Still More Halloween Locations

By Bixyl Shuftan

This Halloween season, there's a lot to see and explore. The Newser has reported a number with several articles (1) (2) (3), including Bellisseria's and Calas. This is just a small fraction of those around, 130 listed in the Destination Guide. But, we have time to list a few more. 

One place I checked out was "Whitby - Birth of Dracula." The Guide listed it as "This build by Hera (zee9) is based far more on the FF Coppola Movie than the book and is nothing much at all like reality. It also has a very strong Lovecraftian feel and is sort of English Innsmouth."

The entrance of the area was at the docks of a town. Walking inland, there were the runs of a church, and there was a manor that was well furnished, including a portrait of Vlad Dracula, whom was much bloodier than his fictional counterpart.

There was one other person at the manor dressed in a maid's outfit, possibly part of some kind of RP. I also saw a kind of vampire kit. Would it work against a bloodsucker?

Cloud Lake (16/242/2657)

Another spot is Old Town at Adagio Breeze (197/59/3603)

"Moody, ghostly, creepy and fun. Once a charming and peaceful spot in rural America, when the events began happening, folks moved away. No cars stopped at the motel; the farm lies abandoned. What happened here?"

One scary place that's also an interactive adventure is "Silent Town: The Otherworld." It's located high above the Chief sim. While you could just explore, to get the full experience, get the Grim Combat System, and a weapon. 

After getting the gear, go up and you'll find yourself in a spooky seemingly abandoned town. Right away, you get a thought on where to check out first. There, you should find a tool, and another clue.

Unfortunately, you're not quite alone, having zombie dogs and walking undead to contend with. So keep that baseball bat or gun handy.

I haven't gone very far yet, but this game looks very interesting. Maybe soon we can have a more in-depth article about it. 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chief/43/90/691

Besides Halloween, this is also the time Dia Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) takes place. This holiday is mainly celebrated in Mexico, though is also celebrated to a smaller extent in the United States and other countries. The dead are honored, but in less of a solemn and mournful tone and more of a happy, sometimes humorous one. It's not only for the deceased as the living share sugar skulls and mock epitaphs. 

In the Instituto Espanol sim, there were some displays, and murals painted on the sides of buildings.

 And the local cemetery was decorated with balloons and toys. 

 The Gacha Guild, or "The Guild" as they've renamed themselves, has adopted a "Day of the Dead" theme. And for their Halftime Hunt, one goes into a maze to look for sugar skulls. 

To play, get and wear the HUD, then go into the trap door leading to the maze. Then you navigate around, dealing with dead ends (pun intended) and the occasional trap. Thankfully death is temporary as you only get knocked back to a save point. Once you find a skull and click on it, you can't click on it again until the next day.

Finding the skulls are worth points, from 5 to 15 depending on how rare. The points can be used to spend on prizes.

Also going on is the "Spooky Strides," taking place in a couple temporary sims south of American Cancer Society.

I dropped in on one event with live musician Harmonia Trefoil singing, with the audience in the middle of a spooky fog. 

Also there was Nance Clowes, Trader Whiplash, and Arizona Ballinger. 

Making Strides is a Relay for Life fundraiser, which raises money for the American Cancer Society. Keep an eye on the Relay for Life Volunteers Group in Second Life, or Discord, for times of events.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Spooky%20Strides/113/195/24

Playland Park at Viam Autem Sapientiae (110/135/3301) had a few Halloween-themed rides the new one was the "House of Bones."

The ride had you going through catacombs filled with skulls and bones, with skeletons in various positions. 

Celeste Cazenove really "boned up" her techniques when coming up with this ride.

I could go on and on, but then I wouldn't be able to finish this article in time for Halloween. Whether you chose to explore, have fun at parties, or both, have a Happy Halloween.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Massivley, WoW Insider, And Other Joystiq.com Websites To Close

By Bixyl Shuftan

Some sad news for gaming fans. Joystiq.com, the website that's the home of several caomputer gaming and computer websites, such as "Massively" and "WoW Insider," will be closing. Their final day of operations will be February 3, 2015. Joystiq was founded in 2004 as part of Weblogs, which was bought by AOL in 2005. It was AOL's primary gaming website, discussing MMOs and once in a while Second Life. It has been nominated for several awards for blogs of it's category and has been included in listings such as Forbes.com "Best of the Web."

Recode.net gave the reason as "part of an extensive house-cleaning of it's underperforming content properties." Editor in Chief Brianna Royce commented, "I would like to tell you truthfully that this is an equitable and just decision that makes some sort of logical sense, but the reality is that our overlords' decisions have always been unfathomable. ... a year ago ... a VP whose name I don't even know and who never read our site chose to reward our staggering hard-won 40% year-over-year page view growth by ... hacking our budget in half. There's nothing to do in the face of that kind of logic but throw your hands in the air." Royce had worked as the head editor at Massively for almost five years, "I came here as a geeky copyeditor, and am leaving with a fleet of good friends and a much deeper understanding of how and why my favorite genre runs the way it does, and it will forever influence how I play games and whose games I buy."

The closing comes just after hearing about the tragic news of their former editor Andrew Yoon drowning. He was 29.

Joystiq once had it's own Second Life newsletter, "Second Life Insider." Eventually, the staff was absorbed into Massively. Ciaran Laval on her blog stated when some gamers complained, they answered, "Maintaining editorial balance surrounding all of the many, varied games we cover is an ongoing proccess, and we've selected a suite of 'core games' based on many factors including subscriber/member numbers, overallbuzz and mindshare in the industry, and input from a secret algorithm I would love to call 'interestingness' if it weren't already taken. We are proud to offer in-depth Second Life coverage as one of those core current titles." Ciaran commented, "generally gaming magazines look down on Second Life. Massively ... most definitely did not look down on Second Life." The output did slow down over the years, especially after Tateru Nino stopped writing for them, but they never stopped entirely.

It's expected that the years of archived stories will remain online, at least for a while.

Ciaran concluded, "With a resurgence in virtual worlds likely ... having sites that will happily include that content in areas where such content may not be initially popular is important. Getting the concept of virtual worlds to a wider audience is very important. ... Joystiq played an important role in this the first time around. It will be a shame if they aren't playing a role when the new wave hits."

Sources: Redcode, Ciaran Laval, Massively.com, Wikipedia

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary: Virtual Worlds "To Game or Not to Game?"

By Wesley Regenbogen

To Game or Not to Game? That’s the question …

Some players confuse a virtual world with a game, simply because they often have a game history and play games offline and online. Although games have become very mainstream, nowadays there are many MMOs that are playable online and mostly for free.

