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Games Entertainment

MMORPGs, Are You There Yet? 163

Posted by CmdrTaco from the not-yet-folks dept.
maddugan writes "CNN recently posted a story about a company by the name There and their opening of a public beta for their 'Virtual Universe'. One of the key element is that you can buy virtual Levis and Nikes for your Avatar. " Hemos & I have been playing The Sims Online- Come visit the Slashdot Charisma Sweatshop on the absolute west edge of the Mt Fuji City and say hi. I got my real nick for once too! I love MMORPGs and 'There' looks like another wrinkle on taking Sims type games online. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
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MMORPGs, Are You There Yet? More

MMORPGs, Are You There Yet?

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  • Whereever you go, There you are!
  • When the hell's Chris DiBona's (aka ChrisD) so-called "company" going to release their so-called "best game ever"?
    • From Damage Studios' site:
      As far as The Game goes, we're on track for meeting our prototype deadlines, which makes everyone pretty buzzed. We had our second art review on Friday, and the concepts are really coming along. I don't want to go too far into that, because I don't want to ruin the anticipatory magic.

      Apparently, you can get frequent updates by signing up for the mailing list [damagestudios.com].

      Nice work so far, Chris.

  • No. Flat out. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Ohmsee ( 640549 )
    MMORPG's are fine and they cater to a very select market. The fact the that select market is rather huge is irrellevant.

    I have not started playing Everquest, Anarchy Online, There, Sims Online, EOA, or any of the others that I might have missed. I have no plans to either. I play a mud. Text. Requires reading... I know, what a pain in the ass.

    • Re:No. Flat out. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mystran ( 545374 )
      Interesting thing with MUDs seems to be that more reading they require, the less there are people that you'd rather play without. Another thing I like with MUDs is that once there is no need to get as big audience as possible, there need not be such compromises on the gameplay, which generally mean better game.

      • Re:No. Flat out. (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Ohmsee ( 640549 )
        I would entirely have to agree, based simply on the fact that in my last 14 years of mudding, some of the most fun I've had has been on a mud with 5-6 other people on it. I'm really not fond of the Massively Multiplayer Online Games. The only graphical online game I've ever played and liked was Medal of Honor:Allied Assault. But, it's not exactly the type of game that concentrates on interplayer relationships. Just go shoot someone. I used it to clear stress. I can't honestly think of a graphical interface that would work for most muds that I've played, for the reason that unless they're drawing the graphics from my mental images of the descriptions, it's not the same MUD.

        Just my .02

    • Re:No. Flat out. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @11:34AM (#5066609) Journal

      I played a MUD. The administrators were about as corrupt as an average politician and it was all being led by an unemployed welfare-supported hippie who wouldn't even recognize a "Bad Thing"(tm) if it hit him in the face at mach 2. Most of the players we're afraid to say anything and the few who did only droned out the words "I agree!" or something similiar to whatever ons of said administrators cried out in a fit of utter stupidity. That, and the basic idea of "You're not paying, so if you don't like it, go to hell." aren't very appealing to me. IF I would even want to play an online RPG every again, I'd either play one that's not massively multiplayer or one that is administrated by decent, unbiased folks.

    • OT but, which one? I've been looking for a good one.

      MUDs are really in a different class as modern MMORPG, they attract a much smaller class of people. I'm sure only a small percentage of people who play a MMORPG have ever heard of MUDs, less played one, and less played one for a long time.

      This is, however, a Good Thing(TM), in most cases.
      • I started playing MUDs in college, and when EQ came out, it was promptly dismissed by about 90% of the MUDders I knew. I mean, after all, we were playing online games for free... why would anyone ever pay a monthly fee to play these things?

        Addiction. That pretty much sums it up. About a month after "Ruins of Kunark" came out, one of my friends let me play it on his account for about 15 minutes. Hooked, reeled in, and gutted. I got my own account some time later, and was stuck there for about a year. Sheesh, do I regret that loss of time and money.

        Of course, I still play online games, but nothing to the point of addiction that I had with EQ.

