If it ever came up, I'd probably argue that the sterility created by There, as well as the lack of true goals, encourages such behavior in people like me raised on competitive/violent video games.
Bullshit. The peaceful nature of There encourages cooperation, making friends, and exploration. The fact that you were raised on violent/competitive video games doesn't make you more prone to griefing any more than it makes people shoot up their schools.
Nothing in the marketing or promotion of There suggests that it has anything in common with the violent or competitve games, so you should have known that there were completely different standards of behavior at work there. At the very worst, once you got into the world and saw it was not your thing you should've logged out and uninstalled it.
You thought you could get away with a little fun at someone else's expense so you did it. You had a certain amount of power and you abused it. You didn't think about the fact that a real person was in control of that other avatar and/or you didn't care if you caused them frustration and annoyance.
I would never think of griefing in a game where it could actually cause damage, but in There a) you couldn't run over people who were in a conversation group, and b) doing so had absolutely no negative effect other than causing the people the momentary annoyance of being knocked over and having to walk back to where they were previously.
In what game does griefing actually cause damage? Griefing is by definition an annoyance. TKs send you to the respawn, pks make someone spend a few hours getting their stuff/xp back. Noone suffers "actual" damage.
That "momentary annoyance" is all you see if you run over someone once and then go away. You don't see the 20 times other griefers did it to the same avatar, or the other griefer who keeps doing it over and over again until the grief-ee logs off in frustration. You can't rationalize your behavior away.
This might even be an incentive for them to "buy" those "Nike sneakers," so they could get back to where they were more quickly!
Don't do me any favors, and i doubt that Nike needs or wants that kind of help either.
I should also note that just because official helpers aren't available doesn't mean you're on your own.
Newbie Helper is an actual ranked skill and people who are interested in raising their skills will actively seek out (pester?) people who look new (t-shirt and khakis is the starting clothing) or who ask questions. They will bend over backwards to help you out, show you the sights, lend you buggies, boards, hoverpacks, bikes, even give you old clothes or toys that they don't use.
Even the people who don't care about the skills are usually very happy to help others out - it's a very friendly community in general.
IMO they habdled griefers like you the best way i've seen in any game. Everyone has a "force field" they can turn on or off. If you feel like playing a little people soccer with buggies or boards or whatever, you turn your ff off. If you feel like doing something without bored 12-year-olds interfering, you turn it on and they pass right through you.
Even better: if someone's chatting annoys or offends you, put them on ignore. You'll know when they're around because they appear as this hilarious stick-figure, but they can't see you and their chat appears as "|||||||||||" to you.
If you are looking at it from a purely chat standpoint, then there's the emoting ability of the avatars and their customizability. While you're talking, they respond to keywords in your text and make gestures or smile, frown, nod, etc. In addition, there's an extensive list of emotes that you can easily and unobtrusively use that involve more dynamic or dramatic expressions and they can be used with various degrees of emphasis.
For instance: 'yay' will get you a fist-pump salute (for male avatars - females have a separate set), ''yay' gets you the two-fists in the air pump, while '''yay' does a backflip ending with the fists in the air. That's just one of hundreds that include normal things like wave, clap, angry, happy, sad, sexy, surprise, and comical ones like blowkiss (actually blows kissy lips to your target), daggers (actually shoots a dagger at your target), bodywave (80's-style dance), nightfever (Travolta eat your heart out), handstand, doh, etc.
In addition, your avatar is amazingly customizable in size and shape (though limited to human, you can get some very weird-looking humans) and in appearance because people are designing and selling literally thousands of different outfits for avatars. You can get lots of different hair styles in a rainbow of colors, earrings, glasses, and a wide variety of eyes. (Mine are all-black like evil Willow from Buffy the Vampire slayer.) And hey - if you don't see something you like you can design your own and pay a fee to submit it for addition to There. You can either just make 1 for yourself or you can sell copies to everyone in the integrated auctions.
That kind of thing may not be important to you in a chat program, but it's a lot of fun to watch and can give you clues to peoples' personalities that normal chat doesn't. Do i want to go chat with the bald woman in the black, low-cut bustier and fishnets, the ponytailed girl in khaki capris and a wtf t-shirt, or the blue-spiky-haired guy with the tattoed bare chest and leopard-print speedos? (All combos that i have seen.) That's probably the coolest part about There for me - you can be you, but without worrying about the normal restrictions of life. My avatar (avie) has short brown hair and all-black eyes. I have short brown hair and blue eyes. My avie wears either green shorts and a blue and red hoody-sweatshirt or some dark blue futuristic body-armor-ish stuff. I wear khakis and button downs or jeans/sweats and t-shirts. He's me, but without the restrictions of society and reality.
The games are not of the bejeweled variety. They're things like dune-buggy racing on user-built courses with ramps, banked turns, and raised platforms. Or trick contests on hoverboards, or scavenger that range across vast islands. There is a 3-d world.
