Sleep is Prohibited

So, it's massively early in the morning and I'm TIRED, but I have an exam in an hour or so and I'll just be more tired if I sleep.

So, instead, let's talk about tonight.

Ho designing that game was fuuun. I must admit, it was the most enjoyable all-nighter I've ever pulled. We started real, honest work on the project around 2-3:00 in the afternoon. Pushed until about 5:30 and had a dinner break. There, we bounced all kinds of ideas around and off people.

It was awesome how much they liked the idea. One of our friends ended up hanging out in our room until about 2:00, actively giving us feedback and suggestions.

Of course, the running thought throughout the night was "omg, I want to stop designing this and PLAY it!"

So, as we were finishing up formatting and putting the finishing touches on it, we realize one, very very big thing we left entierly out: religion. In the end version of the game, various churches would have to find their way in. There's simply no way to make a mobster game without the church.

Ahh well. It still ended up well. I feel that, despite that oversight, we were very detailed and were able to communicate a game all of us would buy and play over and over.

Random Asside from the Other day

It's really interesting to talk about other people's gaming experiences. We were talking with my girlfriend's roommate at dinner about her gameboy experiences. And found out that we had played one or two of the same games. In particular, Kirby's Dream land. This, of course, was an awesome game featuring a puffy cloud guy that flew around sucking in things and destroying lives.

At Least I Have Chicken

The first time I ever saw World of Warcraft was in a movie created within the game. A handful of players stood outside of a door in a dusky looking room getting ready to barge in. Their leader rattled off some orders, asked for some feedback, then, all of a sudden, a human paladin yells out, “LEROY JENKINS!” and runs into the room. Chaos ensues when little dragon whelps spawn from the eggs and end up and killing everyone (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU). I had no clue if it was a real video, since I hadn't played the game ever. Looking back now, it's obviously a complete joke, though is still hilarious.

Creating movies using games, machinima, opens new avenues for all players to share their adventures and creativity. No matter your motivations for playing, being able to record whatever you want engrosses you further into any game. Watching these videos let players from all over the spectrum see what others like them do for fun. Creating them is an exercise in both pride and entertainment.

A Brief History

For over the last hundred years, people have made movies. The addition of sound and color made the industry more appealing to crowds. Amateur film wasn't popular until the mid-1970s when Beta and VHS formats made it much cheaper for families to record their lives. Now, with digital video cameras, self-made movies are finding their way onto the Internet on a daily basis. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima).

First person shooters offered the first glimpse into videos created with video games. Doom and Quake were some of the first games that allowed players to save a playback of their game. This created online communities devoted to tracking the fastest times under various circumstances. In Quake, for example, there are videos for The Rabbit Run (easy level, as fast as possible), Quake done Chopped (easy level, 100% kills and secrets using only the axe), Quake done 100% (Nightmare level, 100% kills and secrets), and Quake done Quick (Nightmare level, as fast as possible) (http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/qdq/).

How to Machinima

Many games since have included their own in-game movie recording programs, but one innovation in machinima was programs that record whatever is displayed on the computer screen (Fraps: http://www.fraps.com/). Console games can be similarly edited. One popular series, Red vs. Blue, uses Halo and Halo 2 from the X Box console. The action is “filmed” from one player's perspective while the “actors” move around and bob their heads to simulate speech. The various clips are uploaded to a computer, edited in Adobe, and put together for a final episode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_vs._Blue).

Why you do These Things?

Beyond the enjoyment of using a game to make movies, machinima has some significant benefits over a movie production process. To begin with, using an already existing engine gives useful and familiar functions to the creator. Since players will most likely use games they are comfortable with, they know the extent of its capabilities and limits. These limits, however, are also its biggest drawback. Games can't possibly program every single useful function for movie making (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima).

The Internet also allows for very easy distribution of player-made content. In this paper, I have linked eleven different videos solely hosted on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com). This is, as far as I know, a free hosting service where people can post nearly any video they want. This provides a compact, easy medium to search and find videos for nearly any occasion.

What Players Record

The first movies made on Doom and Quake were little more than people flexing their game play abilities. Somewhat similar to “bragging rights” videos are ones designed to teach a particular strategy. In these, the focus is much less on the accomplishment and more on how that goal is obtained. Also along these lines are promotional videos where companies use the game engines to demonstrate game play. The last genre involves people using a game engine purely as entertainment.

“Look at my Awesome”

Movies by players who thought they were the best were how machinima began. Before these, people could always claim they got through the last level three minutes faster than their friend, but there was never any way to prove it. With a quick search, you can find one of the fastest runs on Quake in history (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpUbyirG2xU). For most multiplayer games, even videos can still make it difficult to prove one’s skill. Many people create compilations of short clips and put them together to show their own highlights. This is one example from America's Army: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMyZwb5ZJDQ.

One common thread through these movies is that the focus is on the individual. While the Quake video is a single player game with one perspective, America's Army, as demonstrated in our class, is far less about individual skill and much more related to how well a team works together. Some of the kills look pretty impressive, but I often find myself questioning the intelligence of his opponents. Another item frequently omitted is a player's own deaths. Right before the end on many of those clips, you can see an opponent approaching. It may be impossible to know for sure if the player died, but you can be assured that a bonus kill would definitely have made the final cut on the video.

These videos can offer a wide spectrum of information. The Quake video, for instance, shows exactly what this player did from start to finish. Someone, with enough time and practice, could probably try it for themselves. The America's Army video, by contrast, is simply a collection of short clips. While the purpose of this video is solely to demonstrate the “skills” of the player, he doesn't show how or if his team ever won a match. Certainly, I could spend a few hours and would easily get a handful of kills that I could slap together in a video without being useful to my team at all.