        Kierthos
    • SimsOnline seems OK, but think ahead a few years to how the medium will evolve. The 'There' virtual universe is a snapshot of the screwed up world to come.

      We go from text chat where we can let down our social guard, be anything we want to be and let our imagination soar. SimsOnline moves us to cartoonish graphics, an OK bit of fun. The 'There' universe drags us backward to a social environment where we worry about our clothes, hair style, etc. Do I really want to manage two wardrobes?

      Virtual universes will naturally evolve into a photo-realistic environment some years from now. Do we want a fake universe in which we have all of today's worries? Yes, you might say, because our virtual lives can be better than our real lives.

      What does it mean when I enjoy my virtual life more than my real one?

      I'll spend my time using technologies that are not geared toward spending as much time as possible with that technology. What's the point? I enjoy healthier recreation offline.

      The Matrix [imdb.com] missed the point as a social commentary. Machines won't need to take over the world and enslave us. We are willingly putting on the shackles and forgetting our real lives.
      • Hey, are you that guy I saw on the street the other day screaming something about the apocolypse and how the end is near?

      • Re:They totally miss the point (Score:5, Insightful)

        by praedor ( 218403 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @01:53PM (#5067253) Homepage

        YOU miss the point. With a bunch of idiots living out their "lives" online in virtual worlds, that means fewer people to dick things up in the REAL world. Parks will become less crowded and polluted because a lot of the slobs will be pretending to me svelt hotties in a virtual world getting the babes, etc. They can even "enjoy" a virtual visit to a virtual park whilst you, me, and the few other sane people go to the REAL parks and see them as they used to be.


        This could be great. The more addictive the better, I say, wrt these "games". I WANT to be able to go camping again and not run into a family of fatsos 10 meters away in their trailer (with TV and VCR). To hear the breeze again, hear birds chirping, water tinkling instead of boom boxes and loud drunken gatherings around the campfire in the next door campsite.

    • I played Anarchy Online once, I pretty much had to convince myself that I had to quit. MMORPGs are just way to addictive. I've heard stuff about Everquest that it was pretty addictive too. People should learn how to not overdo such things. I mean, if you play 10+ hours a day, that can't be good...
  • specially this kind. I hope nobody gets hooked on to this, and forget to eat/sleep and end up unconscience like that guy in Korea(i think).

  • Yay, more dupes! (Score:5, Funny)

    by deepstephen ( 149398 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @11:11AM (#5066537)
    Yep, it's a dupe [slashdot.org].

    Come on CmdrTaco, that's two dupes you've posted on today's front page... go for the hat-trick!
  • This is such an interesting story! Just like when it was posted two days ago! :)

  • As usual... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This is a dupe. The original Slashdot article can be found here: "Metaverse Launched?" [slashdot.org].

  • it'll be really interesting when (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    you can "travel" from sims online to there, as in a vacation, pick up some stuff for the kids, and so on.

    After all, we don't all live in the same town but people do visit from time to time.
  • OMG, I think CmdTaco and I are neighbors in Mt. Fugi.

  • The Sims Online: Not There Yet (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Fusty ( 100284 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @11:23AM (#5066572) Homepage
    It's good to hear that some gamers are having a good time in the Sims Online - other user reviews have been less excited about the experience.

    Here's a short piece about the fallout in reaction to this most-touted game release: Sims Online: Be a PAYtester? [gamegirladvance.com]
    • I beta-tested TSO. Took me about one hour to decide that it was fundamentally flawed. I'm glad they held the open beta because it convinced me that this was NOT a game I would enjoy.

      I think it's great when MMOG game developers offer open public beta-tests. It puts lots of eyeballs on their game (better chance that bugs will be found) and as the release of EQ taught us, it's never a bad idea to load-test your servers in beta. Also, if their game is good on a fundamental level (even if a few bugs still have to be found)...word of mouth will do all the pre-selling they'll need.

      Hopefully, There will get it right.

      --K.
      • I couldn't even get the damned thing to launch.