Oh yeah - and those buggies and hoverboards are customizable too. You can submit your own paint schemes and models. My buggy has a taxi cab paint scheme and i've seen hoverboards that look like sharks, butterflies, swarms of bees, and dragons, to name a few.
I often spend hours just exploring the landscapes. The main islands are a tropical paradise with beaches, desert valleys, haunted tiki huts, and lost mayan temples. An Egypt-themed island has to-scale pyramids, a sphinx, and a realistic temple you can explore. Tyr is an island shrouded in perpetual darkness, with a starry, moonlit sky, glowing crystal formations, giant boneyards, and a climbable tower in the middle with a glowing crystal beacon at its top. Saja is a floating city in the clouds. (P.S. GOD lives on a cloud near Saja. She's a blonde woman in khaki capris and a white t-shirt. She never speaks to anyone or goes anywhere.) I also like to visit the North and South poles of There - strange physics glitches.
Sometimes they do restrict hours so they can do server upgrades, just like any online service. But i don't think they are that restricted.
Those were the early beta hours, but i haven't had any problems logging in at any time recently. Those might be just the supported hours, which means live helpers available in-world.
I'm pretty sure it's open round-the-clock even if helpers aren't immediately available.
I don't know how many people There are playing gender games. More than 0 and less than everyone, but it's not something that concerns me. I always assume that the person i'm chatting with is a 30-something fat smelly guy who lives in his mother's basement no matter what his avatar looks like. (Unless they are overtly sexual. Then i assume they're a 13-year-old fat smelly kid.)
That said, the people There are generally pretty mature, but as with just about any community, there are people who like to cause problems. Scammers and griefers are there, but they're definitely not the norm. You can't be killed (skydiving is a popular passtime even though there are no parachutes in There) or have your stuff stolen (someone just hopped on your hoverbike and sped off - hit "retrieve" and it's back). A little common sense and caution should get you through just fine.
The world is pretty cool! It's actually a big sphere, and by big, i mean 6000 km radius in scale. There are only a few islands of land so far, but you could spend weeks just exploring those, and that's not even addressing the vehicles (5 distinct types with lots of customizations), paintguns, pets, custom building, and other activities.
There are skills and they do have some effects in-world, but you will almost never be prevented from doing something because of your skill level and they don't affect competitive events at all. The skill levels are really just a sort of measure of how much time you've spent doing a certain activity. It's not "get skill then do fun stuff," it's "do fun stuff and as a byproduct, get skill level plus skill reward gifts." If you get off on having a title like "Legendary Fashionista" you can work at it, but if you don't care about that you won't notice it's missing. (Skills: Author, Hoverbike Rider, Hoverboard Rider, Hoverboat Captain, Buggy Driver, Club Leader, Dog Lover, Event Host, Fashionista, Merchant, Newbie Helper, Pack Flyer, Sharpshooter, Socializer, Teacher)
The fees are imo reasonable. I believe there are a few one-time setup fees for access and options ($30-$50 or so depending on what you want) and then a minimum monthly purchase of T$. T$ are what you use to buy stuff in There like hoverboards, dune buggies, etc. I think the minimum monthly purchase is $5, with an exchange rate of $1US = 1,770T (or some such), which will get you a good bit of fun.
If you want more you buy them at the same rate or save up for a few months. For comparison, a basic hoverboard will cost you 5,599T. (About $3US.) You can also earn T$ by becoming a designer or hosting events or leading tours, etc.
Pay to play - pure and simple. You just have to decide if the price is right. Whether you think of it as an mmorpg, a virutal world, or a fancy chat program, it's up to you.
If you do end up joining, tell them Jester sent you and look me up some time.
There has problems, but it's interesting. It is not the Metaverse, it's a commercial product. It's pay for play, but it's probably about 1/2 game (treasure hunts, buggy racing, hoverboard tricks, trivia contests, etc.), 1/2 3-d chat service (with amazing emotes and an incredible amount of avatar customization).
I have fun in There. I thought it was worthwhile to invest a few $ to play around with the cool hoverboards and other stuff and to log on occasionally to chat, explore, and play with no pressure. It's no Evercrack, but that's part of what i like about it. A good way to think of it is that you are creating your own fun with the tools they provide and those tools are good and getting (mostly) better.
Feel free to ask if you have any more specific questions. I'll try to answer honestly with the good and the bad.
Even a boutique design easily has the potential to attract thousands of regular players. They want millions of people to try it and hundreds of thousands to stick with it. Mass appeal would be tens of millions trying and millions playing regularly.
In a certain sense, i'm sure you're right that these games are made for the lowest comon denominator. It's just that it's the LCD for their target audience, and right now that target audience is relatively narrow. When they really do go for mass market appeal, you'll see the games get a whole lot dumber than they are now. The lowest common denominator there is a lot lower.
Planetside has lots of problems still, but it does seem to be getting better. Training is still busted, but it's pretty easy to figure out what's what without it.
I like it because there seems to be less of the levelling treadmill and because i can play for 30 minutes or 8 hours and have fun either way.
