Tag Archives: the secret world

Madness, Tentacles, & Vampire Dating Apps

11 Thursday Jul 2019

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Through a glitch in the flow of time, 2019 is already half over. What have I been up to? A mix of cosmic horror, Martian exploration, preternaturally evil dating apps, and late-stage capitalist elves.

Moons of Madness

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I spent many months writing for Moons of Madness, a moody horror video game set on Mars. Think of it as an unholy marriage of Cthulhu Mythos and The Martian. The game is developed by Rock Pocket Games and published by Funcom. It takes place in its own special corner of The Secret World universe.

Tender Beta Project

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One of the more unique writing projects I’ve worked on was this ARG (alternate reality game). I teamed up with Paradox Interactive and Alice & Smith, writing everything from text for a sinister dating app, to fake conspiracy theory articles, to internet influencer Twitter posts. All of this took players through online mysteries (as well as clandestine encounters in the real world), leading up to a live event in San Francisco. The entire caper served as a transmedia guerrilla marketing campaign for the announcement of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2. What is an ARG? What does it all mean? Nick Nocturne breaks it all down with a deep dive over at Night Mind (including an interview with me).

Chicago Folios

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My work with Vampire: The Masquerade continued with Chicago Folios, a stretch goal for Chicago by Night (5th edition). I got to work with a setting and characters I first discovered as a teenager (bringing my inner goth geek full circle).

The 500 Days of Ms. Between

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I’m a longtime listener of The Drabblecast, so getting one of my stories recorded there was on my bucket list. My story “The 500 Days of Ms. Between” can be found on their premium B-Sides show. It’s a Cthulhu Mythos tale and my first time travel story.

Pirates of Pugmire Actual Play

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I’ve been itching to do some live-play online tabletop gaming and finally got my chance. This game was set in the delightful world of Pugmire, to promote their upcoming Pirates of Pugmire book. Follow the links to watch Part 1 and Part 2 of the play session.

Midwinter LARP

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I wrote up some twisted characters for an upcoming game by Avalon LARP Studio. Midwinter is a LARP (live action roleplaying game) with a dark holiday theme, featuring elves as late-stage capitalist slaves to a mysterious workshop. Here there be candy canes, lost souls, and stolen memories. Ho. Ho. Ho.

East Coast Games Conference

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I attended this year’s ECGC as a speaker, giving a talk about the branching trunk of a story arc in interactive media like video games.

Unannounced Mystery Thingy ???

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I wrote a little something for iLLOGIKA Studios for an upcoming game project of theirs… and I can’t say much more than that.

Anyway, it’s been an interesting year. The best is yet to come, sweetlings.

Farewell But Not Goodbye

04 Saturday Jun 2016

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And here I am, moments before shutting off that particular computer at Funcom for the final time. The Severed Hand — my trusty companion of four offices, three countries, two continents, and nearly seven years of video game writing — and I are readying for new adventures.

Quite a day. I wrote a last bit of lore. We did a farewell Twitch stream. We had a little office shindig. Wow. So much to unpack. And I will in the coming days. But right now I’m going to soak it in.

And there will be more news on just what I’m doing after all this. Much to tell. It’ll be posted here. Or keep an eye on my Twitter. Or…if you’d like some other conveyance of such news, leave a comment below and I’ll see what I might get going.

To the future, sweetlings.

PS … HOLY SHIT! Thank you, players and Secret Worlders. All the lovely words and good wishes are enough to give the sort of feels that will ruin a dark horror guy’s brand. Brand be damned! *sniffle*

Is that my voice?

27 Wednesday Apr 2016

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Last weekend was a busy weekend if you like the sound of my voice as much as I do. I had two meaty interviews live on the web. What’s that? Did you miss it? Are your ears frowning for my dulcet tones? Have no fear!

On Friday, the delicious folks at The Secret Podcast interviewed me regarding my position as Lead Writer of The Secret World. We talked video games, writers block, video game writing, and more. Learn of my secret origins over at Funcom. You can see that interview HERE.

On Saturday, after an all-nighter of writing, I was interviewed by the wonderful Beth Barnes (also known as DJ Psywarrior). Our main topic of discussion was writing LGBT characters in video games. It’s not a topic of discussion I’d ever thought I’d be specifically invited to talk about, but I’m glad I did. We dug into some weighty stuff, all while killing zombies (a wonderful activity to do while talking serious topics). Beth made me feel very comfortable and welcome and it was easy to spill. That’s her magic. We even discussed fictional characters I’d smooch! Check it out HERE.

Portraits Beat Impostor Syndrome

18 Friday Mar 2016

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Some gourds got more reason to grin than others.

I’m a portrait! Look, look! The wonderfully phantasmagoric-minded Mel Addams made this for me. You can read their  story why here.

I’ll break the image down, because I want to illustrate just how much thought and effort went into this. Mel saw that I had some lovely paintings of both Poe and Lovecraft on my wall, by Michael Bielaczyc.

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I once talked about the notion of Impostor Syndrome, the insidious doubt that you don’t belong or that some success was not really earned, and how that can pop into anyone’s head, from beginning to novice to the most successful. Mel, in their glorious and kind wisdom, thought a good safeguard would be for me to look up and see my face with a couple of my heroes. They put my face to the same stylized tilt as the Bielaczyc paintings. And they pieced me together from bits of things I’ve provided online over the years.

