Right! Just one more blogpost while I’m eating my dinner and then I’ll definately get the required 5 pages done before I retire for the day!!!
Julian Dibbell has recently published an article about the IRS and economic gains of virtual trading! The guy (he’s such a cool nerd) actually went to his local tax office to figure all this out! And I have to say…taxes has never been more interesting to me! There are some really wild precedents! One was involved with a gambler who had been given a $500,000 relief from his debt to a casino…now…should he have to pay taxes on that money? For he has actually been given a gift of $500,000! I find these things interesting!!

So my thoughts are basically that you shouldn’t have to pay taxes for sales or profits under a certain amount…I don’t know…$100,000? But I’m also wondering…if you have to pay taxes on your ‘real’ world profits…won’t that make you more traceable to the game producers and eventually get you banned (if the EULA bans trading of course)?! So…it’s not exactly that attractive to sell virtual money and items for ‘real’ money, does that mean that the novelty will wear off? Hmmm…just thinking out loud!!

Now…time to get back to business!!!

PS…picture stolen from Kotaku

BBC’s Newsnight has devoted an entire week to geekism (what a lovely and novel idea….why do I live in such a bad tv country?!!!!) and Paul Mason has a report on the realism of virtual worlds (my words…but best way I could sum it all up). It’s a good report, really…I think it has to be one of the best summaries of what’s going on with MMORPGs these days, that I’ve seen! Ofcourse there’s a lot of yooha that we’ve heard several times before like ‘real’ businesses, ‘real’ money and powerleveling!
So…making this a sort of summary post for myself as well…I might as well mention that Terra Nova’s blogger, Dan Hunter has an interesting post about his experience of playing a character that has been powerleveled. Something about the unrealism that and detachment he felt, it’s interesting!
Also…I might as well mention that the beginning of the new year brought the death of Asheron’s Call 2. Wonderland links us to a sad documentation of the last hours and Wired’s Clive Thompson also has an interesting article about the impact of such a world closing down! These are all great documentations of how MMORPGs are definately not just games. But we’re way passed that now, aren’t we?

So…in the spirit of a new year I’ve now tried to set up a ‘workplace’ here at the university with high hopes of being much more productive! I want to write at least 5 pages a day!
But here I am on my first ‘productive’ day in 2006, 6 hours later than I intended to be here, and well…I’ve found that the mind wonders sitting alone at a desk here as well!!
I’ve been reading James Grimmelmann’s “Virtual Power Politics”, and getting so many great ideas for my own project. I like Grimmelmann’s thoughts and it’s lovely to be entertained with amusing ‘over the top’ sentences like:

“Exploits have the feeling of alchemy: arcane secrets that produce virtual gold out of thin air”

Yet again, however I find my curiousity being lured to the information beyond my fingertips and had to look up who James Grimmelmann is! Which has then led me to this little number! It’s a parody of the opening sequence of Zero Wing, which is of course very famous for it’s “All your base are belong to us”. I thought it was amusing…and thought maybe other people might like a little light entertainment! I can’t decide whether I’m greatful for studying such a subject that leads me on to a good laugh every now and then or if it’s a royal pain in the —, because I put off all the serious work!!!

Every once in a while I stop by Game Politics (used to be daily but I’ve been more reluctant ever since American politicians went crazy with legislations) and it is always a pure joy and educational!
Today they introduced me to David Edery, who runs the excellent blog Game Tycoon! Turns out, this is a man after my own heart (is that the expression?)!
He’s made an excellent list of the unresolved legal issues in MMOs. Unbelievably, my untrained legal mind is writing about 8 of 9! Which reminds me what a complete and utter moron I am for choosing this topic with only a Bachelor in Media Studies!
Also, he has an article published in Gamasutra; “Enhancing the Effectiveness of In-Game Advertising”, which is remarkable! I really couldn’t agree with the man more! He mentions that advertising works better if the recipient is in a good mood, therefore placing ads on billboards in a scary game, doesn’t really have much point! But what of placing actual advertising objects in the ‘feel good’ parts? Or MTV doing a DDR vj’ing thing? I’m not going to republish all his brilliant ideas here…just thought I’d mention a few! Either way it’s refreshing to read someone writing about advertising in games without predicting the end of days or just thinking of all the money that can be made! There’s a lot of great creative potential here and ofcourse we need to make sure it doesn’t get overly excessive….oh I’m just repeating myself and boring you now!
Either way…it was a pure joy to find David Edery, and I’m adding Game Tycoon to my blogslist!

