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MMORPGs, Are You There Yet?
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.
Whereever you go, There you are!
--- Do you believe in the day?
When the hell's Chris DiBona's (aka ChrisD) so-called "company" going to release their so-called "best game ever"?
Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
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.
/(bb|[^b]{2})/
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).
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
Yep, it's a dupe.
Come on CmdrTaco, that's two dupes you've posted on today's front page... go for the hat-trick!
--
Karma: Chameleon (you come and go)
This is such an interesting story! Just like when it was posted two days ago! :)
This is a dupe. The original Slashdot article can be found here: "Metaverse Launched?".
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.
Nice work so far, Chris.
Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
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.
I hold a patent on sigs...
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?
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.
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.
Software should be free as in speech, but if we also get some free beer, all the better.
I thought this 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!
Hate me!
Does it take you two weeks to earn enough virtual money to buy the latest Nike Jordans like in real life?
the byproduct of years of oppression by the white man
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
I've left to find myself. If you happen to see me, please, keep me there until I return.
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.
Hate me!
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.
.02
Just my
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10 seconds later, at the Slashdot Charisma Sweatshop...
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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! :-)
Do we really need all these duplicate posts, telling us that the article is a dupe?
Bad enough that it's a dupe in the first place without having to read fifty posts telling us so over and over again.
...so please tell me what the big deal is? Sure, the fact that it's a graphical rather than a textual "viewport" to the virtual world might appeal to some (it may also keep the bad spellers et al. away from the MUSHes, not necessarily a bad thing), but let's face it, the screenshots looked pathetic even to me, and I don't consider myself to be an overly visually-oriented person to begin with...
To paraphrase, if you need a visual "crutch" for your imagination, this is sadly inadequate. If you don't, I fail to see what kind of value this service adds.
if I can get dem air force ones..
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 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.
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.
Everything that is old is new again.
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.
...this seems like the same argument that was against television vs. books, and everyone knows TV is better than reading.
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?
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
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.
The space unintentionally left unblank.
Wow! That is the best explanation of Free Software that I have ever heard!
Because now I know Where to get one...
"There" seems to require Windows.
Too bad, they follow only that track.
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 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.
...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*
.hack will be my first MMORPG ;P
If somehow FFXI doesn't make it here,
--
My Moderator points just disappeared when I was using them. It says "Use them or lose them", not "Use them and lose them" *sigh*
Karma: Chameleon Shouldn't that be: Karma: Typical male
Typical male? Only if you're a Tina Turner fan.
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
Not quite what I mean though... :P
PS, be manly (or girly... Hey, it's 2003!) and don't use AC :)
Hate me!
"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!
Yet if you were a 14 year old British girl, you might appreciate Habbo Hotel (Shock Req.)
Were you a Finnish (Suomi) teen, you might appreciate Hotelli Kultakala (Shock Req.)
I hate Grammar Nazi's
Can you kill someone for a pair?
FRA: STFU GTFO
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...
My rights don't need management.
I'm not sure about the purpose of your post. Haven't you misheard the name? Wasn't it Maurice Gibb?
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.
meh
So CmdrTaco runs windows? Shock horror!
--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
Im not virtually cool enough to have a machine that will 'play/run' there software
www.cokemusic.com
It's stuff like that that's been keeping me alive until the sims online gets into my price range...
To be honest, I'd settle for any open-source RPG at this point.
I really like Neverwinter Nights, but was disappointed in its third-person perspective.
I really like Morrowind, but am pissed off that there's no multiplayer component.
I believe if one could create a first-person CRPG that could be extended easily by users--not developers--to create modules, I think it would be fairly successful.
That's not to say that I don't think NWN is worth paying for, it's just that there's something compelling to me about doing a open-source first-person RPG with module-creation toolsets.
I'd work on it, but I just don't have the programming experience to undertake such a venture. I know next to nothing about game programming.
I thought it was Leonard Nimoy.
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. 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."
Come on CmdrTaco, that's two dupes you've posted on today's front page... go for the hat-trick!
He has a third one for today!
People who disagree with you are not automatically evil, greedy, or stupid.
...on whether you're playing the rich white American or the 3rd world shoemaker ;)
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
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.
maybe one day i'll be smart enough to come up with a cool sig, too.
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...
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.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
It's a dupe dupe dupe dupe dupe dupe dupe.
It's a dupe dupe dupe dupe dupe dupe dupe.
It's a dupe.
It's a dupe dupe dupe.
It's a dupe.
It's a dupe.
Thank you.
(This post beat the zlib filter thanks to the letters 'W', "K" and {Q} ).
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.
My Blog
correction...people that find are addicted should learn not to overdo such things... sounds like you have some exerience.
Carpe Canem - Seize the Dog
There's a project called Worldforge 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.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
and why exactly did you bother playing this MUD to begin with??
cpeterso
I used Linux. The Linux kernel developers 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 users 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.
There is not a game. Sims is. There is designed to be more like 3D IRC.
PlaneShift
:-) ;-)
:-/
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.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
.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...
neocron
www.neocron.com
the first 1st person mmorpg out there... with amazing graphics and a flurry of social orders and clans....
its beautiful...
only downside is that it also costs a monthly fee....
why do they try to milk people so... i am not a holstein....
Rabbit, wife of JackZ
JaxBuni in Alphaville
Rabbit in Blazing Falls
Rabbbit in Mt Fuji
a public beta for their 'Virtual Universe'
Cool! I wonder if they'll have the Frogstar?
Note to self: Don't exit through the door!
what? I google'd it and found this article about a man in Maine who was found dead in his mobile home; apparently he almost killed King by running him down with a car. I wouldn't listen to that radio show anymore...... heh
I sell out to The Man every day.
I'm going to sign-up and hang out my shingle selling car-poons. :-D
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Not to nitpick, because I agree with most of your post, but I don't think I'd be able to recognize *anything* that hit me in the face at Mach 2...
--trb
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
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
The wise programmer is told about the Tao and follows it. The average
programmer is told about the Tao and searches for it. The foolish programmer
is told about the Tao and laughs at it. If it were not for laughter, there
would be no Tao.
The highest sounds are the hardest to hear. Going forward is a way to
retreat. Greater talent shows itself late in life. Even a perfect program
still has bugs.
-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"
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