Virtual worlds versus Games

Role-playing and creation of objects in-world

In a normal game you play a “role” in the game. In virtual worlds you can also “play” a character but most users are themselves in most cases at least. The lack of the need to fullfill objectives, makes room for other capabilities and other functionalities within the virtual world. For instance, the ability to create objects.

Most virtual worlds are almost entirely created by it’s residents. This means that many people have devoted their time to making content for the virtual world in question. Thus, all that you see is made by residents. There are no companies involved to create all what has been made in-world. Many companies only “offered the land” for creative minds to create objects and let other residents explore the world created.

Virtual Money vs Real Economy

Another huge difference between games and virtual worlds is the fact that there is a virtual economy set inside the virtual environment. You can get a virtual job in-world and get paid virtual money. The amount of virtual money you receive for a virtual job can be different from one job to another.

There is a way to convert your virtual cash into real money, using a sort of exchange in-world or on a website. These exchange services are services created to allow residents of the virtual worlds to trade their virtual money into real US Dollars ( and maybe other currencies as well ). You are able to buy virtual money or sell your virtual money to trade into US Dollars or vice versa. As in real life exchange the exchange rates can fluxuate, so be aware.

When buying virtual money and you are logged in-world already it can take a few minutes for the database to be synchronized. So, this means that the virtual world and the real world economy are bonded together.

Getting Involved

Within the virtual worlds it’s easy to get involved and a wide community of residents is ready to help you whenever they can. Either by creating objects or starting a business in-world or by helping newbies to get adapted to this environment.

Real Life versus Virtual Life

Obtaining Virtual Cash in the virtual world

Just like in real life you sometimes need (virtual) money in the virtual worlds. There are different ways to obtain money in the virtual world.

Firstly, in most virtual worlds you can take on a “job” and gain virtual money that way.

Second option is to buy virtual cash with real life money, which is the most likely option, in most cases.

Third option is making objects or trade objects with other residents and sell those for the best price on the virtual market.

Communicating through an avatar

In real life we communicate through face-to-face conversations and discussing with each other. In most virtual worlds this is also possible, but there is a different approach.

With your avatar, which is a virtual representation of yourself in cyberspace ( the virtual world ) you can interact with other avatars and discuss with them about various topics.

Groups

It’s often hard to find people that share the same idea or have the same opinion in the virtual world. Luckily, in many virtual worlds there is the ability to join groups or something similar. When joining a group, you can share ideas or discuss whatever topic the group has and connect with people that share the mutual ideas. Most groups are free to join, however, some may cost you some virtual money to join.

Moving around in the virtual world

Moving around in the different virtual worlds can be either by walking around, flying, or using a vehicle or flying object to transport your avatar around in the virtual reality. Although in most virtual worlds this aspect is different, depending on which virtual world you are in, the main goal is the same : getting around as quickly and smoothly as possible.

In some virtual worlds it could take a while to transport from one place to another. Teleporters and alike are also available in most virtual worlds, allowing avatars to quickly go from one place to another.

Conclusion

As we learn, it turns out that some virtual worlds have game aspects and some don't. Either way, it's not easy to name a virtual worlds as “game” or “not game” but virtual world. But on the other hand, the social and economic systems have similarities. We might conclude that a virtual world is often not a game and could be named “virtual world” instead. Although, personal opinions may vary and are open for discussion, my personal opinion is that I always refer to “virtual world” and not “game” as it comes to online virtual worlds.

Please feel free to comment on this topic and let me know what you think about this subject.

Wesley Regenbogen

Minecraft Games

By Bixyl Shuftan

Following the pirate ship battle in mid-September, Nydia wanted to do more group activities with her new server set up for uploaded maps. She found a couple more she liked, and on two different occasions invited residents in the HV Community sim group and her friends in the Angels community to take part.

On the evening of September 22, she uploaded a "Lord of the Rings" map. It was meant to be seen with some additional textures uploaded, so mobs could be seen as attacking orcs, etc. And the "swiss cheese" texture seen on some builds led to a few jokes. But there was quite a bit of detail, especially in the palaces and towns.

Nydia took on the role of a dungeon master for this game, leading the party down the path after leading us to a chest with a little gear, giving us a few rules and reading the introduction. We soon had to go through a dark cave, and when mobs attacked many of us lost sight of one another. Nydia ended up having to port those behind to the group. Our journey went across fields, mountain passes, towns, underground passageways, and more. Every so often, we would come to a chest with a notecard describing the next chapter in the action, such as having to carry a message to a leader.

One of the more thrilling parts of the map was the mine area, complete with a fast-moving minecart ride, which got a few comparisons to the one from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Unfortunetly, if anything went wrong, the character would end up off the cart, and one wrong step off the track and into the darkness. I myself ended up in a cavern under the rail, and had to find my way back, and go down the track until I finally found the cart.

Probably the scene that gave us the most headaches was having to go through a mob-filled town. The action was harrier than Nydia had expected, and she passed us chainmail armor, and then diamond. But we ended up getting split up again, and Minecraft veterans can pretty much guess what happens to players who get repeatedly assaulted by attackers. I was among them, but managed to find a two story house where I could wait for Nydia to port me over. Others weren't as fortunate.

The adventure for me lasted a few hours, and over 25 levels of experience from clobbering mobs.  Before it was finished, players began to drop out as it was getting late in the evening, and we had real-life work or college in the morning. Perhaps Nydia's next map adventure will start on a weekend afternoon.

Nydia's next map was "Race Fo Da Wool." This  would be a competition between two teams: red and blue. Each had an identical obstacle course to search for three colors of wool: blue, lime, and magneta. The base had receptacles for one of each of the wools, with trunks nearby with armor, weapons, food, and torches.

Just in front of the base was a forest area, which had some underground caves one could dig down into. Getting through the forest was a building a few stories tall. But getting through it, or up it, one had to get through a number of mob spawners. Past that was a chasm in which players had a choice: build a bridge across it, or go down and then back up, across a number of mob spawners. Getting past that was a thin bridge over a lava pit, followed by a vertical maze in which one went up and down some steep ladders. One wrong move near the top and one would plummet to their avatar's demise.

If one croaked, one had to take a waterfall down. To keep from drowning, one had to poke out just enough to breath, but not so far as to plummet. Player versus player action was allowed, either arrows or the cannons at one point on the course. But in the games I witnessed, the players concentrated on the mobs and getting through the course. For one player, the vertical maze part was the hardest, "Gaaah! I'm afraid of heights!"

