I discovered this video at Mediabastard's website.  Funny.  I swear he looks like every game designer I've ever seen from the greasy hair, the cocaine sniffles and the wild eyed evangelical glare.

Blue Mars

Shade City - Blue Mars

Blue Mars began it's extended Beta period over a year ago.  Last year, the Second Life grapevine was buzzing with rumors that it could be an SL killer.  Well it turned out that it wasn't the killer it was rumored to be.  Instead it just hovers on the edge of the VR world.  Mention Second Life to most people and they will immediately recognize it as that online virtual sextopia they see on the nightly news.  The name of Blue Mars would just cause bafflement.  Recently the team of BM is working very hard at making "cloud computing" a reality.  This would allow the technically monstrous computers Blue Mars requires to be, in essence, obsolete.  The BM company seems to be putting all it's eggs into this cloud basket because siphoning off the residents in SL, the now defunct There, IMVU and other VRs failed.

Blue Mars is a beautiful series of places.  It isn't a VR world, it is more like a vacation scrapbook of photos.  Unlike SL in which one's avatar can walk through changing landscapes and experience a "world", Blue Mars just has destinations.  An avatar can't keep walking in Blue Mars.  You can't visit Shade City (shown pictured above), keep walking and find yourself in the area called New Venice.  While the areas are large (encompassing what would be several Second Life sims), they are separate and must be chosen from that picture scrapbook (called Places in the UI menu).  To a user of Second Life, as I am, this seems rather static and confining.  But it's really a small drawback in the grand scheme of things.  Someone new to VRs would not even care that these worlds are not connected.

Caledonia - Blue Mars

The make or break element of all these VR worlds are the avatars.  Do they look good?  Is it easy to make them look good?  Second Life has struggled with this element by making it's starting avatars look better.  But it still requires enormous amounts of time, money and effort to make an SL avatar look fabulous.  In fact so much so, that most new people think it an insurmountable problem.  Especially when they see how wonderful many of the older residents look.  Unfortunately, Blue Mars has the same problem.  While the game does offer basic starter avatars, no tweaking required, they still look awkward.  Not to mention that everyone gravitates towards the same pretty face, the result being clones all over the welcome area.  Seeing numerous faces the same as your own at the beginning of the game is disappointing.  Blue Mars has tried to alleviate this problem by offering an advanced option that allows the user to further customize their avatars.  Until recently, Blue Mars avatars were stuck with the face they were born with because further optimization wasn't allowed.  Now there is a customization station in the welcome area that allows users to go back and tweak their facial structure.

New Venice - Blue Mars

Still tweaking the controls still requires loads of work, not to mention a gift for proportion.  My avatar's face shown above required many trips to the work station in the welcome area.  The work doesn't only end in the work station, a user must also master the make up controls in the UI.  Unlike Second Life where a user has full control to change their avatar form, Blue Mars only allows facial tweaks.  Actually changing the shape of an avatar body is not allowed.  A user will need a Blue Mars developer's license and knowledge of 3d modeling programs in order to change their body shape.  You can buy these items from a merchant but if it looks really good, chances are other people have it as well.  Which leads back to the clone problem.

The basic animations of the avatars are a bit annoying.  My avatar is constantly in motion which is distracting.  The sit animations remind me of a person who is wishing that she had access to bathroom facilities.  But all that can be ignored.  What can't be ignored is Uncanny Valley.  Blue Mars has set a bar for truly realistic looking avatars.  Where they stumbled is in the eyes.  The eyes on BM avatars are flat and soulless.  This is disconcerting in an avatar that would otherwise look truly beautiful.  I'm hoping that eyes will become replaceable in the same way they are in Second Life.  On the whole, Blue Mars avatars look very nice, if one is willing to spend the time to customize.

Shopping in Blue Mars is a great experience.  It is easy and has a nice demo feature called "try it on".  The only drawback is that shopping options are slim at the moment.  I've traveled around a few worlds that showcased a shop here and there.  But mostly there were rows and rows of empty shops.  This is why I'm hoping that they will consider becoming friendly to user created content.  The world hoped that they would get loads of professional and professional grade hobbyists into the world.  But so far, that hasn't happened.

As far as socialization is concerned, I see most users congregating in the welcome area.  So far I've only seen one or two other users during my tours of other locations.  The clientele in Blue Mars is based on a wide variety of nationalities.  The first time I logged in, the welcome area was filled entirely with Russian speakers.  You can speak to other users through a chat menu, the standard of all mmos.  There is a strange quirk in that Blue Mars will show your conversation on screen as chat bubbles over avatar heads.  Although it may have struck Blue Mars developers as a cute design, when in a crowded welcome area it is confusing to see so many bubbles filling the screen.

The impression I have a Blue Mars is a platform trying to find it's place in a shrinking VR world.  A world caught between catering to seasoned VR veterans and the Farmville crowd.  It is hard to determine if Blue Mars or any of the VRs will survive.  So far the regular Facebook minions have been frightened or uninterested of these worlds.  I, for one, hope they find success.  Blue Mars is a solid entry to the VR open world genre.

MyANIMATION - Melanie Kidd

MyANIMATION from Melanie Kidd on Vimeo.

I enjoy Melanie Kidd's blog on SL, Grid Expectations, and her Flickr page.  She always has beautiful photos and interesting posts about SL fashion.  Kidd also has a store in SL called Mela's which sells hair, shapes and more.

This video was created by Melanie to show off the great dance animations available through the store MyANIMATION.

Fascism and Sexism in the Internet Class

Fascism of the tools

The irony of the "liberal" class today is that they don't see reality.  They see fantasy constructs of reality just the same as conservatives do.

For example, the whole internet machine prides itself on being open to "democracy".  The powers that be pride themselves on being standard bearers for freedom.  Which is ridiculous because the very coding they use to build their posting systems are fascistic.

What kind of freedom do you have on internet sites?

Your comment can be down ranked to oblivion.

If someone doesn't like what you have to say or just wants to be an asshole, your participation in any forum debate can be erased from history.  Now THAT is freedom.  Every site contains this form of jackboot in the face of others option.  They call it the thumbs up/thumbs down rating, or the fan rating or the heart rating.  As others thumbs up or thumbs down your comment it will either rise in relevance to stay in the debate or it will disappear.

You can not reply to people who debate your comment.

Some sites will cut off any ability to debate by disallowing any threads longer than one reply.  So it cuts you off from replying to anyone who has replied to your original comment.

These kind of tools proliferate all over internet sites which has turned everything into echo chambers.  The problem of the Yes men/women of the net is all due to these site tools that allow the erasure of comments.  These tools don't stop trolls they create rabid tribes.  All of like mind whose first intent is to protect themselves from naysayers

Are we that weak that we can't bear to hear anyone say I don't agree or air their opposing opinions?

There can be no democracy if the ability to say "no, I don't agree" is taken away.

Sexism in Games

This is a societal problem that is still hampering women.  Especially in male dominated areas such as games.  Sexism pops up in ways that at first seem benign but are such mainstays that eventually a person must acknowledge they are dangerous.

