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Profile: shava
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Usernameshava
Rank: 30/100Rank: 30/100Rank: 30/100Rank: 30/100Rank: 30/100
Real NameShava Nerad
RankApprentice Member
JoinedMarch 9, 2005
GenderFemale
Age49
LocationSomerville, MA, United States
Last VisitNovember 29, 2008
Post Count67
Biography 
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Latest Blog Entry - Is Second Life a game?
From my blog Convergence [shava]

On MMORPG.com's games list, you can find a couple games who don't usually identify as games.  If you go among a group of SL "residents" and ask if they are playing a game, most of them will tell you "Second Life isn't a game."

So what is it that makes a "virtual world" different from a "game" MMO? 

Argument 1:  user created content -- refutation, Eve Online.  If space is about the only thing in Eve that's there before we log in, and land is about the only thing in SL, this isn't it.

Argument 2:  victory conditions are not defined by the game programmer -- Eve again -- you can get rich, you can explore, you can hang out and dis each other.  Seems like about the same things either place.  Admittedly, the sex animations are better in SL, but the costumes and "dancing" are pretty sleek in Eve too.

Is Second Life less of a game, or is it just a collection of games -- roleplaying games (which most admitted games do rather poorly in multiplayer mode), financial games, social games, fashion games, dating games, dance games, collaborative games, serious games and silly games.

Personally, I'd tend to say my first life is a game.  I'm an entrepreneur.  I've been active in politics, and in policy changing nonprofits.

Is LinkedIn (a business networking site) a game if you are trying to increase either the reach or the quality of your connections -- or trying for that ideal of increasing both?

So, I believe, if we look at how people think about these games, how people use them, and how they conjoin people, or help people play with identity, or help them learn, waste time, refresh themselves, take out frustrations -- where are the real differences?

 

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Recent Forum Posts [more...]

    • Lord of the Rings Online: A Look at the Guardian

    • Holding threat is the most important trait for a Guardian, IMO.  You can neglect a bit of morale or armor building if you have a good minstrel (healer) behind you and other support from your group.  But if you don't hold aggo, you are sunk. 

      I have two standard configurations for my guardian -- one for soloing/levelling, and one for grouping.  Otherwise, your low DPS when focussed on threat makes soloing sooooo slow, but it's completely vital to have every trait and such pinpoint on your ability to hold aggro with a fellowship or raid.

      It can also help to group your threat skills on your hotkeys so you can pour it on when you begin a fight, or when the DPS folks and/or healers attract too much attention!

      But it is important that you can solo just as well as a Guardian as most classes -- if you are willing to re-slot traits and maybe keep some bank slots in variant equipment for when you are solo or in a group.

      Vinca Bounderbuck  -- the cutest little tin can on Landroval!

    • Posted: 10/31/08 3:34 PM
      General Discussion
    • Lord of the Rings Online: Correspondent - A Look at Housing

    • Housing in LOTRO is probably only really worthwhile to folks who craft (and I do!) or people who run five alts (I do!).  I miss the housing systems from SWG and EQ2.

      The housing in SWG was cluttering -- but in that world (a frontier space economy) that made sense.  Why wouldn't people build anywhere they cared to?  I wouldn't want that in LOTRO tho, and the neighborhoods seem like a decent, if unexploited idea (props to whoever said that the tents cry out to be the neighborhood openair pub!).

      I hate the hook system.  Not only are you dictated where to put what, and restricted by type of what to hook to any hook, but the hooks make no sense.  If they had it set up so your front room could have a seating area, for example, would that be too much to ask?  Or provided a table-and-six-chairs item where folks could actually sit?

      They designed this feature to be lame.  It's the only explanation.  They rushed it out, and probably don't have any graceful upgrade path that isn't going to consume them with support for months.

      *sigh*

      Shava

    • Posted: 8/29/08 10:37 AM
      General Discussion

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