We had choices to make, such as taking the time to destroy mob spawners or take chances and try to speed through. During the day, the mobs couldn't usually get far from the building. But at night, they could sneak through and attack the base. And for a newly respawned player whom was alone while the rest of the team was deep in the obstacle course, the relentless waves of zombies, skeletons and creepers could send them back to the respawn point before they could so much as grab a weapon. Players who respawned at night began to wait until daybreak to go back down.

I took part in two games, both which took well over an hour. In one match, I had found one of the wools, and was on my way back, only to find nightfall  had come, and ended up pushed off the edge by attacking mobs, and therefore loosing the wool that had taken me a while to get. My team lost that match.

Despite the frustration with getting clobbered and having to respawn repeatedly at times, everyone had fun. And the player who was afraid of heights, by the end of the game wasn't so afraid.

In the meantime, progress continues in the new Angels Village, with players spreading out again and making new builds. But this is another story.

Bixyl Shuftan

World of Warcraft To Test Using Real Money to Buy Experience Buffs

By Bixyl Shuftan

While World of Warcraft players have been busy with the Battle of the Barrens and other places, earlier this month there was some news that Blizzard would be testing out something never done before in the game - allowing players to gain experience faster by using real money purchases.

The buying of game items, or "micro-transactions," are not new to gaming, or even to WoW. Some smaller Internet games such as Evony allow players to purchase a variety of buffs, better equipment, etc. As these purchases give the buyer an advantage over free players, they are sometimes called "Pay to Win" games. Larger MMOs have tended to avoid such offers, not wanting to give loyal players who've gamed a long time the impression someone can just buy their way to the top and avoid the time and hard work in getting there. Instead some, WoW included, offer the sale of items that do not affect gameplay, such as mounts and pets.

In Summer 2011, Eve Online players protested plans to allow the purchase of items that would affect gameplay, and eventually the company relented. "It's one thing to add non-game items and make money off that," one reader wrote, "It's another entirely to screw up the whole game mechanics so that veteran players who've worked a year to get where they are get bumped by some snotnosed kid who's using Daddy's credit card to buy his way to the top."

Earlier this month, Blizzard forum moderators admitted to plans to "exploring" options after it was discovered there were plans for items to be sold at an "in game store," such as an "Enduring Elixir of Wisdom" that gave a 100% experience boost. The store will reportedly be only on Asian servers at first, and the item is described as currently only on test servers and only available to players level 85 or more.

The response from the players was mostly negative, "The item itself is mostly harmless … the problem is that it opens doors to (the) 'Pay to Win' model. And we already pay the game and a monthy fee just to skip that." Some stated they would leave the game, or feared others would if the In Game Store was released. Some stated they wouldn't mind the option to level other characters this way once a player had brought one up to the maximum Level 90 anyway.

This comes soon after some less than happy news for World of Warcraft. In May, Blizzard stated they had lost more than a million players in the first three months of the year, from 9.6 million n January 2013 to 8.3 million in March. While most of the losses were from Asia (where the in-game store will be tested), some Western gamers left as well. This continues a long-term drop from it's peak of 12 million in 2010, and the company admitted further decline was likely, "we expect to have fewer subscribers at year end than we do today." The reasons for the drop, players were leaving for cheaper games, notably those playable on mobile devices. The video game industry, in addition to virtual words such as Second Life, has been facing increased competition from handhelds such as tablets, iPods, and others.

At the time, Blizzard stated they would be investing more in WoW, with more storylines and features. Since then, the Darkspear Rebellion was introduced. But that even the largest of MMOs would resort to "dabbling in the darkest gold-producing alchemy of them all" of microtransactions allowing those with deeper pockets an edge over conventional players, this could be taken as a sign that even the people behind World of Warcraft are wondering if it won't be long before they no longer dominate online gaming.

Sources: Gamasutra, BBC News, Rock Paper Shotgun, Blizzard Forums,

Bixyl Shuftan

Game Review: Final Fantasy VII Returns on Steam

By Grease Coakes

Lots of people remember the old Atari game systems with the old games combat and space invaders with very primitive graphics. A little later the Nintendo entertainment system stormed across the world with Super Mario bros and classics like Metroid and Zelda.

Fast forward about ten years or so and the First Playstation became the popular gaming system of the time. Squaresoft a gaming company from Japan well known for its Final Fantasy RPG game series came out with the seventh game in the series. Back in 1997 when it was released it had state of the art graphics not with the characters but with realistic looking environments. By today’s standards the blocky avatar you controlled as Cloud was a graphical joke. However the environments made a solid attempt of looking realistic especially in Midgar where you start the game. Considering this was back in 1997 before the year flipped to 2000 and beyond, Final Fantasy VII was a major feat.

In combat however the avatars are better looking 3-d models as your characters do battle with bad guys that you encounter to gain experience Gil and so on. In fact one of the main features of FF VII is the active combat system. Instead of turn based combat like in a dragon quest game where you can take your time deciding what to do your team will be attacked as you tell your characters what to do.

So yes if you do nothing and step away for a bathroom break or your roommate badgers you to death about taking out the trash when you get back your game may be over as the pixel Cloud and his buddies were told to do nothing.

The story itself starts in Midgar as you control a blond spiky man named Cloud who was an Ex-Solider. Caring for nothing but himself, Cloud was hired by Avalanche, a resistance group against the powerful corporation Shinra. Barret the group leader doesn’t trust Cloud’s arrogant attitude, but lets him help in the mission anyway.

Barret and Cloud sabotage a mako reactor as Barret explains it’s unethical for Shinra to drain energy from the earth to power homes etc. Cloud could care less as he just wants his payment of Gil. The game from then on starts as possibly one of the greatest role playing games in the history of video games.

The game play is simple where you command Cloud and your team to attack cast magic or use an item like a potion during combat. However each character can only cast magic if he or she has Materia equipped to their weapon and or armor. Having a Restore Materia equipped to Cloud lets him cast cure to heal hit points on himself or others. Fire Materia allows a character like Barret or Tifa to cast fire attack spells. Materia is created as condensed life energy and allows magical abilities. Most materia very slightly reduces physical attributes while very slightly increasing your magical power. Over a long period of time you gain AP or attribute points to make your material level up to give you stronger healing or lightning abilities. You could just constantly fight enemies early on to beat the system and level up your materia to fire and cure 2, but it would take a very long time to do so.