Of course, i never would have tried it at all if i hadn't gotten the game for free, so take that for what it's worth. I do still have to pay the sub fee though. When i find myself playing it for less than 6 or so hours every week i'll drop the sub.
No. "Massively Multiplayer Online Game" refers to its capabilities (or at least its aspirations) not its target audience. It essentially means that there is no set limit for how many people can play the "same" game at the same time. (blah blah there actually are limits blah blah)
"For the masses" means that average Joes and Janes should find the product appealing. The masses want to see the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars movies. The masses do not want to spend several hours each week pretending to be in them.
The Sims Online is the only one that has even halfheartedly attempted to appeal to the masses, and they failed bad.
(Notice what you get when you remove the 'm' from masses and you'll get an idea about what the people who make mass-market stuff think of their target audience - just another ass in a chair.)
They got me exactly one lead. It was with a company whose requirements did not match my experience - a bad pairing. (I got a second interview anyway.)
I never even heard back from them after that - nothing. This was two years ago and i have since found a new job on my own. For all i know, they may still have my resume in their list of candidates.
They were definitely used-car salesmen. They were only interested in hot properties they could unload fast for a quick buck. I don't think they really had the best interests of the prospective employer or employee at heart.
This is not the way to handle the issue. Give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he weighed the legal arguments and took the public interest into account before making his decision.
I think he made the wrong decision, but harrassing this judge is bullying and intimidation of a government official and it's wrong. This guy is a public servant doing the job he was appointed to do.
If you need to call someone, call your Senators and Congressmen and ask them to make sure this issue doesn't just disappear. That is the mature way to handle this and might actually get some positive results.
This fight should stay in the courts and congress where it belongs.
P.S. My anger notwithstanding, there is US Sup. Ct. precedence for upholding the list! The Supremes decided this regarding regular mail, and I fail to see why telephone calls ought to be any different...
I think you have your IANAL head up your ANUS here, but if you can prove me wrong and point me to where i can sign up for the "National Do Not Mail" list, i would gladly admit my mistake and thank you for the info.
You're right. Some of their similarities are common, but lots of the specific ones that are or are not common to the mythology are mirrored by WW and Underworld.
To respond directly to your examples:
1) Shows where both the games and the film conform to standard mythology in the same way, just like some of the other points show how they diverge from standard mythology in the same ways. Remember: it doesn't have to be unique to the WoD for them to claim it's copied - it's the combination that matters. Lots of paintings of star-filled night skies have been painted, but it is possible to copy "Starry Night."
2) I could use the same point as #1, but instead i'll point out that in the complaint the "strength of 10 men" bit is in quotes, so it indicates an exact phrase match between text in the books and dialogue or text in the movie or its promotional materials. Not an uncommon phrase, so it's a weak point, but it still builds on the larger argument.
If you think the lawsuit is laughable, then feel free to laugh or even to write an amicus brief to the court. That doesn't change the fact that they have a possible case - IANALs like us are wrong all the time. Would you deny them the chance to stand up in court and plead their case? If they fail they'll pay the price in bad PR and court costs/countersuits.
The real clincher will be if they can show that the writers had familiarity with the WoD material. If that happens then Sony is screwed. If they can't do that WW's odds are only slightly better than 50-50.
I'd also really like to know how long WW has known about Underworld and if they made any previous attempts to contact Sony about it. That info might not count as much in court, but for public opinion it could be significant.
Does your familiarity with the WoD extend to the the pen and paper rpg version? Does it encompass both Vampire and Werewolf? I've never played the video game or read the novels, but i don't see how anyone who has read the game books could miss the similarities!
(For the record, i think WW is overexaggerating the Vamps vs. Weres conflict in their material, but it's not an uncommon theme in the books. I don't believe that WW is definitely right, but i do believe there's enough evidence for a trial and a good chance of winning. Also for the record, i do not really like WW's games. I think it's a crappy mechanic and that the storylines tend to be too scripted and soap-opera-esque, but i'll give 'em their due for coming up with original and compelling alternatives to the standard D&D or space-opera games that were prevalent in the 80's/early 90's. If you could do justice to Mage with d20 i'd be in heaven.)
It's you. You can't go around saying things like "WotC = Corporate Whore" and expect to roll well. You can either rub your dice on Gary Gygax's belly while he digests a pizza you bought for him or pony up the cash and get the new books to make amends to the Gaming Gods.;)
See, here's the mistake you're making - you're applying patent standards to a copyright case. (Our inclusion of the one-click shopping references was only to point out a general trend, not to draw a parrallel.)
In copyright, it doesn't matter that the general ideas have been around for a long time, it's the specific way they are used. The way that WW depicts Vampires and Werewolves is unique to them - it's not cut whole from public domain mythology.
They are not saying that noone else can make Vampire vs. Werewolf "art", or even that they were the first ones to do so. Look at the sources they list in their books - Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, French legends of Loup-Garou, and Native American legends of skin-dancers are in there. They admit that these things were inspirations for their creation, but they did not copy them point for point - they added their own sociology and mythology as well as twisting the traditional powers of these beasts into new forms.