Skimpy Gear

Female characters get to wear chainmail bikinis even though the same type of gear makes a male toon look like an armor plated mack truck.  Developers can't ever forget to pander to the male eye or they get an extra zing from the knowledge that they are causing humiliation to female players.  It is true that some women don't mind sexy gear.  But from the female friends I've spoken to who game and around female gaming sites, this issue is always considered a problem.

Now, I'm not against bikini wear in general.  I'm against bikini wear when it makes no sense.

My main in Warhammer Online is a Sorceress.  This toon's whole wardrobe is based on revealing gowns.  But it makes sense thematically.  It is relevant to the game's storyline.

WAR is one of those games which has not forced female players into the bikini chainmail paradigm.  Tanks in WAR wear the same gear no matter if their character is male or female.  Tanks look like tanks and wear plate.

Another game that doesn't force the bikini issue is Lord of the Rings Online.  The gear is all standardized and created to fit both male and female characters in the same way.

As much as I love Warcraft, it fails miserably in gear standardization.  Although I will say, the gear that was released for Lich King was better designed.  My Paladin was not forced to look like "I Dream of Jeannie".  Since the world is being overhauled in the new expansion, perhaps the ridiculous hot pants gear of the lower levels will be changed as well.  I'm not counting on that though.

Females in Distress!

Almost invariably there will be a damsel in distress.  And in distress because some damn foolish thing was attempted on the damsel's part.

I recently deleted a game called "Vindictus" from my HD because of this subtle jab at women.  The opening quest consisted of a pet gone rabid.  The town guard were all set to shoot it down.  Which was quite reasonable considering it was a gigantic rabid spider tearing apart the town.  But does this happen? Of course not.  In comes the Kawaii female, looking like a school age girl but yet has an important position as town advisor.  The game and the player has to follow some fool plan to allow this girl to speak to the spider.  I guess they have some psychic connection.  Whatever...moving on.

As you can surmise the plan goes horribly wrong.  All the guards are taken out and it is up to the player to lead this fool to the spider. And in the process the fool faints and it is up to the player to CARRY her ass past monsters.  Even though in the very next cut scene it is shown that the character was quite capable of movement.

And the end result...spider killed.

Now I'm not against escort/savior quests.  But I hate when consistently these quests show female characters doing ridiculous things while the male characters are always sensible.  The whole attitude of "Bless those little womens, they just want to help".  How these quests treat female characters is really a reflection of how male gamers treat female gamers.

It isn't only obscure games that resort to female in distress.  Even WoW did this by debasing two of their strongest female characters in a quest leading up to the end game Lich King fight.  The players are "assisting" Jaina and Sylvanas in their attempt to bring Arthas back to sanity (Jaina) or seek revenge (Sylvanas).  Both women end up failing miserably and the players essentially save their backsides.  There aren't too many similar quests involving male characters portrayed in that fashion.  Maybe you can count the saving of Thrall from prison, but really in that dungeon Thrall does most of the work.  The players just need to keep enemies occupied while he does his magic.  So it isn't the same at all.

Most people argue that the character in "Vindictus" was showing sensitivity.  Just another sexist stereotype of female behavior.  As if our sensitive natures regularly get in the way of common sense.  I'm pretty sensitive, I'm a female, when faced with that opening quest my attitude was shoot the spider.  Why endanger the town guard in order to calm down a rabid animal.

The whole carrying the character when she was capable of walking just made angry.  In all the years I've been playing games, I've never been required to carry male characters past danger.  Never.  But it happens all the time to female characters.

Its these cues that encourage the general chauvinism in games.  In the past I've tended to overlook them.  But now with my time and money stretched to the limit, I jettison games that are not woman friendly.

So it ends

I just realized today that I have no interest in Warcraft anymore and won't be returning for the new expansion.  Its surprising because I loved the game so much.

I just don't want to get on that treadmill again.

I'm also finally giving up the ghost in Warhammer Online as well.  I'm just not looking forward to the extra renown points to grind out in WAR, especially when I was so close to level 80.  The new finish line is so far away.

So it seems my tolerance for mmorpgs is about a year to two years.  I have a few more months of patience for Wizard 101 and LOTR.  So I'm not totally gameless.

Ah well, we all have to grow up at some point in our lives.  Right?

Fumigating the Laundry

So the Warhammer Online community, really the game community in general, is abuzz over a tell all blog post from an alleged employee from Mythic Bioware EA.

I'm not going to link it because that information is out there already.  Just check the back posts of Massively.com.  And I'm disappointed at Massively publishing this bit with practically no research at all.  The blog post doesn't reveal anything new about WAR or it's backstory.  It throws out unverifiable gossip about key players in the company.  But there is nothing concrete about what is happening now.  There is no information about things in development now such as the new "RvR Packs".  The blog gives no information about what WAR fans are really worried about, is the game set for closure in the next year or two?  Does the game have enough subs to justify at least a maintenance mode life?  The ranter did throw in some blows toward the still in development SW:TOR game.  Which frankly was just a bizarre addition to a post that was about WAR.

Of course the game community is loving the controversy and it's starting yet another cycle of anti-WAR sentiment.

Now my opinion of the WAR game.  I enjoy it.  I enjoy playing it a lot.  Lately I've been taking a break from it.  But I'm never bored when I am in world.  Does that mean I think everything is wine and roses with it?  NO, heck no.  I've experienced the bugs and some class imbalance issues that make others rage for hours on end.  I've seen the unfinished RvE content that many gamers would really like to see developed alongside the RvR.  Yes, I've been playing online games long enough to know that many developers have amorality problems and superiority complexes.  They also have a jones for questionable beliefs such as singularity, scrum and objectivism.  Social Darwinism is a beloved ethic among these folks.

The problems the ranter barely touched upon in his post are an all encompassing problem in contemporary capitalism today.  Not only in the gaming industry.

These problems are a direct result of game development community's devout belief in free trade and Ayn Randism.

If the game developer community hadn't been so eager to throw away their worker's rights to the winds during the go-go days of 90's/early 00's, then there would be no need for half-baked blogs like this one.  If they had decided to unionize and group together for equal rights against company management there would be no Bobby Koticks etc.  There would never have been an exodus of their jobs to India, China etc.

Well the horses are out of the barn on that one.  So the lowly developers have to scratch and bite one another  over chump change.  They didn't unionize so all they are left with are blogs to rant.  Will it get anything done?  No.  It just amuses the circus and makes the people in charge laugh.

Instead of ranting, this self named "Louse" should be getting up on a desk and holding up a Union sign.  The game industry needs more Norma Rae not Ayn Rand.

Lord of the Rings Online

I signed up for LOTR before it changed from subscription to Free2Play.  But I never had a chance to play it until now.