        I spent weeks swapping emails with customer service, who asked me to re-install DirectX and other assorted useless things. I eventually decided that I would be just fine with playing Dark Age of Camelot's expansion, and that really, it wasn't life or death if I didn't play TSO.

        So much hassle for a game I probably would've hated anyway.

  • Nope (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm very hesitant after seeing how people get emotionally attached to stuff like this. I was at Radio Shack last year, and the guy behind the counter was foaming at the mouth over that microsoft game. It was kind of scary.

    • I was at Radio Shack last year, and the guy behind the counter was foaming at the mouth over that microsoft game. It was kind of scary.

      I think anyone would foam at the mouth when ask to pay $70 for M$ Flight Simulator...

    • Well, the whole thing is largely stupid/looney/ridiculous to begin with. Escape from your life for several hours a day (or more if you're a true major-league wacko) to...play at life again with the same crap you're "escaping" from: doing dishes, taking out trash, mowing your lawn, going to work, etc, etc. Sheesh.


      If I could enter one of these silly worlds as a terrorist or mad scientist and unleash virtual plagues "blow up" virtual diners or other "gatherings" then it becomes interesting - but the virtual people have to "die", that is, the characters don't get to come back to virtual life and the "owners" of the characters have to start anew with a new/different character. It becomes interesting then. It would be amusing in its effects on those people who get overly attached to a non-real avatar/persona.


      Basically, I would be interested in it if the users could turn the virtual world into some dystopian hell-hole by simply NOT being restricted in any way (by software rules/game rules). See what comes of it. Cool experiment and fun to play...and it IS only playing, and thus not worth the emotional investment too many people put into it.



      • Sounds like fun. Have you tried Ultima Online [uo.com]?

        • Except in my vision, instead of there being a complete free-for-all where the strongest gang of players has their random way with anyone and everyone else, there could be a virtual police force, virtual militaries, etc, for in game policing. You do your thing but may pay the consequences ingame from virtual authorities, preferably made up of other people (no AI cheating).


          Of course, in standard RPGs it is possible to collect "magical" items or superweapons/armor, and character points such that your character becomes virtually invincible. Not so in my vision. Your persona is just as vulnerable as anyone else's. You never get to a point where you have some forms of magical superpowers or protections so that you are invulnerable. A lone sniper could take you out on his/her first day in the virtual world if they got lucky and knew what they were doing. Real-lifelike vulnerability is a must.


          As a leader of a group/band, you could also get offed by a treacherous member of your own group.

          • I agree. I have ALWAYS liked Player-killer muds. But I do realize the flaw for abuse in them. So what would be nice is to have guards in the city that can "see" actions from a room or two away at least. Attack a character... means being attacked by nasty guards. Then other pats of the world could be more dangerous with the lack of guards. You could even hire guards to escort you through the dark Mirkwood Forrest known to be rife with PK'ers.
  • Hemos & I have been playing The Sims Online- Come visit the Slashdot Charisma Sweatshop on the absolute west edge of the Mt Fuji City and say hi. I got my real nick for once too! I love MMORPGs and 'There' looks like another wrinkle on taking Sims type games online. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

    I thought this [userfriendly.org] would be a fitting UF comic, considering how Slashdot is supposed to be pro-freedom/anti-corporatism. Have fun SimPeddling your SimAss to EA for SimDollars. Go to the SimMac and have a SimHeartattack or buy a SimPentium4 with SimHyperthreading!

  • Nikes (Score:3, Funny)

    by Angry Black Man ( 533969 ) <vverysmartman@ho[ ]il.com ['tma' in gap]> on Sunday January 12, 2003 @11:28AM (#5066593) Homepage

    Does it take you two weeks to earn enough virtual money to buy the latest Nike Jordans like in real life?
  • I played a MMORPG from beta until the second year of it, the game had no structure.. we just stood around and talked. Max lvl is 48 and most people are 40, its taken them a year to get there. http://www.legendofmir.net/ -linkz/UniTY

  • What a bad idea. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12, 2003 @11:38AM (#5066621)
    "Come visit the Slashdot Charisma Sweatshop on the absolute west edge of the Mt Fuji City and say hi."