WW is saying that Underworld is doing Vamps vs. Weres in the same way that they did it and that the similarities are too numerous to be coincidence. If you can enumerate 60-odd points of similarity between Ghostbusters' Vampires vs. Werewolves and WW's then you may have a point.
I agree that they probably won't win - Sony will settle. WW's pre-eminence in the field of Vampire/Werewolf entertainment has nothing to do with their chance of victory. Disney gets its way when it can buy politicians to write laws for them. WW doesn't have to do that and the Judicial system is much more resistant to that sort of corruption anyway.
I think WW is committed to their stuff, but even if their real goal is publicity, they have enough evidence to make the case worthwhile. The dog may be barking to scare you off, but that doesn't mean his teeth aren't sharp.
I started a secondary account for America's Army. It uses the name "a UN Peacekeeper". So now in the game you get the joy of seeing:
PimpDaddyMac was shot by a UN Peacekeeper. SupaKilla was blown up by a UN Peacekeeper's grenade. LaughablyMachoName was sniped by a UN Peacekeeper.
and all too frequently:
A UN Peacekeeper was shot by ~achildwithoutparentalsupervision~.
Other amusing names: osamas mama mujahedin DickCheney a lil girl (unfortunately the player was an asshole)
Good game, but i don't think it's a very effective recruitment tool. I do commend them for their attempts to discourage tk griefers and racist and homophobic chat spammers of all sorts.
Wow. Sounds like you have more than a few grudges against WW and you're allowing them to cloud your judgement on this issue.
I'll address them in no particular order:
WW didn't "steal" the mythos of Ars Magica. They had permission to adapt it into a modern game set in the WoD. Ars Magica, while it may have been great for many reasons was never a popular, money-making game. That's why it was abandoned by WW. To their credit, they did allow others to continue supporting it even though it could be considered a competitor to their Mage line. That alone should clue you in to their assessment of its economic viability.
Tolkien was an early contributor to the fantasy genre, but he was not the first, nor (imo) even the best. D&D readily acknowledges its inspirations. This includes Tolkien and a great many other fantasy authors. D&D has been smacked down by the Tolkien estate on at least one occasion where they got a little too close to the source material, just like WW is doing to Sony.
Anne Rice could very likely have won a similar lawsuit against WW when Vampire came out. She didn't try and so WW now has legitimate claim to their stuff and is entitled to defend it. They have not been frivolously attacking other vampire/werewolf movies. This one is special.
Read the similarities that are listed. They are numerous and not common to vampire/werewolf mythology. There is significant confusion among consumers. Almost everyone i know who is familiar with the WoD, hears about this movie and thinks it's either produced or endorsed by WW.
I thin there are generally too many lawsuits of this kind (one-click, Fair and Balanced, etc.) but that does not mean that all of them are frivolous. This one seems to have some merit.
I'm not sure about the outcome of this either. Let's think of this in extreme situations.
Scenario 1: WW wins and gains all rights to the movie + damages. Probable outcome: they release the film with some changes to make it more WoD compliant. They try to make nice with the actors and get them onboard for promotion, etc. and now have the start of a WoD movie franchise. If the movie does well then they try to make more movies, possibly sequels or just other WoD stories. Chances are good that they'll make a deal with some established company to do this, with the best bet being Sony itself.
Scenario 2: WW loses, the movie goes ahead as planned. The only press they get is negative, plus they probably have to pay court costs and maybe countersuit damages. They even risk losing the rights to their own trademarked properties. Ouch.
The middle ground involves WW settling for a share of the profits and/or a mandatory ad for the Vampire/Werewolf games at the beginning of the film. If the movie does well then chances are good that Sony & WW will be teaming up for more WoD-themed projects.
IMO WW has more to gain than to lose here and they have a better than 50-50 shot of winning. Most likely result: settlement.
I'm not flaming you for your punctuational ideosyncrasies.
I'm flaming you for being a pedantic twit who criticizes the style of the argument rather than the substance.
If you want to be an editor, send the author a private email indicating her mistakes. Otherwise, stfu unless you have something the rest of us might be interested in hearing. Your response adds nothing to the overall topic. It is purely a personal ego-booster wherein you get to act holier-than-her and show off how big your spelling/grammar-dick is.
It's fine if you think her style interferes with her substance, but at least address the substance.
I think the biggest "looser" ever award should go to a "looser" AC who insulted someone in a particularly insipid and uninteresting way without even making a point AND spelled their insult wrong. Now THAT dumbass would be a real LOSER.
Slashdot Mirror
If it ever came up, I'd probably argue that the sterility created by There, as well as the lack of true goals, encourages such behavior in people like me raised on competitive/violent video games.
Bullshit. The peaceful nature of There encourages cooperation, making friends, and exploration. The fact that you were raised on violent/competitive video games doesn't make you more prone to griefing any more than it makes people shoot up their schools.