Another addition to combat is the limit break where a bar fills up a little or a lot depending how much damage your character takes. When the bar fills up instead of attacking your character can do a Limit break instead. Aeris a weak physical character her limit break heals everyone on your team. Cloud does a Braver, which is a super physical attack with his large sword. As you level up your characters gain new limit breaks along with higher hit points and magic points.

The game from years ago is still the same from 1997 with a slight brush up of the graphics along with the same music and sound effects. When I talked to a dog I heard a good attempt of recreating a dog’s woof. It missed by a mile or so, but I enjoyed the sound effect anyway. The movies in between scenes were graphically good though for the time. Pixar or another computer animation company could easily blow those scenes away in one of their movies today though. However Squareenix left the old school movies as is and only improved upon them cleaning them up. Cloud’s sword twirl at the end of each battle and Tifa’s stretching are still there. In fact when I loaded up the game for the first time there were the charging chocobos with the Squaresoft logo very much if I started up the game 16 years ago.

Another feature that I liked playing with was the color change feature to change the color of the background behind the menus and dialogue and combat. There’s a screen with four corners and you can change the color of each corner to customize your very own color scheme as you helped Cloud and his friends fight Shinra and whatever other baddies came your way. I remember changing the color scheme every so often.

There’s something shocking that happens later in the game, but if you never played FF7 I don’t want to give it away. If you really must know ask a friend or use the web. But if you want to find out for yourself and you tell your friends “No! Don’t tell me! I want to find out for myself!” More power to you I won’t give away what happens.

When I played Final Fantasy 7 for a little bit before I wrote this article, I greatly enjoyed playing through the game as I played on my computer years ago when I didn’t have a playstation. I’ll savor the game by playing a little bit now and again and not rush through the game as I barely got anywhere in the game anyway so far. Final Fantasy 7 is a classic game that even if you hate video games and RPG/s you can at least give a try, or you could be reading this article and you beat the game 100 times before and you want to beat the game 101th time on steam on your computer.

It’s available for download on steam at www.steam.com for a low price of $11.99. Swing Cloud’s big sword or shoot Barret’s hand gun (no really his hand is a gun) for the first time or you’re a hardened vet of the game. This game is a smart buy.

Grease Coakes

A Day in Second Life

By Grease Coakes

One day Xavier Thiebaud, one of the owners of the A-List, asked me to write out what I did in Second Life as a blog. Writing a blog constantly would be taxing over time. Xavier had a point though that people may be interested in what goes on in a furry’s doings on Second Life, especially one who hops between human and furry hangouts and activities.

So I figured I’d write about a Saturday where I had a few things lined up. For starters on a Saturday morning is brahma yoga class at 4 AM SLT which is 7 AM my time east coast time. The morning class on Saturday is the bajons or spiritual dancing with some meditation. I woke up on time and was frustrated that my Guru Pramiil Magne wasn’t online. 

Not that I can blame him he’s been busy with his job in real life. Despite that my fellow classmates and I decided to meditate without him. Aldaida said she liked my shirt with a picture of Watabou from dragon warrior monsters 1. She called it an alien, but it’s really a tree spirit from the video game. I was in meditation for a short while and I snapped out of it refreshed. I stuck around though and I wanted to prepare a notecard for a tailsale later in the day for IYC. 

I explained about tail sales in an earlier article. I talked with my friends after they got out of meditation for a bit. Celtic wanted to talk about things in her real life so I stopped and listened. When she logged off I warped to AX for a fave event I like to attend. I warped there and left my avatar there as I went afk to grab some breakfast.

After grabbing a bowl of cereal and a soda, no one is at AX yet. Do I look at my notices and DJ Starfall is playing at IYC. I warp over and I hear some awesome trance. Even at 5:30AM SL time, the dance floor is filled with various avatars shaking their tails. Not a lot of them are talking though, so I IM the DJ Ohni Starfall and say a lot of them are afk or in IM/s. He agrees with me. I let his trance relax me as I do my dailies for neopets. When it’s close to 6AM SL time,  I warp back to AX and see Dj Aurora Avila dance with one of her friends Jamaris Pawpaw.

DJ Aurora, in my opinion, is the queen of video game music as she plays a wide variety of video game remixes along with Asian music. She was the first person I reported on for the SL Newser when Bixyl hired me back in January last year. When anyone tips Aurora you’ll get a surprise if you haven’t been to her DJ sets before. DJ Aurora starts her set and suddenly I get an IM.

Spencer Mactire asks “Wait, were you just holding fire?”

I say, “Yes that’s my chat AO. I have lots of them."

Spencer says “That’s cool…” He also says hi to the readers when I tell him his comment is going in my article. I bring up a comment about Iron Man versus Samus Aran (the woman bounty hunter you play as from Metroid) Aurora has this to say as she’s a big fan of the Metroid series. 

[06:09] Aurora Avila: But I know Samus, and Lord knows that if she fights Iron Man, she'll be walking out with about half his modifications customized into her suit, and with a shiny new Repulser Beam. 

I think Tony Stark will have a bad day if he fights the Metroid hunter.

Listening to Aurora’s video game tunes, I decide to play Hubrid’s Hero heist. The worst game you can play in neopets if you want to earn neopoints as quickly as possible as a full game takes a ½ hour or so. It is fun to play in my opinion though, and I have a gold champion trophy in that game sitting on my neopets user lookup as greasy711. Sadly I play a lousy game. But it’s not all bad as I still hold the top score in rink runner of 534.

With expert mouse clicking while listening to Aurora’s music I do much better at rink runner. I asked a lady in a wild crux avatar named Sonicblue Dudek to slow dance with me. She says sure.

Over time the club fills up with various furries as I multitask chatting with people in the club and playing various neopets games earning neopoints. Fun is had by all while everyone hangs out listening to Aurora’s music.

At the end of Aurora’s DJ set I start playing Extreme Herder off neopets, and wanting faster music I warp over to Dance Island. When I started my Grease Coakes account I used to go Tj Icey’s a lot for the club music. Today it’s now Dance Island which features a bunch of DJ/s playing various genres. Dance Island is known for a lot of gestures but it doesn’t bother me as I’m used to Dance Island being an emote fest along with the music.

I click a dance a ball as I say hi to Deirdre Masala who hangs out a lot there. I jam to the trance being played by Bel Air and I start playing more Extreme Herder. My highest score in extreme herder was 353 today which is a good score but not high enough to reach the top scores. I see a notice at Book Island the sim dedicated to books and promoting your own literary works. The event is Jackson Arthur hosting a book discussion at 10am SLT. I leave Dance Island and wander around Book Island instead.

