I'm not quite sure who Lyndon LaRouche Jr. is, even after reading his "About me" page, nor reading about him on Wikipedia.
However, he's had a froth at the mouth about some MMORPG that's just been released (Halo 3), and in the same diatribe attacked WoW, Entropia, Counterstrike and the like. Apparently they undermine the social fabric of America. Second Life gets a special mention, as a hedonistic and for "the adoption of an arbitrary set of anti-scientific, anti-principled rules, like that of Second Life[.]" Even wikipedia comes in for a swipe or two.
Of course the fact that there are people that use Second Life for education, and there are some excellent science education sites within Second Life doesn't matter. There's no development of the argument that makes it clear how we're all hedonistic and how SL is anti-scientific and anti-principles, but if you enjoy reading rants, you might just enjoy his article. If you don't you might want to be braced in case your boss does when you try to sell him on SL.
This article paints a grim picture concerning the dangers of MMO addiction. I'm of two minds about this. 1) I'm not about to scoff at anyone who needs help who doesn't get help. If you're in a position in your life in which you can only feel whole by playing a game/drinking/doing drugs/having dangerous sex/whatever, then someone needs to step in to help you.
2) I have to scoff at the idea of 'videogame addiction'. If you're in a position in your life in which leveling up is more important to you than raising your child, earning a living, or managing your own health, then someone needs to step in to slap you into reality.
I've been playing videogames since PONG, and I've always known which side of the screen truly matters. It doesn't matter how cool your character is, or how great your stats are, or even what great friends your guild members are. You have a family that needs you, obligations that must be met. You need to man up and take charge of your life.
But that's not always easy, and I'm not here to say it is. Bottom line: it's up to the player to decide what's best for himself, and until he does, nothing can help him.
Originally the title for this article was going to be 'No. Nononononononononononononononono.' But I didn't think it was properly representative of the subject, at least on first blush. Okay, so, deep breath. Hamlet Au reports that Mattel's new MMO Barbie Girls has at least 3 million signups, and it's only been in existence a couple of months.
The article goes on to introduce an interesting term: cusp MMOs, or online environments that are able to keep their members after they've transitioned into young adulthood. Honestly, though, I'm just aghast that a new generation of girls (and guys too, possibly) are going to buy into the 'I'm a princess and all that matters is looking pretty' viewpoint of Barbie. Sure, that's a snap judgement on my part. If you knew the women I know who adored her growing up and never recovered, you'd share my dread.
It seems that the term 'virtual world' is gaining more currency, and it might be prudent to make the distinction between that term and 'MMO' -- Massively Multiplayer Online -- the shorthand for saying 'a place where lots of people congregate to interact'. Though even that definition is misleading, as witness the word 'multiplayer', where the word 'play' might include either the strict definition of 'to engage in (a game, pastime, etc.)', or its more freely-used sense of 'someone who plays videogames'. So, is it right that SL is a virtual world, more than it is an MMO?
All this is to say that Amazon.com has announced a soon-to-come virtual world called Questville, which ties in some way around its new human-powered answers site, Askville. Apparently, users will gather 'Quest Coins' by engaging in activities, and these Coins will be used in Questville, though no further details have been revealed.
But back to MMOs vs virtual worlds. Are they, in fact, the same?
Profil3 is a new service that allows MMO players to display their achievements, set up their guilds, and meet other players -- creator Bogdan calls it 'Facebook for MMO's'.
It's got a nice, clean interface, which is something I appreciate more and more in this age of Web 2.0 flashiness. It's easy to modify your profil3 with your pictures and videos, and you get to host your own blogposts. Bogdan has done an admirable job with this site, and I'd like to see it grow. I realize that SL doesn't have guilds in the traditional, MMO sense of the term, but I've just started my own: Chew Toys. If anyone would like to be my guildie, join Profil3 and drop me a line!
Anshe Chung, the much-vilified virtual estate business owner, has purchased a banking license in the MMO Entropia Universe. This means that she will be able to take advantage of the real economy Entropia contains, which makes its money from the depreciation its goods experience over time as they're sold back to other users. Among the other four new license owners is Jon Jacobs, previously heralded for his $100,000 purchase of a space station.