“Video Games for Dummies”

The target for these kinds of movies are those who aspire to greatness, but aren't there yet. Sometimes, a strategy video is hard to differentiate from a bragging rights video. For instance, the Quake video above could be considered a strategic video for players shooting for the same goal.

One big difference between strategic videos and bragging videos is the content. For instance, compare this video to the America's Army movie from earlier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHLJ_hZt2ds. This is a basic “how to” demonstration of the firing range training. For me, this was one of the frustrating parts of qualification because the expectations at the explosive station weren’t well defined and I ended up missing many times. This video made me feel significantly better about my difficulties with that station because the player misses his final shot of the training.

Next, compare these two World of Warcraft videos:

Fury Warrior vs Nightbane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_vLHXSSJeQ

How To: Nightbane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp7tPUwvJoM

Now, only judging by their titles, it's pretty obvious to see which was intended to be a strategy movie. The first features a well geared warrior using many consumables (potions and such) to increase his damage. The focus of the movie is the large white and yellow numbers appearing on his screen. There is little information about strategy and no explanation about what is going on. The author expects his audience to already know these things and wants them to soak up his large amount of damage.

The second movie explains the boss's abilities and suggests ways of dealing with them. While the creator is, obviously, proud of killing the large bone dragon, the focus of the movie not on how good of a job he is doing. Instead, he examines what his entire group is doing. This can help other groups emulate his success.

“Buy Me! Buy Me!”

Companies also use their game engines in their advertisements. America's Army has a portion of its site devoted to promotional videos (http://www.americasarmy.com/gallery/videos.php). These help generate excitement and publicity for their creations.

One game, Rome: Total War, is being used to demonstrate ancient battles both by users and some television companies. The History Channel's series Decisive Battle and a BBC show called Time Commanders both use the Total War engine for its battle scenes. Here is a clip from Time Commanders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O10jA_tJZxI. The History Channel has also partnered with several video game software companies to create The History Channel: Civil War as well as The History Channel: Great Battles of Rome.

“The Internet is For...”

Entertainment. While goals can vary widely from game to game, the most basic part of any game is for its players to enjoy it. As such, one of the most popular areas of machinima is movies that are made with no other purpose than viewer entertainment.

These “just-for-fun” movies have many different genres. Many of them make fun of some aspect of their platform game. Take, for example, this America's Army video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YYEblPG-7I. In this, the five players make fun of many of the tenants of the game, primarily teamwork and tactical maneuvers, and take them to a comical extreme.

Red vs. Blue (http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/), a series mentioned earlier, has blossomed into nearly 100 episodes (95 as of this writing). This series makes light of the pointlessness of many first person shooter experiences and heavily parodies the military in general. Since its first episode several years ago, it has become immensely popular. This is a link to the first episode of Red vs. Blue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a3WG7vKzAU (Warning: this contains some strong language).

The biggest reason movies like these are popular is because it lets players laugh at themselves. They showcase a game’s absurdities. The map used in Red vs. Blue, Blood Gulch, features two bases inside of a canyon. For play purposes, it is a nearly perfect map for capture the flag. Practically, though, there would be little strategic value in either base.

Many other movies use the game medium because it makes it easier to create content, even if it has nothing directly to do with the subject. The most common types of these movies are music videos. Here are two examples, first from World of Warcraft is Hardware Store by Weird Al: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYzo6NJBKco and the second is from Second Life with Michael Jackson's Thriller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPrneIvAmIs. These differ greatly from other entertainment videos because their appeal is to a broader audience. Wide applications are what can make a game far more marketable to the general population rather than a narrow game market.

Fin

One small example to consider how wide-reaching the movie-making process can be, there are six distinct games (Rome: Total War, Halo, America's Army, Quake, World of Warcraft, and Second Life) covering three major genres (real time strategy, first person shooter, and massively multiplayer online roleplaying game) referenced in this paper alone. I tried to gather a variety of movies, but still showcase what I consider the best. There are, literally, thousands out there.

Machinima creates a new dimension for games. It allows players to compete for bragging rights and actually have some proof where, before, only real-life friends could really show actual honest competition. It lets players showcase their skills to prove how wonderful they are. It can demonstrate a strategy or explore a new area or method of playing. Movies can even unleash people's creative side with no other purpose than to have fun.

In-game move capabilities allow players to amplify their experience, no matter their reason for playing. They give players more reasons to play, to share their experiences, and to have more fun while they're at it.

So It's Been a While

Well, due to some issues with my login, I haven't posted in a while, so lemmie hit the hilghlights of the past few weeks:

America's Army

I wasn't really sure what to expect with this game. I've played FPSs before, and I guess it was along those lines. However, I think I'd need to play for a while more before I could truly get the hang of it. My biggest downfall is I simply cannot aim with the rifles. I can move, I can slip by without being seen (usually) and can follow tactical instructions. I simply cannot get the hang of shooting and it was, by far, my personal biggest downfall.

The only other complaint I had was the controls for the 'naids were...lacking. There was no training with them and I really had no concept in what kind of range I had on them. Likewise, I didn't know what kind of angle I needed to have to get it over the wall I'm hiding behind, much less the window I'm aiming for.

All in all, I think it's a good game. But, for me, it will fall in the wasteland of FPS games I've tried and kinda liked and was kinda good at, but never put any effort into getting alot better. They just never have appealed enough to me.

