michaelmaurer.net

Hundreds of sleazy cover-shots from now-defunct Elvifrance. If I understand its french Wikipedia-entry correctly, Elvifrance must have been the darling of the commission for censorship: With 532 titles rated X and 176 completely barred from distribution, you can tell reading these must have been a lot of... fun.

Starting out in the 70's with comics centering on horror, humor and adventure, EF increasingly added gore and sex to the mix. With the rise of VHS and cable companies like Canal+, the 80's spelled the end for raunchy adult comics in black & white. Changing from soft sex to porn didn't help much, and they had to close shop in 1992.

Here's a pre-selection of fun-looking covers, in case you're too lazy to sift through the vast archives. (Found via Robin Bougie's Adult-Underground-Blog)

I don't remember what brought me to J.G. Ballard.

I think it was that time during my twenties, where I scanned other people's Amazon-booklists for hours and hours and hours. Ivan Goncharov, Knut Hamsen, Julio Cortázar, Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Osamu Dazai are but a few of the fascinating authors I found this way.

And then there was Ballard with his RE/Search-edition of The Atrocity Exhibition, a lovingly illustrated and annotated version of the seminal masterpiece from 1970.

Heavily influenced by Cut-Up-writers like William Burroughs, it's a mesmerizing blend of pop-cultural artefacts, memes and tropes. "Why I want to fuck Ronald Reagan", "The University of Death", "You: Coma: Marylin Monroe" are just some of the chapter titles that sound like unsung songs of the best band that never was (am I starting to cry?). People die and reappear, landscapes and psyches merge, World War III is about to happen, Marylin Monroe commits suicide, JFK gets assasinated and the protagonist's (a psychiatrist) mind slides further into a full-blown psychosis.

They hung on the enameled walls like the codes of insoluble dreams, the keys to a nightmare in which she had begun to play a more willing and calculated role. Primly she buttoned her white coat as Dr. Nathan approached, holding his gold-tipped cigarette to one nostril. 'Ah, Dr. Austin...What do you think of them? I see there's War in Hell.'

Based on the 1998 japanese manga of the same name, Cat Shit One - The animated series ("Apocalypse Meow" in Europe) chronicles the adventures of soldiers Botaski, Perkins and Rats in the middle east. And they are bunnies. Alongside koalas (Australians), pigs (French), rats (British) and pandas (Chinese).

Perkins and his crew - members of top-notch recon group "Cat Shit One" - are Americans. Originally set in the vietnam war, it was rumored that the animated series would take place during the Iran hostage crisis. According to unofficial english subtitles for the movie trailer, a setting after 1991 is more likely.

I must say, I'm impressed. Motofumi Kobayashi borrowed a few pages from Art Spiegelmann, obviously, but the styling is more reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid 4. Hopefully this will be hard-hitting and realistic, and not some cuddly version of Rambo. Stay tuned for updates on the release schedule for Europe and the US. Oh, and go watch the trailer. (Found via Robin Bougie's Adult-Underground-Blog)

FTA:
To read the diagram, it's easiest to follow individual lines of connection. Every "wire" in the piece starts from a battery, or a motivation, and passes through some character and some other set of switches and resistors before making its way back to the same battery, but this time to the other side: the payoff. Reading it this way, you can track the individuals' activities and relationships. The neighborhood is filled with sexual promiscuity, given that was my first premise, but if you look closely, there's also a murder mystery. Well. At least a few murders.

Hey, it's a nice spring day and I don't feel like revelling in existential nihilism 24/7. Have fun or turn your box off and go outside. (Found via Biella Coleman's Interprete)

What a weird painting.

I believe it was J.G. Ballard who introduced me to Böcklin's "Isle of the Dead" (1880-1888) for the first time four years ago. A reference buried somewhere in his notes to "The Atrocity Exhibition", his seminal literary work, my own discovery of this symbolist masterpiece was only one Google Image Search away.

I usually hate dreamy surreal stuff, but somehow this got to me. Using the landscape to reflect emotional and psychological states of mind is akin to the romantic tradition, but I believe this here goes one step further.

There is no overpowering nature like in the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, leaving the protagonist helpless and small. Alltogether its language seems more tempered and contained than the language of its romanticist counterparts. More "mature" in a way, I would like to say.

From the sepulchral portals similar to the english cemetary in Florence, to the fact that he buried 8 of his 14 children, it's a collage of various facets of Böcklins life.