Using my mini map I find a bunch of green dots and hear a man’s voice over voice chat. So I join in and see a group of people sitting around a round table. Looking at Arthur’s top hat makes me think of Simon Linden. He’s one of the Lindens I met in SL and I found his teddy bear. He also asked about moles in SL and Olivia Whitsend answered that moles are a group in SL headed by the Lindens as a public works group.

Brokali, a blue alien, mentioned he was organizing 75 stories about food. Over voice chat he was geeking out about vegetables. He said that the definition of geeking was to be focused on a hobby or interest as their thing. I said jokingly then I geek out about neopets. Olivia said her kids also play neopets so I said my grey neopet will destroy their pets! Arthur said that doesn’t sound good and I joked no it doesn’t ha-ha!

I discussed my children’s book with the group and how I had to rework my book on lulu a few times to get it right. Also how I found an artist to draw for the cover as Arthur was saying he didn’t want to work with covers. A lot of the book discussion covered writing and ways to get published.

When the event was over I was invited to another book Island event, but I declined saying I wanted to go IYC for their tail sale event at 12noon SLT. The sim had to restart but I warped back with ease. A while later IYC got their tail sale under way as I warped through a ball to a waiting area. I joined a separate group IYC tail 4 sale when I was accepted to be sold as a tail for IYC.  

At 12 noon SLT things were still being sorted out as everyone waited for the first tail to go up for sale. The tail sale got a late start as Havok Muircastle wanted to grab more buyers into the sim and kick off the afk avatars. At 12:30 SL time they finally got the tail sale started as Havok spoke out the rules over Voice chat. One thing about tail sales it take a long time as each tail being sold is stretched out being bid on going once, twice, and then a third time.

Many furries ahead of me went for various amounts of Linden of 3k or so. A majority of the sales were offering art work or adult services like the article I wrote earlier on the AX tail sale. Atheu Blindside ahead of me was offering scripting and building weapons was bought by TeiTei for 2,500. I went up next and I can’t move! The sim screwed with my avatar so I could not sit on the podium to be sold. However amazingly, I had high bids and I was finally sold for 5k to Dragonheart. I warped to a sim on my picks then back and I IMed Dragonheart about what she wanted and she was interested in my writing ability. Then DragonHeart kept going and bid on KJ, a girl furry for her artistic ability, for 32,000L!

Jenny of the Sunweavers asked for a DJ for Club Cutlass, so I volunteered. Rita needed my DJ stream so I sent her the DJ information I bought from shoutcast. Then I checked my friends list and my Guru Pramiil Magne was online! Cool. I was excited that he was able to come online for class as I enjoy meditation class with him. I had an intense meditation but I quickly left class to set up my DJ stream with Rita and Jenni of the Sunweavers.

I played a good balance of disco/70’s/60’s and what I usually play for the Sunweavers crowd. I made a fair amount of tips as I played songs like "Hotel California" by the Eagles and "American Pie" by Don McLean. I played a few video game remixes and some House, but I also remembered the audience I was playing for and played disco etc. But the last song I played was a video game remix based upon the first Mega Man.

All in all it was a busy day for me as Grease Coakes in Second Life.  There’s many things to do and experience here on the Grid. Don’t limit yourself to one club or one thing. I guess that’s the moral of this article, if there is one, is just enjoy life and do what you enjoy.

Grease Coakes

Game Review: Herzog Zwei and Airmech

When gamers think of good real time strategy games computer games like StarCraft or Warcraft 2 or perhaps other various games come to mind. Many people think of Dune 2 as one of the first strategy games, but there’s another game that’s vague but still an excellent first game for a strategy game against your friend or a computer AI.

 

When Sega Genesis came out, everyone thought of arcade games like Altered Beast and Golden Axe. One of the lesser known games is Herzog Zwei created by Technosoft. My brother and I in real life played this game like crazy and we had the saying “Look at your base power”! It plays like a strategy game where you manage resources to buy and build units to destroy the opposing player. What makes Herzog Zwei different though is that you control a plane that picks up your units like tanks and stationary cannons. Also this plane can blast enemy units and the other player with a gun in air or on the ground. You’re not invincible though take enough hits and you die to respawn at your main base after a short period of time. The main goal of Herzog Zwei is to destroy not the opposing player’s plane/robot. But instead to destroy the player’s main base through your units attacking it.

 

To gain resources you gain to buy units come from what me and brother called “mini bases”. You capture a mini base by sending four infantry with a command “Capture mini base”. Infantry have lousy hit points so it’s best to deliver the infantry yourself to the mini base. You can see how many infantry are in the mini base by dots shown on the mini base. When it reaches four in your color you gain control of the base. The two colors are an orange and dark blue. Don’t get lazy though just because you gain control of a mini base doesn’t mean the other player can’t capture it.

 

Your main base and mini bases allow you to build and pick up units recharge your plane’s ammo and fuel and hit points. The same goes for units if you are carrying one of your tanks they get recharged too. Mini bases also give you more resources to buy units. When you order a unit it takes a set amount of time for it to be built. You’ll see a signal when it’s ready.

 

You also assign commands to your troops. One was called the dizzy command where your unit went in a circle. The other commands were capture mini base or attack main base. When you think you have enough firepower start sending your tanks, motorcycles etc. to attack the other’s player’s main base. Commands for your units cost resources too.

 

Once you destroy the enemy’s main base you win! The focus of the game is balancing capturing and keeping control of mini bases and attacking the other player’s main base. No mini bases means you barely get any resources to fund your army. So get control of those ASAP.

 

Airmech made by Carbon Games follows the same game style you control the same jetplane and order units. However there are enough differences from the original that Airmech is a whole new game by itself.For example you can pick different planes like a flying saucer that allows you to gain control of enemy units when you float over them. Eventually they change to your color and it’s yours as if you built it in the first place. Also a cargo plane can heal your own units. Many actions during the game give you experience. Each level you gain gives you a skill point that you can use to give yourself more firepower or higher armor, each plane is different.

 

Also in Herzog Zwei you could only order and build one unit at a time. In Airmech you have a build list and can order up to five at once. If the units are small enough infantry for example you can carry three at a time. Instead of being stuck with the same units from Herzog Zwei, players have the option to customize your army from tanks to HUGE tanks to probes that are very fast that can capture mini bases or cannons or as my brother and I called them “grims” From Herzog Zwei when the cannons had a skull on top.