Guitar Hero

So, as one can expect, I have seen alot of guitar hero. I love watching the game. Enjoy it alot actually. I particurally enjoy talking trash to Jason when he completely bombs something. I cannot, for the life of me, play the game. As you may have seen, I wear wrist braces in class occasionally (like while playing AA and WoW). This is because I have very bad wrists and fingers from scattered sports injuries and general overuse of computers. Because of this condition, holding the controller for any significant time is very taxing on my wrists and just generally hurts.

Even if I'm not participating, it's a fun game to sit back and watch. It's cool because I had at least heard most of the songs on it. GH is very much a party game. I've been at several where it was played and it's a blast to have experts, beginners, and those in between.

WoW Progress

So we've followed up our first 3 Prince Malchezzar kills with a night of Nightbane attempts. The best one was to about 36% after losing a healer or two fairly early in the fight. Hopefully another week of Kara/Gruul gear and a better class balance will tip the scales in our favor. Instead of our normal warrior OT, we had a mage. One of the biggest problems we had was grouping up the phase 2 adds and keeping them hitting plate. Having someone WWing them down will be a BIG increase to our DPS. Hopefully we'll add 10 more people attuned to Serpent Shrine so we can move in there when 2.1 rolls out.

Magtheridon, however, has been a different story. After spending 2 hours of flasked attempts two weeks ago, we went back...and have gotten little to no progress. I think a big part was a) people without proper consumables and b) regulars leaving early. It just seems like people are not motivated to put the effort into downing this boss.

On a better note, the guild *should* be starting Raid Three in Kara this week. This will, hopefully, fill in some gear slots for rest of our 25 man crew. We're cycling some people from raid 1 who don't need any more from the instance into raid 3 to give them a bit better balance and more experience to help them progress faster.

God of War II

So, this game can only be described as EPIC. While I have barely played it, I have enjoyed watching one of my friends play through it and the only word I can use to describe the main character is bad ass. It's bloody, brutal, gory, and generally unpleasant at times. But it's very entertaining and enjoyable.

AA Paper

So, right now, I'm taking a break from writing my America's Army paper. I've written it through once, but I know I need to go back through and revise some things. It was one of the hardest papers to stay on task because it was about machinima. That is, movies created on games. I spent so much time looking for movies that would be perfect for all my examples. While I knew some of the ones I wanted to include from the start (Leeroy Jenkins, Hardware Store, Red vs. Blue), I found plenty of other games that had similar interests.

The individual games that had movies were:

• World of Warcraft
• America's Army
• Halo (Red vs. Blue)
• Rome: Total War
• Quake
• Second Life

I was really impressed that I was able to find such a breadth of movies out there. Many many props for YouTube for this project. Without it, this paper would definatly not have been possible.

First Impressions: America's Army

This has to be one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had with a game. The first several missions are all very simple, but the third (Pistol, Machine Gun, Explosive training) really fails at instructions. While the pistol and machine gun sections are easy, the explosive section gives absolutely NO direction. The first weapon was pretty easy to figure out, because there's a little man you knock down. Plus, you get three tries to actually hit him. The second two direct you at "the tank" and "the bunker". Now, they described the FIRST target you shot at (with the man) as being in the bunker. But nonono, this is a DIFFERENT bunker...even though they don't tell you.

So, you get two practice rounds...and NEVER tell you if you actually hit the proper target. I would be sitting there and tell myself, "ok, it LOOKS like the right thing is smoking...but I'm not sure". Sure enough, come the one shot test time, it'd be in the same place and it'd be a miss. That would force me to go back through the ENTIRE training again.

Why Play World of Warcraft

Games have always allured customers for a one-time payment for entertainment. Whether they were tabletop, video, or computer games, there was the game purchase and that was the end of things. Successful games saw expansions and new versions. For example, the Street Fighter series saw something like fifteen variations. But, never the less, once the game was purchased, the manufacturer never saw another dime even if it had great replay value.

Massively multiplayer on line role-playing games (MMORPGs) have bridged this subscription gap. Ultima Online, EverQuest, and Asheron's Call all were able to generate monthly subscriptions from their use base. This encouraged these companies to constantly upgrade and expand their game world. Both Ultima Online and EverQuest released ten expansions apiece. Each brought new features to characters and new locations for people to explore, but also felt like users had to buy a new game every single time content was added.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (WoW) followed in the footsteps of its predecessors and grabbed half of the MMORPG market share. In the world of Azeroth, two factions, the Alliance and the Horde, are locked in eternal conflict. Players can select a side, a race (five are available to each side), and one of nine classes (different races are restricted to certain classes). A player's class is what primarily defines their role in the game. Character abilities are most strongly tied to the classes.

One of the biggest questions is why do people keep playing WoW, even after they have achieved the maximum level? The primary activities in WoW is player versus player (PvP) and player versus environment (PvE) content. Also, where other games have created dozens of expansions, WoW releases periodic content patches. This paper will explore some of these additions and changes throughout the history of the game with particular emphasis on how the expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (TBC), has changed the game.