I'm not a big fan of the free to play model.  When done well, as in Wizard 101, it feels like a perk on top of the game.  But in other games it seems as if it is being used to milk money in any way possible.  The LOTR model is bad marriage between the two.  It's store has nice perks but the game also makes you pay for things that are needed in the game.  Lets discuss basics such as mounts.  In the Wizard 101 plan,  mounts are a perk you can buy from the get go.  In fact it is presented as a pay option from the start.  There is no farming a player can do in game to get a permanent mount.  It is a perk and customers know they must factor in the cost if they want a horse, shark, tiger or unicorn.  In LOTR, the F2P customer must buy the option to ride a mount plus the mount.  This just strikes me as a bit of gouging.  The game will let you grind your way to a mount but considering the economy in game, that could take a long, long time.

The penny pinching over mounts in LOTR is just annoying, especially when they are ignoring the truly pay dirt pay options such as housing.  I'm sure Wizard 101 makes a bundle with vanity housing.  You cannot buy housing in LOTR as a pay option.   Plus there are limits within the game on housing, such as only one house to an account on one character.  If you want more housing, you need to create another account.  You must buy the housing with in game gold (slow in the gathering) plus be subjected to weekly rent.  Also the player has limits to housing size and limits to what can be placed inside of the house.  Mansions are only available to guilds (called kinships).  This set up just strikes me as insane.  Especially when Turbine could be charging real money for this option with no limits and people will buy it.  They would and will buy multiple houses for each character.  I've checked out their forums and there are rumors that Turbine is looking to changing the set up, but nothing is concrete.  Many on the forums have speculated that the code the housing is built upon will not scale.  So that is why the game puts so many caveats on the option.

LOTR is graphically gorgeous to behold.  The creators have truly worked hard to create Tolkein's world in VR.  The avatar creation process is simple yet holds numerous possibilities in looks and background stories.

There are two, instanced starting areas for all 4 races (Men, Dwarves, Hobbits and Elves).  One start area is shared by Elves and Dwarves the other by Hobbits and Men.  So there is quite a bit of overlap in the quest story lines.  As players level, they all end up on the main quest line which converges in Bree Town.  Basically players are just a few steps behind the story written by Tolkein in his trilogy.

The fight mechanics are the same as any mmorpg where LOTR excels is the graphics and the IP it is based upon.  Lord of the Rings gave birth to the modern fantasy genre so visiting this mmorpg is rather like being able to visit fantasy's Ur.  All the important landmarks have been lovingly recreated by the graphic designers.  Truly no expense was spared when it came to creating the visuals.

The game play is strictly PvE and the player will never run out of quests to complete.  If one is an explorer there are even more hidden quests with found objects and from lonely NPC travelers.  The number of quests do depend on the type of subscription the player is working on.  If F2P, there is an option to buy more quests.   Premium players (those who use the Turbine store) get a few more perks.  But to truly get everything the game offers (with the exception of a few designer classes), VIP is the way to go.  VIP is a monthly pay subscription to the game.

The PvP option is not as large nor seems that popular with the players.  It is embodied as something called MonsterPlay, which only VIP customers can access.  Monsterplay allows players to build an endgame level Orc to fight against players on the side of Frodo & Co.  I haven't tried it yet, so I can't properly review it.

The training system for classes and professions is well done.  There is also the well loved fishing hobby included in the game play.  A past time that I never understood the love for in WoW or in this game.  There have been players in Wizard 101 and WAR asking for Fishing to be added.  Why?  Fishing doesn't feel like playing a game...well...whatever.  If you love virtual Fishing, it is in LOTR.  And like the rest of the game, it is beautifully animated with appetizing fish and gorgeous fishing hole locations.  LOTR even includes a profession that I've only seen in Asian mmorpgs, which is farming.  The farming areas are located in Hobbit villages such as Michel Delving, Straddle and Buckland.  Just throw out seed and reap the rewards.  Although the produce can only be used by players who have cooking as a sister profession.

The economy is slow.  It is a black mark it shares with Asian mmorpg's such as Jade Dynasty.  Which means the rewards gotten from quests are really chump change.  The AH is inundated with junk and basics.  Which means it will take a player a long, long, long time to make that first gold piece.  On the other hand, if you do manage to slog all the way to level 20, then the rewards will improve and drops from monsters get better as well.  So it does get better.

What is not slow is the population.  I'm on a server that is very busy.  Which is good to see.  It seems that the free option has attracted more players and not scared away older, paying players.  While sometimes it can turn into a fight fest to get to monster NPCs first or farm nodes, it is better than playing in totally empty areas.

To sum up this game has a lot to offer.  While it does have some drawbacks in it's F2P option, it makes up for it in wonderful game looks and play.

Race Play

In every game I play, I usually create loads of alts.  I've cross gendered by creating male characters.  But the more interesting experiences occur when I play as a character of another race.

Does racism exist in virtual worlds?  Well, all any player needs to do is consciously be aware of how many players appear as ethnic avatars.  In my experience not many at all to the point of non-existant.  Some games do not even give players a chance to even choose a darker skin color.  What they give as a sop to ethnicity is a kind of tan color.  Warcraft and Warhammer are games in the latter category.  Their argument could be that they are fantasy games.  Which is just bunch of crap.  There is absolutely no reason why an avatar can't be black in a fantasy game.

The child's game Wizard 101 has admirably included black avatars for their game base.  My character on the top of the page is just such an example.  Why did I create her?  Well, it was spur of the moment when I decided to roll another alt.  But also I wanted an avatar that represented another race.  Despite being offered, only very few of the players in Wizard 101 play as anything other than caucasian.  Her class in the game is a tank based school which means she is strong and primarily protects other players.  As soon as I got out of the orientation phase of the game, I ran into another player.  This player barked at my character, I suppose to convey the opinion that he/she thought my avatar was dog ugly.  Since Wizard 101 only offers about 10 different facial expressions (all of which look about the same), I could only deduce that this barking player found my avatar's skin color unattractive.  I suppose in the minds of some online bigots, mmorpgs are all white people or we should present ourselves as white.

In Second Life there is a different problem posed that causes me discomfort.  Because the game can be as photorealistic as possible, representing another race leads to the question of cultural authenticity.  Second Life is a visual feast and the players inside it are continually seeking beauty.  That beauty leads many to use avatars that can be any race as long as they are lovely to behold.  While being black in SL is  to stand out,  it won't cause troglodytes to bark at you.  At least, I've never experienced hostility from other players.  But that isn't to say that it doesn't exist in SL.  Racism is alive and well wherever human beings bring their personal failures.  Using a black avatar leads me to this disturbing concept...is representing myself as a black a kind of blackface?  Is it another form of racism?  In my quest for beauty (see the above photorealistic avatar) am I fetishizing other races?

To approach the problem another way I think of my own race...Native American.  How do I feel when my race is represented.  On the surface, it doesn't bother me.  But it certainly upsets me if I think about the context in which my race is represented.    If the person behind the avatar is using my race as a joke, as a stereotype or as a kind of role play slave then it certainly does upset me.  Sometimes there are well-meaning but delusional people who think they are emulating or re-enacting real events.  They reside in historical SL sims that copy the days of manifest destiny.  A time when my race had no civil rights, had no voice, were marginalized at every turn and murdered if it wouldn't raise any eyebrows.  Role playing this in a VR is not healthy.  It helps no one.  It does not lead to new insights.  It just perpetuates racism.  When I think of someone impersonating my race in that fashion, it is upsetting.  So is representing myself as black the same thing?