But that's not important, nor do you have to know about it. Citing Böcklin, the painting is supposed to "produce such a stillness that one would be awed by a knock on the door". I don't know about the stillness, but it definitely stuck in my head since that first time I saw it four years ago.

I've shied away from compiling my own stuff in the past, due to the fact that I never knew what development-libraries are required by each application.

Well I still don't know, but it doesn't matter anymore. If you're on Ubuntu or Debian, all you have to do is this:

apt-get build-dep $application

and the required libraries will be downloaded and installed on your system ($application is the name of the app you're trying to compile (e.g. firefox)). The caveat being that in order to automagically download the libraries, the given application must be available through a specified repository. In the case of Firefox, this is not a problem. If you're trying to compile something esoteric or brand-new, you're back to sifting through the configure-log. But hey, it's a start.

To recap (explicit version):

1. Download source code of $application
2. tar xvf $application.tar.gz
2. apt-get build-dep $application (sudo... if you're on Ubuntu)
3. cd $application
4. ./configure (or follow instructions in README- or INSTALL-file)
5. make
6. make install (sudo... if you're on Ubuntu)

(The picture above was taken in Berlin, near Schlesisches Tor)

Written during his incarceration for computer-related crimes in the 80's and 90's, Kevin Mitnick's "The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security" sheds some light on non-technical vulnerabilities of modern-day companies. Mitnick was locked up for gaining unauthorized access to various corporate network infrastructures, Pacific Bell and DEC being the most prominent examples.

But as this book shows, you don't need leet haxxing skills to aquire trade secrets or the phone number of the CEO's mistress. All you need is... humans that trust other humans. Really. That's about it. I just saved you 10 bucks and a bunch of reading hours to come to this conclusion. Guess I "hacked" your marketing plan there, Kevin, didn't I?

Not so. Although "Social Engineering" has been around for a while, it's still fun to read about individual exploits and the persons and industries involved. A little bit of chutzpe plus lack of morals and charisma, and you're set.

But remember kids, crime does not pay!

What you're looking at is Eldridge Cleaver's foray into the exciting world of genitalia-jeans-design. Yes, that's right, not only was he the spokesperson for the Black Panther Party and a renowned writer, he also found some time to enrich 70's couture-culture with a certain "je-ne-sais-quoi".

Tried to find some of these on Ebay, but no luck. Maybe some young and upcoming designer could reissue a modernized version? Some extra space for the balls would be nice.

I'm currently in ze german capital until end of this month, and hopefully will have some pictures online in the next couple of days. I'm typing this on my 1999 Apple Powerbook running Linux. Apart from not being able to display Youtube-Videos, it performs quite well. Definitely good enough to write, check mail and read newspapers. Kinda like a typewriter with WLAN. Funny. Thinking about it, I guess I should post a few pointers on how to rejuvenate ten year old hardware with a modern OS.

The crowning achievement of communist game-design-power that is Soviet Unterzögersdorf: Sektor II, is finally ready for your proletarian downloading. I must confess I've never gotten around to playing Sektor I, but since it's free and available for Mac, Win and Linux, there are no excuses left.

FTA:
Soviet Unterzoegersdorf (pronounced "oon-taa-tsee-gars-doorf") is the last existing client republic of the USSR. The soviet enclave maintains no diplomatic relationship with the surrounding so-called "Republic of Austria" or with the capitalist fortress "European Union". The downfall of the people's motherland -- the Soviet Union -- in the early 1990s had a devastating effect on the country's intra-economic situation. External reactionary forces threatened the last remaining proletarian paradise. Party secretary Wladislav Gomulka has been kidnapped and is being held in US-Oberzoegersdorf. We must save comrade Gomulka! Because communism isn't an opinion. It's a promise.

Not much to say about this one, really. It was created last weekend at half one in the morning, whilst watching Lethal Weapon and Die Hard. Actually I started watching Lethal Weapon, but then switched to Die Hard because I like it better.

The text was supposed to be a placeholder; I was too tired too really think of something smart and decided to finish it the next morning. I spent about an hour staring at the image after I woke up, not really knowing what to do. Somehow it fits. Somehow it doesn't.

Maybe that's it.