    10 seconds later, at the Slashdot Charisma Sweatshop...

    +=---------=+
    |First post!|
    +=---------=+
    \/
    /
    .
  • I applied for There's beta testing program, and have been accepted. Apparently they invite new players "on a weekly basis" -- I'm still waiting impatiently for my invite! :-)

  • WorldsAway from compuserve (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nounderscores ( 246517 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @11:55AM (#5066658)
    I was a compuserve member way back when the internet was hard to get onto (you couldn't access the net from compuserve when I first signed up). They looked deep into my soul and gave me a number based upon the order in which I joined. About when they let me choose a screen name for myself (all_the_good_names_are_taken@compuserve.com I kid you not.) they introduced this thing called Worlds Away [diy-punk.org] which seems eerily like "there."

    The keyword you typed at the go prompt was AWAY, so youd type GO: AWAY and be transported to a virtual world which had all the usuall compuserve anal retentive rules to keep everyone playing nice [digitalspace.com].

    I've since left compuserve due to the cost of access and the mountains of rules, but I did hear that worlds away has been replaced by a thing called Dreamscape [digitalspace.com].

    Everything that is old is new again.

  • Open source mmorpg? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by HeyBob! ( 111243 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @12:04PM (#5066682)
    Is anyone developing a free to use mmorpg, maybe based on a p2p method? I pay enough monthly bills I don't want to pay a monthly fee just to play a game. I don't mind paying for the game though.

    I wonder if there's a way to build a mmorpg system that doesn't require central servers, but could exist on thousands of p2p machines. As pc's log on and off, the load is moved around. Sort of a combination of p2p and a distributed.net.

    Instead of servers slowing down with more people logging on, the game gets faster when more pc's log in and add their computing power.
    • Interesting idea, but they would still probably have to charge a monthly fee. Even if you cut out the cost of the game servers and bandwith, you would still need developers, designers, customer support, etc.
      • you would still need developers, designers, customer support, etc.

        That's where the open-source would come in, although customer support would be tricky. It might take the form of a user forum instead of a 1-800 #.

        Early adopters would be the developers and designers. New users would d/l the client/server package and could just play or learn to add their own features which may or may not be taken up by the whole community.
    • Well I happen to be, but you won't like it. Its all in Visual Basic. We had given the thought of p2p design, but the answer after discussion was that it was impractical. By putting server function on the user end, there were too many trust issues. It would be too easy for people to hack their own information about how powerfull the characters are. Anyway, we are trying to use open and documented file formats and hopefully have a documented network protocol so that someday I can make a client software for other platforms, but right now the whole project is pretty much windows only. If I still haven't scared you off, check out our website [k2wrpg.org]

    • Well, there is the open source MMORPG Arianne [arianne.info]. It's still in development, and not quite there yet, but it's quite actively developed. It doesn't use p2p, though, AFAIK.
    • I think it would be cool to have some sort of "interface nuetral" environment, where the client does all the all the hard work - for himself and maybe for others.

      That way, maybe my interface would be all text - and someone else could have this amazing 3d immersive environment, but the same events happen for us both.

      Also, say I have this amazing 3d stuff going on - I might give another's client the option of having me render the stuff for them, if I have all this amazing hardware - that way I can appear to be really amazing to people who don't even have the kind of hardware to see my avatar (or landscape or whatever) the way I want it to be seen.

      Read Snowcrash by Neil Stephenson. [amazon.com]
    • One thing you wouldn't need to worry about with open source games as long as you have an easy editor is content. There are plenty of people out there who aren't technically oriented who could use an editor to create cool story lines and adventures. It wouldn't be unlike paper roll playing games where you buy modules, except you wouldn't be paying for the modules.

    • Yes. (Score:4, Informative)

      by An Onerous Coward ( 222037 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @06:00PM (#5068589) Homepage
      There's a project called Worldforge [worldforge.org] that has some interesting things going on. You may want to check it out.