In many ways, yes, it is.  I make no claim to know the what it is like to grow up black in the US.  Although I have experienced many kinds of racism growing up due to being a native, I will never know the kind that black people experience in their lives.  I will never know the legacy of being the descendants of slavery.  I cannot even speak with authority on racism in virtuality since I've only seen glimpses.  When I think of this, I feel that it is not my place to use a black avatar.  But then I equally notice how very few or non-existant black avatars there are in these worlds.  They are marginalized and without voice.  There nonexistence impresses the subtle notion in gamers minds that an all/ or only white world is "normal".  And that anyone with shades of skin darker than pale are abnormal.  When I think of this, then I obstinately do wear Black avatars and all other non-white avatars to break that cycle.

Because VR is a learning place.  And what we are learning, or in fact re-indoctrinating ourselves with the notion, that dehumanization is normal.  It is right.  And when someone barks at a black avatar in a child's mmo, it is okay because players should not be anything other than white.

Plagiarism

Apparently I moonlight as someone named Tom Wickline.  One of my blog posts has been reprinted without credit or my permission.

Original
http://takashiriku.blogspot.com/2010/05/crossover-games.html

Tom Wickline?  On who knows how many sites it appeared under this name.
http://www.wine-reviews.net/wine-reviews/cxgames-mac/crossover-games.html

I discovered that this Tom Wickline represents another project in the Wine program family...Bordeaux.  I have sent an email to them regarding the above blog post.  I seriously doubt I will get an answer from them or Wickline.

This will be cross-posted on my regular blog as well.

What the little ones are doing...

In their baby mmo.




I think it's hilarious that the Wizard dance is actually in time to the music chosen by this fan.  So cute.

Good PvP...

has the same visceral reactions shown in Scorsese's film "The Gangs of New York".  Brendon Gleeson screaming like a loon with murderous excitement is what PvP gives everyday players.  But without the danger of real bloodshed.

I know it isn't for everyone.  So far games focusing on the carnage haven't done as well as World of Warcraft.  So what separates the PvP hooligans from the PvE fanatics?

On another note, I could only find the full scene dubbed in French.  *shrug*

Am I a Gamer?

Every so often I'll read posts around different blogs about being a "gamer".

The subject always gives me pause because I never really thought of myself as in the same group of people who go to expos to celebrate their favorite game.  Sure I paid Directv to watch Blizzcon but that was to get the shiny promotional items.  I was never really interested in the games presented by the company with the exception of Warcraft.  But even then I would just fast forward through most of the new information which didn't interest me.  Most of the Blizzcon activities, such as dressing up as a favorite game character, just makes me go "huh"?

I suppose you could say I was a gamer when the old, ancient Atari was a hit in the living room.  Everyone played them and there wasn't enough of stereotype gamer characteristics to scare girls away from Atari.  But as the years passed, something changed and games became something that appealed more to the male half of society.  So it became something women did not do.  And if they did, it was something they were lured into by boyfriends or brothers.

But of course women do play computer games.  Before I started mmo play, I loved purchasing and downloading little strategy games.  Sponge Bob's Collapse was an obsession for me as well as various mah jongg tile games.  I've since read that many women share a liking for these little computer play things.  But the activity isn't considered gaming and they aren't a part of the gamer subculture.

Consoles and portable consoles.  Okay, now these things are getting into the more serious gaming arena. Even though they are the descendants of Atari, I understand not a vast number of women play them.  Not even women who actually grew up with Atari in the house.  The console that does attract women, Wii, is thought of as something fluffy.  It isn't a gaming rig.  I have little interest in consoles.  My Playstation 2 is hopelessly outdated with old, old games.  I don't play it anymore and I don't plan to buy a Playstation 3.  Nor do I have an interest in buying an XBox.  Many gamers have portables which they use to pass the travel time to work.  But as an old school New Yorker, travel time is serious book reading time.  I have no patience to be pressing little buttons when I could be relaxing with a good book.

The reason why I started with online games was because of friends.  I was already doodling with Second Life when a friend suggested that I might like World of Warcraft.  Second Life is and is not a game.  It depends on how the player is using it.  To me, SL is a place to admire beautiful scenery created by other players.  It definitely isn't a place that typical "gamers" hang out although due to the strong reactions it causes in this segment, I think they do lurk there from time to time.

I was surprised that Warcraft engaged my interest so quickly.  However, during my time in WoW I was the very definition of "casual".  I discovered that the game ran on two tracks, casual in which most of the content was out of reach and hardcore which meant serious time investment. Almost at the beginning I knew I would never be a hardcore player.  So my game time concentrated on exploration, questing, and reputation building with factions.  In my roster of alts, I had only one level 80 character.  That character was fitted out with gear that was just a stone's throw away from raiding.  I realized that running dungeons continuously annoyed me and I was a drag to people who did take their play time seriously.  So I left.

Strangely enough, Warhammer (which most gamers consider a WoW also ran but a very hardcore pvp game) managed to hold my interest.  It is an extremely inviting game to the casual player.  Most of it's high level content is within reach of all players.  The race to gear up is a bit easier than it was in Warcraft.  It also has a no nonsense atmosphere that negates the cuteness trap which WoW fell into at times.  Yet it is still considered a hardcore game.  Considering that most players love questing and other areas that don't include player vs player content, perhaps WAR is hardcore.  Many players like the predictable ways in which computer AI characters react.  There is a tried and true method for each PvE encounter which is comforting to most.  Player versus player requires constant assessment, attention to detail, situational awareness, a secure knowledge of a character's talents and more than a bit of aggression.  Of course, the grind isn't dungeons in WAR but scenarios.  Which leads me to wonder how long it will be before I become disenchanted with the game.  A few months ago I felt like throwing in the towel for any and all games.  Whereas WAR won me back from the disillusionment, I haven't gone back to WoW.

Gamers study their hobby.  They discuss character stats, skills and tactics.  Mainstream culture skews this enthusiasm into a stereotype of mental dysfunction.  Gamers are people who never leave their computer, are overweight, never shower and don't socialize.  Mainstream entertainment also confuses role play with regular play.  Role playing is akin to acting but for personal enjoyment.  However no role player I've ever spoken to has lost control of reality.  But that is what happens in every TV show and film about gamers.  In TV/Movie land, gamers are running around thinking they have turned into Orcs and are intent on killing rampages.  Not only that, TV/Movie women never game.  They are always cast into the role of the "normal" one trying to pull their delusional male friends out of their dysfunction.  This notion that we women aren't in mmo worlds is ridiculous.  I've heard many a female voice over ventrilo.  And I'm sure there are more who remain silent.

