Play it 4-ward video discussion

[Zukan]

Lorne Lanning was recently featured in a panel discussing Cybercrime, privacy and police on the internet.
You can watch the discussion here, and also a longer personal statement from Lorne here.

At the same time, he also took the opportunity to announce his new social networking project:
"The Antisocial Network"

My thesis is this: If enemies can attract and engage in fun together, they will grow closer. And on that basis, [I'm working on a project that will grab] a global base of users that are attracting for all the wrong reasons towards one another, contextualizing their angst in the real world and connecting it to the angst that they display in game experiences.

It's a crazy idea. It's a bit radical and insane, but I believe it will work.

This project is called the Antisocial Network. There's a lot of social networks happening out there right now, but the Antisocial Network is the place you're going to find your real enemies, then lock and load.

He also confirms that he's started a new company called "Oddmobb Inc.", though I'm not sure if that means they've dropped Oddworld Inhabitants (any of you mods know?).
Apparently the site www.oddmobb.com will be up soon.

[Aleks55]

The link for the oddmob didn't work, but I can just Google it.

But its good to hear that they are still making new stuff, but I still hope that they are making citizen siege.

[Leto]

Antisocial Networking, OOH HOW CONTRARY.

Man's lost his spark. Completely. Has he not heard Arsebook? Evidentally not.

[Nate]

I wonder what he was smoking when he came up with that idea. Sounds like it was some good shit.

[Taco]

Lanning looks like Aragorn.

EDIT: couldnt access oddmob.com, but check this out http://games.on.net/article/7126/Com...nnings_OddMobb

[Wil]

What the fuck?

[Leto]

Isn't that kind of against everything Lorne has ever stood for: to make Oddworld a big corporate identity?

[Wil]

How is it even remotely doing that?

This is an ambitious idea, but I'm not sure I can see exactly where Lorne's coming from. As far as I can tell it's a giant complaints desk. I hope more details come to light soon, because the Antisocial Network needs to be sold better. Or maybe this is like the Citizen Siege "announcement" that's really targeting potential investors.

Fuck knows where we talk about this on the Oddworld Forums. =P

[hidden]

I have hope things will pull through, that he'll accomplish Citizen Seige, and maybe the two proposed games that came with it, although with this it begs to differ considering all the false alarms that have arrisen previously.
Then again, there's a saying that in order to have a good idea, it pays to have lots of them. He's just a bit too generous in giving them out, or rather the media has been.
And in this case I think it's just another one of his poetential ideas. Maybe he should just focus on getting ONE thing done at a time and actually do somthing.

[Xavier]

What the fuck?

I'm quite flabbergasted too I must say...

[Hazz-JB]

Sorry, what's so suprising/bad about this? It sounds like a novel idea if nothing else. At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I'm quite excited about the idea of OWI expanding into other markets, it will be interesting to see what comes out of Oddmobb.

[OANST]

If Xavier hadn't already quoted it, I would have.

Wait. What the fuck?

I don't get it. I'm not even going to talk shit about it. I just don't get it.

Edit: Look what I found: http://www.ruduzu.com/


And this: http://twatter.com/

And this: http://isolatr.com/

And this: http://tan.appbbs.com/

And this: http://www.youhate.it/

[Wil]

Hazz, what's so surprising about this is that OWI has always been a supplier of speculative fiction, whether that's through the medium of video games, films or promotional websites. Oddworld, Citizen Siege, Pound Dog, all fit this. A social networking site? That's quite outside the box.

It's like Google bringing out a line of Christmas decorations, or McDonald's opening up its small furry kitten calendar division. They're perfectly entitled to. It's just... huh?

I still have no particular judgement.

[Crashpunk]

I love the Idea of Oddmobb

[Josh]

There needen't be More Social Networking sites on the interwebs. Twitter and Facebook are plenty. I don't count MySpace because it's full of angsty teens, emos and bands.

[Zukan]

It sounds to me like TAN is somehow connected to gaming, it's not a facebook wannabe but something much more gaming oriented. If you know the games on facebook you know they're not really "games" per say, more like devices to help pass the time, but they are integrated to the networking system so people can play together. I think he wants to take the social aspect of those sites and use it in something much more gaming oriented.
I guess we'll just have to wait until that Oddmobb site comes up to see what's going on.