Anshe is obviously a shrewd businessperson to have climbed to the top of the hill in SL alone; now's her chance to prove her mettle in a completely different universe.
Considering that one time that talking about a burgeoning MMO caused a lot of you to jump repeatedly on my tail, I'm going to just talk about Planet Cazmo in a neutral tone. See how much fun this is going to be already?
Planet Cazmo is the latest in the series of new virtual worlds on their way to challenge established spaces like SL and There. The screenshots remind me a little of Dofus, which is not entirely a bad thing. The website promises that you can create your own content, yet at the same time says that you will have to play mini-games to earn 'Cazmo points' to buy more items. I suppose it's nice to have the choice.
There's currently no release date for beta, but you can sign up now to receive notice once they're ready. There, was that nicer?
This blog post is flawed in many ways, but I thought it was interesting enough to mention here. This isn't the first, nor will it be the last such piece to compare the two, but what a fallacy to say that men will prefer WoW over SL simply because there are adventuring and combat elements! Without even breaking a sweat, I can name at least 5 people on both sides of the gender fence who play WoW, and 5 more who play SL. And at least 5 of each who do both!
Speaking of that, I've almost used up my first month of free playtime in WoW, and I don't think I'll be going back. It's fun, but there comes a point at which the need to grind outweighs the fun of exploration/quest completion. I'm sure I'm not the first person to think this; do we have any reformed WoW addicts in our audience, and at what point did you realize it stopped being fun?
And at what point will someone try to combine the two?
A griefer, is generally accepted as a person who derives enjoyment from being obstructive, diminishing the enjoyment of others, preventing the enjoyment of others, wasting your time, and so forth. Depending on the environment, there may be a wide variety of specific behaviours (kill-stealing, blocking, training, player-killing, team-killing etc). They don't enjoy Second Life the way you or I enjoy Second Life. They enjoy it when they make you sad, or unhappy, or frustrated. Especially when you show it. Face it – it's easier to destroy than to create – and it requires comparatively little effort or talent.
Griefers are the criminals and felons in the attenuated universes of MMO rules and regulations. Some griefers operate in groups, moving from one MMO to another, causing discomfort and annoyance on larger scales, and then moving on. Some are loners, bent solely on their own enjoyment at the expense of others. Some are just new, and haven't yet grasped the existence of the rules, let alone their precise nature – succumbing to the common virtual world fallacy "That which is possible is permitted."
As seen in this article, people spending too much time playing online are being taken seriously as victims of what one might call 'MMO Addiction'. The article makes several points, one of the most telling being the fact that World of Warcraft is usually called 'Warcrack' by those who can't stop playing it.
Now, I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, it seems silly to me to devote a whole branch of medical science to identifying and treating addiction to games, when there are still so many other, actually life-threatening illnesses in the world. On the other hand, if these people are neglecting their Real Lives in order to play, something should be done. I do have to question, however, whether these aren't merely addictive personalities, with the implication being that if it weren't an online game, they'd find something else to obsess over. In the case of drugs, there is a notable chemical component that brings people back again and again, and that can swifty become psychological. There is clearly room there for treatment.
But in the event that someone is addicted to, let's say, leveling up, what is there to treat? The desire for a well-defined task/reward ratio? It's easier to make friends online, but in the absence of any RL contact, how damaging is it to the psyche to spend most of your time in a virtual world? Or is it all hogwash, and these 'addicts' need to grow up? I remain neutral, but you guys can drop us a comment -- be as forthright as you want to be!
Jim Rossignol writes about how he finds MMOs of all stripes lacking. This was a frustrating piece to read for me, as are most opinion pieces, because it leaves out many details -- details which I consider important to understanding of the genre. Basically, he seems to be condemning games like World of Warcraft and Eve Online, and virtual worlds like SL, for not being what he wants them to be, rather than enjoying them for what they are.
This in itself is fine, but it's a little disheartening to see someone spend space in a publication I enjoy reading to say "In Second Life, about the most creating something (sic) could do is raise some virtual cash or furnish a polygonal villa. That's not game enough for most of us, and Second Life's potential, as a leisure process, becomes truncated." Well, see, this is why we don't call it a 'game'. The reason I stay in SL is for the social aspect; and I think that many people who create objects and clothing in SL would agree that they don't find the creation process too daunting to continue. It would have been refreshing if Mr. Rossignol had named games he felt were worthy of his time, rather than simply lambasting the ones that weren't. It was his piece to write, however, and I hope that someday something comes along that he'll find compelling enough to fall into, 'cause it's a great feeling.