Yotto Bano spends his life drawing fat bearded men on walls, streets and about everything that's lying around in the public space. Putting the "cute" in "subculture", his loving renditions of bears (i.e. fat bearded man) hover somewhere between comics and graffiti art. Not that he really cares about boundaries. Stark drawings in black and white alternate with multi-colored tableaus of byzantine proportions. Check out http://ursulalala.blogspot.com and tell him to finally get his stuff on CafePress.

"The French Democracy" zeigt die Unruhen der Pariser Vorstädte. Gedreht mit Hilfe eines Computerspiels. Die Machinima-Revolution und der neue politische Film.

Brennende Autos, Polizei-Gewalt und latenter Rassismus - was wie eine Zusammenfassung der Ereignisse in Frankreich im letzten Monat klingt, ist der Inhalt des Films "The French Democracy" von Alex Chan. Das besondere an Chans Film ist nicht nur die Geschwindigkeit, mit der über das Medium auf ein politisches Ereignis eingegangen wurde, sondern vor allem seine Machart.

Brennende Autos, Polizei-Gewalt und latenter Rassismus - was wie eine Zusammenfassung der Ereignisse in Frankreich im letzten Monat klingt, ist der Inhalt des Films "The French Democracy" von Alex Chan. Das besondere an Chans Film ist nicht nur die Geschwindigkeit, mit der über das Medium auf ein politisches Ereignis eingegangen wurde, sondern vor allem seine Machart. Es ist ein so genannter "Machinima", ein Film der mit Hilfe eines Computer-Spiels gemacht wurde. Diese seit 1997 existierende Subkultur verwendet meist Ego-Shooter oder Online-Rollenspiele als Vorlage für ihre Filme. Die Szenen werden dabei mit Hilfe der Spiel-Charaktere inszeniert und gefilmt, anschließend wird das ganze synchronisiert und mit der neuen Ton-Spur versehen.

Diesen Trend hat Peter Molyneux erkannt und im November sein Spiel "The Movies" herausgebracht, das sich dezidiert an ambitionierte Amateur-Filmer richtet. Abgesehen von mehr Freiheiten in Sachen Setting und Kamera-Einstellung, kann die fertige Produktion auf eine Community-Webpage hochgeladen werden.

Und diese zählt bereits 19.000 Einträge. Zusätzlich zur Möglichkeit des Downloads kann das Ganze auch kommentiert werden. Besonders stark wird davon im Falle von "The French Democracy" gebrauch gemacht: Der Film sei eine Simplifizierung, Opfer derselben Logik die er anprangert, der Film sei genial. Die insgesamt 262 Kommentare zeigen auf wie die Öffentlichkeit das Geschehene wahrgenommen hat und wie schwer es ist das Thema in jedwelchem Medium zu behandeln.

Das diese ganze Dynamik aus Ereignis, Produktion und Kommentaren fast ohne finanziellen Aufwand entstehen konnte, ist das Schöne an Machinima. Es zeigt den Weg in eine Zukunft, in der Filme kommerziell ungebunden in die ganze Welt verbreitet werden können. Die Diskussion ist dabei online und international.

Natürlich wird dabei viel Schrott entstehen. Nicht jeder der 19.000 Einträge ist es wert angesehen zu werden. Aber die Möglichkeit ist da. Und mit ihr der leise Gedanke an eine politische Dimension des Mediums Film wie sie seit 1968 nicht mehr vorstellbar war.

(This piece was first published in 2005, and has been featured on this site ever since. When I made the switch to a different CMS last month, everything got lost. The following days will be about re-publishing items I believe are newsworthy, or provide some level of entertainment. Don't worry, this blog is still bilingual and will remain so.)

25 Jahre nach dem Tod des Beatles darf gemütlich im Web mit ihm geplauscht werden. Ob Irak, Yoko Ono oder sein Verhältnis zu Paul - das John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project steht Rede und Antwort.

Das John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project, kurz JLAIP, ist ein Chatterbot der amerikanischen Firma Triumph PC. Diese autonom agierenden Computer-Programme bilden den Schein eines echten Gesprächspartners und lassen sich vom User nach Strich und Faden ausfragen. Das heißt solange der User der "künstlichen Intelligenz" (KI) die richtigen Stichwörter liefert. So konnte ich nicht umhin, John Lennon zur gegenwärtigen Lage im Irak auszufragen:

> Michael
Hey, Michael , You know my name, look up the number.

> What's your take on the war in Iraq
My take on the war in iraq ? What's your's Michael ?