 

The game is original and addicting. Gameplay is rewarded with experience and kudos and using kudos you can buy the right to use certain units and pilots. The flying saucer I bought with kudos wanting to brainwash enemy units and let them go their merry way on their command against the enemy.

 

How do you play Airmech? It’s pretty easy get an email account from Google and go to the game store and "buy" Airmech. It’s free to play. It’s possible to play against human players in Airmech but beware it tends to lag. There’s a tutorial to get you used to the game play. So even if you never played a strategy game or Herzog Zwei, you’ll get used to it.

 

When you feel like trying out something new and you’re not in the mood for Second Life upload Airmech and give it a shot. You might even yell out “Look at your base power!”

 

Grease Coakes

Zynga and "The Sims Social"

Most anyone who has a computer has been on or at least heard about Facebook. The website where you connect with friends online or locally around your geographical area. Besides keeping in touch with your friends by posting on their walls, there are lots of mini games to get involved in like Farmville or Mafia Wars. There’s no real end to these games, or goals as you keep gaining levels in any of the Zynga games. The games are just a way to connect with friends and end up eating up a lot of your free time.

 

Right now EA is suing Zynga for violating copyright laws for ripping off their popular game, The Sims and making their own version “The Ville.” Playing the original sims when it first came out, I had a good idea what to expect from the sims. “The Sims Social” made by EA is their Facebook version of their very own Sims. Like the Sims series, you create your own person and interact with people throughout the Facebook network with various requests for more energy or items to complete sets of items. You use energy to do actions like the Sims like being social with your neighbor or eating some pie. Also you get to pick out clothes and a characteristic for your sim. I picked out a charming personality. Just like original Sims you have to keep an eye on the needs gauges making sure your sim makes it to the bathroom and gets enough sleep.

Playing The Ville seemed very much like playing EA’s the social Sims. You do the same actions and the ville offered the same personality types and similar clothes and goals. It seemed confusing whether I was playing either EA’s “The Sims Social” or Zynga’s “The Ville.” The Sims animations when talking to other Sims seemed identical. Also the gag of your sim eating a tiny or big bite from the pie is in both versions. When you sim has a tiny bite, he or she shrinks. A big bite will make your character bigger. The music also seems the same the easy breezy music style of the Sims as the game loads up seems identical when you play Zynga’s version. 

 

It seems very clear that Zynga wanted to ride the popularity of the widely successful Sims from EA and create their own version. My question was it worth it for Zynga to carbon copy the Sims and put themselves in a bad position to be sued? Zynga already has popular games like Farmville on Facebook and many others. Seemed like an unnecessary risk to take over a single game.

 

I wonder how the lawsuit will turn out? Zynga’s future seems cloudy now when before it had a strong standing with Facebook making endless games that tend to be addictive. Sometimes you have to leave a classic idea alone and move on to make your own classics hopefully Zynga will learn that lesson.

 

For more information, check out the article from CNN. 

 

Grease Coakes

MORPG Review: Rift

A few people have been asking me where I've been, and why I haven't put up a couple of articles for the Newser in recent times. The simple answer is that I haven't been in-world; I've been distracted by a game known as Rift... essentially "World of Warcraft" if WoW had respectable graphics.

Rift is a shameless WoW knockoff, but it's a good one. It's set in the world of Telara, and there are two factions, the Alliance and the Hor... I mean, the Guardians (chosen by the gods to go after evil) and the Defiant (relying on technology over "gods"). The two factions are at odds about how best to deal with a bunch of evil dragons that want essentially to eat the world. As of right now in the storyline, two of those dragons (Greenscale, dragon of Life, and Akylios, of Knowledge) have been taken out by players.

The classes are kind of the same, with skill "trees", only in this case, the more points you put into the "branches" of the tree, the more "root" skills are unlocked. There are a few differences from WoW in this regard; Rogues can tank (their tanking tree comes with a lot of shields and teleports both to and from the monsters) and mages can heal with a "Chloromancer" build.

Rift has a few things going that make it different from WoW. For one, it has its namesakes, the Rifts. These are mini events in which you "kill x amount of monsters" that are usually stronger than the norm. Rifts have multiple stages, with stronger and stronger beings appearing until the last of them drops and the rift is sealed. The other thing it has is its Artifact system, where during the course of your travels you can come across artifacts that make up "sets" and which you can turn in for a gold reward (and sometimes a costume piece, like the head of an iron golem you can use as a helmet). It also has "Chronicles", mini-dungeons/adventures that allow you to solo "high end" content (so instead of needing a 20 man raid to down Greenscale, you can do it alone or with one other person). Currently there are only two Chronicles, but I am sure there are going to be more.

Other than that it's the same as WoW. You go out questing, do dailies and holiday events, go on raids (the current end content, Hammerknell, has 11 bosses that take 10-15 minutes to down... each), get better gear. They just opened up a new continent for content, Ember Isle, with a tropical "jungle feel" to it for the Level 50s (the highest level you can be so far). I decided to play a Rogue, as I was looking for a Hunter build like my WoW days.

It's not without its faults. The aforementioned hunter only has three pets (tanking boar, dps wolf, and a mutant velociraptor called a blood raptor); there is a lot of groaning about how clerics seem to be underpowered, and one thing I have noticed is that the devs can't seem to get world events right. Their first (the opening of an instance called the River of Souls) was a disaster, and the ones following haven't been all that hot either, with a lot of unexpected bugs. Their PvP leaves much to be desired, as there's no scaling. You can be a "rank 2" (out of 8) PvPer, and routinely run into Rank 8s whom you can't put a dent into. When their newest expansion, Ember Isle, opened you had world bosses with 60-80 people fighting the boss trying to down it. The lag generated by so many people in one place means the boss despawns after two real-time hours before you finish killing it. The technology is advancing faster than most home computer users.

I've been playing since the beta that started in March. Having been kicked out of my WoW guild for stupid reasons, I was quitting cold turkey (a good decision; I found I didn't miss WoW at -all- after two years total of play). Rift's a good game that has a LOT of potential for improvement if they don't make stupid mistakes, so I'm giving it an optimistic 3 Dragon Hoards out of five, because it has room for improvement.

I've also been playing several other games and am pondering getting Skyrim, and I simply haven't been in Second Life all that much otherwise except to allow my Tiny Empires HUD to advance a few turns. So if you were looking for me, that's where I've been.

Now for an announcement. I've become a rather jaded equine reporter here on the Grid, it's very hard for me to find something I can get really excited about writing about. Twice already I've had to pass stuff back to Bixyl (the recent Meeroo story, for instance) because I couldn't get excited enough to write a piece on it.

