MMORPG

I see folks talking about Second Life and things like that, and even some of the vlogs that are captures of sessions in one MMORPG or another. I have made the command decision to never ever play one of these things, not even for one minute on a borrowed machine. The worst thing that could happen to me would be to get addicted to one of these games and begin sinking time in. I’ve decided that if I’m building things and adding value, I don’t want it to be in some damn game. I’d rather have it be in one of the things I have control and a stake in – my blog or podcast, AmigoFish or the Uplifter movement. I’m highly susceptible to being sucked into things, but dear lord let me be sucked into the right things.

Published by

dave

Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.

7 thoughts on “MMORPG”

  1. I tried it and thought it sucked. I’m just used to the high resolution and violence in Grand Theft Auto. They brag that it is only a 20 meg download but this means your computer is constantly downloading. The motion is jerky and the graphics look like a computer game from 14 years ago. My fan was on the highest speed the entire time I used it and this meant my laptop was very noisy. To me this is not ready for prime time.

  2. tiltededge:

    SecondLife is to video games what Legos are to toys. It’s not ready-made run-around and do stuff. It’s a world constantly being built by the users. The reason it’s always downloading, is cuz the “players” are constantly changing the content.

    dave:

    You definitely have more important things to do than fart around with games. I’m not trying to convince you or tiltededge to give SecondLife a try, I’m just trying to set things straight so there are no misconceptions.

    SecondLife is not a massively multiplayer online RPG like World of Warcraft or EverQuest or Guild Wars.

    I bet you and many of your audience have read Snow Crash. Remember the virtual world that Hiro Protagonist jacked into? SecondLife is more like that, than like any off-the-shelf game of any kind. It’s a virtual 3D world you get to shape, in the same way we used to fart around learning how to make our own web pages when the web first appeared.

    Quoting from this CNet article ( http://news.com.com/Larry+Lessig+visits+Second+Life/2100-1043_3-6028916.html )

    “”Second Life” differs from rivals like “City of Heroes,” “World of Warcraft” and “EverQuest” in that it doesn’t revolve around a game with specific goals.

    Instead, members live and move in an almost entirely user-created environment, doing almost anything they can imagine and even sometimes bringing in luminaries like Lessig to talk about books and ideas.”

    And this one ( http://news.com.com/Name+that+metaverse/2100-1043_3-5890497.html?tag=st.rn )

    “When tens of thousands of people can gather in a fully 3D environment to buy and sell fanciful clothing, defy gravity by flying, make friends from all over the world, build residential communities, speculate on land prices, and create and license software, what do you call it?”

    Second Life, if it is a MMORPG, is a MMORPG for Makers, and for people that value the work of other Makers. It is what personal media would have developed into if virtual reality had been more viable 10 – 15 years ago. Second Life *is* interactive 3D personal media! The majority of people on Second Life are people like you and me, that have 3D and scripting skils, the way Dave and I have web-fu.

    Anyhow, I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything. And I’m just a Second Life user, not a shareholde or anyone with any vested monetary interest in it.

    Spend your time as you want, especially if you’re spending it being productive in things you already enjoy.

    I’m just clarifying some concepts about what Second Life is.

  3. Well, different strokes for different folks…I consider it a pretty amazing virtual world, and I’m not a fan of GTA at all. *shrug*.

    Dave, good to know your feelings, though…I have considered suggesting you try it a couple of different times, and never gotten around to it. I won’t now, of course…but I may have a business proposition!

    I think it’d be really cool to sell EGC shirts in-game; if you’re interested in a 50%-50% split on such an endeavor, just let me know. I’ll take care of creating the shirt, putting it up for sale, etc., and give you final approval on design. You just supply the permission to use the image (which we can even use as marketing!) I wouldn’t expect vast bucketloads of cash or anything, but it’s an interesting exercise in virtual economics. (And it’s completely legal in SL…there’s an exchange to convert Linden $$ back into good ol’ American ones). Like I said, if you’re willing, let me know. I know I at least would love to have a EGC shirt for my avatar.

  4. I could use it in a creative way since I have music, sound effect and 3D/2D graphics skills but I don’t like the performance or quality of the graphics. I understand that it is a community and interactive. to me it’s a glorified chatroom. I’m looking forward to using this with Internet2 some day in the distant future. The lego blocks just don’t inspire me.

  5. speaking as the father of a teen who’s a dedicated mmorpg player, i can definitely relate to the addictive nature of it – though he tends to burn through them quickly and then move on to the next one…

    right now he’s beta testing rising force online http://www.codemasters.com/rfonline/ – say’s it really good, but in a different genre than other mmorpg’s…

    the cool side to his game play is designing or developing these gaming environments or the art w/in them may be in his future – w/ his natural anime/artistic skills who knows…

    but he’s still a very good student, has a steady girlfriend and goes boarding w/ his brother and me every weekend and vacation we can get to vermont – thus it’s all about balance…

    i on the other hand, have spent time in my career designing and managing the technology aspects of game development efforts – yet never ever have felt the need to play regularly…

    now as for pj’s very thoughtful comment – when eric rice first introduced me to second life awhile back, i gave it a brief try – and i count snowcrash as one of my favorite books, while i could definitely see the potential of a metaverse in it (w/out the immersive vr of course) it still takes a ton of time, time most folks just don’t have to invest in it…

    if a second life type environment become the actual way you interacted w/ everything on the network – now that would be getting there, i think that is some of what eric and his crew have been attempting, should be fun to see where it takes them…

  6. Wow, lots and lots of comments.

    Second Life is today, where the web was in 1994 (Web 0.8?) Give the tools and the technology time, and the metaverse will arrive soon enough. Like any technology, it takes a lot of time and effort at first, but after a while the marketplace is set up to provide ready-made tools to simplify things for the regular folks.

    It’s like making your own weblog from scratch vs deploying WordPress and a nice theme. Some day, people will deploy off-the-shelf stuff on Second Life or whatever environments exist in 15 – 20 years. While there will always remain a few uber-h4x0rs that do bad ass stuff by hand (or that make their own tools to simplify things enough for themselves, to do bad ass stuff in a shorter time than it would take others.)

    Anyhow, I see that y’all get it. I’ll shut up now. 🙂

  7. Eve Online ‘Ebay account ban scam’ Please warn the community

    Hello,

    I hope you will be able to cover my story. I am a disabled young adult living in the UK. I signed up for an Eve Online account over a year ago and held regular hunting and mining missions with my corp mates who are also disabled and live with me in the same care home.

    Then one day I logged into my account to find it banned. When I finally recieved a reason from Crowd Control Productions (CCP) they said it was because my account was offered for sale on Ebay. This was news to me as I was very happy with my account and had no plans of selling it whatsoever. They informed me that they had seen a portrait of my character on Ebay and that it was offered for sale thus breaking the terms of their EULA or TOS.

    I have explained many times to CCP that I never offered my account for sale and did not want to sell it. It is my belief that a rival corporation took a screenshot of my character and doctored it using photoshop or psp to show my name and details. It is fairly obvious to me that some corporations in Eve Online are using the ‘fake Ebay sale scam’ to deliberately get rival corporation members accounts banned. I understand that CCP owns all characters and data items stored on its servers and that I only paid to ‘lease’ the items and never owned them. I just feel that the general MMORPG community should know about CCPs flawed and extremely unfair policy.

    I hope you will relay my concerns to the many people who could fall victim to this terrible scam.

    Kind Regards,

    J. Hawkins

    Ex Eve Online Vet

Comments are closed.