Nothing in the marketing or promotion of There suggests that it has anything in common with the violent or competitve games, so you should have known that there were completely different standards of behavior at work there. At the very worst, once you got into the world and saw it was not your thing you should've logged out and uninstalled it.
You thought you could get away with a little fun at someone else's expense so you did it. You had a certain amount of power and you abused it. You didn't think about the fact that a real person was in control of that other avatar and/or you didn't care if you caused them frustration and annoyance.
I would never think of griefing in a game where it could actually cause damage, but in There a) you couldn't run over people who were in a conversation group, and b) doing so had absolutely no negative effect other than causing the people the momentary annoyance of being knocked over and having to walk back to where they were previously.
In what game does griefing actually cause damage? Griefing is by definition an annoyance. TKs send you to the respawn, pks make someone spend a few hours getting their stuff/xp back. Noone suffers "actual" damage.
That "momentary annoyance" is all you see if you run over someone once and then go away. You don't see the 20 times other griefers did it to the same avatar, or the other griefer who keeps doing it over and over again until the grief-ee logs off in frustration. You can't rationalize your behavior away.
This might even be an incentive for them to "buy" those "Nike sneakers," so they could get back to where they were more quickly!
Don't do me any favors, and i doubt that Nike needs or wants that kind of help either.
I should also note that just because official helpers aren't available doesn't mean you're on your own.
Newbie Helper is an actual ranked skill and people who are interested in raising their skills will actively seek out (pester?) people who look new (t-shirt and khakis is the starting clothing) or who ask questions. They will bend over backwards to help you out, show you the sights, lend you buggies, boards, hoverpacks, bikes, even give you old clothes or toys that they don't use.
Even the people who don't care about the skills are usually very happy to help others out - it's a very friendly community in general.
IMO they habdled griefers like you the best way i've seen in any game. Everyone has a "force field" they can turn on or off. If you feel like playing a little people soccer with buggies or boards or whatever, you turn your ff off. If you feel like doing something without bored 12-year-olds interfering, you turn it on and they pass right through you.
Even better: if someone's chatting annoys or offends you, put them on ignore. You'll know when they're around because they appear as this hilarious stick-figure, but they can't see you and their chat appears as "|||||||||||" to you.
If you are looking at it from a purely chat standpoint, then there's the emoting ability of the avatars and their customizability. While you're talking, they respond to keywords in your text and make gestures or smile, frown, nod, etc. In addition, there's an extensive list of emotes that you can easily and unobtrusively use that involve more dynamic or dramatic expressions and they can be used with various degrees of emphasis.
For instance: 'yay' will get you a fist-pump salute (for male avatars - females have a separate set), ''yay' gets you the two-fists in the air pump, while '''yay' does a backflip ending with the fists in the air. That's just one of hundreds that include normal things like wave, clap, angry, happy, sad, sexy, surprise, and comical ones like blowkiss (actually blows kissy lips to your target), daggers (actually shoots a dagger at your target), bodywave (80's-style dance), nightfever (Travolta eat your heart out), handstand, doh, etc.
In addition, your avatar is amazingly customizable in size and shape (though limited to human, you can get some very weird-looking humans) and in appearance because people are designing and selling literally thousands of different outfits for avatars. You can get lots of different hair styles in a rainbow of colors, earrings, glasses, and a wide variety of eyes. (Mine are all-black like evil Willow from Buffy the Vampire slayer.) And hey - if you don't see something you like you can design your own and pay a fee to submit it for addition to There. You can either just make 1 for yourself or you can sell copies to everyone in the integrated auctions.
That kind of thing may not be important to you in a chat program, but it's a lot of fun to watch and can give you clues to peoples' personalities that normal chat doesn't. Do i want to go chat with the bald woman in the black, low-cut bustier and fishnets, the ponytailed girl in khaki capris and a wtf t-shirt, or the blue-spiky-haired guy with the tattoed bare chest and leopard-print speedos? (All combos that i have seen.) That's probably the coolest part about There for me - you can be you, but without worrying about the normal restrictions of life. My avatar (avie) has short brown hair and all-black eyes. I have short brown hair and blue eyes. My avie wears either green shorts and a blue and red hoody-sweatshirt or some dark blue futuristic body-armor-ish stuff. I wear khakis and button downs or jeans/sweats and t-shirts. He's me, but without the restrictions of society and reality.
The games are not of the bejeweled variety. They're things like dune-buggy racing on user-built courses with ramps, banked turns, and raised platforms. Or trick contests on hoverboards, or scavenger that range across vast islands. There is a 3-d world.
Oh yeah - and those buggies and hoverboards are customizable too. You can submit your own paint schemes and models. My buggy has a taxi cab paint scheme and i've seen hoverboards that look like sharks, butterflies, swarms of bees, and dragons, to name a few.