With that in mind, for the 2012 year I want -you- out there to get me to do things. I'm a reporter, make me report things! :) If you can point me to something or have something to plug that I can get excited about, AND I give it a good review, it's $L in your pocket; I'm putting my $L where my mouth is. If I give something you bring to my attention 4 Dragon Hoards out of five, I'll pay you 500 $L. If I give it a full five out of five (harder than it looks), I'll pay 2000 $L out of my own pocket.

Xymbers Slade

Basketball in Second Life: Changes at the VBA

Recently I came across some Internet chatter about the VBA, the organization of basketball teams in Second Life I wrote about last spring. Deciding to hear from the source, I send a notecard their way, and got a message from their co-founder Emerald Ishtari invited me to talk with her about what happened in the past few months.

Emerald greeted me upon my arrival at the VBA’s Alpha Cold sim, and offered me a tour around. She pointed out the Recruitment Center. Asking her how things had been with the VBA, Emerald answered, “As with any business especially one as new to the grid as basketball, we have had our ups and downs.” One major change was the introduction of the Womens’ Virtual Basketball Association, or WVBA. But the results were less than ideal, “The response has been mixed. Women get excited to play then get apprehensive. So it has been up and down.”

She then ported to the Arena, sending me a TP after her, “This is the Alpha Cold Arena.” In their original one, there was a mall, so they “kept the concept” by having some stores around, “Game of the Week and special games, i.e. playoffs and finals, are played here.” To let fans know of upcoming games, people could cick on a “Subscribe-o-matic.”

Emerald told me they try to keep a family friendly environment, though she admitted there had been problems, “As with real-life, we have had to exercise the right to eject, as have team owners. Second Life has it’s share of ‘misbehaving’ people, and that ranges from blatant rudeness, to not abiding with league standards such as lowering their arc or turning off their mic..”

She showed me another court. Asked if it was a practice court, Emerald told me,”his court is used for (both) practice and games. Players are welcomed to come here anytime, as long as there isn't a game going.” She grinned, “some fall asleep here practicing.”

“This particular court is exclusive to the VBA. It is linked to our website and records stats of official games. It was a major project to get it just right, and I am happy it has come to fruition. The scripting had to be just right to record realistic stats. Not only team stats, but those of individual players as well. (smile) As a matter of fact anyone just wanting to try out the court can come here. It is open to anyone. Even a fox can play (grin), as long as they are the right height.” Emerald went on to say, “... the court forces the player to be the right height. ... we used the general range of real-life basketball pros.” The range was three inches.

At this point, we were joined by one of the VBA players, Valentino Fallen. Emerald introduced him, “Valentino is one of the players that comes here to practice at times.” Valentino explained, “Been with the league for a little bit, I was a member with the Bulls.” After a little talk, he went to the court, pressed a button, and the scoreboard announced, “Valentino Fallen has joined the H-O-R-S-E game.” Emerald told me it was a kind game on the court, “e spells out H-O-R-S-E to complete the game. Each made shot equates a letter. It is a great one person game. It’s also great for just horsing around, thus the name. (giggle)”

Emerald and I then headed to the Executive building. She showed me a special fountain that had been set up, “For Sept 11th, we put up a memorial reflecting fountain ... the Pentagon, World Trade Center, and the flag erected by the soldiers/firefighters.” She added it was just “a small gathering” whom where there for it’s unveiling, feeling perhaps more would be there next year.

We headed into the Executive building’s main lobby, where the VBA championship trophy sat. The season was still going, delayed somewhat by Hurricane Irene, “some of our players were affected, so teams had to regroup. We had to reschedule approximately 10 games.” The playoffs most likely would be in November.

I asked a few more questions. Of the occasional female av with a male behind it, and vice-versa, Emerald told me they were acceptable as long as the avatars fit their league’s gender. She went on to say there were some teams up for sale, both from the VBA and WVBA.

Of the funnier moments/sports bloopers at the basketball games, Emerald mentioned, “Pre-game at the last game a spectator rezzed in nude. She didn’t know, there were little boys here, and they chased her until she teleported out. (laughter) Rezzing issues are the biggest bloopers, or the person who fell asleep on mic in the stands with a high arc, and I "tucked them in" by sending them home. (laughter) I think some players sang a lullabye.”

Emerald did say there was one sad development at the VBA, “We had a major shift in league ownership. My dear friend/co-owner/co-founder for personal reasons has for all intents and purposes left Second Life. On July 31st he and I finalized turning sole ownership of the league and all holdings over to me. ... It has been quite exhausting. When you grow accustomed to working with someone and suddenly they are not there anymore in any capacity, it can be overwhelming. ... to go from having him there at times, to no times, that has been a very difficult pill to swallow. I appreciate everything he did when he was here, and still does on his guest appearances, and we all wish him the best.”

The VBA is based in the Alpha Cold sim. They also have a website at http://www.vba-bball.com, with a Facebook page and Twitter account.

Bixyl Shuftan

Virtual World Avination and Gambling

I was recently contacted by an old friend, Foxyfurman Kumaki, about a recent development in the virtual world Avination. As the estate owner in Second Life of the old Foxworth sim, he and Linden Labs got along less than well. Eventually, he and his partner moved to the mainland, getting a shop there (and paying only a tiny fraction what he once did).

He also decided to check out other virtual worlds, and soon found one he liked: Avination. “This was the first world that I could log into easily,” he told me earlier this year, “This is less money and more stable from my view.” Foxyfurman reported the number of sims back then as 800. More recent statistics of the Opensim based world show over 1100, with almost 26,000 members, almost 9000 whom logged in within the past month.

One thing Foxyfurman liked about Avination was the difference between it’s policy on gambling and that of Second Life. Because Linden Labs is based in the United States, it has to deal with the government’s less than friendly attitude with Internet gambling. A few years ago, Linden Labs banned all gambling in Second Life. Later on, it began allowing some games such as Zyngo, if a case could be made they involved some level of strategy. But there was at least one occasion Linden Labs changed the rules and ordered gaming halls to comply, or else.

“In Avination,” Foxyfurman told me, “it is straight up gambling. AVN is in the UK, so games of this type are semi-legal.” An article in VirWorld wrote about gambling there, describing a casino that was so big, his viewer couldn’t see it all.

Unfortunately, Avination’s relaxed policy on gambling got unwelcome attention from Paypal. Foxyfurman told me the reason Linden Lab had put the pressure on Zyngo halls earlier was because of Paypal, “Paypal is international, and they do not like it.” Avination had been using Paypal for it’s residents’ convenience. But because of the gaming, they were thinking of leaving, “it looks like AVN has few choices: ban gaming, or find a good and easy payment method.”

