PIRATES OF THE BURNING SEA FREE TRIALS

Avast ye scurvey... uh... people. (We never got a handle on that talk-like-a-pirate thing.) We've just come across some somewhat exciting news that you may find interesting. Stand by for this exciting news from the world or piracy.

But let's first take a moment to ponder the works of Roman poet, Ovid. Commonly referred to as one of the 3 canonical poets of Latin literature, we've always found him to be far the superior to Horace, but not worthy enough to lick Virgil's taint. And all you Horace lovers out there better not try anything fancy cause we just got a whole new batch of tasers and we're not afraid to use em. So suck it.

Now, back to our usual MMO-world updates. It looks like the makers of PoTBS have finally wised up and given would-be pirates a chance to play their excellent game without having to fork over the cash. Word is that the new update of Pirates of the Burning Sea will also allow for a free-trial period.

This means everyone can enjoy the truly transcendent (not transcendental) experience of running a someone through with a rapier or blowing them out of the water with bronze-shot from 50-yards away.

Isn't life grand?

(And yeah, the picture is from Buckaroo Banzai.)

Reports of my death have been mildly exagerated. Part 2

So we've blogged several times about the death of Star Trek Online, but it appears as if there has been some kind of resurrection, or revival, or, dare we say it... next generation?

Okay, that wasn't as witty as we thought, but give us a break. I mean, how many of you can come up with something like this post? How many? Zero! That's how many. So suck one, loyal reader!

Ok, sorry. We're a little off-kilter. We don't like things that go away and then come back, only to possibly not really come back again. (We have stalker issues. And we fear change.) Anyway, reports are that Star Trek Online may not really be dead, or at least not totally dead. We've always liked the idea of Star Trek Online. It has an already established fan base and lots of good stories. Good stories, that is, with the exception of all the lame-ass "Oh-no, the holodeck is broken again!" episodes. I mean, come on. How hard is it to fix that thing anyway?

But, our job is to keep you informed and that's what we're doing. So all you Trekkers out there can go to bed tonight with a little more hope than you had when you woke up today. Isn't that nice?

AoC Griefing Vid

We just had to post this video because it really made us laugh. Yeah, we like AoC, and if someone did this to us while we played, we'd be really pissed. But the video is classic.

Enjoy.

Starcraft MMO by 2009?

Uh...exqueze me? Baking powder?

Did you say a Starcraft MMO in 2009?

As in...(and I'm no math expert)... like in a year?

New reports seem to indicate that the much talked about Starcraft MMO will be out sometimes in 2009. For real.

Ok, I know you guys at Blizzard are ambitious and all, and seriously, why rest on your laurels when you already have an MMO that pretty much pwns every other game out there in terms of number of players, exposure and kajillions of dollars income. But...but my Gawd! Give a guy a chance to try out AoC or at least PoTBS for a little longer. I mean, do you people really want me to spend the rest of my life with the after-image of an MMO screen permanently etched onto my retinas? Or corneas? Or whatever the hell you call those things in my head I use to see with but can't seem to close because I'm only 4 bars away from leveling?

(Was that last sentence a question? Do I even know anymore?)

Sci-Fi Channel MMO

Reports from the world of basic-cable seem to indicate that the Sci-Fi channel is developing an MMO/TV-Show/Cyborg-killing machine (Ok, we made that last slash up) that will have players interacting with the game and changing the story line. Teaming up writers and game developers, the MMO is set for launch in 2010, and will be set on earth 100 years from now.

It sounds interesting, and we hope Sci-Fi can pull it off. But a game that is also a TV-show and has gamers influencing the story line sounds a little off to us. Given our less than optimal opinion of the average MMO gamer, we're wondering what twists the TV-show's story will take if it's allowed to be influenced by the gamers.

It reminds us of that scene in Stand by Me where Gordy tells the story of Lardass and how he got his revenge on the pie eating contest crowd. After Gordy gets done telling the story of how the kid who was always picked on gets his sweet vengance, Teddy asks what happens next. When Gordy doesn't have an answer, Teddy says:

"Geez, that ending sucks! Why don't you make it so that ... so that Lardass goes home and he shoots his father, then he runs away an', and he joins the Texas Rangers. How about that?"

Maybe it's just us, but having mmo-gamers write your tv-show for you could be something less than a great idea.

Enough Talk!

Okay, okay, we know it's been a while since our last post. But you gotta give us a break. I mean, Grand Theft Auto, Wii fit and now Age of Conan.

