Nolen Royalty, known as eieio, keeps the internet fun with experimental multiplayer games

Nolen Royalty is a game developer and software engineer who makes experimental massively multiplayer games and elaborate technical jokes at eieio.games.

Here at Mozilla, we are the first to admit the internet isn't perfect, but we know the internet is pretty darn magical. The internet opens up doors and opportunities, allows for human connection, and lets everyone find where they belong - their corners of the internet. We all have an internet story worth sharing. In My Corner Of The Internet, we talk with people about the online spaces they can't get enough of, the sites and forums that shaped them, and how they would design their own corner of the web.

We caught up with Nolen Royalty, known as eieio, the creator of experimental multiplayer games like One Million Checkboxes and Stranger Video. He talks about the forums that shaped him, the deep dives he can't get enough of, and why he still believes in an internet made for fun.

What is your favorite corner of the internet?

Fun question!

Growing up, I spent a *ton* of time on internet forums for different games. I moved a lot as a kid and forums were a fun way to stay in touch with a consistent group of people as I moved. I was on too many forums to list, but I spent the most time on this site called TeamLiquid that was (at the time) a place where people gathered to talk about the Korean professional Starcraft scene. I spent over a decade regularly posting on TeamLiquid and have a bunch of real-life friends that I met via the site. I miss forums!!

These days my favorite corners are a couple of smaller chats for some communities that I'm involved in. I spend a lot of time in the Zulip (open-source Slack) for the Recurse Center (a writer's retreat for programmers) and in some smaller chats with other friends that do creative internet tech stuff. It's really really nice to have a place to share your work without the incentives of social media.

What is an internet deep dive that you can't wait to jump back into?

One of my favorite things is when I find a new internet writer whose work I enjoy - especially if they've been at it for a while. I looove going through the entire archive of a new (to me) blog.

I think my most recent blog binge was Adrian Hon's excellent games blog (mssv.net). But I'm always on the lookout for new writers!

What is the one tab you always regret closing?

Ooh I normally think about the tabs that I regret opening!

I think my biggest regular regret here is when I find a new tech-internet-artist person and close out their site without remembering to bookmark it

What can you not stop talking about on the internet right now?

I probably don't *talk* about this on the internet as much as I should, but one thing I constantly think about is how social media has warped our understanding of what exists on the internet.

Sometimes when I make a game people tell me that it reminds them of the old internet." When they say this I think that they basically mean that I've made something fun and unmonetized largely for the joy of...making something fun. And because there's a whole professional social media ecosystem that didn't exist 20 years ago, it can feel like there are fewer people doing that now.

But I don't think that's true! There is SO much cool stuff out there on the internet - I think there's way more than when I was a kid! It's just that there's way more stuff *period* on the internet these days. Going on the internet is much more a part of participating in society than it was in the 2000s, and so you have to search a little more for the good stuff.

But it's out there!

What was the first online community you engaged with?

Definitely internet forums! I *think* the first forum I joined was either for fans of the site Homestar Runner or for this game I was really into called Kingdom of Loathing. This was ~20 years ago (!) so I would have been 12 or 13 at the time. I really miss pre-social media niche communities; there's a totally different to making a whole account somewhere *just* to talk about your niche interest vs surfing between a million different niches on a big social platform.

If you could create your own corner of the internet, what would it look like?

In a lot of ways I feel like I already have this! I have my small communities (the Recurse Center, my little friend groups) where folks create and share cool work. And I have my site, where I build and write about fun things. And I love all of that.

But if I could wave a magic wand and change the internet or create something new, I'd think about how to create a social media site with better incentives. That is, I think most platforms encourage you to think in terms of likes or views when sharing your work. But in my experience those metrics aren't always aligned with making good" work - they're often aligned with making work that is easy to share or to understand. And I think that affects the type of work people share on those platforms in big and small ways.

I care about this a lot because when I make a massively multiplayer website - which is my favorite thing to do - I *need* a bunch of players. A website like One Million Checkboxes doesn't work if it's just me. And the only way that I know how to find a massive player base is with social media.

What articles and/or videos are you waiting to read/watch right now?

After an eight-year hiatus one of my favorite things on the internet - the youtube channel Every Frame a Painting - has uploaded new videos! I got to see their first new video live at XOXO last year but I've been saving their remaining videos for the right moment - maybe a time where I need a little inspiration or a push to aim higher and create something beautiful. Although after writing this out maybe I'll just go watch them right now...

How does making games for the 2000s internet shape the way you think about the future of creativity online?

I got at this a little above, but I think when people talk about the old internet" they're mostly talking about things that are personal, small, and created for the fun of it.

I think it's getting easier to make stuff for the internet every year. And that's great! So I *hope* that we see more and more people making stuff that feels like it belongs to the old internet (even if it's using technology that wasn't available to us back then).

For myself - I think these days I can really tell whether I'm making something for myself or whether I'm making something because I think it's what other people want. And I try to push myself to stick to the former. It's more fun that way.

Nolen Royalty is a game developer and software engineer who makes experimental massively multiplayer games and elaborate technical jokes at eieio.games. He's interested in getting strangers to interact in fun ways over the internet (e.g. One Million Checkboxes, Stranger Video) and running games in surprising places (e.g. playing pong inside his unclosed browser tabs). He lives in Brooklyn and is determined to keep the internet fun.

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