Push out the jive, bring in the love.

We've decided to add to our ever expanding list of reasons as to why we kick so much a**, so we're happy to announce that as of January 1st, 2008, our website will be adding a new section: the Weekly Free (and super-cool) Tip.

If you can't tell what that new section is from the title, you probably need some remedial-English lessons or we need to work on our marketing skills. Never the less, we will offer a weekly free tip for one of the games we cover. Since we'll take the tip directly form our current guides or one of our in-production guides, the tips should be pretty good. It will be a randomized tip, so it may or may not cover the game you play. But don't let that discourage you, as you can just check back next week and see what new cool stuff we have to tell you.

Till next time, true believers.

Death to the demoness Allegra Geller!

We got tired of watching endless re-runs of Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs some time ago, so we were pleasantly surprised when we found out about the Discovery Channel's newest series: Rise of the Video Game. Airing for the past 5 Wednesdays, this short series covered the history of the gaming industry since the beginning.

Last night's episode was about our favorite subject: internet gaming, and more specifically, MMO's. They did a pretty good job of summarizing the history of internet gaming and the rise of MMO's from the early days of text based games, up through Ultima Online and Everquest, then to today's MMO world. They talked to a lot of people we keep track of, including The Deadalus Project and Julian Dibbell. And we loved the attention to the potential impact of video game economies. Just like we always say, if you have a computer, an internet connection and a PayPal account, you can basically make a living anywhere in the world. A kid in India can make as much money as a kid in San Fransisco. Given the choice, we'd be the one in India if only for the fact that a small income in San Francisco is the same as a massive income in India.

Also in the news recently: Jerry Bruckheimer and MTV are teaming up to produce video games. Yes, the man who brought you such, ahem, classics as Armageddon, Transformers, Gone in 60 Seconds and, our personal favorite, The Rock ("What kind of f*cked up tour is this?") will now be bringing his unique brand of leave your higher brain functions at the door, in-your-face bombasticity to the world of video games. No specific game projects have been mentioned yet, but we're hoping for a in-depth, detail oriented MMO set in the world Victorian Era haberdashery. Can't you just imagine the exquisite lace and ribbons and the like? Absolutely delightful! Yes, Victorian England fashion as the basis for a Jerry Bruckheimer MMO. That would be great. But with robots, hot-chicks and explosions too, of course.

(Oh, and if you don't get the title to this post, you might want to check out the movie Existenz. It has a lot about gaming in it. But be warned, it's a David Cronenberg film.)

I didn't know it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows.

Following up on our Friday post, we wanted to show you this nifty little film we found on YouTube. we can't express how much we hate the new Runescape update. So when words are not enough, video and music can offer a more complete expression of our discontent. To that end, we present this nifty video we saw on YouTube. We think it's pretty great.

(Oh, and the fact that they mention our blog in the vid is cool too.)

Enjoy.

MInd if I tell you how to play, Comrade? No? TOO BAD!

We're going to need a moment to compose ourselves. Excuse us....

Nope. Even that won't work. So let's begin:

Oh my F***ING GAWD!!!

Are you serious? I mean, are YOU F***ING SERIOUS?

In case you haven't played Runescape lately (no, we're not going to link there because we are so angry), you might want to take a seat and get ready. In their wisdom, the wonderfully pinko developers at Runescape have decided to free the proletariat by removing any semblance of free markets or individual liberty. Now the dialectic can continue on its natural course and the free peoples of the world can unite in brotherhood and rejoice!

What are we talking about? If you want to read the communist manifesto that is the new Runescape Update, you can go to their site and look for the new rules about trading. If you don't want to read how Jagex decided to make your decisions for you, we don't blame you, so we'll sum it up:

You can no longer choose what prices you want to pay or what items are worth. Jagex no longer trusts you to decide for yourself, so they've decided to decide for you. Trading and paying prices will now only be allowed if Jagex deems the prices are ok. You are too stupid to decide for yourself. You might have to think. You might have to plan. You might have to learn that the freedom to choose for yourself means that something bad might possibly happen at some time and that's bad. Now you have to get Jagex's approval before you trade, get them to agree to the prices for you, and essentially get their permission to wipe your @ss or do what you want to do.

Yes, we understand Jagex's desire to limit real-world trading. We also understand that there are evil-bad gold-farmers who are so evil and bad that they are trying to make money. (Those bastards.) Yes. No one should be making money on anything, and especially not anything that Jagex can't get a portion of!!!

But my gawd. Do you have to kill one of the best parts of the game just to try to discourage the trade of virtual items for real-world money? One of the main reasons we liked Runescape so much was because of the freedom it allowed to interact with others. MMORPG's in general are great because you can interact in a virtual world, engage in real-worldesque activities in a safe, relatively consequence free environment. Runescape (and FTP games in general) are so wonderful because they allow for such interactions and freedoms. What a great learning tool/research laboratory/visceral experience. Where else can you do these things without risking anything more than a few hours of your time? Where else can you bounce back so easily once you've made a mistake? Where else can you enjoy yourself so much and learn skills that you might actually apply to real life?