Player versus Player

There are five general types of PvP encounters:

• Battle Grounds

• Arenas

• World Objectives

• “High Traffic” Combat

• “Random” Combat

Battle Grounds

Prior to TBC, the only real sanctioned PvP content was within battle grounds. Players chose to compete in one of three instances and would earn honor based on their performance (kills and whether they won). A fourth battle ground was added in TBC. Currently available are:

• Warsong Gulch- Basic 10 versus 10 capture the flag

• Arathi Basin- 15 versus 15 combat with five bases to control for as long as possible

• Alterac Valley- 40 versus 40 race to kill your opponent's general

• Eye of the Storm- 15 versus 15 , available in TBC and requires level 70 is largely a hybrid of Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin with a flag to capture and bases to hold

Battle Ground Rewards

The first PvP ranking system computed a rank for each player each week. This was a rating of 1 to 14 (with 14 being the highest rank). A players' rank would determine how much honor they earned by winning battle grounds that week. It was impossible to go up more than one rank in a week and a certain percentage of your honor would disappear each week. Higher ranks allowed players to purchase progressively better gear.

Achieving rank 8 to 9 took relatively little work, perhaps a month or two of two to three hours of PvP per day. However, reaching rank 14 (which gave access to some of the best weapons in the game) could take months of playing 12 hours per day. This encouraged many people to share their accounts to have their friends keep their standing rising, or even stable at the highest rankings.

After the 2.0 Patch (the precursor to TBC), instead of a ranking, players simply received honor points from the battle grounds at the end of each day. These points were like a currency that never decayed like the old points. Instead of requiring a rank, the equipment cost a certain number of honor points. In TBC, there are few level 70 Epic rewards for Battle Ground PvP. These rewards are confined to the new Arena system. Because this

Twinking

A concept that is also restricted to battle grounds is what is called twinking. The way groups work, players are broken in to brackets based on their level (10-19, 20-29, 30-39, etc). Some people will create characters whose entire purpose is to stop leveling at 19 or 29 and stay to PvP in that bracket. Usually, they spend a large amount of time and money to obtain the best equipment and enchantments for that level. It is very difficult to create an effective twink without a character already at the max level to fund the expensive equipment it takes to do well.

Arenas

New in TBC are arena battles. They are fought in either 2 on 2, 3 on 3, or 5 on 5. Each player stays on a particular team that you play with and get a rating. Based on your rating each week, you get a certain amount of arena points. Like honor points, these arena points accumulate over time and can be used to buy gear. Every three months, the standings are reset and peoples rankings (but not arena points) are set back to zero. The top few teams each season gain access to a special epic flying mount. The main difference between arena rewards and battle ground rewards is that they are of epic quality and are much better.

Outdoor PvP

Blizzard's first experiment with structured world PvP was largely a failure. There are simply a few objectives in the world like capture a base or turn in some item. But, instead of fighting over them, Horde and Alliance tend to just pass each other to maximize their turn-ins. In Outlands, many zones have some kind of zone objective. Unfortunately, most of them are rarely contested and don't provide a big enough benefit to spend much time holding.

Other Outdoor PvP

The majority of world PvP happens randomly between people. Sometimes, Alliance and Horde don't gain anything by letting the other one live, so they kill each other just because they enjoy doing it. Other times, two people are trying to get to the same resource, say an herb or a mining deposit, and they end up fighting over it. People also tend to fight around instances and other high-traffic areas. As of late, Karazhan is frequently littered with corpses all around the front gate, especially on Tuesday night.

Why do people PvP?

I do not have a ton of PvP experience. In fact, I've never done an arena match and never been in the Eye of the Storm battle ground. Personally, I PvPed either to get a handful of gear upgrades or to pass the time with my guildmates when nothing else was going on and there wasn't much else I could do with my time. This motivation for playing has strong achiever tenancies with some undertones of socializer.

Others, however, enjoy PvPing because killing players makes them feel better and pumps up their egos. Sometimes, it's less their egos they're worried about and more the egos of their opponents they want to crush. While these players like the rewards that can come with competition, they are just as likely to fight in an arena as on the path to Shattrath. These are killers with some achiever qualities.

Player versus Environment

The other primary content people explore is based in instances with no other factions. These are called raid dungeons and, usually, require 10 or more people. Bosses in these areas usually drop gear significantly better than what drops in 5-man content.

Pre-Burning Crusade

The first major raid dungeon released was a 40-man area named Molten Core (MC). There was a small storyline behind it about some water elementals wanting to rid the world of fire elementals. After killing enough things in Molten Core, they gave you an item that let you douse runes which would, ultimately, summon the ninth boss who, after being defeated, will summon the final boss.

Unfortunately, MC suffered from being Blizzard's first raid instance. As such, it was pretty linear in design and rather boring (its nicknames were things like Molten Bore and Molten Snore). The hardest part about the instance was trying to assemble 40 people willing to go there for 4-6 hours. MC never really felt like much more than a loot pinata that you walked in once a week and smashed for a while.

Blackwing Lair (BWL), another 40-man instance, was opened about nine months after the launch. While there wasn't much more story behind it, the encounters were much more dynamic and fun to learn. Where MC boss strategy involved not doing stupid things, BWL bosses required everyone to do the right thing. One of the best examples of this is the very first boss, Razorgore. Throughout phase 1 of the fight, orcs and small dragons constantly spawn in the four corners of the room. The orcs need to be killed ASAP and the dragons need to be kited around by some means (warriors or hunters are common). Meanwhile, one person needs to mind control Razorgore and destroy eggs around the room. When all of the eggs are destroyed, tanking and killing Razorgore isn't difficult. Instead of a boss where it's simply a race of the raid DPS against the healer's mana, it's having to deal with dozens of adds efficiently and executing a somewhat complex strategy.

