70 pages, 25636 words, 22 (short) chapters.
Anyway I was working with a player who wrote this about me after I asked him to. I had little input other than I did create the front and back covers and the names for the chapters. But otherwise I wrote nothing, though he quotes me heavily.
Everything in this book is 100% true. I made it a biography and not an autobiography (which frankly I regretted not having done half way through) to make it more objective.
A large PDF talking about all of IcyGamma's projects over the last three years. A revealing, intriguing, and honest door into the perspective of IcyGamma, hated by some and loved by others, the very person who risked his key to upset Ephialtes, dedicated far too much time to eventing computers, ran everything from a radio and a magazine to a news blog, and created hours of Blockland video purely because he could.
I was asked to write this by IcyGamma. At first I thought he was taking the piss so I asked him why, and he said that he wanted to have his own 'Blockland story' or 'book' about what he did, like some other players have recently been doing. He told me he wanted it to be like a biography. In particular, he referenced Steve Job's recent book that he explained he had read. He said that a lot of his in-game inspiration for Blockland event computers was drawn from Apple. Even his last build looked unashamedly like the iMac G3 released by Apple in 1998 or so. He said, much like Job's book, he wanted it to be similar in that he didn't want to stop me from writing it my way and posting negative information. In saying that he did send me a tonne of links and snippets over email, some of which I lightly skimmed over due to them being too big. But for the most part I feel I did a good job by myself.
His reference to Steve Jobs perhaps vindicated the feeling that IcyGamma had an ego bigger than Blockland itself. It also reflected another aspect about him; his strange desire to build or create mock-realistic services, builds, and tools. Its as if Blockland was another reality for him. Another world to hide away in.
When I asked IcyGamma what he meant by the whole 'Steve Jobs book' deal, he said to me “I want a mock-book with the same vibes of his biography. In the world of Blockland, I think I may be fitting for someone who makes an interesting read.”
Someone asked me, why did you write this anyway? Privately, I like IcyGamma. I don't agree with how he acts (sorry Icy haha) but I was a fan of his videos and his builds. When I was asked to help I felt honored (but I kinda expected it due to being somewhat close to him for a while). However I feel I should remain anonymous to the wider community, as after having read about IcyGamma and seem some recent topics about him I now realize a lot of people hold contempt for what he did. And I don't want to be dragged into it. To those of you who overheard me and IcyGamma on servers or know who I am, please have some respect for me and don't blurt it out.
IcyGamma and I spoke for pretty much all of November during 2011. Through email, on Skype, and over Steam. Even sometimes we had voice chats, though IcyGamma regularly shied out of them. At one point he got a cold and demanded I leave him alone, then later apologized and spammed my inbox with “<3 <3 <3 luv joo”. But over time, through both talking to him, being sent information, and conducting my own research, I actually had real fun doing this. So without further ramblings, I welcome fans and haters to the Blockland life of IcyGamma...
Download (1.5MB PDF, Mediafire)
And please, give it a good long read so you don't sound like an idiot when you comment on things in it. Who knows, you might even be mentioned in it at some point.
