I don't have much to say about Hypnospace Outlaw itself beyond it being one of the funniest, most heart-warming, most endearing, most sincere, most ironic, most fun depictions of the Internet ever presented.
In my review-cum-memoir on World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, I bemoaned the death of online spaces noted for their lack of thorough knowledge. It is perhaps fitting that WotLK's release came a mere five days before the launch of Jim Garvin and Ryan McGeary's 'Let Me Google That For You' website. Perhaps by divine providence too, WotLK's release coincided with the steady downward trend of Bill Dyess' then World of Warcraft database Thottbot and the first massive spike in traffic to Wowhead. The coincidence is staggering, but also points to a trend which has irreversibly altered the gaming landscape, and society at large. Much as WoW players sought user-data-verified hard statistics on their MMO of choice, tech savvy individuals' astonishment and contempt for being asked readily verifiable questions reached a tipping point in late 2008. Confirming and corroborating data on WoW would in time become something accomplished by every player. LMGTFY would in time become a site even your grandparents might send as a slight towards a query. The genuine question 'where is Mankrik's wife?' was less the object of ridicule, more a target for sarcasm and eye-rolling as the naive were directed to Wowhead. With ever increasing databases and wikis, games and media in general have become less about a sense of mystery, more one of minutiae. Players no longer revel in not knowing, they would rather examine the entirety of a game's mechanics and lore and history with a finetooth comb.
My point in bringing this up is two-fold. One: Games have genuinely not been the same since players expected to be able to understand them inside and out at whim. Two: The Internet has genuinely not been the same since users expected others to rely on a corporate search engine, largely constructed (especially now) to deliver advertising rather than substantive content, to remedy their perceived ignorance. As Embracer Group, Microsoft, Tencent, Sony, Epic, Valve, Ubisoft, EA, and other megacorporations oligopolise the gaming space, so too do Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Tencent, Joybuy, Alibaba, Twitter, Spotify, ByteDance, Baidu, Adobe, Block, and others reduce Internet diversity to a minimum. I can't act as if I knew the Internet of eld in its entirety, but a lifelong fascination with Internet obscura and history has me at least somewhat informed.
In my review of GeoGuessr, and corroborated by jobosno's review of Microsoft Flight Simulator, stressed was the importance of appreciating the non-place. So too does this apply to the Internet at large, and Hypnospace Outlaw itself if we wish. Not everything on the Internet is substantive or substantial, nor is every page on Hypnospace. We fall down rabbit holes of Wikipedia deep dives, we examine every page on Hypnospace regardless of its relevance to our duty. Duty and productivity and the confines of time and the constraints of life and gaming guide us towards Internet or Hypnospace use that is conducive to our end goals, but those detours persist as availabilities. In the real world, they dwindle as web diversity shrinks, as webhosts go offline, as swathes of the Internet go unarchives and unremember[ed/able]. In Hypnospace, their finite nature means we cannot search forever.
The Big Crunch theory postulates that at some point, the universe will cease expansion, and will recollapse unto itself as all is returned to zero. To null.
At some point, the Internet might cease expansion, and will recollapse unto itself as all is returned to zero. To null. We will not go to website, we will go to keywords. That which is unadvertisable, incompatible with commercialisation will in effect go dark. In due time fewer and fewer spaces will exist. In due time, all will be one, and one will be none.
The Big Freeze theory postulates that the universe will never cease expansion, and will drift into entropy until all is returned to absolute zero. To null.
At some point, the Internet might expand infinitely to the point of unnavigability. In a web of infinitudes, all will be irrelevant and all will be lost as data becomes unable to be quantified on any scale. In due time, one will be all, and all will be none.
The unknowability of the universe renders any theory pointless. We do not know what will happen. We cannot know what will happen.
The unknowability of the Internet renders any theory pointless. We do not know what will happen. We cannot know what will happen.
Enjoy the Internet as it is now. Enjoy the Internet as it was then. Enjoy the Internet as it will be. Forever is it in flux, forever is it a stable constant. Forever does it all drift apart, forever does it all close in. Forever shall it be known and forever shall it be unknown.
We exist in a cosmic nothing of no import.
We exist in a digital nothing of no import.
Every atom in the universe is critical to its being.
Every byte of the Internet is critical to its being.
As a historian, I live on a periphery of data boundless yet intangible. I scour for that which does not exist, may never have existed.
At the end of Hypnospace Outlaw you are tasked with archiving a wasteland.
Archive our wasteland with the Wayback Machine extension. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wayback-machine/fpnmgdkabkmnadcjpehmlllkndpkmiak https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/wayback-machine_new/
We exist at a time where unfathomable amounts of human knowledge are being erased from existence every hour of every day. This is not a deliberate book burning. This is an incidental blaze.
Save what you can.
What a beautiful thing we are a part of.