Following BWL two months later was Zul'Gurub (ZG), the first 20-man raid instance. Instead of being designed for cutting-edge raid guilds, ZG was designed for guilds that had the gear to run MC, but couldn't field a full 40 people. The encounters resembled BWL in that execution was much more important than gear. Personally, there were many times where we wiped horribly one try, corrected a small detail in strategy, and proceeded to completely destroy it.

Three more raid dungeons saw the world of Azeroth before TBC was launched. Ahn'Qiraj was split into two areas, one 20-man side (of slightly higher difficulty than ZG) and one 40-man side (of slightly higher difficulty than BWL). Naxxramus was the final dungeon launched before the release of TBC.

Burning Crusade Content

The biggest change in TBC is the number of people required to run the instances. Instead of the standard cap of 40, the largest areas require only 25 people. The very first raid instance only holds up to 10 people. This is one change that I particularly like. Before, getting 40 schedules to somewhat match was always a task. Sometimes, we would only have 30 show and sometimes we would have 50 show and some people would have to sit on the sidelines. Forty people was far too unwieldy.

What I have really enjoyed about the 10 man cap in Karazhan is the feeling of cohesiveness I have with my group. We have 10-12 people that are always at every single raid and, since we play together consistently, we work well together and know what to expect every single time we're there. While I primarily raid for the gear and sense of accomplishment of defeating large enemies, the smaller caps create a much better social feeling.

Why do people Raid?

Like I said above, I, personally, raid to kill bigger and badder enemies. The gear is a nice addition, but it mostly serves to further the killing of even more challenging encounters. Learning new bosses can be one of the most fun things in the game. A single night of raiding may cost me 15-20 gold in repairs alone, plus another 50 gold for a flask, but each night gets a little cheaper as our group gets better. In respect to raiding, I am much more of a mix between an achiever and an explorer. I particularly enjoy both defeating encounters and figuring out how they work and the best way to win.

Why do people play World of Warcraft?

To put it bluntly, there is something for everyone to do in this game. A player can invest two to three hours a week and casually peruse the content or you can play five to six hours a day, bent on defeating anything and everything in the game. One topic I didn't cover due to space constraints was trade skills. Many people take great pride in having every enchantment in the game or being able to craft the best swords.

Like any MMORPG, WoW has facets that appeal to any member of the player base. PvP primarily appeals to achievers and killers. Raiding primarily appeals to achievers and explorers. Socialization is mixed in everywhere else in the game. A player can level from 1 to 70 without talking to a single other person. However, at level 70, players need to work together in groups to accomplish anything.

Dead Mines

Last class was the most fun I've had in a 5-man. Playing with people in person adds so much to the game. Being able to talk and physically interact with people adds an entierly new dimension to the game. When we raid, Emma, Jason, and I are all usually in the same room. Having two other people to communicate with directly makes the instance more fun and also lets us strategize a bit better. Like, telling Emma when to hold off on her banishes or when to tell Jason to back off on his DPS some because I'm stunned. Stuff that really isn't too important to communicate through Vent, but is really easy to convey to those sitting next to you.

The instance went about how I expected. After checking my level 20 skills, I realized that I'd be a much better healer with a new rank of renew and actually have flash heal. I never actually ended up using flash heal, as shield + renew was enough to keep everyone else up and I just used greater heal on the tank (emma or jason) as needed. Most of the time I really didn't need to heal at all and threw up Shadow Word: Pain, Wanded, and (only occasionally) Mind Blasted.

My goal was to be third on damage and first on healing, but the warlock stepped it up to nudge me out. I was also hoping to get to the smelting boss without anyone dieing. I'm glad I was able to heal VC. Not that it's any particular accomplishment, but it's something more than I've done before healing.

It's somewhat unfortunate that VC doesn't really have any interesting trash or bosses. Van Cleef himself is interesting because he has a handful of adds, but nothing else is anything more than tank-and-spank.

Karazhan Attunement

The first level 70 raid dungon is Karazhan, the abandoned tower of Medivh. This wizard is famous in Warcraft Lore because he is responsible for opening the Dark Portal, allowing for the invasion of the Horde and, later, the Burning Legion.

Karazhan

Karazhan is located in Deadwind Pass, a zone between Duskwood and the Swamp of Sorrows.

Attunentes are quest lines within World of Warcraft that are required to enter certain dungons. Nearly all of the level 60 and level 70 content required some or all members of a party to have a certain key or quest completed. For Karazhan, this is the Master's Key.

The quest starts at the base of Karazhan itself. Archmage Alturus outside asks you to to investigate the cellars full of ghosts that sit outside of the tower. He needs water samples from pools in them as well as essences from the ghosts.

At the front door to Karazhan



After you collect the Archmage's things, he asks you to head to Dalaran, a city in a bubble to the north of Alterac to deliver his report to Archmage Cedric.

Overlooking Dalaran


Reading Alturus's report, Cedric is alarmed at the growing demonic power within the tower. Only two people that he knows could possibly provide entrance into Karazhan: Medivh, presumed (and hopefully) long dead, and Khadgar, a steward of the outland city of Shattrath. He sends you to seek out Khadgar.

Adal (left, leader of Shattrath) and Khadgar (human, lower right)


He is equally troubled by Karazhan. In years past, he broke the key to the tower into three pieces and scattered them around outland. These places were once safe, but corruption in the world has led these fragments into the wrong hands. Each of the three are hidden in a separate dungon in outlands. The first in Shadow Labarynth, guarded by Murmur, the final boss there. The second is in the depths of Steam Vaults. The third, and final fragment, is in the demon-filled Arctraz area of Tempest Keep.