      I've heard rumors that they want to implement P2P for the game media, but not for the game itself.
    • I wonder if there's a way to build a mmorpg system that doesn't require central servers, but could exist on thousands of p2p machines. As pc's log on and off, the load is moved around.

      This is exactly how the Walled City from the book Idoru was run. The idea itself is quite inspiring. Kind of a utopia in some respects. To the extent that everyone in Walled City had to care about what was going on as they're all supporting the load. Because of this, it's a place where only otaku live.
    • Nearly all multiplayer games have rules - a multiplayer system without rules is just a glorified chat server. We expect the server to implement those rules, because we cannot trust the clients. You cannot trust the clients, because they may not be running the code you sent them unmodified and you wil not be able to tell. I can modify any code running on my PC, which makes it very easy for me to cheat.

      I wrote a paper on p2p multiplayer games for my Masters degree, and this was the major obstacle to p2p games I identified. There are ways around it, but competitive p2p games are a whole different world to cooperative p2p applications like file sharing.

  • Time Commitment? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Flamesplash ( 469287 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @12:08PM (#5066692) Homepage Journal
    My big thing is with how much time commitment a "Virtual World" type game requires. I have never played any type of online static VW game, just things like Battle.net.

    My main reason for this is that it seems like the commitment is too great. It seems like one I play I have to keep playing everyday or else my previous effort isn't really useful, like I have to live a second life almost to make anything useful/fun out of the MMOG.

    I am currently playing Animal Crossing on the GCN, and while this game is ultimately experienced best if you play a little each day or for an hour or two on the weekends, Or both in my casse, I could stop playing for a while and nothing would go wrong or bad, I would be able to pick right back up. The same goes for the non MMOG Sims. From outside of MMOG it seems like I couldn't do this with those.

    Am I off base with my impressions of MMOG? Are there any that exhibit play whenever you want/can better than others without degrading the experience?

    • Re:Time Commitment? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by aliens ( 90441 )
      I'm sorry but the amount of time you have to put into these games is unreal. Where do the people who play these games find the time?

      On top of which I was listening to some talk radio and a girl called up to discuss why she enjoys Sims Online. Basically she stated she could do things she couldn't do in real life and as an example she said, "be outspoken." Really, come on, how bout just try to be outspoken in real life. Or has that become illegal?

      Things you can't do in real life should be things like drive a drive a Ferrari down the wrong side of the road at 110mph. That's what video games are for, not so you can be outspoken.

      • Re:Time Commitment? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by cmacb ( 547347 )
        On-line gaming can indeed be an addictive passtime. But then so many other things can be too. If you don't change any other behavior and simply add several hours a day of on-line gaming you will probably at least suffer from sleep deprivation.

        What most people do however is give up some other activity. When I really got involved in this stuff a few years ago I stopped watching TV. First I simply watched less, then at some point I realized what a great waste of time my remaining TV watching was. Anyone who stops watching TV completely for a few months will be shocked at how awful most of it is when you tune back in.

        Both TV and movies of today are creations of other people. As you watch you are consuming, nothing more. At least with virtual reality there is usually some element of creativity involved.

        As far as being outspoken... if you communicate at all with people in real life as well as online (for example e-mail between you and people you actually meet in person) you will notice that the nature of the communication is different. Almost *everyone* is more outspoken online, whether it is e-mail, newsgroups, or SlashDot. People often express things in their personal web pages that they would be embarrassed to say to someone in person.

        You can in fact develop what might be called an alternate personality online. I'm not sure there is any evidence however that this second personality is any less "real" than your in-person one. In fact I think it might be a good bit *more* real (for better or worse).

        When it comes to work, as opposed to play, I'd *much* rather interact with people online than in person. The key element of this other than the liberating aspect of the interaction is that fact that everything is recorded. The worst managers I have ever had are the ones that go down the hall and pop into people's office or cubes for friendly little one-on-ones. These 5-minute-managers send their whole staff in different directions without knowing it.