I often spend hours just exploring the landscapes. The main islands are a tropical paradise with beaches, desert valleys, haunted tiki huts, and lost mayan temples. An Egypt-themed island has to-scale pyramids, a sphinx, and a realistic temple you can explore. Tyr is an island shrouded in perpetual darkness, with a starry, moonlit sky, glowing crystal formations, giant boneyards, and a climbable tower in the middle with a glowing crystal beacon at its top. Saja is a floating city in the clouds. (P.S. GOD lives on a cloud near Saja. She's a blonde woman in khaki capris and a white t-shirt. She never speaks to anyone or goes anywhere.) I also like to visit the North and South poles of There - strange physics glitches.
Try this for more info.
Sometimes they do restrict hours so they can do server upgrades, just like any online service. But i don't think they are that restricted.
Those were the early beta hours, but i haven't had any problems logging in at any time recently. Those might be just the supported hours, which means live helpers available in-world.
I'm pretty sure it's open round-the-clock even if helpers aren't immediately available.
I don't know how many people There are playing gender games. More than 0 and less than everyone, but it's not something that concerns me. I always assume that the person i'm chatting with is a 30-something fat smelly guy who lives in his mother's basement no matter what his avatar looks like. (Unless they are overtly sexual. Then i assume they're a 13-year-old fat smelly kid.)
That said, the people There are generally pretty mature, but as with just about any community, there are people who like to cause problems. Scammers and griefers are there, but they're definitely not the norm. You can't be killed (skydiving is a popular passtime even though there are no parachutes in There) or have your stuff stolen (someone just hopped on your hoverbike and sped off - hit "retrieve" and it's back). A little common sense and caution should get you through just fine.
The world is pretty cool! It's actually a big sphere, and by big, i mean 6000 km radius in scale. There are only a few islands of land so far, but you could spend weeks just exploring those, and that's not even addressing the vehicles (5 distinct types with lots of customizations), paintguns, pets, custom building, and other activities.
There are skills and they do have some effects in-world, but you will almost never be prevented from doing something because of your skill level and they don't affect competitive events at all. The skill levels are really just a sort of measure of how much time you've spent doing a certain activity. It's not "get skill then do fun stuff," it's "do fun stuff and as a byproduct, get skill level plus skill reward gifts." If you get off on having a title like "Legendary Fashionista" you can work at it, but if you don't care about that you won't notice it's missing. (Skills: Author, Hoverbike Rider, Hoverboard Rider, Hoverboat Captain, Buggy Driver, Club Leader, Dog Lover, Event Host, Fashionista, Merchant, Newbie Helper, Pack Flyer, Sharpshooter, Socializer, Teacher)
The fees are imo reasonable. I believe there are a few one-time setup fees for access and options ($30-$50 or so depending on what you want) and then a minimum monthly purchase of T$. T$ are what you use to buy stuff in There like hoverboards, dune buggies, etc. I think the minimum monthly purchase is $5, with an exchange rate of $1US = 1,770T (or some such), which will get you a good bit of fun.
If you want more you buy them at the same rate or save up for a few months. For comparison, a basic hoverboard will cost you 5,599T. (About $3US.) You can also earn T$ by becoming a designer or hosting events or leading tours, etc.
Pay to play - pure and simple. You just have to decide if the price is right. Whether you think of it as an mmorpg, a virutal world, or a fancy chat program, it's up to you.
If you do end up joining, tell them Jester sent you and look me up some time.
There has problems, but it's interesting. It is not the Metaverse, it's a commercial product. It's pay for play, but it's probably about 1/2 game (treasure hunts, buggy racing, hoverboard tricks, trivia contests, etc.), 1/2 3-d chat service (with amazing emotes and an incredible amount of avatar customization).
I have fun in There. I thought it was worthwhile to invest a few $ to play around with the cool hoverboards and other stuff and to log on occasionally to chat, explore, and play with no pressure. It's no Evercrack, but that's part of what i like about it. A good way to think of it is that you are creating your own fun with the tools they provide and those tools are good and getting (mostly) better.
Feel free to ask if you have any more specific questions. I'll try to answer honestly with the good and the bad.
Free speech rules. Come get me Gator.
Even a boutique design easily has the potential to attract thousands of regular players. They want millions of people to try it and hundreds of thousands to stick with it. Mass appeal would be tens of millions trying and millions playing regularly.
In a certain sense, i'm sure you're right that these games are made for the lowest comon denominator. It's just that it's the LCD for their target audience, and right now that target audience is relatively narrow. When they really do go for mass market appeal, you'll see the games get a whole lot dumber than they are now. The lowest common denominator there is a lot lower.
Planetside has lots of problems still, but it does seem to be getting better. Training is still busted, but it's pretty easy to figure out what's what without it.
I like it because there seems to be less of the levelling treadmill and because i can play for 30 minutes or 8 hours and have fun either way.
Of course, i never would have tried it at all if i hadn't gotten the game for free, so take that for what it's worth. I do still have to pay the sub fee though. When i find myself playing it for less than 6 or so hours every week i'll drop the sub.
