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.