Some days later, Foxyfurman had some good news, sending me a notecard, with a message to AVN’s staff from Paypal:

Thank you for providing additional information
regarding your website/s and business in order
to comply with PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy.
After a recent review of your account, we have
found that you have completed the requirements
to remove the limitation and have granted an
appeal.

Furthermore we are glad to inform you that you
have been approved to use PayPal as a payment
option for your sales on the following website/s:
http://www.avination.com

So it seems the gaming halls are in Avination to stay.

Bixyl Shuftan

The “Cataclysm” Continues in Azeroth

This should be my last “Warcraft” article for a while. It’s not every day they make a major update. Though there have been a lot of changes here.

Besides the wolflike Worgen for the Alliance, Goblins are now available as player characters for the Horde side. Small and quick, they are higher in agility and intelligence, have a bonus in attack and casting speed, and those choosing alchemy as a profession start out at 15. From their gadgets, they’re able to do a Rocket Jump and Rocket Barage. And reflecting their background as moneymakers, are able to receive the best discount regardless of faction standing and able to call up access to their banks wherever they are.

The beginning quest chain for the Goblins explains how his/her cartel, the Bildgewater Cartel, got into the Horde. Instead of am unknown, the player starts out as an up and coming businessman/businesswoman on the cartel’s island city of Kazan. As you go about your business, including a ride on a hot rod, Deathwing, the main villain of the game expansion, shows up, and sets off the volcano. You gather your life savings (and then some), in order to get a seat on the Trade Prince’s yacht, but he double crosses you and makes you his slave. However, the ship gets caught in a storm and wrecked. So you get a chance to prove to your fellow Goblins you can be the hero who can get them out of their mess.

The beginning Goblin quest chain is longer than that of the Worgen's, the 100 Quests achievement reached along the way. But it’s packed full of chuckles as you face down funny-looking pygmies, “Oomie goomie goomie!”, who want to sacrifice your friends to their turtle god. Fortunately, you have your Goblin gadgets to get you through, from rocket boots to weed-wackers, but with little to no safety features, there’s always that chance something can go wrong. Along the way, you meet up with a group of Orcs, and everyone decides it’s best to cooperate in order to get off the island. You also run into the most well-known Orc, Warchief Thrall. Players who take up Goblin characters hear from him that he’s placing another Orc in charge of the Horde. This explains why Thrall’s nowhere to be seen in Orgrimmar these days.

But “Cataclysm” is much more than two new races available for play. Flight is now available in the “classic” continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, at least for those Level 60 and over. I’ve heard some wonder if this takes away from some of the experience, but most seem happy with it, the popular gathering places at Ogrimmar and Stormwind filled with flapping mounts as players happily show them off.

You’re going to need your flying license. New areas are now open in these two continents that would otherwise be inaccessible. New quests, monsters, and enemies await. These are more dangerous than previous areas, and your level cap has been raised to 85 to keep up. And with these new levels, new weapons and armor are available. Profession levels have also been raised from 450 to 525, the new rank of proficiency called “Illustrious Grand Master.” And with them, new materials to make high level armor, weapons, potions, etc.

And there’s a new Secondary Profession available, Archeology. Players go around Azeroth digging up artifacts at dig sites recently unearthed by the Cataclysm. After getting the skill from a trainer (the one in Stormwind named Harrison Jones, an obvious take on Indiana Jones), players go to dig sites, and survey them for archeology fragments. A survey site with a red light means you’re far away from your find. A yellow light a fair distance, and a green light means you’re close. One can gather fragments from a site three times, and then it closes while somewhere else on the continent another opens. Four dig sites are open at any one time, and contain artifacts from one of the races, such as Elven or Troll, or fossils.

Once enough fragments are gathered, then can be combined to make artifacts. Your first ones will be common and not worth much, such as common vases and trilobite fossils, . But as you continue to come across artifacts, more valuable ones will appear. Finding fragments will level your Archeology skill for a while, but eventually you level just by combining them into artifacts. But finding the fragments will still get you experience points, which can help out characters that haven’t quite reached Level 80 yet.

While a way to enjoy WoW between questing, some players have their doubts on how valuable this profession is. One guide I came across suggested truly epic items were few and far between. But as a Worgen I saw one Alliance character on a fossilized skeleton mount. A prize from archeology? Maybe.

Another new feature is guild advancement. Guilds can advance with 25 levels of progression, done through the accomplishments of it’s individual players through quests, battleground victories, etc. Each new level brings perks, such as bonus experience from quests and clobbering monsters, faster mount speeds, etc. There are two new Player vs Player battlegrounds, Twin Peaks and Gilneas.

And of course there are the jokes. The Worgen and Goblins have their own special jokes, such as “Since the change, I prefer my meat rare,” and, “When in doubt, blow it up.” Perhaps it’s the perception of this player, but the game designers seem to be getting a little brave on occasion with the humor. One of the female Goblin jokes is a vieled bondage crack, and in one of the lady Worgen jokes, a supposed listener confuses what she actually means by a “bone.” The slightly riskee humor continues to the new quests, in one the player delivering a shipment of crab meat to a lady sailor and being told a subtle STD joke. And it's not just the jokes where the off-color remarks appear. In one of the new low-level quests, the new Orc Warchief insults the Undead queen by calling her a rhymes-with-witch. Blizzard must think their audience is getting older.

Some are probably asking “why just raise the new top level to 85 instead of 90?” Despite being around for several years, World of Warcraft is still successfully at keeping a large audience, and will probably remain so for some time as long as Blizzard continues to be good at giving the players a great game. Someone thought they would keep their lead for at least 20 years. Most likely it won't be that long (in my opinion), but although some people still talk about a potential “WoW killer,” more game developers admit Warcraft will not be going away anytime soon. Instead of being knocked off it’s number one spot by a new hot game, most likely it’s position will be chipped away over time as players’ tastes change and new technical developments allow for stunning new games.

And of course some players would prefer to be in a smaller game where they can meet up with the administrators and content developers, and maybe even contribute to developing in the tools of the game, such as the roleplays and combat RPs in Second Life.

World of Warcraft may be the McDonalds of online games, to paraphrase Eurogamer writer Robert Purchase, but most would prefer to dine elsewhere on occasion as well, and some never get a taste for it to begin with.

Sources: WoWwiki, Eurogamer,net, Massively

Bixyl Shuftan