CNet recently debuted a podcast interview featuring employees Charlie Cooper, Daniel Terdiman, Neha Tiwari, and Leslie Katz speaking on the subject of MMOs such as Second Life and World of Warcraft (which, to this day, I can't read the name of without hearing in my head "Wheel! Of! Fortune!"). It's a rather short 'cast, with the end result being a sort of bemused, indifferent-seeming "So, why do you crazy kids like this sort of thing?" approach by the host. Given that Daniel Terdiman has been writing about these things for a while now, the whole interview seems a little disingenuous and late to the party, especially since CNet itself has created a virtual headquarters of its own in SL.
It's tantamount to asking "Okay, convince me: why are we doing this again?"
[UPDATE: Corrected 'Synthtravels' to 'Synthravels']
I like the name; evocative, sibilant ... promising. Synthravels deals in guided tours of the Internet's most popular MMOs, with SL featured prominently at the top of the home page. There's a huge list of destinations available, including famous realms like City of Heroes, Eve Online, World of Warcraft, and some of the perhaps not-as-well-known worlds, such as Neocron 2, and Saga of Ryzom.
Their Mission Statement reads a little like Edgar Rice Burroughs, which is to say it's a little purple, but I enjoyed it. There's no mention of rates, though they offer hour and half-hour tours. One must have an avatar ready in the world into which one travels, and at the appointed time, one logs in to find a Synthravels representative waiting to start the tour.
This sounds promising. I might take advantage of this service at some point, but if any of you beat me to it, take notes and contact me; let's tell the world about your experience!
Now that I've got a machine powerful enough to handle them, I'm going to be trying out some established MMOs to see how they compare with SL (if they do). While looking over A Tale in the Desert (ATITD), Brace Coral and Trep Cosmo (who are active players of that world) have been providing me with some information on how the game is played, and it's intriguing.
Perhaps the main component of ATITD is its cooperative leaning. While one can certainly progress up to a point by playing solo, the game really rewards groups of players cooperating to complete a given task.
With the possible exception of providing advice to builders and scripters, SL doesn't really have a cooperative component on this level. Certainly there aren't any built-in tools to aid in any sort of collaborative creation, IM notwithstanding. Once you begin to build an object, no one else can help or interfere. Creating the appearance of your avatar is also a solo project. I'd like to add this to my growing wishlist of features: some collaborative tools, please, for seasoned residents to use in helping newbies with building, scripting, and appearance ... or just to invent new ways to communicate.
This is interesting news for those who doubt that SL has any impact on RL: Sun Microsystems is held its press conference today in SL, in the Sun Pavilion, rather than at Sun HQ. Why have they done this? Naysayers contend that it's an attempt to jump on the perceived bandwagon of MMOGs, with no real purpose behind taking advantage of whatever benefits such a move would bring.
The other side maintains that SL is part of the 'Web 2.0' configuration, and that by getting in early, Sun is merely staking out important territory in mindspace. Regardless, Sun's motto "The Network is the Computer" seems pretty relevant here ... I wonder if their press conference was affected by the recent particle attack? The mind boggles!
I'm not quite sure who Lyndon LaRouche Jr. is, even after reading his "About me" page, nor reading about him on Wikipedia.
This article
A griefer, is generally accepted as a person who derives enjoyment from being obstructive, diminishing the enjoyment of others, preventing the enjoyment of others, wasting your time, and so forth. Depending on the environment, there may be a wide variety of specific behaviours (kill-stealing, blocking, training, player-killing, team-killing etc). They don't enjoy Second Life the way you or I enjoy Second Life. They enjoy it when they make you sad, or unhappy, or frustrated. Especially when you show it. Face it – it's easier to destroy than to create – and it requires comparatively little effort or talent.
Now that I've got a machine powerful enough to handle them, I'm going to be trying out some established MMOs to see how they compare with SL (if they do). While looking over A Tale in the Desert (ATITD), 