So am I a gamer?  I would say yes.  But I think other gamers would say no since I'm casual.  And the mainstream doesn't even believe I, a female gamer, exists.

Game On

The Guild goes Bollywood dreaming!

This is you, on Video Games!

I think that cat is experiencing Urgent Optimism!

Don't get me wrong, I like video games.  But I'm not blind to the fact that they are created in the same way this trainer gets her cat to high five.

Revolution Pays

We will still move forward with new forum features such as the ability to rate posts up or down, post highlighting based on rating, improved search functionality, and more. However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name.
Mike Morhaim CEO Blizzard Entertainment

This announcement is good news.  It shows that we, the people, still have power to influence.

The quick pullback on this odious policy indicates to me that the protest cancellations were large enough to make an impact.

But I think the true reason that broke this camel's back was that Blizzard faced a true "Let them eat Cake" disaster.

On a protest blog, a number of Blizzard employee information was culled by using their real names.  Not only that, the information for extended family was revealed as well.

The wife of one Blizzard Exec was documented to have complained on her Facebook about her lack of money to pay for a personal trainer for more than 4 days.

Considering that we are in the thick of a depression, that World of Warcraft is financed by people in dire straits (most likely the one luxury still open to them like the movies were in the 30's), this kind of entitled behavior did not look good.  There was just no way to combat that kind of bad press.

However, the ideas behind this policy are still enthralling the tech elites.  And its just a test shot in a coming war over our rights online.  We will have more battles to face in the future.

You will share your name!

Blizzard Activision has just announced that their forums will be linked to their REAL ID system.

Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well.

Up until now, the REAL ID system was plugged by the Warcraft crowd as a useful tool to keep track of real friends/family while in game.  But now that this system it shows that the tracking system is all pervasive and the perfect opportunity.  The perfect opportunity to live in the future that businessmen such as Mr. Jesse Schell, and others in the tech world, would like us to bend over and take with a smile.

In true California Business Plan fashion the company direction is dressed in faux concerns, such as preventing trolls.  Which is a bunch of pure bullshit.

Obviously the opt-in push for this program was not as successful as Blizzard Activision planned it would be.  At least certainly not enough people signed up for it in order to make it feasible as a marketing cash crop.  So the company needed another way to push Real Id, and that was the forum angle.  Most say that the forums represent a small portion of the Warcraft player base.  But truthfully I don't believe that, not if the company thought it was a large enough linchpin to get the Real Id program started.  As players have repeatedly pointed out on Blizzard forums, all customer service policy questions ultimately lead to the forums.  So any kind of customer service problem will lead to a player having to opt in to Real Id if they want help.

Revealing the names of the players also leads to larger problems of stalking.  This policy opens up problems for female gamers, children/teens gamers and LGBT gamers.  The gaming community at large, is not a welcoming place for minorities.  The last thing the majority racist, homophobic and sexist player base needs is a way to track down the players they don't like.  As for trolls on the forums, I have a hard time figuring out what a troll actually is and what people will unanimously agree is a troll.  Is it a person who posts thoughtfully but doesn't agree with the majority opinion?  Is it a person who debates vigorously on game policies that they like or don't like?  Or is it that ridiculous person who just throws out nonsensical but aggressive gibberish towards one and all?  What I see mostly on forums is people with legitimate concerns being labeled trolls and their speech is curtailed.  The gibberish people are allowed to post at will with no consequences.  There are better ways to deal with the gibberish and they don't include pimping out the real names of the player base.

As of now Blizzard Activision is silent on this new policy.  Which indicates to me that its full steam ahead.  On their own forums and around the blogosphere there are reports that enough people are quitting over this new policy to cause a slow down on their account servers.

But they aren't blinking.  And they won't blink or cry uncle.  Because everyone must realize that we are in a struggle.  Jaron Lanier pointed out that the tech world, as it is now, has debased our culture so much that the only value that can be gleaned from anything is from advertising dollars.  The commercial is sacrosanct in the tech world.  They have barricaded themselves into a corner with the "info wants to be free" meme that the only money they can receive for their services is in advertising.  To get to that cash cow, they will happily sell out the regular people.

Blizzard Activision has a deal with Facebook.  Obviously they think that the masses of Facebook Farmville addicts (most of whom are not mmorpg gamers) are an untapped resource that will gladly move to Warcraft.  That they are enough of a sure bet that these Farmville fans will replace the people leaving due to Real Id controversy.  Since the Farmville people have already revealed their personal information on Facebook, they will have no problem with revealing it for Warcraft.

They are putting this to the test right now.  Because the world that Mr. Schell celebrated is the world the tech companies want.  A world with no personal barriers, in which advertisers can pick over your carcass to send you targeted advertising that will reward you with funny money from the latest game.  Its a no cost world out there for the tech elites.  But we can expect to pay, pay more and pay again.

Scenes from Warhammer

I'm still in WAR and trying to work my main to RR80.  Which is hard for me because my interest waxes and wanes.  I'm always in awe of people who have multiple high level characters.

The Proteus Project

Many have written of a disturbing trend among our tech elites of recent years.  About their untoward fascination with sci-fi dystopias and their desires to make these stories reality.  Second Life was created as a bid to mimic the world featured in "Snowcrash".  Unmentioned but just as influential was Stephenson's other novel, "Diamond Age".  It too was a warning novel, a story about a poor girl who is raised by a cloth dummy mother (like those poor Rhesus lab monkeys), in the form of a virtual reality book.  Our elite techs ignored the disembodied VR which could give no maternal comfort to an orphaned child and just focused on the VR represented in the book.  And they wanted to create it in reality.

Well they did to a certain extent.  And were also gravely disappointed that it didn't change it's users in quite the same way it changed a fictional, motherless child.  They were all so gung ho to teach us to "share and share alike", mainly by giving up our IP to the void for free.  It didn't work and it is still not working.  Whether or not Philip Linden and cohorts are still interested in this project of reeducation remains to be seen.  But now they are on a path to mimicking other dystopias.

"Finally, Rosedale mentioned the possibility of creating AI avatars that could learn from interacting with the avatars of humans in Second Life. "I find it very likely that any artificial intelligence we create will live first in a world like this," said Rosedale."

"At the time, I would have bet that by 2009, a group of us would have moved on to the brain project. After all, building Skynet always felt like an appropriate follow on to Second Life."

Work. Software for companies to work better and faster. 
Money. A digital replacement for world currencies. 
The Brain. Can 10,000 computers become a person?



Singularity University Lecture in which Philip Rosedale (Linden) compares SL mainframes to a brain.

In recent news regarding Second Life, it seems the last CEO (M Linden) has been shown the door for the return of Philip Linden to the helm.

As I've previously written, M Linden was vilified by the general SL populace for all that was wrong in SL.  I did not adhere to this storyline.  In fact I thought it more likely that M was hamstrung by the incredible backstabbing mess of a corporate culture that Philip Rosedale dumped into his lap.  He cut some fat then was cut himself.  I've seen it happen before in companies I've worked for and companies in the news.  So it was no surprise that he would be labeled the fall man.

