FIN!

4 December 2006

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I’ve been too depressed and embarrassed that I didn’t get to hand in November 15th – that I really haven’t blogged about it. But – now I have freshly printed copies by my side and I’m just waiting for the print shop to open, so I can get them bound and handed in.

In theory, since I missed the November 15th deadline, I could wait until February – but I couldn’t live with this sucker for that long! I’m going on holiday 20th December – and I’m gonna freakin’ enjoy it! There’s lots of work I could done on it, still – but I don’t think work like this is EVER done! I’ve had to skip a lot of discussions that I would have loved to include! And, to be honest – my chapter on Ownership is just skimming the surface of most arguments and cramming them into a small chapter – very little consistent analysis! My advisor has also warned me about my language! I blame the American Academics that write so colorful and adventurous – apperantly that’s not the wisest way to go! Oh well – I’ve done some dullifying – the rest they’ll just have to punish me for! Oh how I hope I pass! Failing you’re Masters Thesis must be the worst bummer ever!!

It’s been one hell of a night! I’ve messed up the whole thing so many times tonight it’s not even funny! Printer trouble and table of contents that just had me in knots and frantic outbreaks! If it wasn’t because my good friend, Ronny – urgh – I don’t even wanna think about it!

So yeah – now – FIND A JOB!! Yay!!! And I’m gonna have to play some!!!

I’m meeting the cHixOrs at 6 pm for dinner – let me know if you wanna join us! ;)

I really wouldn’t mind crashing a few bars tonight – but the sad thing about mondays, I dare not even ask! Also – I’ve been trying not to jinx this! I still haven’t gotten them bound – and who knows what the rules of handing in are?! I’m sure there’s much more stricter rules than what I got “5 copies”. So I think I’m gonna hold off asking people to celebrate with me until I know for a FACT everything is alright! I’m not jinxing things by blogging now, am I?

You know, I was supposed to be in bed by midnight! Just way too many things that went wrong! Ohhhhhhhhhhh ….. I can’t wait to really get into blogging again!!!! I’ve missed those little peaks of interest, investigation and writing!!!

Update: Jepp – it’s handed in! Yay!!!

Ryzom

2 December 2006

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I’m busy editing and administrating my references – so just a quick stop to tell you about Ryzom!!!

The community of MMORPG Ryzom is trying to buy the game to save it!!! Apparently Nevrax, the producers of the game are in trouble (I’m not sure what that’s about) and the company’s in danger of entering non-existence – if this happens The Free Ryzom Campaign will by the source code and distribute it for free!

“Rather than just consuming the game, everyone will be able to contribute to it.” – Xavier Antoviaque, a founder of the campaig and an ex-employee of Nevrax.

It’s such a beautiful gesture – but my skepticism is shadowing the whole thing! I’m not sure this is a good idea! But a great way for gamers to show initiative and save a world! That’s just so admirable!!

Source: BBC

cHixOrs

22 November 2006

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When I should have been studying for my INFO 100 exam (I have no idea how I’m going to pass that thing) I had lunch with these beautiful ladies on wonderfully productive Maren’s initiative. It was a great lunch although somewhat sad for me, because these three brilliant ladies are all at the beginning of their Master’s and are about to venture out on writing about gaming. There certainly is a great deal of sorrow in my heart for seeing the back-end of my venture – I was so extremely jealous of their vigor and excitement! Urgh – how emo of me!!!

The hours passed quickly and I’m sure we only covered half of what we wanted to talk about. Topics:

  • games designed for girls – what’s bad and what’s good about them
  • Wii, DS, Consoles
  • Boyfriends helping out with games – good or bad thing (I was silent – but very interested)
  • Hedvig (on the far right) is getting married next summer so we went into a frantic and excited creative spurr of having a Nintendo themed wedding!
  • The price of stuff – pinkishness – and loads of hardware chit chat
  • I learned a lot about the role-playing community here in Bergen – which was REALLY interesting!

Oh – there was just too much to blog about here – excellent and intelligent women who are interested in gaming – it was just such pure joy!!! Just talking about different gameplay strategies for the new games coming out was music to my ears!

Anyways – we’re gonna try and meet up once in a while – and I’m sure others are welcome as well! So if you’re studying an aspect of gaming – let us know! Discussions are passionate, lively and enlightening! I learned so incredibly much and also felt that I could contribute as well! I think we left it that we should meet up before Christmas! Unless I get to work more the weeks before Christmas (which I’m hoping for) – I’m free whenever after December 1st and before December 20th (YAY – SINGAPORE!!!!). In my humble opinion, I think we should keep teaching staff and men out of the equation – but that’s just my opinion, don’t know what the rest of the gals think.

MMORPGs in the news

17 November 2006

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Virtual Worlds have been in the media a lot lately and there’s been so much hype, I sometimes just wanna shout “OH…GET OVER IT!”.

Clickable Culture has a little rant about a Toronto Star article which I found highly amusing.

“On the other hand, it’s supremely social. Players band together, chatting incessantly. They hook up for virtual drinks at the inn, share a slab of wild boar meat. They dance, they have picnics in the woods, they even share a bed on occasion.” Dude, I don’t know what server you are playing on, but I have never heard of players going to an inn in Warcraft for a pint and a slab of meat. Picnics in the woods!?! Cotroneo is embellishing here. Maybe he plays on a server dedicated to role-playing, where players imagined they were eating and drinking together, or having cybersex in the woods, or whatever the hell he thinks he’s talking about.

Oh how I chuckled!

The Norwegian press has actually been rather thorough in what I’ve read at least. Something to be thankful for! ;)

Age of Conan

11 November 2006

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Nils and I are pretty much at uni now 24/7 trying to finish our stuff – and breaks are filled with dreamy fantasies of what life is like on the other side of this tiresome tunnel! So naturally we’re talking a lot about games. So we’ve been looking into Age of Conan. Man! It looks awesome! I’m still worried that my testosterone levels aren’t high enough for truly enjoying it, but I had a look at the Age of Conan wiki – and my heart started racing with excitement! 60% of that was probably just the enjoyment of the hope of being able to play again – but listen to this:

“We call the engine Real Combat, and it is based on six directions, or ways, of attacking an opponent with a sword. First, you can hack down against the head. Second, you can slash diagonally down from the right, while the third is slashing the same way from the left. Fourth, you can thrust against the torso. Fifth, you can slash diagonally up from the left, and sixth, you can slash diagonally up from the right. The point here is that these directions lend themselves naturally to being strung together in combinations. These combos unlock additional damage and faster combat, if done well.”

– Gaute Godager

What fun!!!! And it looks freakin’ awesome!!!

Additionally we were blessed by Marius Enge’s presence on Thursday. It was supposed to be an hours lecture but ended up being about 2 hours. What an absolutely delightful man. He was just so informative and answered annoyingly stupid questions (from yours truly) clearly and inspirationally. He informed us a bit about how Funcom works internally and I just sat there thinking “I WANNA WORK AT FUNCOM, I WANNA WORK AT FUNCOM, I WANNA WORK AT FUNCOM!! SOD THIS ACADEMIC BULL – I WANNA WORK AT FUNCOM!!! I BELONG AT FUNCOM!!!”.

He was there to talk about the AI in the game, which was amusing even to me, who understood 1/100th of the content.

I could go on and on – but I need to run! Have an absolutely great weekend, all!!!!