There's only so much a gamer can take before going into a semi-catatonic state punctuated only by gaming induced epileptic seizures. Speaking of which, does anyone know a doctor who specializes in epileptic seizures?

Anyway, we're here to tell you we're back to MMO gaming posts, and thus we bring you... CONAN!

Seriously, we never thought any game would get close to challenging WoW, but that was before we played AoC. I don't want to say AoC did well, but 400,000 subscribers in the first month haven't been seen in an MMO release since, well, EVER! And all you loyal readers know we're not prone to hyperbole or gross over-exaggeration, so you can be completely reassured when we tell you that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is probably the best thing since the invention of things. Or possible fire.

There, we've said it. Now if you'll excuse us, we have some serious gaming to do.

KRAM!

Mang, you da main mang!!! Anytime mang, because you got cajones and all my friends, they got BIG cajones!

Okay, so I know it's been almost a month, and I know this post isn't about MMO's, but give us a break. After all, we've been dealing with the incredible douchebags over at eBay, and trying to coordinate with the SEO people we hired to increase our web presence. Needless to say, taking the time to write a creative, funny, insightful and otherwise better-than-twenty-orgasms blog post wasn't high on our list of priorities. Not only that, but we aren't even capable of writing that kind of thing in the first place. (We came to grips with our own limitations a long time ago.)

So, we're just going to comment on on the recent release of GTA IV, which apparently is the fastest selling game in the history of games and will likely go on to make about a billion dollars for Rock Star. So, we're not going to talk about MMO's, Warcraft, or any of that. We're going to take a moment and comment on how the ease with which Rock Star is reproducing these titles, and the low cost to do so. If you believe the logic posted by some internet auction houses, let's say their name rhymes with ShmeeBay, if something can be cheaply reproduced, it shouldn't be allowed to be sold. I guess it doesn't matter that a lot of time, effort and money are put into a product BEFORE it is reproduced. It just matters that they are cheaply REproduced.

Fuckers.

How do we hate thee, eBay? Let me count the ways.

Ok, we haven't been blogging in a while, but we have a reason.

In case you've been keeping track--and judging by our site stats, you haven't-- we sell digitally deliverable goods on eBay. All our stuff is written by gamers and freelance writers we hire so we know we are producing a quality product. Unlike a lot of the garbage out there, we put time and effort (and even money) into our guides. It's a pride thing. We sell them through our website and through eBay, the website run by fine purveyors of all kinds of douchebaggery...

Sorry.

We're a little upset. Back to the post...

Now, eBay has decided that ebooks can no longer be sold on eBay. They can only be listed as 'classified ads'. This basically means they can't be listed.

We have no idea why ass-clown extroardinaire Brian Burke (director of eBay Global Feedback Policy) decided to take this ridiculously assanine action. According to his statement, it's because 'digital goods are re-produced at little to no cost to the seller.' We truly have no idea how to respond to that. Is he saying that goods need to have high-reproduction costs to sell on eBay? What constitutes 'little to no cost to the seller'? Not even counting listing fees, final value fees and no-questions asked returns, our product development process involves writers, editors, gamers, web designers and lots of time spent creating these projects (not to mention time spent playing the game, researching the game and doing everything needed to make a reader-friendly product), which means the cost to produce these items is nowhere close to 'little to no-cost'.

Yes, we ship digital goods. But because of that we don't have to charge our customers for our shipping, printing or manufacturing costs. All our costs are front end, not reproduction related. But apparently, someone at eBay is a business model nazi. Or nazi-commie. Or perhaps nazi-commie-monarch-luddite. Yeah. Probably that last one. (Note: we cannot confirm or deny that anyone at eBay has ever had any relationship with any nazi, nazi-commie, nazi-commie-monarch-luddite organization. Yet.)

Well, we're done with eBay. Look for our products through our website exclusively.

And if you ever see someone who works for eBay, kick them in the teeth once or twice for us.

'Till next tie, true believers!

Then we hold the world ransom for... ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

So you want to create an MMO but aren't sure where to get the cash. You've called in all your favors, searched through your couch cushions and even donated plasma. Even with the giddiness that accompanies the sudden loss of a nearly fatal amount of blood, you are sure you still don't have enough. What is a person to do?

Well, if you are David Jones (One of the original creators of the GTA series), you just go to your friendly neighborhood venture capital firm and ask them to fund your planned console MMO. After that, getting a check for 50 MILLION DOLLARS is just a matter of opening your mailbox. (At least, we hope it was a check. Sending that much cash through the mail would probably cost you a lot on postage.)