After assembling the pieces, Khadgar says that the key is useless without Medivh's consent. With Medivh long-deceased, there is no apparent way to complete this. He goes on to tell you to head to the Cavern's of Time and head back in time to the Black Morass. Here, a group of dragons called the Infinate Dragon Flight are attempting to change the timeline, preventing Medivh from opening the Drak Portal.

For Medivh to make your key work, you must travel back to the Black Morass and prevent the Infinate Dragon Flight from stopping Medivh from opening the portal. When you've saved him, Medivh will grand you the Master's Key to his tower.

Medivh summoning the portal

Futuristic Cynic

The most fun I have in World of Warcraft is doing instances and, specifically, raiding. Having a group of 5-25 people and going in and demolishing massive monsters is just cool. Not to mention, they drop epic gear so you can kill BIGGER monsters which is even more fun.

Because, at heart, I'm a raider, I couldn't bring myself to make my priest full shadow:

Spec

Few of the deep holy talents are really that great for healing, so I give that up for getting power infusion from the discipline tree. It'll basically let a mage or warlock wtf nuke something, pull aggro, and die (well, hopefully not those last two things). Meanwhile, it works to maximize mana efficiency, reducing the cost of my spells so I can keep as full a bar as I can during an encounter.

I'm currently lvl11 and, yes, I do have my two talent points in the shadow tree (what can I say? Holy/Disc sucks for leveling). Pushing for 17-18 range for Thursday's class. Gonna wtf pwn VC!!!

Level 10 Priest

So, Cynic decided to stop hating the world and started leveling a bit more. I've actually come to kinda like the Drenai start area. From what I've seen of the Blood Elf area, I think I like that a bit better, but that's probably because the Blood Elves get to fight mana wraith things that look alot more epic than the standard panthers and deer-ish creatures.

One thing I think the new starting areas do a MUCH better job of is preparing players to do the quests in the real world. Already at level 10, I have:
-used my racial healing ability to save some guy
-killed X things (of 1 to 3 varieties)
-used a given item on X things
-kill the leader of those X things
-pick up X items
-kill X things that (might) drop Y items
-kill X things that (might) drop Y items, then use items on Z other item for effect A
-invade a camp and find items X and Y that they stole
-Follow some totem spirit around, letting me slowfall and swim really friggin fast

Now, I've been TRYING to avoid using www.thottbot.com (a site that has a listing of about any kind of WoW info you can imagine), but I must admit, I've been there several times. In the next day or so, I should be able to make the trek over to the Western continent to rejoin the class for some hardcore VCing.

Oh, and here's me:



















Edit: So, another quest, I disguised myeslf as a tree to spy on a couple guys:

Level 1 Drenai Priest

So, in my WoW history, I've played a Warrior to 70, two or three mages to about 25, and a druid to 5 (so it became my disenchant alt). One thing I wanted to do was pick a healing class that is the complete opposite of the characters I've played.

Enter: Cynic, Drenai Priest, Nazjatar

Thus far, I've only been able to level it to 3. I got to kill some moths, heal some guy with my racial, and generally do nothing exciting.

As of now, I'm dreading the bag problems I'm bound to encounter. The biggest frustration as a low level character is not having enough space to store everything. Constantly running back and forth between mobs and towns just to sell off vendor trash is very obnoxious. Still, I'm excited about healing in a group. It's something different I've never done before.

What IS exciting was killing Curator and completing the chess event last night. Tonight, it's back to the start and we're hoping to clear to the back door. Another night of funs killing skeletons, ghosts, and the cast from the Wizard of Oz.

Copy Copy Bot Bot

Ownership is one of the primary tenants of a capitalist society. Ownership implies that the owner has the right to control, benefit from, sell or transfer, and exclude others from his property (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property). Without an authority defining and protecting property, one can only have as much as he can keep others from stealing. Because this, generally, is not a very productive manner to live, governments of free societies make property rights a very high priority. In the United States, it is covered in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution:

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

Of all forms of property, intellectual property is, by far, the hardest to protect. It is the idea that people own their own creations and innovations in the same manner people own tangible goods. A few types of intellectual property are patents, trademarks, and copyrights (http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk). Intellectual property has provided some of the largest legal battles in recent history including the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) suing Napster and the movie industry's battle against file sharing programs.

Second Life, created by Linden Lab, is an on line game that thrives on its users freedom to do practically anything, only restricted by the Terms of Service (http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php) and Community Standards (http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php). All aspects of a character are customizable from hairstyle to the shoe size to the clothes they wear. Likewise, the world around the characters is just as flexible. The majority of the worlds buildings, trees, and businesses are all created by the users themselves.

Players make a living in Second Life by selling these creations. When an item is created, the creator has three flags that change how it can be distributed. The modify flag permits changes to the actual item, the copy flag allows it to be copied by the owner, and the transfer flag allows it to be exchanged amongst players. There is also a “Next Owner Permissions” area that will change these flags whenever it is transferred next. Disabling these flags allows creators to control how their creations are being used and distributed. They do not want their customers duplicating an item several thousand times and selling it at a huge discount.

Because none of these creations are actual, tangible items, they all fall into the category of intellectual property. This leads to the single biggest innovation from Second Life. From section 3.2 of the Terms of Service:

“You retain copyright and other intellectual property rights with respect to Content you create in Second Life, to the extent that you have such rights under applicable law.”

With a few exceptions given to Linden Lab, players actually own all rights to the items they create in the game. This gives residents a little more security to invest hundreds of their own dollars into a line of fashion or cars that they can sell for a thousand dollars across the Second Life population without having to worry about someone copying their hard work and selling it as their own.