        Real life meetings usually end up being chaotic unless they are planned in advance. Again, the key is to get things in writing, to produce meeting minutes, and when it comes design, make sure that everyone is on the same "page".

        I think that in the future online VR type interaction will replace many work interaction not because it is more fun, but because it works better.

    • You might check out Magicosm. Unfortunately, we're still more than a year away from a final release right now. We'll be having an alpha test soon; it should start in August.

      Part of what makes us different is that we allow a sort of casual play. Crafting takes significant time, hours or days, so you can queue up activities for offline work. You can monitor your character's progress by receiving email updates or by viewing a web page, and queue new actions in the same way. This means that while you may play almost every day, most days it can be by viewing a web page and queueing a few new actions, sending emails to people to bring you raw materials or tell you what they want crafted.

      Your character is controlled by a scripting language, so you can set him up to do whatever you think he's smart enough to do without getting himself killed, or use our preconstructed scripts to do the basics.

      Our goal is to create a complete working fantasy world... iron ore comes from the ground, not a guy on the street corner. Real crafting is done in a smithy, which player characters can own, rent out, whatever. Monsters are not your main source of experience, questing, dynamically generated or part of the storyline, is. It is often much better to avoid a monster if you can rather than fight it. Although, with our lore system, finding out how to do new things is often more important than gaining experience. You will have to learn to do new, more difficult tasks to continue advancing, and you will have to journey to someone to be trained in these new tasks.

      We have player run governments, manage your lands to increase resource production. All items (except a few relics) can be crafted. You can become the best at one or a few activities (say, making horseshoes of speed or dwarven axes, or opening enchanted locks) and thus well-known in your area. Skills atrophy slightly when not in use, and many skills have a maximum, so not even the most powerful characters can match you at something that you do every day. Hang out in taverns to get new quests, publish a newspaper... we're building a complete fantasy world, not the latest Everquest clone.

      Come see us. Check out the forums. Leave us a note to get back to you when we hit release time :) We've been at this for 2.5 years, so it's not some fly-by-night project.

  • OS requirements (Score:2, Informative)

    by e**(i pi)-1 ( 462311 )
    "There" seems to require Windows.
    Too bad, they follow only that track.
  • ...will be Final Fantasy XI. I just hope that there will be less morons online with the added cost of the game. Until the PC version is released *sigh*

    If somehow FFXI doesn't make it here, .hack will be my first MMORPG ;P

    --
    My Moderator points just disappeared when I was using them. It says "Use them or lose them", not "Use them and lose them" *sigh*
    • .hack is not an actual mmorpg and will be released in the US next month, well before FFXI

      Or maybe you were joking and I look like a dumbass now...
  • wasn't there a scene in burning chrome where people who met in cyberspace rented clothes for their avatars?
    gibson should've taken out a patent...

    f64 : making crack remarks while on crack
  • "name There and their opening"

    Hehehehe, love the use of there you got goin there.

    The sheer possibilities for marketing here are amazing - I used to play a game called Diaspora run by a company called Altitude (a cloan of it can now be found at http://www.rillaspora.com). Basically a space-trading game,the company was trying to sell advert space in the online bars I believe. They failed.

    You could have a virtual McDonalds, Starbucks, and then have virtual anti-capitalists to break the windows in Starbucks whilst ordering a latte.

    And how long before the citizens of the virtual community have their own computers and networks? Imagine - virtual LAN parties! woohoo!
  • In the virtual world, eating McDonalds hamburgers COULD be good for you! Just imagine - If McDonalds paid the GMs for the priviledge, eating at a virtual McD's would increase all your stats 10% for a few hours after ever meal. Using Colgate toothpaste really would make you better looking. And if your sim drinks Bud Light, your sim really would become irresistable to the opposite sex for a few hours!

    This has potential even in games like Ultma Online, where wearing Levis under your armour might convey you some mild form of magical protection. Wearing Nike's lets your character run 10% faster. Just think of the possibilities...

