Saturday, September 20, 2008

Smartphones are horrible for parties

@dellamorta pontificates on how smartphones are bad for parties
because they steal attention. I decide to be meta.

The Pieces Fall Into Place

meme(me)

From Deb.



1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Second Life Doesn't Have a Million, Billion, Zillion Players

Linden Labs finally admits that they don't have millions and millions of people playing second life. Well to be fair I don't think they've been actively lying about it before, just... letting a wrong conclusion be implied by others because it benefitted them. In a recent interview with Venture Beat the new CEO admitted that their numbers are more along the lines of 68,000 simultanious users. I actually really like what Second Life does, I think there is a need for a free form virtual expression platform. I don't like how they get undue press from the media. Jealousy? Maybe.

Hopefully this brings the press they get back in line with reality.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Warhammer Initial Thoughts

This is just going to be a stream of consciousness note taking.

  • They have some interface that tries to lead you onto sides and servers that need people. Though the interface is clumsy and feels tacked on.
  • The interface in general feels unpolished. Small actions like clicking on the EULA are unnecessarily clunky.
  • Combat is really slow. Everything seems a bit drawn out.
  • Mobs just kind of stand around by themselves.
  • I have to say, I think I like my MMO graphics stylized.
  • You can dye your clothes. That's nice.
  • There doesn't seem to be any thought at a directed experience. They just throw a bunch of quests at you and you wander around killing mobs one on one.
  • The map has regions that show you what quests you have in each area. I don't know if it's targets or quest turn in NPCs.
  • The public quest has some specialized interface that related to the objectives of the quest. But I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be doing.
  • The quest text for the public quest was actually way to long. I wanted a clear summery about what I needed to be doing, especially since there seemed to be time limit on all of it.
  • Finally found the public quest, it wasn't deep in the catacombs, it was up on the landing. It could really use some better direction.
  • So for my first three hours of the game I ran around without my clothes on (dark elf sorceress) nuking elves. Not horrible, better than Conan, but a little unpolished.