No. "Massively Multiplayer Online Game" refers to its capabilities (or at least its aspirations) not its target audience. It essentially means that there is no set limit for how many people can play the "same" game at the same time. (blah blah there actually are limits blah blah)
"For the masses" means that average Joes and Janes should find the product appealing. The masses want to see the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars movies. The masses do not want to spend several hours each week pretending to be in them.
The Sims Online is the only one that has even halfheartedly attempted to appeal to the masses, and they failed bad.
(Notice what you get when you remove the 'm' from masses and you'll get an idea about what the people who make mass-market stuff think of their target audience - just another ass in a chair.)
They got me exactly one lead. It was with a company whose requirements did not match my experience - a bad pairing. (I got a second interview anyway.)
I never even heard back from them after that - nothing. This was two years ago and i have since found a new job on my own. For all i know, they may still have my resume in their list of candidates.
They were definitely used-car salesmen. They were only interested in hot properties they could unload fast for a quick buck. I don't think they really had the best interests of the prospective employer or employee at heart.
This is not the way to handle the issue. Give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he weighed the legal arguments and took the public interest into account before making his decision.
I think he made the wrong decision, but harrassing this judge is bullying and intimidation of a government official and it's wrong. This guy is a public servant doing the job he was appointed to do.
If you need to call someone, call your Senators and Congressmen and ask them to make sure this issue doesn't just disappear. That is the mature way to handle this and might actually get some positive results.
This fight should stay in the courts and congress where it belongs.
P.S.
My anger notwithstanding, there is US Sup. Ct. precedence for upholding the list! The Supremes decided this regarding regular mail, and I fail to see why telephone calls ought to be any different...
I think you have your IANAL head up your ANUS here, but if you can prove me wrong and point me to where i can sign up for the "National Do Not Mail" list, i would gladly admit my mistake and thank you for the info.
Note that the Copyright Act ONLY allows for copies to be made of "sound recordings of musical works".
So then it really doesn't apply at all to most of what the RIAA sells - crap.
Hence the caveat, "Not an uncommon phrase." If had something that stupid to say i'd say as AC too.
You're right. Some of their similarities are common, but lots of the specific ones that are or are not common to the mythology are mirrored by WW and Underworld.
To respond directly to your examples:
1) Shows where both the games and the film conform to standard mythology in the same way, just like some of the other points show how they diverge from standard mythology in the same ways.
Remember: it doesn't have to be unique to the WoD for them to claim it's copied - it's the combination that matters. Lots of paintings of star-filled night skies have been painted, but it is possible to copy "Starry Night."
2) I could use the same point as #1, but instead i'll point out that in the complaint the "strength of 10 men" bit is in quotes, so it indicates an exact phrase match between text in the books and dialogue or text in the movie or its promotional materials. Not an uncommon phrase, so it's a weak point, but it still builds on the larger argument.
If you think the lawsuit is laughable, then feel free to laugh or even to write an amicus brief to the court. That doesn't change the fact that they have a possible case - IANALs like us are wrong all the time. Would you deny them the chance to stand up in court and plead their case? If they fail they'll pay the price in bad PR and court costs/countersuits.
The real clincher will be if they can show that the writers had familiarity with the WoD material. If that happens then Sony is screwed. If they can't do that WW's odds are only slightly better than 50-50.
I'd also really like to know how long WW has known about Underworld and if they made any previous attempts to contact Sony about it. That info might not count as much in court, but for public opinion it could be significant.
Does your familiarity with the WoD extend to the the pen and paper rpg version? Does it encompass both Vampire and Werewolf? I've never played the video game or read the novels, but i don't see how anyone who has read the game books could miss the similarities!
(For the record, i think WW is overexaggerating the Vamps vs. Weres conflict in their material, but it's not an uncommon theme in the books. I don't believe that WW is definitely right, but i do believe there's enough evidence for a trial and a good chance of winning. Also for the record, i do not really like WW's games. I think it's a crappy mechanic and that the storylines tend to be too scripted and soap-opera-esque, but i'll give 'em their due for coming up with original and compelling alternatives to the standard D&D or space-opera games that were prevalent in the 80's/early 90's. If you could do justice to Mage with d20 i'd be in heaven.)
Levels are artificial
Games are artificial. So what?
It's you. You can't go around saying things like "WotC = Corporate Whore" and expect to roll well. You can either rub your dice on Gary Gygax's belly while he digests a pizza you bought for him or pony up the cash and get the new books to make amends to the Gaming Gods. ;)
You can hack and slash your way through Vampire or have a politically and socially-charged game of Hackmaster - it's all up to you and your GM.
See, here's the mistake you're making - you're applying patent standards to a copyright case. (Our inclusion of the one-click shopping references was only to point out a general trend, not to draw a parrallel.)
In copyright, it doesn't matter that the general ideas have been around for a long time, it's the specific way they are used. The way that WW depicts Vampires and Werewolves is unique to them - it's not cut whole from public domain mythology.