So to Mr. Jones and his company, Realtime Worlds, we say: Fuck YO Casino! CJ!! (Yeah, that's a quote from GTA: San Andreas.)

And not to go off on a total non-sequitur (though it's never stopped us before) we'd just like to say that we are REALLY jazzed about the forthcoming release of the next GTA game. We haven't been able to think about much other than the prospect of beating new hookers with even bigger double-headed dildoes. (Dildo's? Dildi? We don't know.)

You disturb me to the point of insanity. There. I am insane now.

Some early reviews of the forthcoming MMO documentary Second Skin, and it looks like the film is taking on a subject we've tackled a few times before. Namely, that lots (if not most) MMO gamers are, to put it delicately, somewhat odd. To quote one reviewer: "After seeing the film, it stacks up as quite an accomplishment that the filmmakers were able to drag these folks away from their computers to attend."

Yes, we know there are a lot of MMO players out there who play their game and enjoy it for what it is: a game. But if you've ever spent a lot of time around people who are really into these games, it doesn't take long to get the feeling that all is not well in the state of Denmark.

For our own part, we tend to get bored with MMO's as soon as the novelty wears off. Once the prospect of repetition ad nauseam removes itself from the realm of the possible and becomes something actual, we find the enjoyment of exploring and interacting with a fictitious environment to loose lots of it's luster. And no, we aren't unfamiliar with the idea of crack-like games that keep us up for hours on end without sleep food or human interaction. (Dark memories of The Legend of Zelda spring quickly to mind.) But whenever we find ourselves similarly drawn, for some reason the entertainment value quickly dissipates. Maybe it's because we enjoy the creative elements more than the visceral elements (creating a character and specializing their skills being the creative, while the visceral is all the feudin and a fussin), but whatever it is, we think MMO's have a very limited place in our lives. All the MMO gamers out there who's games take up increasingly large portions of their lives are a unique sub-culture, and we're eager to see how Second Skin shows us their world.

'Til next time, true believers!

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

We note with sadness the passing of noted author and humanist Arthur C. Clarke. Mr. Clarke passed away yesterday at his home on Sri Lanka. We've been a fan since the 8th grade, when we got a chance to pick our own book report subject and were lucky enough to choose Childhood's End. Unlike most of the people who ever existed, or ever will exist, we believe Mr. Clarke and his work will be remembered long after the end of his life. If you don't believe it, read some of his novels and writings on science and technology. You won't be disappointed

Zookeeper, those monkeys are killing each other!

A gamer told us about a relatively new MMO the other day called Zu Online. Currently in open beta, this gamer (we call her 'female-girl-gamer-lady-woman') said she had recently quit WoW because it was taking up too much of her life. Her boyfriend was getting angry, her child would go missing for hours and come back with geological samples for some reason, and even her co-workers started commenting on how she had become "Much more axe-wielding than usual."

To make a long story short (too late), she found Zu and thought it was great. Sort of a pre-Burning Crusade version of WoW, Zu is based on a Chinese fantasy novel. Though developed by an Asian company (pagoda Asian, not mosque-Asian), it's offered by IGG, an American company. We haven't played it yet, but from what we've seen, it looks pretty good. We just wanted to let you know about it case, you know, World of Warcraft is taking over your life.

Shake em up, shake em up, shake em up, shake em.

Oh man, when we read this article we could barely contain our happiness. In general, we prefer computer games to console games. And we prefer MMO's to any other game. But we have a special place in our heart for Rock Star's excellent Grand Theft Auto series. Not only did the series re-introduce us to such musical classics as Japanese Boy, Louisiana Woman Mississippi Man, and of course, Today was a Good Day, but now Rock Star has opened the door for a potential GTA MMO.

I mean... MY GAWD! Can you even imagine it? Oh...the possibilities. Chain saw massacres. Helicopter acrobatics. Hooker beat-downs. And all in an MMO!!

Ok... Ok... just a second. We need to...need do breathe.

Oh man.... I mean... oh man... We have to go compose ourselves.

Vewy well. I shall... Welease... Wogahh!

So we just completed work on our Pirates of the Burning Sea Strategy Guide. (Yes, it's shameless self promotion, we know. But since our lobotomy we've been unaffected by shame. Or poisoned berries. Is that weird?) And, like we do whenever we complete a new project, we stepped away from the game and took a vacation of sorts. It was during this time of ascetic meditation when we found ourselves reflecting upon the nature of the MMO experience. (And by ascetic meditation and reflection we mean that time of the night immediately after waking up on the linoleum but before the realization of the pressing need to go to the E.R. again and have our stomach's pumped with that delightful, if slightly chalky, charcoal ipecac.)