> I don't know. It sucks?
Would you like to know, Michael ? Is it worth a few bob to you to find out?

> Yeah. Please tell me about the war in Iraq.
How did you hear about the John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project?

> Haha. My questions are too much for you.
Ho Ho

> Don't laugh at me.
Ok I'll try not to do it too much.

Ok, an diesem Punkt angelangt dachte ich mir dass ich es dem Programm ein bißchen einfacher machen will. Um halbwegs vernünftige Antworten auf den Krieg in Irak zu geben mangelts scheinbar an künstlicher Intelligenz. Da hat das Programm ja einiges mit dem amerikanischen Präsidenten gemeinsam, haha, superwitzig!

> So what's up with Yoko. You still think about her?
I've no idea. Perhaps I should ask you.

> Who broke up the Beatles?
The Eastmans. If Linda hadn't gotten involved with Paul and brought in Lee and
John Eastman, the Beatles might've survived. Okay?

> Do you like Paul?
You know, after I left the Beatles, I used to wear a button that said "I like
Paul". People would stop and say "But I thought you hated Paul?"

> Give Peace a Chance?
psst! (We're selling it like soap)

> Imagine all the people.
What kind of people are you talking about?

OK, ihr versteht den Dreh. Für ein nettes halbes Stündchen (besser: 10 Minuten) am Vormittag oder Nachmittag reicht die KI alle mal. Bei komplexeren Fragen macht das Programm wie die meisten seiner Art-Genossen schnell schlapp und liefert Standard-Antworten. Wer mehr über dieses Thema nachlesen oder andere Bots ausprobieren will, sehe hier, hier und hier nach. Bitte auch nicht ELIZA, die 39 Jahre alte Großmutter dieser Frage-Antwort-Programme vergessen.

(This piece was first published in 2005, and has been featured on this site ever since. Problem is, when I made the switch to a different CMS last month, everything got lost. The following days will be about re-publishing items I believe are newsworthy, or provide some level of entertainment. Don't worry, this blog is still bilingual and will remain so.)

Mit Thinking Machine wird der Computer zum psychedelischen Schach-Partner. In Java programmiert und über jeden Browser abrufbar, verwandelt das Programm die Spiel-Analyse in ein leuchtendes Netzwerk aus möglichen Zügen. Dabei kommt es ganz ohne "Türken" aus.

Der Reiz des Spiels ist schnell erklärt: Alle möglichen Züge des Programms werden mit Hilfe von grünen und gelben Neon-Linien illustriert. Diese reichen von der aktuellen bis zur zukünftigen Position der jeweiligen Spielfigur. Damit das Ganze nicht im Farbengewirr untergeht, werden "wahrscheinlichere" Züge mit dickeren Linien ausgestattet.

Die einzige Voraussetzung, die der Spieler für Thinking Machine mitbringen muss, ist das kostenlose Java-Plugin. Wie in der Stellungnahme der Macher bereits erwähnt wird, könnte Schach-Anfängern die abstrakte Gestaltung der Figuren Probleme machen. Turnier-Spieler hingegen dürften mit dem Programm keine Schwierigkeiten haben. Wer erst mal üben will oder ein "saubereres" Schachfeld bevorzugt, ist mit Free Chess besser beraten.

Schachautomaten, die Vorläufer der heutigen Schach-Programme, gab es übrigens schon so früh wie 1796. Damals stellte der österreichische Mechaniker Wolfgang von Kempelen seinen "Schachtürken" vor. Die Holzkiste schien selbständig Züge zu berechnen, und sie dann mittels einer in türkischer Tracht gekleideten Puppe zu bewegen. In Wirklichkeit lag im Herzen des "Schachtürken" ein selbstständiger Mensch verborgen.

Im 20. Jahrhundert gab es dann bereits Deep Blue, der 200,000,000 Positionen pro Sekunde berechnen konnte, ohne einen Menschen in seiner Hardware versteckt zu halten. Allerdings scheint selbst das nicht eindeutig bewiesen: Als Garri Kasparow 1997 gegen den Supercomputer von IBM verlor, sprach er davon Intelligenz und Kreativität in dessen Züge gesehen zu haben. Er hielt den IBM-Entwicklern vor, der Maschine unter die Arme gegriffen zu haben. Tatsächlich ließen die Regeln eine Modifizierung der Strategie Deep Blues zwischen den Spielen zu. So konnte das Programm an die Strategie Kasparows angepasst werden, es kann also nur von Teil-Autonomie gesprochen werden.

