I guess I have entered a summer hiatus at the moment. Too much to do that don’t involve sitting in front of the computer, so naturally there’s some time between my posts currently.
And when I *do* sit in front of the computer(when it rains and stuff..) I usually work on our game or play Age of Conan. AoC is quite a fun game, but it has it’s lacks as do all MMO’s around today in my opinion.
I’m gonna write up a post about my views and thoughts around Age of Conan and today’s MMO-trend soonish, as soon as my hiatus is finished

I have joined the Vintage Game Club started by Michael Abbott over at Brainy Gamer[^]. And next week, we will start to play through Grim Fandango! I never got to finish that game, so it’s gonna be loads of fun.
You can find more info about The Vintage Game Club over at Brainy Gamer[^]. Even if you’re not interested in the Vintage Club, I suggest you go over there to check out his blog anyway. Cause he has some incredible insights about the more intellectual sides of gaming.

Oh and I will write up an official statement about the game we’re working on soon too, so stay tuned!

Gamasutra has posted a talk from GDC: Dave Jones talks about APB[^].
This guy has some really good points!

He talks about how the level grind of the old days-MMO is absolete, or in his own words:

One MMO concept Jones also eschews is the traditional level grind. “How will people be playing this in six months? What’s going to keep them playing again and again and again?” He asks. “How long will I have to get all the cool stuff and level 99? …I think that’s wrong, it’s broken.”

I couldn’t agree more! There are so many other things one could incorporate into a MMO that don’t involve endless, boring grinding of some sorts..
Like player generated content, player-made stories, player-made communities. Put the player in control, and stop forcing them to blindly play with [the company's] content.
Like he mentions too in his talk:

So Jones eliminated the concept of character levels for APB. “I didn’t want any grinding. It’s a very broken instrument to drive gameplay. It’s customization that’ll drive players.”

The day [Kybernesis] makes a MMO, we’re gonna focus on the same.. Customization, player-created content, making the world so the players make it their own world. And not giving players access to a static world of [Kybernesis'] design.

All MMO’s today brag about being dynamic, persistent, listening to their community.. Granted, MMO’s are persistent, but not all dynamic.. The only dynamic today is when the company decide to release a content-patch or an expansion. Then it just goes back to be static again… Ugh!
It has to stop!

I just read the article @ Gamasutra The China Angle: The Year of the Addicted Gaming Rat[^], and just HAD to write some thoughts around “Divorce China Style”.

This article first made me a little shocked, then a little sad about how things are evolving in the virtual world. But then I started thinking a little more about the subject.

Why would this shock me and then make me a little sad? After all, it’s inevitable! A lot of people meet in online communities like MMO’s, Facebook, Myspace, IRC and hook up in Real Life. And a good percent of these I am sure end up in a marriage.
And as all real life marriages, couples share stuff, so why not virtual assets too? I mean, they could build a huge house on their bought island in Second Life, or spend 100’s of hours in any online game, acquiring phat lewt, or even use RL money on ebay or powerlevel services!
There so much about online communities that can be translated into RL money, and time… And as we all know, time = money
So I actually settled on a “But of course!” feeling in the end of the article.

But then I kept thinking…. And here is what scares me a little. Imagine in one of the MMO’s out there, two players meet in-game, they live on separate sides of the world, and have no plans whatsoever to meet in RL. But there is some common interests between them, and they like each other “virtually”
So they decide to get married in-game, as so many players do in online games.
And like RL marriages, they start sharing virtual assets like housing, phat lewt and might even give each other their account details so they can help each other level.
Then comes the day when they don’t like each other as much as before, or they might have drifted apart as often happens in online communities, so they decide to have a divorce… What now???
Who keeps what? Who gets the house? Who keeps the phat lewt and the mules and the different accounts they might have shared?
Since this is no legal marriage, RL lawsuit won’t get anywhere. So what then?

My thoughts right now is that there’s a possibility future MMO’s might need to enforce virtual laws. Or even make lawyers/judges/courts to settle virtual lawsuits!
Just take a minute and imagine a virtual world where you can be sued!
I guess it would solve PK-problems though… :p