June 20th, 2007 by Caleb Booker
I have a love/hate relationship wth Terra Nova. In case you’re not familiar, it’s a blog that attempts to ask the big academic questions about MMOs and gaming in general. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but can be worth a read if you’re in the mood. A wide variety of people post there, some total geniuses, some complete morons. While I have nothing against intellectual morons per se, it does distress me when I see something completely idiotic appears right next to something completely brilliant and they’re both hailed equally as paragons of insight by the commenters.
Usually, though, I just quickly skim it. They’re pretty much never on top of breaking news, and only occasionally do they cover genuinely new ground. I’ve paid more attention lately because Robert Bloomfield has been posting some great stuff, but it was the latest post that caught my eye today. Basically, Greg L is handing down the Word From On-High about what’s permitted in the comments. These are the rules: 1) Be nice. 2) Be brief.
Continue reading ‘My Censorship Double-Standard’
June 19th, 2007 by Caleb Booker
A few days ago Raph Koster posted this graph and its been buzzing around in my mind ever since:
WoW population curves
The phenomena, in a nutshell, is a consistent slope in the peak and fall of any given game’s population no matter what. The success with World Of Warcraft, shown in the graph above, is the result of accessing new markets – essentially stacking the slopes. The bottom line is, though, that sooner or later they’ll run out of new markets, and the players are going to get sick of walking the road Blizzard has laid out for them.
Is there a solution? Can a world be created that we won’t just get sick of sooner or later?
Julie Whitefeather posted an insightful article today over on the VirginWorlds Blog about linear vs. non-linear games. At the heart of the matter was the idea that as soon as a player sees where the road leads, or what the target is, the game loses its attraction. Her theory is that virtual worlds like Second Life or Entropia Universe will live longer than others because there will never be a single destination or target to hit. Being there and experiencing it is its own goal.
When thinking back to old games that I still love to play, I’m seeing a similar pattern. Generally I blasted through those games to the end, and then went back to play different sections. Was there a hidden area behind that rock? Can I beat that guy without ever getting hit? How fast can I do that section? Crash Bandicoot was like that, and Super Mario Bros. 3 of course… but even Space Quest 3, with its seemingly linear plot, had me going back through it over and over trying to find little easter eggs or alternate ways of doing the same thing. The endings are largely incidental. I have no real interest in what the “progress” I was supposed to undergo during the game was. I just restore my saved game to wherever I feel like playing, and off I go. I just like to play with it, like it’s a toy.
What other MMOs have that “toy factor”, where you just like to play with them and don’t care too much about winning? Other than Second Life and Entropia Universe, maybe only Starcraft had that magic… and its longevity is beyond question. It’s still huge, with television-broadcast tournaments in Korea still being held to this day. I wonder if its any coincidence that Starcraft doesn’t have a role-playing component.
Maybe that’s the stripped-down key to longevity: games die quickly, but toys last for ages.
June 18th, 2007 by Caleb Booker
I’m reading Gwyneth Lewellen’s latest post at the moment and have frozen at a point about 3/4 of the way down. Up to this point it’s been insightful, clever, and an interesting read. It may be a little myopic, as Gwyn has always been an unashamed head-over-heels fan of Linden Lab, but it’s good stuff.
But this part here… where she talks about griefers, and recommends a course of action:
The only effective way to deal with this kind of crime and vandalism is making an example: get the FBI to arrest a few cyberbullies and make a huge press release as an example. Getting ten years in jail for attacking a live concert with live penises floating around until a sim crashes is sure to make a point — “remember, you can be the next one”.
Wow.
What we’re talking about is taking somebody who made human anatomy appear in a public place and ruining their lives. No more friends, no more family, no more job – just forcible confinement and the company of people who want to hurt them for ten solid years. We’re talking about doing this, not because of their crime, but because it would “send a message”.
You know, like terrorism does.
June 17th, 2007 by Caleb Booker
Onder Skall.
I’ve been living under that name for awhile now. I’ve made friends with that name, had fun with it, met some of the most incredible creatives on the planet, and built a bit of a writing career with it as well.
Deciding to call myself “Caleb Booker” now, after all this time, isn’t an easy thing to do by any means. It’s not that I’m shy, just that it feels unnatural.
It feels unnatural to use my real name. Well now. If that’s not a sign of the modern age I don’t know what is.
When I first established the Onder Skall account I fully expected to abandon it. I had already done so three times in the past for Second Life alone, but alter-egos have always been extremely disposable for me. I’ve been so many other people over the past decade or so. Personas have been like clothing- you pick them up, try them out, and then toss them when they start feeling a bit worn or dated.
Continue reading ‘Coming Out Of The Avatar’