A typical gamer might spend several hours at a time playing their chosen MMO. Whether they are doing solo missions or grinding, or whether they are part of a group, playing these games is almost entirely a solitary experience. Even if you are using a headset and talking to other members of your group while you play, you aren't really interacting with people. You are controlling a digital avatar that is interacting with other digital avatars who are similarly controlled by other players. It's kind of like parallel play, that stage of child development where the kids play next to each other instead of with each other. Yeah, you are interacting with people, but can you really say you are really playing with them? At best, you hear their voices.

And yes, I know what you're saying "Well, isn't that good enough for the blind?" And even if you are quoting The Guild, it still isn't the same thing. This kind of MMO interaction offers a sense of community, but no more than that of ham radio operators or playing chess by mail. You are simulating a social interaction, one where you might be able to convince a part of yourself that you are sharing experiences and ideas and thus are forming a basic societal unite, but it's a bit of smoke and mirrors, a self imposed prison cell, of sorts. You remain solitary, yet interact with people in some way, and thus come to believe you are not solitary. It's the proverbial carrot held in front of the donkey. You can see the thing you want, and you can make progress as you chase after it, but you'll never get it.

That's all for now. Till next time, True Believers.

Stand by for mind control!

We've posted several times about how we believe MMO's are generally in a state of cult-following status. There are a core of MMO gamers who really enjoy the medium, but these people are not representative of society as a whole.

We've also posted how we think this is not likely to change very much until either a game designer is able to create a new MMO that has more mass-market appeal, or someone invents a Holo-Deck. Until the medium can become something as easily accessible as a book or a movie, with enough transportive elements that allow a person to experience a fictitious world in a more rewarding way, we think it's doomed to sub-culture status. (That's fancy talk for saying that books and movies let us do stuff that is kind-of real but not really.)

But wait. Though the holo-deck is not here, it is getting a little closer. Remember the early 90's and all the promise about how virtual reality was going to change the world? No? Well it was there, even if it faded as soon as the internets came into everyone's home.

But some virual reality type stuff keeps popping up, even if it isn't so complete as the Matrix. Take this new bit of technology for gamers: the brain controlled headset. Using a bunch of techmology, this headset will allow gamers to control their games using just their vertabrains. Or at least that's what we can tell form the depths of our middle-school science education.

No, it isn't virtul reality, but it's kind of getting there. We think it's largely inevitable that holo-deck type environments will be around sometime in the future. The ability to interact with a fictitious world not only in just a mental capacity (books, movies, games) or a visual capacity (movies, games) or an interactive capacity (games) but in a physical and interactive capacity is probably the way of the future. We can see a time when stories will be loaded into completely immersive, matrix like environment where people are free to interact and be a part of the story, while still maintaining the safety of fiction.

But until then, we'll keep an eye out for the next Raiders of the Lost Arc, Legend of Zelda, or The Sun Also Rises.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my underground lair.

As if the threat of addiction, loss of sleep and those wierd dreams weren't enough, there is now a potential new threat to all you MMO gamers out there: TERRORISTS!

According to a report that has something to do with the Director of National Intelligence, (Not the same guy who is responsible for high school students not knowing in which century the civil war happened. We're talking about another kind of intelligence.) government spies may soon be infiltrating an MMO near you in order to find terrorists among us.

No. We're not kidding. According to the report, the intelligence community is working on developing software to identify those nasty terrorists who aren't just content to bring their wanton destruction to the real world, but the virtual ones as well.

Yeah, we know what you're thinking. And you're right. If you want to avoid your house being raided at 3:00 in the morning by black-clad, submachine gun toting guys in gas-masks, you should probably stop doing all the bad stuff you're doing. This means ditching the epic suicide vest you found in that desert instance, leaving any guild that rhymes with 'Jihad' and resisting the urge to shout "The streets will flow with the blood of the infidels" whenever you get shafted by that healer in your guild who always "just happens" to be doing something else whenever you really need help. Kyle, you dick.

As for us. Say goodbye to old avatar Entaro McKickass. And say hello to our new avatar: Ayatollah Assahollah.

Ooohhh! Jimmy's Down!

Once again we're forced to report on Perpetual Entertainment, or rather, P2, or rather, that company that used to be Perpetual Entertainment and P2.