Oh. And don't EVEN get us started on the Wilderness changes. Fahgettaboutit!

Well, Jagex has put a stop to it all. Forget it. We're done playing Runescape. We're also guessing a lot of other people are. We're guessing the comrades at Jagex will soon feel the effect of their socialist agenda: In the form of much lighter bank accounts.

R.I.P. Runescape.

I don't want you guys using words with no meaning.

Now joining the ranks of truthiness, crisitunity and irregardless (we hope not), Meriam-Webster's dictionary has released the word of the year for 2007. Are you ready for it? Here it comes:

w00t!

Yes, that hybrid of 'Wow, loot!' that is so commonly heard voiced by gamers around the world (or at least on a few of the internets) whenever they want to express joy, 'w00t' is now a word. Sort of.

We have our doubts as to how long the word will be around, but we are glad to see there other people in the world who are at least cognizant of some of the gaming world's peculiarities.

Now, if only those noobs weren't afk so much, they could get a few dings and maybe help us with crowd control.

Please, Hammer. Don't hurt em.

We try to keep an eye out on all the upcoming MMORPG's out there--seeing as how we are in the game guide business, it makes sense-- and one of the games we've been talking about lately is Warhammer Online. Yeah, we know it's another fantasy/sword-and-sorcery type game, but it has been getting some good press coverage and early reviews. It's currently in closed beta, but according to the game's website, there are about 500,000 people who have applied to be beta testers so far. Given that the most widely played MMORPG currently has 9 million subscribers, and most others are lucky to reach a million, having half a million gamers who want to play the beta is a pretty good sign.

In other news, EVE Online recently released the Trinity update. According to our sources (And by sources we mean the drunk spider monkey we keep around the office. (And by office we mean the cheap linoleum floor of the local community center.)) there have been some significant problems with the update. Apparently, the bugs in the new update are so rampant in some major systems (Jita), that CCP has issued a warning to pilots not to venture there.

Maybe it's just us, but if your new update is so problematic that it's shutting down some of the most important areas of the game, you probably would have been better off delaying the release. Then again, it may not have been something CCP could have known about beforehand. Either way, there are lots of devoted EVE Online players lately who have tried their hardest to disprove the notion that in space, no one can hear you scream.

Fly safe.

What's worth doing is worth doing for money.

For those of you who aren't up to speed with the big Wall Street bulls and bears, hedge-funds and Gordon Gecko types, we thought we'd take the time to let you know about an interesting tidbit from the world of high-finance.

GameStop, the video game outlet with almost 5,000 retail stores, will soon be added to the S&P 500 index. What does that mean? Basically, the S&P 500 is a list of 500 companies believed to be the largest, strongest, and most representative of the United States (mostly) economy.

So why do you care? You probably don't, but it is something to think about. The companies on the S&P 500 are largely symbolic of what the country is doing and where it is going. For instance, 30 years ago there were almost no technology companies in the index. Now, companies like Microsoft, Apple and Oracle are scattered throughout.

With the addition of GameStop to the index, we get another indication of just how strong the gaming industry is and how it continues to grow.

Tonight: Puppet show. And Spinal Tap.

So we had a problem with our automated download script recently. This was less than great because without it we have to deliver our guides manually to each customer's email account. Luckily for us, we use Inmotion Hosting to host our site, and use a script we got from MJ99.com for our automated delivery.

Mike (the guy who works for MJ99.com) replied to our help request within hours, while Inmotion replied even quicker, and we were able to sort out the problem in less than a day.

So let us say this: even though we have no reason to believe they have anything to do with the music industry, Inmotion Hosting and MJ99.com ROCK!! They're Live at Budokan! They're the Magical Mystery Tour! They're the best band in the history of the world!!!

Excuse Me While I Whip This Out

So this blog is basically about MMORPG's, virtual worlds and the stuff that comes with them. And though we like to think about the gaming world's intersection with Plato's allegory of the cave, Rene Descartes's malevolent deceiver and whether or not one should choose the blue pill or the red pill, we're not just eggheads who can't appreciate creativity and funny.

We first saw Red vs. Blue a couple of months ago, and though it's mainly for Halo fans, we still love it. Not only that, but this could be the future of film-making. I mean, no sets, no crews, no locations, what's not to like? Check out the Halo 3 Beta Video.

Gamer: "I play with real people."
Therapist: "Have you met them, face to face?"
Gamer: "I hear them. It's good enough for the blind."

And for you World of Warcraft fans who's guild duties take up more of your time than you want to admit to anyone who isn't in your guild (you know who you are), there is always The Guild. This great little series is a little window into the lives of people who's gaming lives vaguely resemble real lives.

