Site of the Week -- March 29, 1999
panning light years and star systems, Starshield is a role-playing game hybrid that features a professionally crafted science fiction universe augmented and expanded by its fans.
At the site's core is the Starshield universe, which was created by novelists Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. It's a universe where "relativity" is taken to new heights. According to Starshield physics, the universe is broken into areas with different physical rules. In one, magic is possible. In another, faster-than-light travel is commonplace.
The authors let their fans build around this core. Using role-playing rules developed for the site, fans can create their own "empires" based on the series. Where Starshield differs from traditional games is that its fans are encouraged to post their thoughts, ideas and stories.
Bad links and unfinished pages occasionally mar Starshield, but it is still recovering from a bad crash earlier this year. Snags aside, the site delivers on its promises, providing a place where fans can get in on the ground floor of a new universe.
-- Kenneth Newquist
Site of the Week -- March. 22, 1999
'hraarn, the author of several planetary guides--including
the popular Guide to Andamar IV--visited Earth in the 1990s and,
as usual, compiled his field notes on the inhabitants. But his Guide to
Earth damaged his reputation: No one could believe that these specimens
could be as self-destructive and short-sighted as K'hraarn described.
His astonished observations range from humans' myopic view of their
bodies ("Earth people are actually confident that they wouldn't exist
without these packages of meat and circulating fluids") to notes on a
justice system that allows criminals to go free and an all-powerful
media that's obsessed with the salacious.
The Alien's Guide to Earth, available to humans on the World Wide Web, is a well-organized site with interesting but unobtrusive graphics and music. Though "K'hraarn" occasionally sounds a bit more like an outraged human than an alien (he clearly feels for his benighted subjects), some of his Guide excerpts are trenchant and provocative. One of the site's best areas invites visiting aliens to share their own experiences on the "Garbage Planet." The lack of credits maintains the illusion of an alien's work, but unfortunately it leaves the clever site designer anonymous.
-- Mark Wilson
Site of the Week -- March 15, 1999
rgon Zark! is an online graphic novel that blasts all its competition into oblivion. The site's centerpiece is a sharply drawn "virtual comic book" that chronicles the adventures of Argon Zark, a computer geek, inventor and all-around fun guy. In the first episode, Zark invents a device that allows him--along with his new friend Zeta Farlight and his robot pal Zybert--to teleport into the Web a la Tron. Once there he and his cohorts run into the horrific monster Bad Nasty Jumpjump, who proceeds to chase them through cyberspace.
What separates Argon Zark! from the rest of the online comic books is its crisp graphics, fun story and snappy dialogue (which is filled with running jokes and science fiction movie references). The artwork also loads quickly considering the content, something that's not often true of similar endeavors. Site creator Charley Parker, a confessed Mac fanatic and computer artist, has created a project that the comic big boys at Marvel and DC could learn a thing or two from.
-- Kenneth Newquist