Reports (or rumors, or rumors of reports. We're not sure.) are that P2 has now shut down. After a recent slew of bad news, the MMO company appears to have ended their run. Here's a quick list of why:

1. Terminating your flagship project: Gods and Heroes
2. Pulling out of development for Start Trek Online.
3. Getting sued by your public relations firm.

It's too bad. Both of their projects looked interesting. But, and we hate to harp on this, it's just one more sign that the MMO community is not broad enough to support so many games or game developers. Dedicated cult following is how we have come to label the MMO community. The MMO players are out there, but it doesn't look like anything other than WoW has been able to capture any significant portion of those who wouldn't normally play them in the first place.

And not to get off on a tangent, but taking a look at the handful of posts on gaming blogs about this story/report/rumor, we wonder how all this information gets disseminated. No, we don't have any industry insiders or cool remote-control bugs that we can send into places to be the proverbial fly on the wall. All we have is a computer, a connection to one of the internets (the blue one, we think) and the ability to listen to whatever our helpful office leprechaun tells us when he finds us passed out in the mornings. What we do isn't journalism. (Though we do write in an online journal, nay, Blog.) It's us writing our thoughts about the industry in which we have a miniscule part in and occasionally think about. So all these reports of the rumors, or the rumors of reports, or reported rumors seemed strange to us. It kid of reminded us of high school, where someone hears something and it quickly goes through the grapevine. the things is, the only people who care about it are the people who talk about it anyway. The people who don't care about it don't give it a second thought. So it begs the question, even if the rumors are true, does anyone care besides the people who report on the rumors? We don't know.

Besides. The leprechaun is getting jumpy. It's time for our 10:41 whiskey sour.

The Doctors say he has a 50 percent chance of making it. But there's only a 10 percent chance of that.

Recently, a panel of MMO insiders convened at the Game Developers Conference 08 to discuss the future of MMO's. Apparently, much of the conversation revolved around the current, WoW dominated state of MMO's. As we've known for a while, every MMO that's been released after WoW has barely been able to attract attention. This was pointed out by Jack Emmert of Cryptic studios who pointed out that only LoTRO has been able to reach the 100,000 subscriber mark since it's post-WoW release.

Just another reason why we think the state of MMO's today is that of a subculture. There are some avid practitioners, but the medium has yet to reach the popular appeal of console gaming, film or television. We think some serious changes need to be made for MMO's to reach those levels. And apart from someone inventing a holo-deck, prospects for that happening in the near future are not great.

Reports of my death have been mildly exagerated.

We posted several days ago about the death of Marvel Universe Online. With the MMO having been killed by Microsoft (the deep pocket), it looks as if the developer, Cryptic, is using the work done on the game to come up with a new super-hero MMO ala City of Heroes.

We wish them luck, but we're a little skeptical. After all, City of Heroes is still doing pretty well. A super-hero MMO that tries to compete against them is going to have to make one heck of a sales pitch to do so. Given that the comic-book (excuse us, graphic novel) fan-base Cryptic could have drawn upon with Marvel Universe isn't going to be there, we're wondering how the market will receive another non-familiar super-hero game. Yeah, we'd love to see Wonderboy face off against Nasty-Man, but it isn't the same as standing next to Wolverine and Havok as they blast the Sentinels into oblivion.

So to all you super-hero fans out there, we say... Excelsior!

You have chosen...Wisely.

Because these movies are the best thing since the invention of things, we're linking to the trailer for the new Indiana Jones Film. Enjoy.

Expand my brain, learning juice.

For everyone who has ever wondered why the ratio of men-to-women gamers is about 100 gajillion to 3, there is new evidence that shows a physiological basis for this phenomena.

A recent study shows that men's brains react differently to video game stimulus, providing a more rewarding experience when compared to a woman's. The study showed that a man's brain showed more activity in the 'Miyamoto-Meier' and 'Blast-o-Bang-o' zones as they played a game in which they tried to control more territory. Women, on the other hand, responded positively to images of Hello-Kitty and pretty-girls who have since become fat.

Respect.

Excelsior?

We'll refrain from humming the opening bars to Another One Bites the Dust. Instead, we'll listen to the under-rated rocker: The Hero. And while we're rocking out with our...well...you know, we'll let all you fans out there know that Marvel Universe Online is officially dead.

No, Galactus did not come and eat it up, nor did Dr. Strange do something...strange. Instead, it looks like neither the eater of world nor any other super powerful comic book figure was the cause of yet another upcoming MMO's demise. No, it looks as if Marvel Universe Online was terminated because of the 10-million-ton juggernaut that is World of Warcraft. The developers felt that the current MMO industry just can't support another game that has no chance of challenging the dominance of WoW.