Enjoy.

Does that earring mean you're a pirate?

Yes, it's Saturday and we're blogging. But we get to play and write about games for a living, so it's never really like work anyway and we don't mind so much.

But we digress. Let's begin, shall we? Ahem...

Ever since Sid Meier first taught us to plunder the Spanish Main with Pirates!, we've been fans of privateer/pirate/war on the high-seas/avast ye matey genre of games. Why? Because it's fun. Duh.

So we were quite happy to see that Pirates of the Burning Sea is getting closer and closer. What a great idea, an MMORPG based not on the mythical worlds of Tolkien-esque magic and monsters. Having just completed their Stress Test (a beta-test stage), the makers of POBS have added some really great features to their new game world, like the ability for players to affect the world in which they play. In POBS, players will be able to change the nature of the game by conquering ports and cities. Instead of merely fighting and plundering, players can have a real impact on the game in ways we haven't seen before. Though we aren't sure how this will play out and how effective it will be, this reason alone makes us want to play the game. It is akin to forming a raiding party in WoW, and instead of raiding Ironforge, you can raid it and then fight a battle to determine who controls it. How fun would that be?

Fake World, Real Money, Real Problems

We've been watching this one for a while, but it appears as if the lawsuit against Second Life avatar Volkov Catteneo (supposedly 19-year-old Texan Robert Leatherwood) has come to a very real and very serious conclusion.

If you don't know anything about this case, here are the basic facts: Eros LLC (owned by SL entrpraneur Kevin Alderman) created and sold the SexGen bed and sold it in Second Life for L$12,000 per copy. Despite the 'no-copy' protections, Catteneo somehow managed to copy it and sold unauthorized copies of the bed for L$4,000 each. After filing suit against Catteneo in July and a lengthy search using IP address searches and private investigators, Leatherwod was identified as Catteneo.

Since then, Leatherwood failed to respond to the lawsuit and, now that the response time has expired, it looks like he will have a default verdict levied against him. This will make him legally responsible for Catteneo's actions whether Leatherwood is actually Catteneo or not.

Let this be a lesson to everyone who thinks these are just games. By failing to respond to the lawsuit, Mr. Leatherwood has taken a very big step towards ruining his young life. Problems like this don't go away. If he has a default judgment entered against him, Leatherwood can have his assets seized, his wages garnished, and his credit report ruined.

This case also highlights the difficulties of copyright issues in places like SL. (Read this article form Reuters SL about some of the current problems, or check out the TerraNova blog for some great articles about MMORPG issues.) Players like Leatherwood probably have a sense of secure anonymity when playing games like SL, but it's just an illusion. When there is money involved, you can be found.

Welcome to the desert of The Real.

Whether it's the World of Warcraft, Second Life, Entropia Universe or any other virtual world MMORPG, we're continually fascinated by the implications of these virtual worlds upon our lives. And apparently, we aren't the only ones.

Take a look at this article by Nick Bostrom, a philosophy professor at Oxford. It is worth reading, but if you don't have time, we'll give you the juiciest part of his 'simulation argument', i.e., the conclusion. Professor Bostrom states that if his simulation argument is correct, at least one of the following conclusions is true:

(1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage;
(2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof);
(3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.

Did you catch that? There is a 33.33% chance that you, me, Napoleon Bonaparte, Billy Jo Robideaux and everyone else who has ever existed is nothing more than a simulation in some computer somewhere that is being run by some advanced species. I mean, I liked 'The Matrix' as a film, and I thank Renee Descartes for all he's done, but I've never really wanted to live it.

So why are we bringing this up?

We've always been fascinated about the world of online games. For example, when you are buying a WoW epic sword of kicka**, what exactly are you buying? A code on a computer somewhere? Some pixels? The right to rent those pixels or that code?

Though it's probably the last of these, it still seems strange that monetary transactions for virtual goods takes place. But a thing only has value if people believe it does, right? If people stopped believing tomorrow that money has value, it would just be paper.

So getting back to the simulation argument, if everything is a simulation, then it makes perfect sense that simulated goods ala the WoW sword has value. After all, WoW itself would be a simulation inside a simulations, and the player avatars would just be simulations played by other simulations...

Oh man, we're getting a headache again.

It Begins

Welcome.

You've found our very important, world-changing, super well written blog devoted to gaming, MMORPG's, virtual worlds, making virtual money, legal stuff and everything else that is big and important and related to gaming.

Though we're doing this as a supplement to our game guide website, we think there is a lot of big important stuff going on in the world of online games and virtual worlds, so we're going to post what we've found to let you know about it.

As our title states, our blog is really important so you should definitely pay attention to it, link to it and read our posts as tenants upon which to base your life. I mean, if you don't form your ideological core upon the anonymous writings of people you have never met, what ARE you doing with your life?