Wer mehr Lust auf Schach bekommen hat und dem Java-Spielchen nicht genügen, sollte mal einen Blick auf Fritz werfen. Dieses Schach-Programm für Windows bietet alle Schikanen von historischen Spielen, Trainern und Online-Multi-Player bis zur Auswahl verschiedener Engines.

The following is a short book-review for "Doom: Knee-Deep in the Dead" I published on Amazon.com. Yes, it's a book for Doom, the video game. And it's awesome (of course it's awesome, how could it be anything else?). This was written three years ago, apparently I was into the "Hello my name is Bobby"-school-of-writing back then:

I bought "Knee-Deep in the Dead" because I wanted a light read and I was interested in how the authors remix a video game into literature. I read the first 100 pages in two days, enjoying the cheesy inner monologue and the hack'n'slash encounters with zombies.

It was exactly what I expected after playing the game countless times. The authors stick very close to the level-progression of the game, making it easy to reminisce in nostalgia and compare it to your personal experience.

They filled some of the gaps in the story-line by interpreting some of the visuals you encounter in the game (e.g. they theorize about why aliens use human symbols inside their buildings).

So all is well and good? Not quite so. After 150 pages, it sorta became a rinse-and-repeat affair. Sure, there's not much to say about a game that has "kill everything that moves" as its prime objective.

Zombies increase and bigger foes appear, but I never felt any concern for the main character. Maybe because I knew there were still 150 pages to go, and he was the main character.

Anyway, don't expect Shakespeare but more of a dumb Clive Barker and you're set.

Gastkommentar von peegee deluxe:

the watchmen:
lang, aber durchgehend spannend; dosiert gewalttätig, aber keine sinnlos stumpfe dauerprügelei; optisch anspruchsvoll, aber kein überflüssiges eyecandy-schnickschnack. hat der film nicht nötig da sinnvolle handlung vorhanden von der man nicht ablenken muss.

hätte ich nicht gedacht und erwartet - bin überzeugt, der wird sin city & co. endlich als das enttarnen, was sie sind: platte 1:1 übersetzungen ohne jegliche tiefe.

der soundtrack hat (bis auf nena) auch keine schwächen: "the times they are a-changin'" komplett als einstieg vorgespielt zu bekommen ist neu - genauso wie hendrix "all along the watchtower" als untermalung einer actionszene - grandios.

the spirit: die absolute antithese zu watchmen. platte 1:1 übersetzung ohne jegliche tiefe. richtig richtig uncooler film. ich hoffe frank miller darf nie wieder regie führen. er kann es nicht.

FTA:
Was mit einer scheinbar so konkreten Aufgabe wie dem Ziehen einer Demarkationslinie beginnt, mündet für die beiden Helden in Leopold Maurers Miller & Pynchon bald in den Widerspruch zwischen streng mathematischer Ordnung und tatsächlich herrschendem Chaos, in den Zwiespalt von allgemeiner Wissen- und eigener Leidenschaft.

Das neue Comic meines Bruders, jetzt erhältlich in allen (gut sortierten) österreichischen Buchhandlungen. Kaufen!

My ongoing Twitter-Cut-up, http://twitter.com/michaelmaurer, has been updated to version 0.2.

This time, a very simple python script is responsible for extracting random sentences from five years of writing. Diary-entries, short stories, scribbles, essays - basically everything I wrote becomes subject to some random tombola.

This is what it looks like:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import random
import sys

input_file = open(sys.argv[1])
print(random.choice(input_file.read().split('. ')) + '.')

All that's left for me to do is to pipe the "hand-picked" sentence to TTYtter, and thus forward it to my Twitter-Account. For managing the updates, I've set up a simple cron entry.

0 0-15/3 * * * /bin/cutup.sh

That's all there is to it. Now I can watch my twitter getting populated with stuff I'd already forgotten about. It's nice for a brainstorm now and then. Just give it a try.

A New Zero is a nice little online shooter-sim, currently available as a free beta. The purpose of the game is to destroy the enemy's base by boat or plane, using missiles, bombs or cannons. And that's it, really.

The minimalist visuals provide a kind of Tron-era-atmosphere, with units made of basic geometric shapes and subject to bizarre in-game physics.