Seek the obtuse, obfuscated, and obscure.
A selection of webzones I have found and I enjoy:
https://geocities.restorativland.org/
https://web.archive.org/web/20021215085602/http://www.u-ga.com:80/jp/games/mobile.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20070902163202/http://www.cbs.com/primetime/kid_nation/
https://web.archive.org/web/20050222012115/http://everquest2.station.sony.com/pizza/
https://prairieecologist.com/2020/01/13/finally-a-practical-guide-for-roadside-wildflower-viewing/
https://web.archive.org/web/20010118210000/http://www.l0pht.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20030207171752/http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,50875,00.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20060314162213/http://www.classicgaming.com/pac-man/Pac-Games/PacManVR/pac.htm
https://www.geo-grafia.jp/product/
http://erogereport.blog.jp/archives/cat_87375.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20060515154050/http://users.stargate.net/~glshir/PLAY.HTM
https://dreamlogos.fandom.com/wiki/Dream_Logos_Wiki
https://web.archive.org/web/20150222012855/http://quitesoulless.com/story.htm
https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=Oi1qbcz2m2SnwUeztGYcnQ
https://web.archive.org/web/20030407094755/http://www.vernonjohns.org/snuffy1186/movies.html
http://www.poetpatriot.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20000229230522/http://symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/y2kgame.hoax.html
https://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/camping-in-a-u-haul-they-are-cheeper-than-an-rv-and-better-than-a-tent.53919/
https://web.archive.org/web/20140803164736/http://theodor.lauppert.ws/games/
https://tss.asenheim.org/
https://jimedwardsnrx.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/pepsi_gravitational_field.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20130812175052/http://csbruce.com/tv/clone_high/
https://xercesblau.com/
https://www.walgreens2.com/peach-ring/peach17.html?fbclid=IwAR0iWWPkq0qf2kkYIVmUgL2pPuE1023aImBPnYuwmQXAxtyXNiElOnSDlVs
http://www.secondlivestock.com/
https://origamisimulator.org/
https://web.archive.org/web/20180818104057/http://underlinestudio.com/linesbreakingnewspaper/
http://blueteethnovel.tilda.ws/
https://web.archive.org/web/20170207203428/http://pacificitysoundvisions.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20120915100800/http://meryn.ru/portfolia/
https://web.archive.org/web/20130415230745/http://www.reddit.com/
http://www.woodswoods.com/new-gallery-5
https://web.archive.org/web/20120807153003/http://weblog.liberatormagazine.com/2010/11/minstrel-show-visual-art.html
https://glasstire.com/2012/11/23/the-ten-list-walk-as-art/
https://news.ourontario.ca/page.asp?ID=2910113&po=6&n=1
https://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oaeg-front
http://1x-upon.com/~despens/teletext/
http://www.teletextart.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20060411023755/http://www.gamengai.com/main.php
http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/
https://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/
http://retroblues.sakura.ne.jp/regeokiba/index.htm
http://msx.jpn.org/tagoo/
https://fm-7.com/
https://www.gamepres.org/pc88/library/frame1.htm
http://p6ers.net/hashi/
http://furuiotoko.la.coocan.jp/
http://85data.world.coocan.jp/
http://ayachi0610.blog65.fc2.com/
https://datafruits.fm/
https://www.catsuka.com/player/binge/
http://myduckisdead.org/
https://historicfilms.com/search/?
https://www.fontsupply.com/fonts/
https://contactjuggling.org/
http://www.t0.or.at/scl/agents.htm
https://archive.org/details/TheVistaGroup-TheAndersenTiltWashWindowStory1990s
https://cursed-commercials.fandom.com/wiki/Square_Butts
https://www.yygarchive.org/
https://news.nestia.com/detail/%E4%B8%8D%E6%AD%A2%E6%9B%B9%E4%B8%95%EF%BC%9A%E8%BF%99%E6%98%AF%E4%B8%80%E6%AE%B5%E5%85%B3%E4%BA%8E%E6%97%A5%E5%BC%8F%E6%88%90%E4%BA%BA%E6%B8%B8%E6%88%8F%E7%9A%84%E7%AE%80%E5%8F%B2/6267619
https://www.jacketsjunction.com/product/wikipedia-editor-jacket/
https://opendirsearch.abifog.com/
https://vimeo.com/729784691
https://ubuweb.com/
https://discmaster.textfiles.com/browse/2902/3D%20Images.iso/bmp/a
http://web.archive.org/web/20040405155729/http://www.mbnet.fi:80/apaja/alueet/
https://carta.archive-it.org/
In my review-cum-memoir on World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, I bemoaned the death of online spaces noted for their lack of thorough knowledge. It is perhaps fitting that WotLK's release came a mere five days before the launch of Jim Garvin and Ryan McGeary's 'Let Me Google That For You' website. Perhaps by divine providence too, WotLK's release coincided with the steady downward trend of Bill Dyess' then World of Warcraft database Thottbot and the first massive spike in traffic to Wowhead. The coincidence is staggering, but also points to a trend which has irreversibly altered the gaming landscape, and society at large. Much as WoW players sought user-data-verified hard statistics on their MMO of choice, tech savvy individuals' astonishment and contempt for being asked readily verifiable questions reached a tipping point in late 2008. Confirming and corroborating data on WoW would in time become something accomplished by every player. LMGTFY would in time become a site even your grandparents might send as a slight towards a query. The genuine question 'where is Mankrik's wife?' was less the object of ridicule, more a target for sarcasm and eye-rolling as the naive were directed to Wowhead. With ever increasing databases and wikis, games and media in general have become less about a sense of mystery, more one of minutiae. Players no longer revel in not knowing, they would rather examine the entirety of a game's mechanics and lore and history with a finetooth comb.