Since we canceled our WoW account some time ago, we're wondering what it means that pretty much everyone who currently plays an MMO is at least playing WoW for about a thousand hours a week. Ok, maybe we exagerate, but seriously, 10 million players are on WoW, and there are about 50 million MMO players. If the marketplace cannot grow beyond this, the industry is not doing well. This again leads us to the conclusion that MMO gamers may just be a very enthuthiastic sub-culture.

It's kind of like Mac users, at least in the olden days. They loved their product, but the appeal to the masses was never achieved. (Though it looks like lately Mac is becoming even more popular. Not only are their sales up, but they are expanding into Best Buy.)

But we'll see. There are a lot of talented people out there. Someone will come along and make something that can challenge WoW.

Some day.

All your base are belong to us.

For all of you playing along at home, it appears as if Nintendo has no intention of getting involved with MMO's any time soon. Satoru Iwata (CEO of Nintendo) recently stated that Nintendo believes MMO's are in the early stages and don't have a broad enough appeal for Nintendo to get involved. (Or at least that's what we say he said. Read the GameSpot interview here.)

Given our recent ruminations, we can't help wonder why Nintendo isn't eager to get into the MMO market. Or rather, we kind of understand why they do. Their past history with games shows that Nintendo has a knack for reaching a LOT of people. And they reach a lot of people by making their games fun. And yeah, we think MMO's are fun. But again, it prompts us to wonder about MMO gamers and whether or not they represent a distinct sub-culture. Are MMO gamers different than other gamers in a way that doesn't easily cross over into mass-market demographics? We think so. Even given the large numbers of MMO gamers (50+ million or so is a rough estimate we have often seen), it still represents a very small percentage of gamers, and an even smaller percentage of the general public. Yeah, WoW has 10 million players, but it isn't exactly a casual experience.

If MMO's are really going to take off and go from sub-culture to culture-at-large, we think the genre will need to find its Shigeru Miyamoto to breach the divide. A mass-market MMO that will appeal to casual gamers as well as dedicated MMO fans may seem like an impossibility, but if the genre wants to get past the devoted cult following of its current subscription base, we think the change is a necessary one.

You know we're living in a society!

So we were online yesterday, grinding away in PotBS so we could get our Naval Officer to level 37 and get our Defiant Frigate so we could help our society with it's impending port battle. We were in a group of 6 fellow society members and attacking the hated Spanish, and during one of the battles we started picking up on something we have noticed before but have not commented upon.

What are we talking about? Well, there is no easy way to say this, so we're just going to say it: a lot of gamers are downright socially inept.

We previously posted about the forthcoming MMO documentary that investigates the lives of a small portion of the 50 million or so MMO players out there, and since then we couldn't help but wonder about the nature of the community. MMO games, and video games in general, are immersive, time consuming endevors. People can spend hours a day playing them. And even with voice chat options and similar group activities, the games are solitary. These players don't get out much. Maybe they don't have strong people skills. They spend a large part of their waking life in a place that doesn't exist, interacting with people they will never meet.

We've also noticed that a lot of MMO gamers seem to be, let's say, Renaissance Fair friendly. (Yeah, we went to the Ren-Fest once. ONCE.) They like the clothes, the fake-accents, the role-playing, the...whatever. And it's not that these people are bad in any way, it's just that they are a little...we're not sure. It's hard to put your finger on it.

And no, we're not making a qualitative judgment of any gamer, or the gaming community. It's your life, do with it what you like. The only life you have to look back upon when you die is your own, so act accordingly.

But we are asking this: do gamers derive more satisfaction from the gaming interactions than they do from other interactions? Does this subset of society exhibit a trait that is not found in most other areas, or does it tend to exhibit it more strongly? Are gamers introverts who thrive in their own inner-world's, yet do not do so well (when compared to others) in social environments?

We think the answer is pretty clear. Though there are exceptions to the rule, we would guess that the gaming culture is largely composed of people who don't excel in social environments. They enjoy fantasy settings. They enjoy the imaginary. They enjoy living in a world that is perceived first through their imagination, and second through their senses.

At least, that is what we think. For now.

Til next time, True Believers!

Are you out of your Vulcan mind?

We're updating our blog features. While we know you read our outstanding, erudite, pithy posts with relish (though no mustard), we wanted to add some new features that will let your enjoyment grow to new heights. Well...okay. Depths.