However the rejoicing over Philip Linden's return is premature.  Most SL residents are under the assumption that old Phil will be up to his old tricks.  But that isn't the deal at all.  Philip Linden has a new direction and he has left SL far behind.

In my last post about Rosedale's Love Machine I highlighted that it was an extension of the JIRA policy that ruined Linden Lab's culture.  But Love Machine has a more ambitious plan behind it.  It is Rosedale's bid to create an independent AI.  Far from being a tabulated record of love or hate votes, it will probably be taking in data about why the voters voted the way they did.  And through that information, Rosedale hopes to fashion the basis for his AI.  But besides it being used by a high profile company such as Kevin Rose's Digg, I haven't heard of it taking off with any amount of success.  Perhaps it didn't attract the VC it had been hoping to receive.  And Digg couldn't provide it with enough voting data to fashion a prototype AI.

So now back to Second Life.  Which Rosedale has already likened to brain like activity.  A collective data point of every user's creativity and decision making.  A sizeable test bed to launch Love Machine.  Because just maintaining a virtual world was not Philip Linden's total interest.  All his interviews and comments point to this end result.  He needs SL to provide a launch pad for his AI.  He needs it to grow because the larger the data from willing test subjects, the better for the Love Machine project as a whole.  The same way the JIRA stratified residents into fighting over bugs and services, I'm sure the Love Machine will now be used in lieu of the old search mechanism in the browser.  It has been said that the search function was broken deliberately and remains unfixed.  I wonder how long it will be before all of us are asked to give Love votes for our favorite places and why.

Just how much will this Love Machine data collection system permeate the grid?  How will it affect the SL world culture?   Will it destroy it as much as JIRA destroyed Linden Lab?  Does Philip Linden care about the fallout caused by all these possible ill will votes?

He told us the world was safe in his recent address.  It is for now.  But when he receives all the information he needs for his new company, I doubt he will have much enthusiasm for keeping Second Life running.  He will most likely fob it off to another hastily chosen CEO and let it find it's own level.

I believe Linden Lab is basically gone.  It is Love Machine handling Second Life now for the time being.  We are now the side show not the attraction.

The dystopia I believe the techs are emulating now is not the Terminator Skynet from Cameron's films but the AI Proteus in the old 70's flick "Demon Seed".  A film in which this insane AI raped a helpless woman and created it's own love child.

Hence, I give you the genesis of the Love Machine.

Jade Dynasty

Through my Crossover Games program, I decided to try out "Jade Dynasty".  This would be my first exploration of the Asian mmorpg genre.

What Asian mmorpgs have in their favor is a mythology that is fresh, centered in asian folktales.  This is enjoyable because I feel the european medieval myths used frequently in US/European based mmorpgs are played out.  I mean there are only so many times one can be a stalwart knight.

Jade Dynasty begins straight forwardly with a simple character creation page.  A new player will only decide what their avatar will look like when entering the game.  Choosing a class for the avatar will only occur later in the game (Lvl 15).  The opening area is lovely, it consists of a beautiful city called Sunstream surrounded by fields, temples and mansions.  Each game area has wonderful graphics and design.

The opening quests are simple basically consisting of talking to another character, finding items or killing so many of these enemies.  Your avatar is given a variety of different weapons to use.  It really doesn't matter which weapon is chosen because gameplay will change once you choose a character class.

The hook in the game mythology is about a hero called Shaw Danon.  At some point in time, he fell from grace and it is up to the player to find out why and perhaps redeem him.  Players also discover that a thwarted love is also a part of Shaw Danon's history.

The game interface is simple with icons for attack moves.  However there is also an extra bar for a special attack called the Esper.  The Esper attack bar also allows a bot function in which the user can go AFK while still essentially playing.  Believe me, you will need that function.  Another bot function to gain experience is called Meditation.  Essentially the player is able to go AFK in a home city, click on the meditation button (a small Buddha icon at the top of the screen) and then gain experience.  Average experience gained from meditation is about 200 points a minute.  I've read as characters gain levels, the experience for these bot functions will lessen in value.

The bot functions are extremely necessary because what you have read about asian grinders is true.  Jade Dynasty has an extremely large number of levels to master.  And leveling is slow...very slow.  What is worse is that the storyline quests are used in cliffhanger fashion.  Each area consists of 15 levels each avatar must grind before moving on to the next.  Usually the major quest lines end about 5 levels into an area before advising the character to move on.  However your character will need to level up 10 more levels before being able to follow the story into the next game area.  Which means the game crashes into a wall with the story on hold while your character will be forced to do dailies in order to catch up to the next part of the story.  I gamely tried to work with this mechanic but truthfully its worn me down after only hitting level 35.  

The game is free to play with a cash shop that has numerous interesting items.  But unlike other free to play games that give you a lot of bang for your buck, Jade Dynasty cash is on par to the dollar.  1 dollar equals 1 gold piece in the Jade Dynasty cash shop.  So most items are extremely expensive.  Interestingly the game does not allow you to supplement your in game money with real money.  I don't understand this, because the cash shop in other F2P games allow this essential function.  In Jade Dynasty you must grind for your money as you grind for more levels.  There is also a strange player to player sell mechanic.  In the major city, Sunstream, players put their items for sale in cute little cat treasure boxes.  But there are no rules about where to put these boxes so they are laid out willy nilly.  Many times there are so many of these player boxes that it is hard to see NPCs or even your own character toon.  I've looked into these boxes and they are filled with things that were of no value to my low level character.  And it would take a day or so running to each box to find something I could use.  This game needs an auction house in the worst way.

Despite the many things Jade Dynasty has going for it, it is killed by the grinding mechanic.  Which I've read is a standard in many Asian mmorpgs.  Apparently Asian audiences don't mind being forced to do hard time in their games.  Honestly, I wouldn't make real felons play this game or others like it.  Its soul killing.  I don't believe that I will be going back to Jade Dynasty with any regularity.  But if you have the patience to keep with it, it will pay off with a lovely high level character, beautiful fight graphics and other goodies.

Wave those Arms!

Remember Cruise waving his arms like a spastic in "Minority Report"?  Well, now its a reality.  I can't figure out if it is a cool idea or really stupid.

They say it will take about 5 to 6 years to get this new tech into the stores for consumers.  That is probably a little pie in the sky...maybe a lot.  Damn, is it going to break a lot of old software.  But maybe that is the point.

The tech world likes to eat its own.  Its one of the ways they keep us locked into their systems and paying outrageous prices for equipment/consulting.

All for Love

For quite some time, I've noticed a smallness of character inside Philip Rosedale.  A flaw, if you will, in the great work.  This does not negate my past opinion that the man has real genius.  He does, but like all of us, he is at the mercy of the subconscious.  Each of us labors under the aspirations of who we hope to be and just as surely hampered in these aspirations by desires that work against them.