My point in bringing this up is two-fold. One: Games have genuinely not been the same since players expected to be able to understand them inside and out at whim. Two: The Internet has genuinely not been the same since users expected others to rely on a corporate search engine, largely constructed (especially now) to deliver advertising rather than substantive content, to remedy their perceived ignorance. As Embracer Group, Microsoft, Tencent, Sony, Epic, Valve, Ubisoft, EA, and other megacorporations oligopolise the gaming space, so too do Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Tencent, Joybuy, Alibaba, Twitter, Spotify, ByteDance, Baidu, Adobe, Block, and others reduce Internet diversity to a minimum. I can't act as if I knew the Internet of eld in its entirety, but a lifelong fascination with Internet obscura and history has me at least somewhat informed.
In my review of GeoGuessr, and corroborated by jobosno's review of Microsoft Flight Simulator, stressed was the importance of appreciating the non-place. So too does this apply to the Internet at large, and Hypnospace Outlaw itself if we wish. Not everything on the Internet is substantive or substantial, nor is every page on Hypnospace. We fall down rabbit holes of Wikipedia deep dives, we examine every page on Hypnospace regardless of its relevance to our duty. Duty and productivity and the confines of time and the constraints of life and gaming guide us towards Internet or Hypnospace use that is conducive to our end goals, but those detours persist as availabilities. In the real world, they dwindle as web diversity shrinks, as webhosts go offline, as swathes of the Internet go unarchives and unremember[ed/able]. In Hypnospace, their finite nature means we cannot search forever.
The Big Crunch theory postulates that at some point, the universe will cease expansion, and will recollapse unto itself as all is returned to zero. To null.
At some point, the Internet might cease expansion, and will recollapse unto itself as all is returned to zero. To null. We will not go to website, we will go to keywords. That which is unadvertisable, incompatible with commercialisation will in effect go dark. In due time fewer and fewer spaces will exist. In due time, all will be one, and one will be none.
The Big Freeze theory postulates that the universe will never cease expansion, and will drift into entropy until all is returned to absolute zero. To null.
At some point, the Internet might expand infinitely to the point of unnavigability. In a web of infinitudes, all will be irrelevant and all will be lost as data becomes unable to be quantified on any scale. In due time, one will be all, and all will be none.
The unknowability of the universe renders any theory pointless. We do not know what will happen. We cannot know what will happen.
The unknowability of the Internet renders any theory pointless. We do not know what will happen. We cannot know what will happen.
Enjoy the Internet as it is now. Enjoy the Internet as it was then. Enjoy the Internet as it will be. Forever is it in flux, forever is it a stable constant. Forever does it all drift apart, forever does it all close in. Forever shall it be known and forever shall it be unknown.
We exist in a cosmic nothing of no import.
We exist in a digital nothing of no import.
Every atom in the universe is critical to its being.
Every byte of the Internet is critical to its being.
As a historian, I live on a periphery of data boundless yet intangible. I scour for that which does not exist, may never have existed.
At the end of Hypnospace Outlaw you are tasked with archiving a wasteland.
Archive our wasteland with the Wayback Machine extension. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wayback-machine/fpnmgdkabkmnadcjpehmlllkndpkmiak https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/wayback-machine_new/
We exist at a time where unfathomable amounts of human knowledge are being erased from existence every hour of every day. This is not a deliberate book burning. This is an incidental blaze.
Save what you can.
What a beautiful thing we are a part of.
Seek the obtuse, obfuscated, and obscure.