In addition to adding a Technorati account and visit tracker, we'll be adding features that will let you subscribe to our posts. We may also be changing our layout, but we're not sure yet.

Til next time, True Believers!

Technorati Profile

We have a piper down. I repeat, a piper is down.

We've posted a few times about Perpetual entertainment, and the demise of Rome Rising and Star Trek Online. Well, it now looks like Perpetual's website has been taken down. We're not sure what's going on, but it probably has something to do with the fact that their two main projects have been abandoned.

That and commies. Definitely commies.

There is no spoon.

We came across this movie traler recently. It was posted on YouTube only a few days ago, but it already has 40,000+ hits. It's a documentary about MMO gamers, and how their games have changed their lives.

The trailer and promotional material give the impression that the movie looks at the MMO phenomenon, and apparently makes some disturbing observations. Any gamer since The Legend of Zelda knows how intense and time-consuming a video game can be. The fact that MMO's are now simulating entire worlds, nay, virtual realities, make them that much more immersive. If films, art or literature are escapist in that they allow the consumer to experience a fictitious reality only accessed by using the product, MMO's are combining multiple elements from numerous transportive media into a single, glossy package. Game addiction? We've always thought it was not only possible, but actual. We've known a lot of gamers (and not just MMO gamers) who's lives have been consumed by their favorite pass-time.

MMO's, in the end, may just be the newest, shiniest, noisy things that appeal to our simian nature. Transportive entertainment that allows our brains to inhabit a place that only exists in our brains.

But how is that different than anything else?

Mea Culpa, my child. Mea Culpa.

Wow, have we been busy. So busy, in fact, that we haven't been able to blog in about 2 weeks. We know, we suck. (Well, not really. We actually kick quite a bit of a**.)

But don't worry. We're cooking up some super-lucky-fun posts that we'll have for you right quick. Till then, all you PotBS fans can pop by Keen and Graev's Gaming blog for some really nice insights into everyone's favorite pirate MMO.

Til next time, True Believers!

Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.

We'd like to take a few moments to mention some passings of late. Yes, the world of MMO's is a difficult, Darwinian place where the fittest games thrive and flourish while the weaker ones wither away and die premature, gruesome deaths. As a testament to this, we present two recent passings:

GODS AND HEROES, ROME RISING: Though this was announced several months ago, Perpetual Entertainment has indefinitely postponed Rome Rising. What was to be an MMO based in the ancient world and populated with the likes of centaurs, gorgons and other mythical cratures, is now no more. Perpetual claimed that they were stopping development on Rome Rising to focus on their flagship project: Star Trek Online. But wait, there's more.




STAR TREK ONLINE: Having recently canceled Rome Rising, Perpetual recently announced the death of the eagerly awaited Star Trek Online. All you trekkers out there (Yes, we know that trekkies is considered derogatory) will have to wait even longer to travel to distant corners of the final frontier. Though there is some talk that the game will get a new developer (See, once again, Tobold's excellent post), it appears as if STO won't be around for quite some time.

Though we like Star Trek (that is to say we like The Next Generation, and we once knew a guy named George Kahn, which meant that every time someone mentioned him we could say "Do you mean, George....... KAAAAAAHN!!!), we weren't exactly on pins and needles to play Star Trek Online. And though the new Star Trek prequel movie is in production, we'd still like to see the world of the future brought to an MMO. With all the different alien races, ships and potential story line, it is a world ripe for MMO adaptation.

And as far as Rome Rising goes, we really were sad to see it go by the wayside. Yeah, sword and sorcery stuff is fine and all, but there is something we find so much more satisfying about the ancient world. Maybe it's historically based MMO's in general, but we find that the added ability to actually learn something about the world in which we live adds a particularly shiny facet to our gaming life. And since we also like to watch movies and read books, and then even talk about them with other people, the death of an MMO that would have allowed us to enter the labyrinth beside Theseus or cross the Styx in the ferryman's boat was something we're still trying to recover from.

Oh well.

Pirates of the Burning Seas Review Guide

Yeah, so the title of this post is not up to our usual standards of obscure reference/clever witticism, but we have a good reason.

For the past several days, we've been playing Pirates of the Burning Seas pretty much non-stop. After experiencing a few technical difficulties in the direct download process, we were finally able to get the game up and running. And we have to say: It's a spicy meat-a-ball!

Even though we may have a bias towards the pirate genre, we absolutely LOVE this game. We love the ships, the combat, the strategy...ALL of it. (Well, maybe not all of it. There are still some tweaks we think should be made.) In fact, we're going to start our own society and come up with some wicked-cool pennants and sail designs.