[Sekto Springs]

I think it's time we work on a list of questions to pose to Lorne.

[Xavier]

I think it's time we work on a list of questions to pose to Lorne.

Why not, do you have some in mind?

[OANST]

So Lorne, where exactly did it all go wrong?

[Sekto Springs]

As I understand it, Justin will try his damndest to arrange a meeting with him come Oddtour. If this happens, he and I could thoroughly probe him for information and have him answer our many "wtf"s.

[Hazz-JB]

Hazz, what's so surprising about this is that OWI has always been a supplier of speculative fiction, whether that's through the medium of video games, films or promotional websites. Oddworld, Citizen Siege, Pound Dog, all fit this. A social networking site? That's quite outside the box.

It's like Google bringing out a line of Christmas decorations, or McDonald's opening up its small furry kitten calendar division. They're perfectly entitled to. It's just... huh?

I still have no particular judgement.

There's no doubt it's strange, but isn't this old news? The post on OddBlog about the new patents suggested it months ago:

Seven patents filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Monday 5 October hint towards the future projects of Lorne Lanning. The patents, all under the name of OddMobb, cover a variety of media including video games, action figures, card games, board games, novels, online social networking service, and online 3D virtual environment featuring user generated content.

I just didn't think it was that suprising given that most of us have seen that blog post, and alot of Lorne's interviews hinting at such things.

Also, he seems to be talking about a gaming network, rather than a general networking site like Facebook so it's still game related. I have no idea how the anti-social aspect of it is going to work.

[OANST]

I'm surprised by how stupid it sounds.

No, I'm not.

[MojoMan220]

Not sure what all the fuss is about. At this point we don't have anything to go on except that it's a social networking platform that incorporates gaming. Lorne has always been about elevating gaming to a greater mainstream potential through innovative means. Calling it stupid at this point is absurd.

That being said, I understand the confusion/frustration. I'm frustrated too. Unfortunately Lorne and company don't have the luxury to focus on a singular idea because the money simply isn't there. Sure, it would be real nice if they could stick with Citizen Siege or Oddworld, but without the funding, they can't so much as employ a staff. The best we can hope for is that one or two of these ideas generate enough interest from a financier so they can in effect realize more of their Oddworld related projects.

That panel discussion was pretty cool as well. Lorne is quite the intellectual. Also noted the Aragorn resemblance.

[Leto]

How is it even remotely doing that?

This is an ambitious idea, but I'm not sure I can see exactly where Lorne's coming from. As far as I can tell it's a giant complaints desk. I hope more details come to light soon, because the Antisocial Network needs to be sold better. Or maybe this is like the Citizen Siege "announcement" that's really targeting potential investors.

Fuck knows where we talk about this on the Oddworld Forums. =P

lern2read the links posted above you

http://games.on.net/article/7126/Com...nnings_OddMobb

Oddmobb = larger OWI branding

[OANST]

Calling it stupid at this point is absurd.

It's described as a place where people who don't like each other can have it out, and end up becoming the greatest of friends. That's some stupid hippy shit that will never work on the internet.

[Leto]

that's kinda how i view oddworld foru-

[OANST]

Oh, my god. We were the beta.

They're brilliant.

[MojoMan220]

I'm pretty sure he wasn't pitching the idea to anybody. It's a tease and nothing more, hence the lack of details of any kind. It certainly could turn out to be a stupid idea, but I'm not sure, and I'm safe to assume you're not sure how they will blend gaming and social networking. Perhaps you are correct on the "hippy shit" part (Oddworld in general is "hippy shit" at its core), but I'm just not prepared to call it stupid based on a fleeting tease on some random site.

To Leto:
There's a difference between a big evil corporation and a big corporation. Regardless, this won't mean Lorne and Sherry will be pulling anybodies strings. It's not like they'll suddenly have all this "pull" in the industry.

[Leto]

You can't spell "big evil corporation" without "corporation".

[MojoMan220]

There's a lot of truth to that, but Lorne isn't nearly ruthless enough. Sherry on the other hand would have been a filthy rich CEO of some puppy killing factory if she hadn't paired up with Lorne and his silly "vision" and equally grating morals. She's a little scary to be honest.