Slashdot Mirror
There Inc - Propagating the Bad of Society?
An anonymous reader writes "A former beta tester has written up a negative, but interesting, review of the 'virtual world' MMO title There. While it mainly contains sarcastic remarks directed at the game mechanics (or lack there-of), near the end it also claims that There is 'a mirror of the shallowest possible view of American consumerist society.' It concludes by saying that There is missing anything that would classify it as a game, and that as a chat service it capitalizes on 'our society's tendency to believe that being attractive is a prerequisite for being accepted by others.' Should developers try to be aware of whether their game will reproduce negative trends already present in real life?" We recently ran a story on the official launch of There, a game that has its fans as well as its detractors.
Godwin's law would be invoked already:
Have you ever wondered what sort of society Hitler would have envisioned if he had grown up in modern times and watched waaay too much MTV? Well I used to, and then I beta tested a game called There...
I think they do already. Should they care? Well that's up to them. Should they have to care? No. Should we care? That depends who you are.
When I first heard about it, I saw the word 'metaverse' bandied around. I was also led to believe that it would be amazing looking. So, I signed up to be a beta tester. Some time later, I got an email inviting me to download and install There. I installed windows on a spare partition, installed the 'game', and cranked it up.
The disappointment in my apartment was thick enough to cut with a knife. <i>There</i> is like the metaverse in the same way that ENIAC with a few thousand blown tubes is like ASCI White. I agree with all the points outlined in that article - <i>There</i> isn't.
Sims Online is way better...with a heck of a lot more content.
Alternatively if you want a more adult experience Second Life has better graphics...and more revealing outfits.
If "there" was free and then charged you 15 cents for buying extra clothing or doodads, you could understand it and it might even kinda cute, but when they want a monthly payment and then nickel and diming you on top...that just gets annoying.
I was a beta tester near the very end of the beta. I thought this "game" was really shallow and boring. There was just nothing to do but stand around and talk to people, unless you wanted to pay another $10 to play a game in this "game". "There" was very bad from a technical standpoint, it uses internet explorer as a major engine component and refused to run while Mozilla was my default browser. Then there is the cost of "There". Looks cheap at first, and it is if you were a beta tester (all of the stuff about to be mentioned costs a total of $30 for beta testers). But if your the average player the costs will shoot through the roof before you even play. $20 to start, $30 for sound, $50 for a graphics pack. Then $5 bucks a month. Then the fees to get anything done in there, $5 bucks to buy virtual shoes, $5 more for a shirt, $5 more for a buggy ride. This is all real money. Then your limited to 640x480 res and the poor graphics make a GeForce4 TI 4600 and P4 2.4GHz chug. It's the most lacking and expensive online "game" I've ever seen. Even the notoriously buggy anarchy online played better at launch than There does now.
If you want a good online gaming experiance stick with everquest, anarchy online or dark age of camelot. Heck, diablo 2 or even just something like UT offer a better online experiance. There just isn't worth it.
Some socially mal-adjusted gamer logs into a beta 'game' and talks about how it's 1) not complete, and 2) not fun chatting with people.
Forget the fact that the very first sentance uses a Hitler reference. He's certainly not the right person to write a review about There, or anything else for that matter.
For those who might actually be interested in what There is, it's a half-finished (if that) online community (metaverse? maybe). There are both social and gaming aspects, so it's not completely either one. If you don't like to interact with other people, you won't have fun. If all you like to do is play FPS or PRG games, it's not for you.
There is a place to meet people. It's a place to interact, through social, game, or contest activities. You can start or join clubs, race vehicles, hold classes, participate in trivia and quest contest. You can modify your 'avatar' appearance, and buy clothes designed by other players. Even the vehicles can be skinned and even modeled in some cases.
Even if you are not a social person, there is plenty to keep you busy for at least a few hours a week, and There plans to add more content over time. There will be yahoo-esque games such as cards planned in the near future.
I am not at all the target There member (I'm more of an RPG gamer), but I've still been playing since early in the beta, and I've yet to get bored. Any 'game' that can hold my attention for mroe than 9 months, especially one that's still in development, seems like a pretty well-made experiment.