Enter: CopyBot.

CopyBot was a program that, literally, copied an object in Second Life. Here is a video demonstrating its use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L4f1Z-xrxc

LibSecondLife (http://www.libsecondlife.org), a group supported by Linden Lab, created the original CopyBot. LibSecondLife is an open source venture to help understand how the Second Life clients and servers communicate and to create a better system. The ultimate goal of the project is to make all of Second Life open-source, much like the Linux operating system.

CopyBot was intended to be used as a debugging tool where they could quickly duplicate and manipulate objects. In order to see other people's hair or clothes, your computer has to actually download the object's properties and store them so the graphics card can render them properly. CopyBot finds where this data is stored and makes a copy of the information and puts it onto a character or into inventory (http://taotakashi.wordpress.com/2006/11/15/the-copybot-controversy).

The use of this as a debugging tool is very viable and useful. This creates a fast and easy method of transferring an object from the world onto your hard drive. However, the implications on the real world are staggering. As seen in the video above, it, quite literally, gives users free reign to copy any object they want.

Shortly after its appearance on LibSecondLife, Second Life residents wanted it removed from the server. LibSecondLife responded accordingly and thought they had removed the software before people actually had a chance to make a version compatible with live servers (http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2006/11/bots_back_in_th.html). Unfortunatly, CopyBot appeared on SLExchange (http://www.slexchange.com), a Second Life auction site, and was available for wide distribution.

When CopyBot found its way into the game, the shopkeepers of the world protested by closing their stores. They didn't want to sell everything, just to see it copied and sold by someone else. Instead, the vendors took to the streets in protest around sellers of CopyBot and by the LibSecondLife building within Second Life (video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypFBsXSzGkU).

Linden Lab's response was that CopyBot violated the Second Life Terms of Service and banned the use of it or any similar programs.

Is that all? Second Life users are supposed to have full ownership and copyright privileges of their creations and all Linden Lab can do is eliminate the accounts that probably liquidated their assets already anyways?

Any further recourse must me undertaken by parties who were infringed upon. Linden Lab has a section of their website outlining the steps a user must take to report an infringement as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (http://secondlife.com/corporate/dmca.php). This is a written document that first goes to Linden Lab, and then to the Federal Government where these lawsuits are taken care of. Unfortunately, this is the only recourse to seek financial damages and it is a very costly route both in court costs and lawyer fees.

The next step Linden Lab needs to take is to create an internal system that will deal with its users intellectual property. Currently, there is no kind of small claims court that is able to handle the more minor manners in Second Life. Linden Lab does not want to create an in game governing body, but there needs to be some system where users can take their minor matters to have these infringements rectified.

An alternate route would be in-game arbitration. Either Linden Lab or actual residents need to create a system where people can have an unbiased third party evaluate the case for a reasonable fee to enforce residents' property rights.

A relatively simple route Linden Lab can take is a more extensive system that shows where an item actually came from. If all objects had a created date and creator attached to them, then it can serve as both a brand name as well as printing. This can even increase the value of some products by having one of the first created and actually be able to prove it.

One final system would be to encrypt the properties of items. However, because Linden Lab is currently pushing to make all of Second Life open source, it would be of little use because the encryption algorithms would be publicly available.

The main conclusion here is that Linden Lab needs to do something to protect the valuables of its users. A society without any protections will consistently be exploited if the consequences are not significant enough. Second Life is starting to get big, but without significant protections for its user base, people will be unwilling to put their time and effort into creating new content. A safe economy will attract more consumers, more suppliers, and even real world businesses.

Fog of War

I've decided to work with Jason and Emma on our game design project, and what we thought we'd do is all type up our individual thoughts on what direction we saw our design going before actually collaborating on the details. We have conversed about the general idea, but haven't really tried to draw out details.

Description
This, in its most basic form, will be a first person shooter (FPS). The setting we've tossed around most is WWII, simply because it allows for substantial flexibility in location and technology. That said, the main innovation is not in the setting, but the actually game play system (more on that later). This means that the game is not tied to one location or point in time so it is easily extensible based on creating new maps, character models, and weapons. Likewise, rules for movement and communication can be tweaked. Jet packs for World War 5? No radios running around during the Battle for Troy? For our purposes, here, we're only going to focus on the WWII aspect of this game.

The Players
The two concepts for players we have are: 1) nearly every sprite is controlled by a player and 2) different players may have different rolls based on the scale of encounter. For example, there is no need to have different roles in "Assault on French Farm". Simply, 5 Ally troops attempt to take a farm held by 5 Germans. Contrastingly, the Normandy Invasion would require battalions of people with a commander, artillery men, and methods of communicating what goals have been captured (more on rolls and communication below). People won't be used in tasks that require no choices. Reloading the tank gun? No one wants to do that, so that will be an NPC. Likewise with people loading artillery and screaming civilians.

New Innovation
One of the most unrealistic things about programs like Ventrilo (a voice conferencing program) or other "global" voice channels is that it completely unreasonable for the hidden spy to be yelling out directions to his forces while he is lurking in the shadows. Simply talking while hiding near someone will probably alert them and something like a radio was huge, bulky, and wasn't something you really carried covertly.

Our proposed system allows for several methods of voice communication: whisper, talk, yell, and radio. Of course, everyone (enemies too!) can hear any standard communication, they just have to be close enough. Radio use is reserved for commanders to talk to each other, however, it is possible for these radio signals to be jammed or intercepted (at the cost of substantial time/effort on the interceptor's part).