Grand Text Auto has a post calling for papers for Henry Lowood and Michael Nitsche’s book, The Machinima Reader.
So far, I’ve only enjoyed machinima and have no desire to pursue anything academically, but it would be lovely if someone from Infomedia (or anyone at our university) was looking into it! Know of anyone?

Anyways! The CfP states:

• “In our organization of The Machinima Reader, we will recognize that the creators of Machinima have been at times just as concerned with demonstrating mastery of technology and gameplay as in artistic expression or narrative performance”

My thoughts go back to The Movies. Can a producer of a movie through The Movies be as respected as other Machinima producers? I mean, it looks like a game that even I can produce something in! There’s no mastery of technology involved but maybe a mastery of gameplay? I’m not too comfortable labeling these films as Machinima…am I the only one? There’s definately artistic expression and narrative performance, just look at The French Democracy! But is it good enough to be Machinima?!

That’s just my rambling thoughts!! I really should play the game before I speak my mind, shouldn’t I?!!!

Excellent! Clickable Culture yet again informs me of an interesting development within the virtual world of Second Life! It seems a player has been bad, but not bad enough to get banned so Linden Lab sent him to an eery corn field as a form of punishment, instead of the usual suspension! I love it! It’s exactly what’s been missing! An imaginative way of dealing with petty criminals! I mean, there’s so many ridiculous suspensions going on in MMORPGs, they might as well have a little fun with them! And what better than a cornfield resembling the ones found in almost every horror film I’ve ever seen. Even better….make it incredibly boring so the player will learn from her mistakes and other players can have a little peace from the ‘criminal’! I love it! Sociolotron has a prison as well (forgot to mention that in my last post). Ridding the ‘good’ players of the ‘criminal’, but also giving some entertainment to amuse the punished! Brilliant!!!! This is exactly the creative force I expect from game designers!

Picture completely stolen from Clickable Culture and taken by Nimrod Yaffle (hope you guys don’t mind)

Thanks to Ren Reynolds at Terra Nova I’ve spent the whole day trying to find out what MMOEG (MMO Erotic Games) and MMOVSG (MMO Virtual Sex Games) are. He has a post about how several of these games are popping up for release in 2006 and I suppose he’s questioning whether they’re needed or not or if the ‘serious’ MMOs should start considering adding more adult content.
I remember reading somewhere, that sex in MMOs most often occurs when players become bored (I still haven’t figured out where I read that, but I’m sure Dibbell has something to do with it, sorry!). And I’ve always kinda agreed with that as I think MMO machinima is created when players ‘linger’ while waiting for new quests a.s.o. So I’m wondering…what are these players gonna do when they need some time-out from gameplay?
Anyways!!!! This all reminded me that I wanted to have a closer look at Sociolotron (I wouldn’t feel comfortable entering the site at work). This place is amazing! If it wasn’t because of the sex thing, I’d love to explore this place! They have disease in their game and get this…you can die and actually go to hell (bringing all your skills and posessions with you, of course)! I love that! And thinking of the popularity of the accidental WoW plague, I’m wondering if this is a part of gameplay that’s missing and wanted in MMOs. Some or one of the diseases (not really sure) can be sexually transmitted (so do they have virtual condoms, I wonder) and get this….women can become PREGNANT!!!! Which can also be prevented in the form of anti baby pill or you can have an abortion! Incredible! This does not entail having to take care of a toddler however (at least that’s not how I understand it), it’s sole purpose is that if you die you can have a heir to all your property so if you or your co-reproducer die, can start playing the…umh…heir.
And they have a remarkable justice system! Ok…I’m very confused about what entails as a crime in this game but a detective gathers evidence and then accuses a suspect, then:

• “The file then goes through the justice chains and is handled by the prosecutor, the judge and the jurors, all of which are player run offices which are occupied by regular players who were elected by the other players.”

I definately need to contact these people and see how all this is working out. I mean do people actually want to be elected? Do they appreciate the position or is it a hastle? And furthermore…they begin by saying that since the game is for players 21 yrs above, they feel they’re ridding themselves of 90% crime!

Extremely interesting! And MMOrgy (which isn’t half as bad as it sounds) informs me that you can reproduce in Second Life, as well!

So that’s it! I’m off to get addicted to Second Life now, let’s face it…it’s inevitable! Also got 14 days of WoW play from my darling sister! I’m never gonna see my friends and family again, am I? LOL!

I found this great little WoW musical machinima film! It’s just positively charming! A little musical number “debating” why the internett is really ‘great’ – of course porn has to be an issue then! No worries, there’s no graphical sex images, the lyrics might not justify high volume at a public place! Anyways, I thought it was amusing, and well…kinda sweet really!