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.