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The MMORPG to grow more popular than EverCrack (or Lineage) will be the kind that is open to user modification and governance so it can take on a life of its own. Depending on a central crackdaddy for content can't compete with the promise of a dynamic Metaverse.

The games that currently come closest to this ideal game world are A Tale in the Desert, and, Second Life.

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In a virtual world there IS NO SCARCITY, so why immitate it? Because it's what people are used to? There's room for multiple planes of existence along side the common "consensus" reality.

Anyway, back to Earth (sortof): In a nanotech future, there's still the fundamental scarcity of the following:

• Time
• Space
• Energy
• Matter
• Intelligence (limited by the above)

However, the sun is abundant free energy, and there's more than enough living space on Earth (underground, and on & under the oceans), in outerspace (Mars, orbitals, rings, etc.), and in innerspace (the transhuman "matrix").

The other reasons I didn't keep playing SL was the crappy physics (esp. most vehicles), low graphics detail compared to what I'm used to, and no linux client (unlike "A Tale in the Desert", which is most similar to Secondlife).

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I agree. I used to watch a wide variety of TV. Then the content got bad, so I started watching only the "infotainment" channels like Discovery and TLC channels, but then over the past year or two they started to shift their ratio of Programme:Commercial airtime from about 3:1 to about 1.5:1, and even seeming like 1:1 for some shows.

The commercials got louder and more ridiculously consumeristic. The programs got worse, even on the informative channels, deviating away from fun educational topics into less educational and more MTV-attention-span type of topics.

About that time I stopped watching TV altogether and dug deep into the realm of MMO games (my current favorite is Second Life). I don't see myself ever going back to Television as a big part of my leisure time unless it makes a lot of progress towards the viewership replacing the advertisers as the source of sponsorship (or at least having the option to).

These days, I occasionally flip the TV on, but 4 times out of 5 it goes right back off after about 2-3 minutes of looking around the premium movie channels for something good. I'd much rather entertain myself by designing 3D models, writing programs to control them, and showing them off to my online friends, than sit alone on the couch and recieve my daily dose of commercial propaganda...

But you've got a point here. The key difference between a console and a computer, other than the fact that a gaming-worthy computer costs ten times as much as a gamecube, is that computers are capable of CREATION as well as CONSUMPTION. If I didn't entertain vague fantasies that I would one day actually create games or pieces of games, I would never have spent the money keeping up a computer with up-to-date graphics cards.

Games where I deeply customize my character (not just choosing the accessories and facial features, but to simply design a whole new persona) are simply not possible on a console--if they were, that console would be a computer. For example, it would not be possible to make a console port of Second Life, a game in which players upload their models and even interactive scripts to a persistent massively multiplayer world. Indeed, massively multiplayer games in general aren't very common on consoles.

Second Life is already there. All of the content is user-created. There is a scripting language that can be used to create complex behavoir. Houses, trams, amusement park rides, airplanes, sentry guns, alien ships, ghosts, even a recreation of the destruction of the world trade center towers.

Check out the archives of the "embedded journalist".

Second Life is already there. All of the content is user-created. There is a scripting language that can be used to create complex behavoir. Houses, trams, amusement park rides, airplanes, sentry guns, alien ships, ghosts, even a recreation of the destruction of the world trade center towers.

Check out the archives of the "embedded journalist".

I've never played Second Life but I just watched the trailer -- can you hack the flowers like the Merovingian hacks a chocolate tort?

> would be that if you could code your own minions and objects

That is exactly how the game Second Life works. Its more Matrixy than the Matrix.

The author mentioned Second Life on page three, which is also where the crux of the review lies.

I haven't played Second Life (though I have been accepted into the beta), it seems to offer a lot more gameplay than There does, and looks to be a more innovative title, offering users the ability to edit their world, and create any object they can imagine, given they're adapt and patient enough to work with their rudimentary 3d modeling tools.

The author mentioned Second Life on page three, which is also where the crux of the review lies.

I haven't played Second Life (though I have been accepted into the beta), it seems to offer a lot more gameplay than There does, and looks to be a more innovative title, offering users the ability to edit their world, and create any object they can imagine, given they're adapt and patient enough to work with their rudimentary 3d modeling tools.

Then try Second Life where there are no experience points and the whole point of the game is to be creative and come up with your own stuff :)
You can build anything in there using basic 3D shapes, textures, sounds and there's also a powerful scripting language that lets you make your objects do just about anything.
The tools are so powerful that there is already an entirely player-built amusement park featuring ridable rollercoasters with realistic physics, a giant pinball game where you are the "ball", a spook house, an everquestish dungeon, a casino, various sports... the only limit is yourself :)
I'm Eggy Lippmann in there, look me up during your free trial week if you need some help getting started - people in there are generally very helpful and kind to newbies and we have several player-run classes where you can learn all about the game, as well as all sorts of parties, contests and events in general.

I have to agree so much about the staleness of MMORPGs. But I read about Second Life here on /. and I am in love again with online gaming. It is a totally different experience, nothing I could have prepared myself for. I certainly thought I would be bored with it but I'm not!

Seriously, I recommend giving it a try...

Windows
1) OpenOffice -- free
2) AVG -- free
3) Gaim -- free
4) Media Player Classic -- free
5) Nero -- ~$50
6) PowerDVD -- ~$50
7) PSP -- ~$50
8) AdAware -- free
9) Sygate Personal Firewall -- free
10) SecondLife :) -- tiered monthly

It's a bit unbalaced to list applications for Linux as so much ships with the distributions but so little is handcuffed to them. But here's what I seem to use the most:

Linux
1) MythTV -- free
2) OpenOffice -- free
3) Evolution -- free
4) Gaim -- free
5) MPlayer -- free
6) Xine -- free
7) Gimp -- free
8) Mozilla -- free
9) XMMS -- free
10) Dia -- free

Second Life.

the ufo thing seems pretty wussy compared to the coverage of "The War of Jessie Wall".

I just spent 15 minutes reading the story about what happened and was intrigued.

Check it out.. read from the bottom post up, like a blog if you want it in the correct order.

The War

Still, that's a very bad failure condition, and a bad first impression. Hopefully the MMOG isn't coded by their web developers.

BTW, it is only a redirection loop if you keep Javascript enabled. Turn off Javascript and it stops, then redirects you to a 404'd noflash page, which only link takes you back through another Javascripted flash check. Only if you enable Javascript and allow cookies can you get to the real no-Flash pages.

I went over to secondlife.com to see if it mentioned anything about linux support and the page goes into a redirection loop. I guess they only viewed their page in IE.

Ahh, this world isn't real because they don't yet have trademark infringement. (or at least until MLB sees it) Is it fair use if I own an officially licensed shirt?

-Sean

Testify brother!

They are asking users to subscribe to an online mall, thus becoming unwitting members of a massive corporate focus group. A real economy should be based on the creation of value - not hanging out and buying virtual Levi's with actual money.

If you want to see an economy in an online world where the users build, texture, script, and sell each other objects, check out Second Life.

by Linden Labs called Second Life is currently in closed beta, but are accepting applications. Your avatar's appearence is fully configurable, you can buy land and build on it, and you can create (3d model) just about any object you can think of and script its behavior using their java-inspired scripting language. Upload texture and sound files to use in objects. It is a great MMOG for techies.