The location for your fighting is functional and beautiful as well: A square on an endless sea, the sky a linear gradient and the sun a circle that rises and falls as the day progresses. It's like 80's retro meets network gaming inside a bubble of zen-like tranquility.

Best of all, you only need to download a 900 KB installer - the game itself fits into one 432 KB executable.

If this were an art blog, this would be the moment where I copy-paste some gender-theory-blurb found via Google. Well since this is more of an "artiste"-blog, I'll just go ahead and say "Whoah... it's Vagina dentata, dude!"

Tokyo Gore Police is director Yoshihiro Nishimura's second major feature film after 2008's infamous Machine Girl. Released only a few weeks later, TGP continues to walk the fine line between splatter-gore and comedy - yes, comedy.

With its gratuitous use of fake blood, mutated genitalia and over-the-top violence, you can't help but think that someone must have been taking the piss. You're free to take it seriously though. Just watch the trailer and decide for yourself.

EDIT: Lest I forget: The story revolves around a virus that turns humans into mutants. Mutants that grow "bizarre" weapons from every injury they receive. Yeah, use your imagination. Or not.

Taking a quick glance at the last few entries, I realize they have been somewhat downbeat. Well this is all going to change right now, because I will introduce you to "Hello Kitty Online", "the cutest game world ever"!

Yes, Sanrio Corp's merchandising juggernaut has finally managed to sneak into the world of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). Judging by the official trailer, your main job will be trying to survive the cute overload on screen. I mean, look at the colours. It's like somebody is trying to stab you with candy-sticks, while simultaneously throwing up marsh-mellows in your face.

But no seriously, it's probably awesome. You can beat up monsters, talk to Sanrio-characters, farm (?), customize your avatar and walk through Kitty-nized versions of Beijing and Paris. Hey, what's this? Four horsemen are waving at me from that hill over there. Hello horsemen! Sheesh, they look pretty grim.

Sometimes it pays off to stay up late and watch whatever artsy movie public broadcasting coughs up. Like this morning, when ORF showed 1951's "Die Sünderin" ("The Sinner"), starring Hildegard Knef. It's probably one of the weirdest movies I've seen in a long time, and definitely the weirdest post-war flick I've ever seen.

Telling the story of Marina, a german girl struggling as a prostitute, it's not so much what is being told, but how. There is very little dialogue, with Hildegard Knef narrating every move and story-twist from beginning to end.

And Jesus Christ, her voice and technique are just amazing! After ten minutes, I was hooked. Hildegard could probably tell me about nuts and bolts and the inner workings of a Diesel engine, but it would still be the saddest thing I'd have ever heard.

"Die Sünderin" raised quite a stir back in the 50's, featuring one of the first nude scenes plus a kind of lax moral stance on suicide and euthanasia. The catholic church went mental, crying foul over the movies lack of "proper" morals, and demanded its boycott. Well... it became a huge hit. Guess I didn't see that one coming.

Today, "Die Sünderin" looks like some kind of proto-Fassbender. With its protagonist's life doomed from the start, it combines intimate story-telling with innovative cinematic techniques. And of course Hildegard Knef, whose voice transforms the whole experience into something - I dare say - timeless.

NPR's Juarez: A City on the Edge is one of the most unsettling radio features I've recently listened to.

Divided by the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, it tells the story of the largest border community on the planet. Embodying the collision between industrial might and third-world-poverty, its 2.5 million people are witness to shocking levels of violence and crime. Women disappear, men get tortured, courageous state attorneys get killed. Worst of all, this kind of disregard for human life has become normal.

Writers, lawyers, gang members and grieving families share their testimonials in this 45-minute special. Don't miss it.

HellMOO is a text-only multiplayer online-game, taking place somewhere in the far, post-apocalyptic future. I've played it only for a short amount of time, but it's pretty crazy. Eating dogs, beating up clowns, taking drugs and making out with other players - basically you're able to do almost anything that crosses your contaminated mind.

At its core, it's still a conventional Adventure-RPG with everything that entails: Levelling up, buying better weapons, exploring increasingly dangerous areas, completing missions... but that's not why you should play it. You should play it because it's a) lovingly written, b) probably runs on your computer and c) makes for a great opportunity to meet other deranged people online. Oh yeah, and it's free too.

More info on how to play in the corresponding forum thread. If you don't know what a MOO or a MUD is, consult the W.