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Years ago, I played around with photo shop to make this image of me.

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The one-eyed cat on the left, in the portrait, is my actual one-eyed cat, Raven. I adopted her in Montreal and she has been my home scrivnomancy familiar ever since.

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The served hand on the right, is my workplace familiar. I picked it up one Halloween, when I lived in Oslo. It’s been my office mascot ever since (in three countries). And was once a regular character feature on my twitter.

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And finally the top hat. It’s actually my leather top hat, purchased from a vendor, many GenCons ago. The eyeball patch I got from Grichels. The hat has taken on a life of its own. Players and readers have gotten to know me by the image. It’s featured in the live twitch dev-stream I do for The Secret World, called The Streaming Ones.

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The hat has even taken on surreal digital life within The Secret World game itself. Behold, Nyarlatophat!

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Also featured are a coat and vest of mine.

And there you have it. The gift Mel gave me, besides their amazing talent, was an image that I unknowingly got to collaborate on making (by taking pieces of me). That’s a swell gift to someone who likes composing visual things (but with no real technical skill for it). It means the fiddling I did with photoshop or the eyeball I had attached to a hat, and the paraphernalia I surround myself in, all contribute to a sweet image. THANKS, MEL!

If you happen to want a print of the portrait, you can contact Mel Addams to order.

 

My New Writer Bio

12 Tuesday Jan 2016

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Joshua Alan Doetsch is a sentient word virus spreading across the collective unconscious through the vector of human language. It has taken on many forms, from short stories, to screenplays, to tabletop roleplaying games. It spreads through print, digital, and audio mediums. It coalesced as the novel Strangeness in the Proportion and shaped itself into an anthropomorphic guise as Lead Writer of The Secret World, a massive multiplayer online computer game. It is made of cuttlefish ink and earworm rhymes, and its fingernails are gleaming fountain pen nibs. You can help spread the infection at joshuadoetsch.com. It’s already too late.

High Resolutions

29 Thursday Jan 2015

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’tis the season of resolutions. Or at least the tail end of it. That point when resolutions, bright and new and recently birthed, naively look about with shiny, bunny eyes and…BAM! Bullet in the ear. Buried in the shallow grave of end-of-Janurary. I’m not judging. There’s body parts in my boneyard too.

So lets go grave robbing!

Necromancy!

It’s alive!

I resolve to better feed the hungry maw of this blog. The poor thing has been subsisting on roadkill and particularly slow villagers. Things are brewing. Video game things. Table top game things. Anthology things. Screenplay and movie things. Stay tuned.

Also, I resolve to achieve my World of Warcraft weight.

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And after that, I’ll achieve my Secret World weight.

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I resolve to re-master one sleight-of-hand trick a month.

I resolve to use my fancy microphone for more audio-entertainment goodness.

I resolve to write certain people physical letters (fountain pen ink, wax seals, the whole bit) and tell them things unsaid.

I resolve to help a soul who’s creatively stuck and confidence-shaken.

I resolve to make better use of the wondrous gift of having a pet with an empty ocular cavity (suggestions welcome).

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What do you resolve? Tell me. Tell me! What have you got rising out of your boneyard?

Murmurs from the Pseudopod

06 Tuesday Jan 2009

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Gotten a lot of mostly good feedback for the audio version of my story (“Blood, Snow, and Sparrows”), over at Pseudopod.org and more comments over at their DISCUSSION FORUMS. My favorite comment so far was:

“Joshua Alan Doetsch is not good. Joshua Alan Doetsch is darkly transcendent. It was so amazing it was like Ray Bradbury got high and started listening to Nine Inch Nails and decided to write about “the Crow”. I hope to God that Joshua is writing a big fat novel that I can go buy and read.” —Old Man Parker

Every reference in that comment made me grin. It’s refreshing to find that you truly are what you eat.

Quest For Job:
To say that my finances are a mess is a cosmic understatement. The job search is ongoing and I’ve recently turned to job listings for full time writers at video game companies. Recently, a company in Norway, Funcom, contacted me, liked my writing samples and resume, and sent me a writing test. It was rather fun. They liked that enough to give me a phone interview and I should hear back from them this week.

The game I’d be writing for is called The Secret World and it right up my alley, subject wise, and I’m excited at the prospect of doing what I like for a living (maybe even enough to cover myself in soot and dance and sing about it, on rooftops, in a ridiculous accent, "I does what I likes…", etc., etc.)…but not sure I want to move all the way to Norway.

It would be an adventure though…

I’m hedging my bet by submitting to other companies though, in the mean time.

And if you need a private, dedicated word-weaver, I’m in the market, as it were, and quite a genius, and humble to boot, and what the hell ever happened to the rich patron system. Huh? There are plenty of wealthy folk out there who one-up each other with mundane items like houses and planes and mistresses.

Seriously, If you are rich and you want to one-up your rich douche-bag friends this year, buy me…

“This is Joshua Alan Doetsch, my private Bard. And what did you buy, Reginal…hmmm…another sports car…how pedestrian…hahahaahahahahaha!”

Quest for Less Gravity Love:
On the weight loss, training-for-the-bike-trip-come-September front, I’ve pretty much undone my meager gains over the holidays. But that’s alright. I was testing the waters. Tomorrow I start working out again and will do so more heavily and will plan a more specific diet (details to follow).