Chaos, panic, disorder...my work here is done.
Way ahead of you
- colin
I visit There from time to time (as BlackCloud). I want to make a few remarks:
The landscape is much more interesting and varied than he makes it out to be (once you've had your fill of two-tone landscapes). See below for a link to take your own tour.
Who would want to socialize with someone so lacking in personality as starting avatars seem to be?? On one had he equates personality with the initial garb, on the other he complains about the consumer aspect of the game.
My original character sported, aside from a perfectly trapezoidal head, a red mohawk that cost most of my starting money. After that I only had enough money for some cheap black pants. Needless to say, I wouldn't make many friends in There. Notice he said "wouldn't", not "didn't". One of the most popular people I know in There dresses badly, has a freakish head with a wild white afro and sports a pot belly. Why is he popular? He's funny and a great conversationalist. No one is ignored in There because of how they look.
uessing muscular chest skins and leather-esque pants are hot commodities in There... among 40-50 year old truck drivers, anyway. This isn't any different than an 22 year old guy pretending to be a female elf from the safety of his parents' basement.
There Inc. is charging people to create content, and charging other people to use that content. Yes, and it makes sense for a couple of reasons. All uploaded content is reviewed before being allowed into the game to keep out obscene or copyrighted material. I suspect the fee (besides paying for the review) also keeps inflation in check. If creating content was free, and you could sell said content at whatever price, soon there would be a glut of money. Content would be a way to manufacture money. There's economy was designed by real economists, by the way.
Once you pay the cover charge required by many of There's events Many, but not most.
however don't even think about joining a group that already has more than eight people in it... nobody could communicate with that many people at once! How is this a problem with the game?
Many emotes cause your character to do some action, or an icon to spring from various parts of their body. They've introduced dance moves recently too :) The emotes are suprisingly effective at making the game more immersive.
Well, since the other plan doesn't come with an activation fee, I'm going to guess it's just a clever way of saying they're "activating" their need for more money. The other plan doesn't come with a monthly stipend either. The exchange rate is $1 = T$1787, so each month you get $4.95 worth of T$. The monthly charge is also $4.95, so you get the game for the price of the activation fee. That's not a bad deal since money is useful (though not necessary) in There. Every virtual world needs some form of exchange.
This is evidenced by the sheer amount of benches and loveseats scattered around the land I found them a more convenient place to chat 1 on 1. Standing is fine too but sitting prevents interruptions...one you have 2 people in a conversation no one else can join.
There, Inc. is capitalizing on our society's tendency to believe that being attractive I wish I could find the link to the article I read here on Slashdot about Everquest. It gave some stats the showed players overwhelmingly favored the more attractive races (like elves) compared to the uglier ones (such as gnomes). And in There you can be as good looking or ugly as you want to be. If you spend a little time in There you'll see it's personality that makes one popular, and generosity (you can loan anything you have, from clothes to vehicles, and recall those items whenever you want).
Take a look around there yourself at this site
It looks like There is also going to do some open source work
I noticed this article a few days before slashdots posting of it. And for the most part the author is a troll, and I'm ashamed to share the "Owl" part of his nickname with him.
I've played There for several months in the beta, and continue to to this day. All of his points are valid, the land scape does not have copious ammounts of variation. People tend to all be beautiful.
But if you are an obnoxious troll who seeks only to berate the game and other people, you will be ignored and shunned in There. Just as you would in real life. I suspect that the author of this article didn't find any friends, and rather then tempting to right that in some way he got pissy and left the game.
Also, his credability-for my self-was lost when he called it an "MMORPG"
There are many things out there that can be considered an MMORPG, this is *not* one of them. There is no role playing here. I'm not castic a magic spell to slay a rat. I'm not using my space pistol to shoot a rat. I'm not swinging my sword to kill a rat. I'm conversing with a wide array of people in a digital world, that just happens to have buggies, bikes, boards, and so forth.
Computational Madness in a round package.