A selection of webzones I have found and I enjoy:
https://geocities.restorativland.org/
https://web.archive.org/web/20021215085602/http://www.u-ga.com:80/jp/games/mobile.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20070902163202/http://www.cbs.com/primetime/kid_nation/
https://web.archive.org/web/20050222012115/http://everquest2.station.sony.com/pizza/
https://prairieecologist.com/2020/01/13/finally-a-practical-guide-for-roadside-wildflower-viewing/
https://web.archive.org/web/20010118210000/http://www.l0pht.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20030207171752/http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,50875,00.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20060314162213/http://www.classicgaming.com/pac-man/Pac-Games/PacManVR/pac.htm
https://www.geo-grafia.jp/product/
http://erogereport.blog.jp/archives/cat_87375.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20060515154050/http://users.stargate.net/~glshir/PLAY.HTM
https://dreamlogos.fandom.com/wiki/Dream_Logos_Wiki
https://web.archive.org/web/20150222012855/http://quitesoulless.com/story.htm
https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=Oi1qbcz2m2SnwUeztGYcnQ
https://web.archive.org/web/20030407094755/http://www.vernonjohns.org/snuffy1186/movies.html
http://www.poetpatriot.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20000229230522/http://symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/y2kgame.hoax.html
https://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/camping-in-a-u-haul-they-are-cheeper-than-an-rv-and-better-than-a-tent.53919/
https://web.archive.org/web/20140803164736/http://theodor.lauppert.ws/games/
https://tss.asenheim.org/
https://jimedwardsnrx.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/pepsi_gravitational_field.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20130812175052/http://csbruce.com/tv/clone_high/
https://xercesblau.com/
https://www.walgreens2.com/peach-ring/peach17.html?fbclid=IwAR0iWWPkq0qf2kkYIVmUgL2pPuE1023aImBPnYuwmQXAxtyXNiElOnSDlVs
http://www.secondlivestock.com/
https://origamisimulator.org/
https://web.archive.org/web/20180818104057/http://underlinestudio.com/linesbreakingnewspaper/
http://blueteethnovel.tilda.ws/
https://web.archive.org/web/20170207203428/http://pacificitysoundvisions.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20120915100800/http://meryn.ru/portfolia/
https://web.archive.org/web/20130415230745/http://www.reddit.com/
http://www.woodswoods.com/new-gallery-5
https://web.archive.org/web/20120807153003/http://weblog.liberatormagazine.com/2010/11/minstrel-show-visual-art.html
https://glasstire.com/2012/11/23/the-ten-list-walk-as-art/
https://news.ourontario.ca/page.asp?ID=2910113&po=6&n=1
https://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oaeg-front
http://1x-upon.com/~despens/teletext/
http://www.teletextart.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20060411023755/http://www.gamengai.com/main.php
http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/
https://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/
http://retroblues.sakura.ne.jp/regeokiba/index.htm
http://msx.jpn.org/tagoo/
https://fm-7.com/
https://www.gamepres.org/pc88/library/frame1.htm
http://p6ers.net/hashi/
http://furuiotoko.la.coocan.jp/
http://85data.world.coocan.jp/
http://ayachi0610.blog65.fc2.com/
https://datafruits.fm/
https://www.catsuka.com/player/binge/
http://myduckisdead.org/
https://historicfilms.com/search/?
https://www.fontsupply.com/fonts/
https://contactjuggling.org/
http://www.t0.or.at/scl/agents.htm
https://archive.org/details/TheVistaGroup-TheAndersenTiltWashWindowStory1990s
https://cursed-commercials.fandom.com/wiki/Square_Butts
https://www.yygarchive.org/
https://news.nestia.com/detail/%E4%B8%8D%E6%AD%A2%E6%9B%B9%E4%B8%95%EF%BC%9A%E8%BF%99%E6%98%AF%E4%B8%80%E6%AE%B5%E5%85%B3%E4%BA%8E%E6%97%A5%E5%BC%8F%E6%88%90%E4%BA%BA%E6%B8%B8%E6%88%8F%E7%9A%84%E7%AE%80%E5%8F%B2/6267619
https://www.jacketsjunction.com/product/wikipedia-editor-jacket/
https://opendirsearch.abifog.com/
https://vimeo.com/729784691
https://ubuweb.com/
https://discmaster.textfiles.com/browse/2902/3D%20Images.iso/bmp/a
http://web.archive.org/web/20040405155729/http://www.mbnet.fi:80/apaja/alueet/
https://carta.archive-it.org/
2 Comments
Curious thing. I actually wanted to make a review on this piece of pure love some days ago. Genius minds do think similar.
This comment was deleted
mutyumu
1 year ago
Sometimes the erasure of human knowledge/expression/art/etc happens at an incredible pace in the Internet - just Yesterday I sent my gf a meme in the braindead bird app and 10 mins later it was gone and she couldn't see it nor could I find it anywhere else. Sure, it was just something silly I sent her to brighten her day but it's kind of scary how fast all of this happens.
btw I found a lot of value in that glasstire article!
“Walking, in particular drifting, or strolling, is already – with the speed culture of our time – a kind of resistance…a very immediate method for unfolding stories.”