From the "Another Win For Innovation Over Graphics" Department: Runescape runs on Java, and now has over 100,000 subscribers. Although gameplay doesn't look dramatically different from anything we've seen before, the business model is unique. You can play for free if you want; pay $5 monthly to get access to more quests, skills, storage space. And it's from England. Auf geht's, Europa! It also raises some interesting non-design problems. It looks to me as if it would discourage RMT, for example, because investments won't necessarily be seen as sufficiently long-term. The truth is World of Warcraft Gold doesn’t HAVE to take a long time to get, especially in the higher levels.

Here at the Edinburgh International Games Festival the panel discussion on virtual currency that I chaired has caused a bit of a storm thanks to Jeff (lawnmower man) Brown, VP of Corporate Communications for Electronic Arts. It also raises some interesting non-design problems. It looks to me as if it would discourage RMT, for example, because investments won't necessarily be seen as sufficiently long-term. The truth is World of Warcraft Gold doesn’t HAVE to take a long time to get, especially in the higher levels. Buy WOW Gold here, and then enjoy your excited WoW life! Warhammer Online Gold will keep your high power. On the other hand, if RMTers persuade the courts that people own what their characters own, the whole concept of a purge might be threatened.

A lengthy, but intensely fascinating and well-written account of an Eve Online player who brokered a large investment scam by creating a puppet corporation. He does an incredible job of explaining the complexity of MMORPG worlds, the emotional salience of interactions, and how play transforms into work. It also raises some interesting non-design problems. It looks to me as if it would discourage RMT, for example, because investments won't necessarily be seen as sufficiently long-term. The truth is World of Warcraft Gold doesn’t HAVE to take a long time to get, especially in the higher levels. Buy WOW Gold here, and then enjoy your excited WoW life! Warhammer Online Gold will keep your high power. On the other hand, if RMTers persuade the courts that people own what their characters own, the whole concept of a purge might be threatened.

An admirer of Hayao Miyazaki films, I recently was drawn into comparing how place was depicted in My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke. The forests and countryside of Totoro are ordinary - a place where spirits co-exist with a pastoral stillness. In contrast, the forests and spirits of Princess Mononoke live in a far away place, a place accessible by journey, a place of extraordinary form and drama. All of this led me to wonder about virtual worlds and their sense of place and folk. It also raises some interesting non-design problems. It looks to me as if it would discourage RMT, for example, because investments won't necessarily be seen as sufficiently long-term.

The potential for virtual property rights in MMORPGs inevitably gives rise to the potential for virtual property crimes. So this paper dovetails nicely into a space left open by our first article. We had touched on MMORPG crimes in the To Kill an Avatar article and we had initially thought we could just re-write that piece in a scholarly format. But the issues presented kept getting more and more interesting and so we ended up exploring different paths after reading about Julian's Bone Crusher dilemma, as well as talking with folks here and working through various "virtual crime" posts and comment threads (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

So now you call some player a cucking funt, and FOD! You're evaporated. "But the code let me do it!" you wail. "Yes", replies the all-seeing admin, "and the same code let me FOD you." The best way to put the assertion (and this is all it is at this point; and again, please keep in mind that there are a number of familiar exceptions) is that the practice of game software development generates a way of seeing and defining problems (as essentially precise, logical, and algorithmic), and creating solutions (through linear, text-defined code) that makes other ways of accounting for what happens in VWs seem at worst nonsensical and at best irrelevant or quixotic. They looked friendly enough--at least, no one had fruit ready to throw at us.

"'Real life' is always 'my life' -- 'my life' is real." The answers are very complex -- people writing headlines don't like complex answers. Richard Bartle: mech30. I toyed with using a female avatar tonight, but I thought I'd go with an absolute vanilla male instead. Interesting to see the early reactions, where people validated their own self-view by commenting on my appearance as I was basically functioning without having a fancy avatar attached. After our "high energy" presentation, the questions were even stranger. Someone asked why humanities research got left out, and we had to say that we couldn't find it to be directly relevant on our top 10 list of bulleted points. Ian made the point, and I agreed, that doing the research for this panel made us think differently about academic research.

Prokofy Neva: Richard I have enough on my plate running all my alts and looks without also multi-presentations but sure, I'd like to present to Hiro right now in my bowling shirt with crossed bowling pins on my bakc. After our "high energy" presentation, the questions were even stranger. Someone asked why humanities research got left out, and we had to say that we couldn't find it to be directly relevant on our top 10 list of bulleted points. Ian made the point, and I agreed, that doing the research for this panel made us think differently about academic research. While I'm not going to say that what we've done personally has no value, it was a definite challenge to try and make it *directly relevant* in a BULLETED POINT for developers.

In the heat of World War II, the commandos must prepare for their deadliest mission yet. The Third Reich has deeply entrenched itself in France and there seems to be nothing to stop the German war machine...except you. Using a small special forces team, you will infiltrate hostile territories and suppress the Nazi power any means necessary.

Commandos 2 Men Of Courage has literally sucked the hours out of my life. The gameplay is like sheer crack addiction folks. The squad based strategy genre has had a coming out party lately with recent titles like Star Trek Away Team, and Desperados.