Rosedale wants so much to be an influential cultural pundit.  He sincerely wants to make the world a better place through technology.  But each time he creates, he plants a seed of destruction.  In Rosedale's case, he has a need to set opposing forces in motion.  Which doesn't have to be as catastrophic as it sounds, but Rosedale sets them up in such a way that there must be a victor.  And the more bloody the victory, the more legitimate the winner.  He presided over these blood battles at Linden Lab when he set up the policy of the JIRA(Malaby - Making Virtual Worlds - Ch 2, pg. 76)

The JIRA had a horrific effect on the company and employee spirit.  It encouraged the formation of employee gangs that would kill or vote up specific issues that these gangs favored.  Not only that, it completely marginalized departments that were not glamorous.  Frankly it was ridiculous that a department such as accounting should have to compete against the technology division in a JIRA policy war.  Did Rosedale even notice this deformation in the company character created by the JIRA?

Apparently not, because he then instituted the JIRA for residents as well.  So the warfare metastasized outside company walls into Second Life itself.  It pitted resident against resident and resident versus Linden Lab employee.  The gangs enlarged creating a cutthroat atmosphere that completely disenfranchised minority voices.  Simply because they did not have the numbers to combat the gangs.  Linden Lab employees so used to working the JIRA inequities in house, used the public JIRA to force their own interests or bury ones they did not favor.  Some residents who voted consistently against popularity were banned from the JIRA boards.

But none of this ruffled Rosedale's feathers because he was under the impression that, ultimately, crowds would vote for their best interests.

He is once again working on a project that uses psychological warfare, a company called Love Machine.  In essence it works on the JIRA type of spirit.  A company with the Lovemachine in place enables employees to send "love" to other employees.  These "love messages" (commendations) are then posted on computer screens around the office for all to see.  At the end of each quarter, management can then count how many love messages an employee received or did not receive and base promotions upon this horrific system.  It doesn't take even a dunderhead to realize the problems in this system.  The fact that it would once again inspire employees to form gangs in order to give a thumbs up to certain employees or lynch mob employees they would like to jettison.  What is even worse is that it doesn't factor in malfeasance from management that could skew the love results.  Just as it did with the JIRA at Linden Lab.  Like the JIRA, the Love Machine would and will create balkanized groups voting for their own interests, their own people.

Somewhere along the line, Philip Rosedale conceived the notion that he could change people psychologically for the better.  That through his technology he could institute cultural experiments that would inspire people to be more communal or selfless.  That he would be able to short circuit the motivation for individuals to be self serving.  But each time he attempts this grand experiment it blows up in his face.  I don't understand why he keeps banging his head against this particular wall.  It only leads me to believe that he enjoys the wars he causes and legitimizing the notion of might makes right.  Despite his genius, he doesn't recognize the fascistic motivations swimming deep down inside his own mind.  He uses these policies to convince himself that he is selfless in his love for his fellow man but works in such a way that is anything but selfless.  I don't believe that he respects people outside of the technology business.  Because if he did, he wouldn't have the need to change us.  The sooner he recognizes this fault in himself, the sooner he will create something truly groundbreaking.  Unless he truly enjoys being a Marquise de Merteuil, then all bets are off or more likely voting up love messages.

Second Life Plays

Last week, I finally purchased a ticket to see the last show of ART's production of "Alice In Wonderland". The experience made me question whether or not stage productions can find a proper place on this grid and others.  I must add a caveat with this semi-review, I do know most of the actors in ART and have worked with some of them.  But this is in no way influencing my review of their production.

ART made a very commendable effort in trying to use the grid as a part of their production.  In essence some scenes had an interactive effect.  The audience falls with Alice down the rabbit hole and swims in her tears.  Those special effects were delightful.  But I couldn't help thinking that they were somewhat of a distraction in some ways and only showed how stodgy the conventional staging appeared (more on this later).  The virtual sets were lovely on the whole and really captured the charm of Tenniel's illustrations.

The voice acting was well done.  However I sensed problems with the rushing of line delivery in a few scenes (particularly the Cheshire cat and Tea Party scenes) and some did not savor Dodgson's wonderful nonsense dialogue as much as they should have.  I noticed there were a lot of actors switching parts through out the performance which I did not like.  Simply because the characterization work was extremely different and it led to uneven performances in regards to some characters.  The character of Alice suffered greatly from this sharing of the part between 2 actresses, they each had different vocal quirks which led to wildly different interpretations through the play.  Another short coming was the use of a narrator to connect disparate scenes.  This, however, is a problem with the source material itself.  The books work on dream logic and nonsense story lines, so the scenes do not fit.  Therefore the narrator keeps it together loosely.  However when transferred to stage, the narrator just comes across as an unneeded element.  We didn't need him/her to describe the scenes or the reactions of the actors.  The narration could have been cut entirely.

Despite these few problems the production was, I thought, successful and it was a great hit with the audience.

The production did inspire me to question whether or not acting performances have a proper place in Second Life.  The grid by it's very nature is interactive and requires individual and collective input from it's users.  Performances require spectators not interactive collaborators.  An audience allowed to run free during a play is just mayhem.

As a voice actor in SL, I've had frustration in battling against the problems of the grid (lag, griefers, unreliable voice software, and unexpressive avatars).  I've also noticed that the grid is much larger in spirit then the old forms of plays and films.  We are not taking full advantage of it's pluses.  But what are those pluses?

In ART's Alice production, there was a hint of it in those few interactive scenes.  How could that be expanded?

Should there be a fourth wall in SL?  Especially when the platform itself works on the notion of no dividers.  As an actor, I believe there should be some remnant of the fourth wall.  Without it, plays would become the equivalent of dinner shows like "Medieval Times".  But it should be reconfigured.  I don't believe audience members should have to sit.  Nor should they be condemned to gawk at a stage.

The future of plays in SL and other grids will be some kind of audience interactivity.  What if they could move through sets (abet with some restrictions) or become impromptu extras?  I like the idea of having the audience move through time and space with the actors.  To follow our character's journeys with their own avatars.

I envision the audience as party members at the Capulet's ball....  Plays should be presented with this aim in mind.  To set the audience free from their seats.

These are not photographs

The screenshots taken above are not photographs.  They are screenshots of proprietary material, each and every one.  If I were to put these forth as an example of artistic effort, I would be laughed out of any art institution open today.  What these are...are souvenirs of different mmo worlds.  Again, the artwork does not belong to me.  Unlike taking photos in public places in RL, these mmo worlds are not public.  They all require some fee to access their content.

Somewhere in the process of mmo creation, Second Life has put forth the idea that people who take screenshots are artists.  I suppose it can be possible.  But for that to be true, they should be the creators of anything contained in the screenshot plus the screenshot itself.  Otherwise taking an mmo screenshot is the equivalent of taking a screenshot of a film.  No matter how much you crop it, edit it and put fancy effects on it via photoshop, the screenshot will never belong to you.