  • The day I can log in to a non-proprietary virtual network, and I can build my own software/avatars or create my own code to provide interactions, is the day I'll play one of those damn addictive things... I don't just want to play, I want to create little bot-avatars that can go do things for me.
  • "300 dollars a week. That's the news, for 300 lousy dollars a week. --'Why?' I ask myself. 'Why have I put up with you?' I can't imagine. But I know. It's Fear. Yellow Freakin' Fear. I've been too chicken shit afraid to live my life, so I sold it to you for 300 dollars a week! You're lucky I don't kill you!"

    --Joe, "Joe v.s. the Volcano"


    Except this way, people are actually paying. But that's the way, isn't it? Corporate evil is nothing if not efficient, (in all the 'right' places, at any rate). Render them impotent, trick them into living in bullshit misery and debt-ridden servitude, then sell them a subscription to some lame version of 'escape'.

    "Oh, and Smithers, tell our engineers to make it highly addictive."

    "Yes sir. The people will know what hit them, but they won't care."


    -Fantastic Lad

  • One of the key element is that you can buy virtual Levis and Nikes for your Avatar.

    Are these items made in virtual sweatshops by virtual children for virtually nothing just like in real life?
  • Pretty soon the mafia will be delivering pizzas.
  • Washington Post technology columnist Leslie Walker writes about There in her column today [washingtonpost.com]. Excerpt: It's meant to be a destination where people can do lots of things -- race dune buggies, fly on hoverboards, flirt, hang out with their dogs -- but it has no defined objectives. "There" offers tools for people to create their own worlds and virtual lifestyles. The company also hopes to make money licensing its tools to other companies such as ski resorts to create their own virtual environments."
    • You can't have such a thing succeed without objectives.

      I know of 'hang-out' virtual places, which to some extent don't have objectives, but in every case you have two additional factors:

      (1) personas you can't have in real life. In one place, I'm an anthropomorphic cat, just to be one. If you're offering a persona a person can't be in real life that's a kind of objective.

      (2) sex. (mreeeow!) *G* now that's an objective.

      No freaking way will this fly, if you can't have sex, or transform into strange creative personas, or do anything besides the boring consumerism you're already expected to do in real life. It's gonna fail unless it learns this.

  • as a pathetic and rural computer weenie, i long for a virtual universe like the ones i read about; i read neal stephenson and dream of living at least part time in a nonreal world. yes, i go to parks and hike, but how great would it be to be able to do stuff at 200am without having to drive 4 hrs to a city? There looks like another disguised shopping mall, unfortunately. damn. i'll probably be dead by the time the goods are finally available.
  • There is not a game. Sims is. There is designed to be more like 3D IRC.
  • PlaneShift [planeshift.it]

    Check out the screenshots. :-)
    And it's FREE, too. ;-)

    Let's hope it turns out to be as fun to play as it looks, and that it becomes well-known enough. :-/
    • Oh, forgot to add (doh):

      "Support for nearly all platform (Windows 32-bit, Unix, GNU/Linux, Macintosh, Amiga, BeOS, NextStep, OpenStep, Rhapsody and OS/2)"

      But it's these kind of things that become vaporware, isn't it? Sure - they have an alpha client done, but I see far too often such ambitious projects like this one stopping at alpha/beta stage.

      Anyone, I visit the site now and then. One can hope they get something more to show off than what's essentially a "technology preview"
    • Nice screenshots, but when I downloaded the game and connected to the test server, my character was trapped in a box and couldn't explore the world. What gives??
  • This is Jack's wife. He tells me about this article and I immediately retire a sim in another city and dash as fast as my simness will allow to Mt Fuji, breathless in anticipation of possibly meeting CmdrTaco. Sweetie, there aint no sweat in your Shop. The name of the lot I found is Slashdot Charisma Shop. Oh the angst, the elevated blood pressure, and severe depression I am now experiencing for missing an opportunity to meet ya. Nice coconuts btw.

    Rabbit, wife of JackZ
    JaxBuni in Alphaville
    Rabbit in Blazing Falls
    Rabbbit in Mt Fuji

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