[-empyre-] -empyre- welcomes C-level artist/developers

["Michael Arnold-Mages" <magesm@mesanetworks.net>]

Please join us in welcoming several members of the collaborative group
C-level that, among numerous other projects, has produced the game Waco
Resurrection [ http://waco.c-level.org/ ].

Description from the Waco Resurrection website:
As predicted by his Branch Davidian followers, Vernon Howell (aka David
Koresh) has returned to Mt. Carmel for final battle. Revisiting the 1993
Waco, Texas episode, gamers enter the mind and form of a resurrected David
Koresh through custom headgear, a voice-activated, hard-plastic 3D skin.
Each player enters the network as a Koresh and must defend the Branch
Davidian compound against internal intrigue, skeptical civilians, rival
Koresh and the inexorable advance of government agents. Ensnared in the
custom "Koresh skin", players are bombarded with a soundstream of
government ?psy-ops?, FBI negotiators, the voice of God and the persistent
clamor of battle. Players voice messianic texts drawn from the book of
revelation, wield a variety of weapons from the Mount Carmel cache and
influence the behavior of both followers and opponents by radiating a
charismatic aura.

Waco Resurrection re-examines the clash of worldviews inherent in the 1993
conflict by asking players to assume the role of a resurrected "cult"
leader in order to do divine battle against a crusading government. While
the voices of far-off decision-makers seem resolute and determined, the
"grunts" who physically assault the compound appear conflicted and naive
in their roles. The game commemorates the tenth anniversary of the siege
at a unique cultural moment in which holy war has become embedded in
official government policy. In 2003, the spirit of Koresh has become a
paradoxical embodiment of the current political landscape - he is both the
besieged religious other and the logical extension of the neo-conservative
millennial vision. Waco is a primal scene of American fear: the
apocalyptic visionary - an American tradition stretching back to Jonathan
Edwards - confronts the heathen "other" - in Waco Resurrection, the roles
are anything but fixed.
...

Several of the artist/developers, including Brody Condon [
http://www.tmpspace.com/ ], Eddo Stern [ http://www.eddostern.com/ ], and
Peter Brinson will join us, examining issues of colonialism, violence, and
documentary versus fictive presentation.