I too once thought that Second Life was different.  But it isn't.  It merely pushes forth it's underlying ethos of creative commons, info wants to be free meme.  Which means it subtly denudes creators of their copyright rights.  Recently, as I wrote before, Second Life has changed their TOS to decree practically all of SL to be a public zone.  Which means everyone has the "right" to go around and take screenshots. It cuts off creators from the right to control whether or not they want screenshots to be taken.  Its also worse since some landscape designers use creations from others and can not give permission for the items they only use not create.

What LL is attempting to do is blur the lines, to use it's customers as proxies to scrape data (much in the way CC zealots like to push forth music downloads), to take value from the creators.  In the process transferring the value from the creator to the screenshot taker.  Why is it so hard to understand the difference between say Renderosity (that sells material with some commercial rights attached), to the totally proprietary material in Second Life?  All the screenshots above are the same.  I don't own them.

Many SL users have had this smoke blown up their asses for so long, that they feel they have rights to sell their screenshots or claim artistic titles.  NO, no, no, no.  These are not photographs.  These are not the same as going into the RL street and taking photos with a theme in mind, with technique or inspiration.  This is more like RPing a photographer.  Which is why this article from New World Notes is so wrong headed.

If you have any talent or interest in photography, go out and take photos.  Those photos will be yours.  Those photos will have room to grow and open up to artistic efforts.  Screenshots are a dead end.  They are merely just a past time.  If computer art is your thing, then learn to create computer images that you own totally.

Just don't be a party to the big data scrape that ethics free Silicon Valley loves to support and make easy money on.

Wizard 101

I used to follow the Epic Dolls podcast while I was still playing World of Warcraft.  Not long before I put the game on hiatus, the connected Epic Dolls guild disbanded.  It turned out that the podcaster and guild leader was stepping back a bit from Wow and had taken up with other games.  Leala Turkey's (former Epic Dolls leader) webpage mentioned that she played "Wizard 101".  It seemed interesting and looked a bit like Harry Potter.

So when I purchased the Crossover software, I decided to try Wizard 101.

Wizard 101 is marketed for elementary school age children.  It is a extremely sweet tempered mmorpg that gives the young set a taste of multiplayer gaming.  Recently its surge of popularity is due to it attracting hardcore gaming teens and adults.  The game does a good job catering to all ages.

The combat system is based on card games.  The player can pick and choose who and what they want to fight.  The game always provides safe areas so that players will not be jumped by the NPC enemies wandering around.  These safe areas are little parks and sidewalks.  But when the players is ready to fight, they only have to run up to an enemy to engage it.  The characters will then automatically run to a combat ring which lights up for the fight.  Up to 4 players can join any fight in progress.  They only have to enter the combat ring.  Once the fight starts, the player's screen will show a card hand from their shuffled deck of spells.  Those are the spells that the player will work with for the fight.  It will be reshuffled depending how long the fight lasts.  The player can also pick wild cards, called Treasure spell cards, in lieu of their regular hand.  The spells are powered by points which the player will gain or lose depending on the strength of the magic card they use.  This is not a game that depends on hot keys, the player will be able to pick with their mouse.  And each round the player will be given a timed count down to pick their move.  The combat system is ingeniously structured so that the player can play as simple or as intricate as they want.  Each spell has its own amusing and whimsical animation that I love to watch.  The game also has options for PvP play which takes place in a special arena.

The quests are like quests in every game...go deliver this letter, kill so many of these enemies, collect these items.  But they aren't designed to be painfully long.  Collection quests don't turn into painful grinds.  The areas are all well designed with wonderful art design.  The characters in the game are inspired by various children's books which I love.

The game is free to play.  However players will hit a wall very early, if they do not purchase access to another area.  So look at the free to play option as the same any other game does to gather new players.   This game will give you a taste with a few levels then you must subscribe or pay $1 to $5 dollars for each area.  Most players will know whether or not they want to continue playing this game by level 5 and access to other areas becomes an issue.

Another area in the game that is well integrated is the character store.  You can buy game money through the website which are called crowns.  Then in game, you can go to stores to buy items such as houses, gear, furniture, pets, mounts, wings or potions.  The housing option is very nice.  The player will be given his/her own instanced home island.  On that private island, they will be able to furnish and relax in their own Wizard 101 haven.

This game is very well designed and enjoyable to play.  And it can be a fun time for the whole family.  However, I don't think it is any safer for young ones to wander around in anymore than I would let them wander alone in World of Warcraft etc.  The game designers have done their best to add in parental controls but that is in no way a substitute for parental guidance.  The players your young ones will be interacting with will not be all their exact age.  And not everyone your child will play with will have their game enjoyment in mind.  They may even take advantage of them for game items or just behave nastily because they can.  So please do not let them roam around alone.  The game does allow the parent to control who contacts their child by turning off friend requests (from other players) and chat.  However I've seen young players get around this by offering friendship to anyone they meet.  Then, I suppose, they will be able to chat.  Please understand that kids are impressionable and eager to create new friendships but the game worlds have legions of people who just like to bully.  Don't let them make your child one of their victims.  So play with them or have an older child guide them while in world.

This game is highly enjoyable and family oriented.  I would recommend it to everyone looking for a few hours of casual gaming enjoyment.

Crossover Games

I own an Imac so that means my gaming choices are limited.  Since Apple has switched to Intel chips, it is possible for most games to be ported via a wrapper program that mimics a Windows environment.  Yes, of course if gaming is that important to a computer user they could use the Bootcamp program and then load in Windows.  And I've thought about doing that, and I may still become a bootcamper.  However right now, I don't want to drop upwards of $200 for the Windows system.

On Massively, a commentator mentioned that he/she played Lord of the Rings Online via a wrapper program called Crossover Games.  That idea intrigued me so I looked into the software.  The Crossover suite of programs are offered by CodeWeavers.  These programs mimic Windows using a wrapper based on the open source Wine project.

Crossover games is the "official" version of the Wine opensource project.  It is affordable at $39.95 (the fee supports the Wine opensource programmers) and the installation is simple.  What isn't simple is getting the subsequent windows games to work properly.  Since this option is rather arcane no matter how easy Codeweavers has made it, you will probably need to know a little something about programming to get anything working.

To use Crossover Games, the user must create a mini-windows shell called a bottle.  You can pick which flavor of windows you want this bottle to mimic (vista, winxp, 98, 2000).  A bottle must be created for each game you want to play.  Then you can load the games into the bottle via disc or downloads.  Theoretically, it should be easy.

However I could get nothing to work with it.  The LOTR instructions were easy however the program doesn't recognize the official game install file.  I tried to download the free to play Uru Online.  The installation progress was successful.  However the site registration is no longer available so I can't log in to the program.  As a lark I also tried to install Blue Mars.  However there was an error that had something to do with the install aware program.  I was at wit's end and wondered if I could use the software for anything.  Finally I managed to see the program in action with the game Wizard 101(review later). And I can say that Crossover works very well for what it is.

This solution is very ad hoc and is in no way a substitute for Mac Bootcamp.  But if you can't afford to spring for the Windows software at the moment, this program will do for the time being.  I recommend it.