Though analyzing why we love it so much would probably take some of the enjoyment out of it, we will say that the ship-to-ship combat is simply great. We love trying to find out what does or doesn't work in a battle. Trying to position your ship so you can rake an enemy's stern or tear down their rigging so you can maneuver close in and board to fight hand-to-hand is just great. Maintaining position in relation to the wind and to the enemy, while determining the optimal cannon load and whether or not you can remain outside the enemy's firing arc long enough to unload your cannister shot to decimate their crew and send your boarding party over the rails...I mean...what is NOT to like?

We'll be working closely with the writer we've hired to come up with our guide, and we know you'll be pleased with the results. We've decided to add some nifty history-based information that we've found to work surprisingly well in-game. We've done some research into the age of sail and combat tactics, and those will be incorporated into the guide.

Till next time, true believers.

Riggity-Row is comin!

If you want further proof that the world of MMO's keeps on expanding, you need look no further than professional baseball.

Recently, Kurt Schilling unveiled what he calls 'tone footage' to a select group of people at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Footage of what? Only 38 Studio's (his gaming company) upcoming MMO, currently under the working title of 'Copernicus'. Apparently, the game will focus not on the traditional arenas of violence and sex, but more on...well...something else. (Some of you cynics may ask what else is out there, but we're not going to comment.) We read Kurt's blog off and on, and we're really interested to see what he's going to come up with. (Yeah, Kurt, we think the world of pirates is downright cool too. See our previous post.)

And in case you doubt the man's interest in MMO's, he is currently playing WoW, Tabula Rasa, Guild Wars, Helgate: London and Everquest 2. I mean, I mean...my gawd!

Seriously, Schilling. Is it not enough that you are a force on the mound, a prolific blogger, or a guy who apparently doesn't feel pain? Do you now have to conquer the world of MMO's too?

Wait a minute. We're hearing a voice in our head. The voice of some warrior from...the future...

"Kurt Schilling's avatar is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"

Hey, let's be careful out there.

It's been a while since we played EVE, but since we recently updated our EVE Online Tycoon Guide to cover the changes in the game since the last time we updated it (and since we had to wait for all the Trinity bugs to work themselves out), we were really happy to see that EVE is now available for Mac platforms.

As we're in the gaming industry, we rely upon PC platforms with pretty hefty processors and graphics abilities. These tend to be pretty expensive, but necessary if you like your games to, you know...work.

But we're also Mac fans. No, we're not fanboys or acolytes in the temple of Mac, but we do like them.

So, as gamers and Mac users, we were pleased to see that EVE Online is now available for Mac. Before this, we could only run WoW, Second Life, Lineage and Everquest. Though any one of these is more than enough to occupy a gamer's time, the options are still pretty limited given the sheer number of MMOs out there.

So fly safe all you Mac lovers. It's a big universe, and there's plenty of space for you.

And when IS this free weekend?

Okay sports racers, it's here. Our weekly free tip has now been posted on our website and is available for everyone to use.

This weeks tip is for all you Second Life enthusiasts who just want to be able to use powerful photo-editing software like Photoshop, but who don't want to shell out the $300.00 to do so.

If this sounds like you, then today is your lucky day. Head on over to the free tip and see what wonderfully important, super excellent bit of advice we've posted for you to use. Yeah, the layout isn't great at the moment, but give us time. We're getting there.

Till next time, true believers.

¡Viva La Evolución!

We want to take a minute to tell all you Second Life resies about someone very near and dear to our hearts: Torley Linden.

If you don't know who Torley is, you need to know. Working for Linden Lab for several years now, Torley is perhaps the most helpful SL resi we've ever met. Not only are his YouTube posted Video's extremely helpful, but he knows just about everything there is to know about SL and isn't afraid to share it.

How do we know? Firstly, because we've used his video tutorials multiple times. (They're great). And Secondly, because this past week we were setting up our Second Life Store (Morestello (185, 144, 73) and we had a few questions we were not able to figure our by ourselves. After checking the forums, talking to a few other resies and exhausting our Googling abilities, we finally sent Torley an e-mail. Now, given that we thought Torley worked for a big, impersonal company that wouldn't take notice of just another average resident, we didn't expect anything.

But oh, were we pleasantly wrong. Not only did Torley answer our question, he answered it within 48 hours and included several helpful links that helped us immeasurably.

Note to Linden Lab: Whatever you are paying Torley Linden, it is not enough.