Various other communication methods can also be included. Hand signals can be hot keyed and agreed on prior to engaging an enemy to keep everyone quiet. Signal flares can be used to communicate over longer distances.

Single Player Campaign
This will also come with a single player mode that aims to teach the different roles possible in the multi player version. This will take the form of the player starting from a foot soldier who sees all of the basic tasks (footman, artillery, tank driver, etc) and moves up the chain of command to see some of the commander functions. Here, you can implement the hand signals discussed earlier along with some basic voice recognition commands (that is, to key commands to a particular word or number).

Classics

Tetris was a game I played on my GameBoy. Watching Jason, my roommate play, I was yelling at him when he made a wrong move. Bashing him for building up to a tetris while on level 11 and just got burried when we didn't get the right block. I didn't fare any better, though, way out of practice.

Judging by my reactions to the various games, it's easy to see why these are classics. Pac man, asteroids, and the like bring back memories. I never really was too big into them, but their simple nature is a big change from today's complex MMOs and FPSs.

Burning Crusade: Week One

Our server saw its first 70. Our guild has seen its first 70. And I, well, am not 70.

HOWEVER getting to 65 was still a bit of an accomplishment.

Hellfire Penninsula:
So, the first zone you fall into is, predictably, pretty sandboxy. The quests went fast as being level 60 and having some decent gear melted lots of faces. The highlight of the quests was definatly the bombing run. Flying on a gryphon tossing large explosives doing 20k damage to everything was sick and something very new.

Hellfire Ramparts left a little something to be desired. There seems to be a lot of trash and the two lesser bosses don't really do anything interesting. The final boss was pretty cool, where he drops flame bombs that stick around to do ~900 a tick if you stand in them (a la bat boss from ZG). Blood Furnace was, however, my favorite instance to date. The first boss was a little boring, but then it MCed Jason and launched a 4k pyroblast at me. The second boss was a nice mix of Rajax and Grobbulus. Four waves of orcs followed by an eye who periodically drops expanding poison clouds. The final boss seemed a bit too easy. He has five adds at the start that put on a debuff that increases shadow damage taken by ~1000, but it was easily dispelled. Once he comes out, he does an emote to tell players to come closer. Of course, instinct says to run away as he does a large blast wave.

Zangamarsh:
Eh, really didn't enjoy this area. The sporregar people seemed interesting, but nothing terribly exciting from them. There really wasn't too much excitement from the quests. Kill X, pick up Y, talk to Z. Blah.

Coilfang:
I did a half run and a full run of each. The trash seemed to have a ton of health and, coupled with a few very dicy pulls, made the instance drag on. First boss in slave pens was a shade-less jindo, followed by a crab with a debuff that does 5-600 damage a second until the tank is fully healed, and the last boss was just some tank-and-spank elemental guy who didn't seem to do much. Underbog was...long. I'll leave it at that. I got my quests done and never plan on going back and dread what Steam Vaults hold.

Terrokar Forest:
I haven't spent too much time in this zone yet, but it seems to have promise. There is a dychotomy in the factions where you can chose which one you will follow.

Mana Tombs:
This instance is all the first and last boss. The first one is a voidwalker that puts up a reflective damage shield while spitting out hard shadowbolt vollies. The last one is a mage who kites the tank aroudn a bit, frost nova, blink, fireballs, etc. Everything every warrior hates.

Noteable Tank upgrades:
Nothing too major yet. A shield and boots that are on par with Elementium Reinforced Bulwark and Wrath respectively. A cape with double the sta as Elementium threaded. A faster dagger with higher DPS and STA to replace bloodlord's defender. Nothing too huge...yet.

What is a Game?

For me, games are part enjoyment and part competition. They are a way for me to sit back and smile. They are a way of showing I am better at something. They are something to pass the time.

The first game I played extensively was Railroad Tycoon, a simulation game that involved building a railroad and beating all of your competitors. I dabbled a little in first person shooters, but, eventually, found my way to the Final Fantasy series. I played two of the GameBoy versions (I and III) and three of the Playstation versions (VII, IX, and Tactics). With VII and tactics, I played through the first time enjoying the story line and going where it made sense. Then, I took a second trip through the game trying to do everything possible. My end-character in tactics was eventually able to defeat the final encounter without any help (usually you have a 5 person party).

The intellectual challenge from the FF series was in the Min-Maxing of my characters. To minimize flaws and maximize their effectiveness was something I always wanted to push. Many times, I wished there was a way to pit two parties against each other just to test which builds were the best.

The first online game I played was Utopia (http://games.swirve.com/utopia). In this game, you are one province in a kingdom of 25 who work together to grow and be larger than everyone else in the world. Available were different military operations, exploration, magical, or thievery attacks that you could use to weaken your opponents and take their resources. At one point, I wound my way into a kingdom that was in the top 20 in the world (there were, maybe, 1000+ individual kingdoms). I quickly got burned out on Utopia, though, mostly because it wasn't something I could do with my friends (the province placements were completely random). It simply stopped being fun.

About a year ago, I started a new online game: World of Warcraft. After learning the game through the levels, I joined a raiding guild and started running through the 20-man dungons. That blossomed into 40-mans and now we've cleared BWL and most of AQ40. WoW has been great because it is competition with thousansd of others in the world, aiming to coordinate 20-40 people for the same goal. New in the expansion are other, much more complex areas that I'll be exploring in the coming weeks.

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