"It's a satire of postmodern life and advertising ... an experiment in cultural design," says Bill Barker, Schwa's chief executive and founder. "I think for me, the alien is a symbol of our future - a mirror looking into what we're becoming - technological, maybe."
Barker originally conceived of Schwa in 1992 as system of iconography to get across his creative and political messages.
"I was looking for ways to express my ideas in art with one style," he says. "So I took an alien as a symbol for outside or foreign ideas, things that are hard to express or name or understand."
Schwa products are filled with ominous images of lemminglike stick figures and low buildings resembling mazes under a blackened sky filled with alien saucers. Using simple black-and-white line drawings and occasional slogans like "Alien exists," "Stay awake," and "Stop domesticating yourself," Barker's minimalist world envisions a future controlled by corporations, alien abductions, and paralyzing propaganda.
But what began as a small mail-order business hawking Schwa, the book, alien-head stickers, posters, and "Alien Defense Kits," soon turned into a mini-phenomenon. One of the earliest companies to promote alien iconography, in no time Schwa sold tens of thousands of products. The Schwa site was launched in 1995, and a book deal with Chronicle Books resulted in Schwa World Operations Manual, released last November. WorldPlay is also bringing out a second Schwa game, Conspiracy.
With Pyramid's appearance on America Online, Schwa has found its first truly mainstream distribution outlet. After an introduction from WorldPlay, Orbital Studios's Karl Buiter developed the game with Barker, and calls it a "new paradigm in gaming."
The game looks like you've stepped into a Schwa book, complete with blackened skies and strange symbols, and the game play is best described as the children's game of King of the Hill meets Diplomacy, the venerable world-power strategy game. As a player, you become one of Schwa's stick people, battling your way up a pyramid in hopes of being the first to the top. To make it there, you must collect tokens of mass media, government, corporation, and labor - icons that represent the most potent forces of the Schwa world; you also must conspire with - and occasionally betray - your fellow stick people.
"Things aren't really quite what they seem," says Mike Fake, president of Orbital Studios. "What you think is, is not; what you think is not, is."
Thanks to the aliens-might-be-among-us buzz that drives Fox TV's The X-Files and movies like Independence Day and Men in Black - not to mention mainstream news coverage of last year's 50th anniversary of whatever it was that happened in Roswell, New Mexico - Schwa has gone from being a fringe idea to just one voice in the wash of pop culture aliens. Still, Barker plans to use his position on very corporate AOL to continue pushing his anti-corporate message.
"They're using my slogans on the game, so the meme spreads on its own," says Barker. "I'm not a Gandhi of anti-advertising, more of a Shining Path. Let's use its weapons against itself."
Schwa Pyramid will be available only on AOL's WorldPlay, costing
"It's a satire of postmodern life and advertising ... an experiment in cultural design," says Bill Barker, Schwa's chief executive and founder. "I think for me, the alien is a symbol of our future - a mirror looking into what we're becoming - technological, maybe."
Barker originally conceived of Schwa in 1992 as system of iconography to get across his creative and political messages.
"I was looking for ways to express my ideas in art with one style," he says. "So I took an alien as a symbol for outside or foreign ideas, things that are hard to express or name or understand."
Schwa products are filled with ominous images of lemminglike stick figures and low buildings resembling mazes under a blackened sky filled with alien saucers. Using simple black-and-white line drawings and occasional slogans like "Alien exists," "Stay awake," and "Stop domesticating yourself," Barker's minimalist world envisions a future controlled by corporations, alien abductions, and paralyzing propaganda.
But what began as a small mail-order business hawking Schwa, the book, alien-head stickers, posters, and "Alien Defense Kits," soon turned into a mini-phenomenon. One of the earliest companies to promote alien iconography, in no time Schwa sold tens of thousands of products. The Schwa site was launched in 1995, and a book deal with Chronicle Books resulted in Schwa World Operations Manual, released last November. WorldPlay is also bringing out a second Schwa game, Conspiracy.
With Pyramid's appearance on America Online, Schwa has found its first truly mainstream distribution outlet. After an introduction from WorldPlay, Orbital Studios's Karl Buiter developed the game with Barker, and calls it a "new paradigm in gaming."
The game looks like you've stepped into a Schwa book, complete with blackened skies and strange symbols, and the game play is best described as the children's game of King of the Hill meets Diplomacy, the venerable world-power strategy game. As a player, you become one of Schwa's stick people, battling your way up a pyramid in hopes of being the first to the top. To make it there, you must collect tokens of mass media, government, corporation, and labor - icons that represent the most potent forces of the Schwa world; you also must conspire with - and occasionally betray - your fellow stick people.
"Things aren't really quite what they seem," says Mike Fake, president of Orbital Studios. "What you think is, is not; what you think is not, is."
Thanks to the aliens-might-be-among-us buzz that drives Fox TV's The X-Files and movies like Independence Day and Men in Black - not to mention mainstream news coverage of last year's 50th anniversary of whatever it was that happened in Roswell, New Mexico - Schwa has gone from being a fringe idea to just one voice in the wash of pop culture aliens. Still, Barker plans to use his position on very corporate AOL to continue pushing his anti-corporate message.
"They're using my slogans on the game, so the meme spreads on its own," says Barker. "I'm not a Gandhi of anti-advertising, more of a Shining Path. Let's use its weapons against itself."
Schwa Pyramid will be available only on AOL's WorldPlay, costing $1.99 per hour to play after an initial free test period.
"Unlike life," laughs Barker, "it's a game you can win."
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,10465,00.html
.99 per hour to play after an initial free test period.
"Unlike life," laughs Barker, "it's a game you can win."
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,10465,00.html