They are not saying that noone else can make Vampire vs. Werewolf "art", or even that they were the first ones to do so. Look at the sources they list in their books - Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, French legends of Loup-Garou, and Native American legends of skin-dancers are in there. They admit that these things were inspirations for their creation, but they did not copy them point for point - they added their own sociology and mythology as well as twisting the traditional powers of these beasts into new forms.
WW is saying that Underworld is doing Vamps vs. Weres in the same way that they did it and that the similarities are too numerous to be coincidence. If you can enumerate 60-odd points of similarity between Ghostbusters' Vampires vs. Werewolves and WW's then you may have a point.
I agree that they probably won't win - Sony will settle. WW's pre-eminence in the field of Vampire/Werewolf entertainment has nothing to do with their chance of victory. Disney gets its way when it can buy politicians to write laws for them. WW doesn't have to do that and the Judicial system is much more resistant to that sort of corruption anyway.
I think WW is committed to their stuff, but even if their real goal is publicity, they have enough evidence to make the case worthwhile. The dog may be barking to scare you off, but that doesn't mean his teeth aren't sharp.
I started a secondary account for America's Army. It uses the name "a UN Peacekeeper". So now in the game you get the joy of seeing:
PimpDaddyMac was shot by a UN Peacekeeper.
SupaKilla was blown up by a UN Peacekeeper's grenade.
LaughablyMachoName was sniped by a UN Peacekeeper.
and all too frequently:
A UN Peacekeeper was shot by ~achildwithoutparentalsupervision~.
Other amusing names:
osamas mama
mujahedin
DickCheney
a lil girl (unfortunately the player was an asshole)
Good game, but i don't think it's a very effective recruitment tool. I do commend them for their attempts to discourage tk griefers and racist and homophobic chat spammers of all sorts.
Preface: WW = White Wolf, WoD = World of Darkness
Wow. Sounds like you have more than a few grudges against WW and you're allowing them to cloud your judgement on this issue.
I'll address them in no particular order:
WW didn't "steal" the mythos of Ars Magica. They had permission to adapt it into a modern game set in the WoD. Ars Magica, while it may have been great for many reasons was never a popular, money-making game. That's why it was abandoned by WW. To their credit, they did allow others to continue supporting it even though it could be considered a competitor to their Mage line. That alone should clue you in to their assessment of its economic viability.
Tolkien was an early contributor to the fantasy genre, but he was not the first, nor (imo) even the best. D&D readily acknowledges its inspirations. This includes Tolkien and a great many other fantasy authors. D&D has been smacked down by the Tolkien estate on at least one occasion where they got a little too close to the source material, just like WW is doing to Sony.
Anne Rice could very likely have won a similar lawsuit against WW when Vampire came out. She didn't try and so WW now has legitimate claim to their stuff and is entitled to defend it. They have not been frivolously attacking other vampire/werewolf movies. This one is special.
Read the similarities that are listed. They are numerous and not common to vampire/werewolf mythology. There is significant confusion among consumers. Almost everyone i know who is familiar with the WoD, hears about this movie and thinks it's either produced or endorsed by WW.
I thin there are generally too many lawsuits of this kind (one-click, Fair and Balanced, etc.) but that does not mean that all of them are frivolous. This one seems to have some merit.
I'm not sure about the outcome of this either. Let's think of this in extreme situations.
Scenario 1: WW wins and gains all rights to the movie + damages. Probable outcome: they release the film with some changes to make it more WoD compliant. They try to make nice with the actors and get them onboard for promotion, etc. and now have the start of a WoD movie franchise. If the movie does well then they try to make more movies, possibly sequels or just other WoD stories. Chances are good that they'll make a deal with some established company to do this, with the best bet being Sony itself.
Scenario 2: WW loses, the movie goes ahead as planned. The only press they get is negative, plus they probably have to pay court costs and maybe countersuit damages. They even risk losing the rights to their own trademarked properties. Ouch.
The middle ground involves WW settling for a share of the profits and/or a mandatory ad for the Vampire/Werewolf games at the beginning of the film. If the movie does well then chances are good that Sony & WW will be teaming up for more WoD-themed projects.
IMO WW has more to gain than to lose here and they have a better than 50-50 shot of winning. Most likely result: settlement.
I'm not flaming you for your punctuational ideosyncrasies.
I'm flaming you for being a pedantic twit who criticizes the style of the argument rather than the substance.
If you want to be an editor, send the author a private email indicating her mistakes. Otherwise, stfu unless you have something the rest of us might be interested in hearing. Your response adds nothing to the overall topic. It is purely a personal ego-booster wherein you get to act holier-than-her and show off how big your spelling/grammar-dick is.
It's fine if you think her style interferes with her substance, but at least address the substance.
I think the biggest "looser" ever award should go to a "looser" AC who insulted someone in a particularly insipid and uninteresting way without even making a point AND spelled their insult wrong. Now THAT dumbass would be a real LOSER.