not surprised at all that sweeney only ever talks about "Best of ZZT" being the pinnacle of zzt, and it's really not that important

[Quantum P.]

In Tim's defense, we get nostalgic over different things than he does. When we think of ZZT, we think of the community that sprung up, especially after ZZT was released as freeware (1997?). We think of how we were pimply-faced kids learning everything we knew about sex from playing Teen Priest. We think of how we joined companies and made games and impressed each other with said games.

When Tim Sweeney thinks about ZZT, he thinks about how he started his own game company. So he gets nostalgic about slipping floppies into envelopes and holding the first community events, but from then on he was off to bigger and better things. The 1998-era community is just a tangent which has sprouted off the path of Epic Games, and so when Tim looks back, it isn't part of the history he remembers.

At least, that's how I like to think about it. Tim comes off as a pretty nice guy, and I doubt that he has anything against us.

[Zenith Nadir]

i agree with this post.

[zamros]

I HATE TIM SWEENEY

[Commodore]

b& 4 sass