Category: Gaming
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I’d love a virtual world/MMORPG mashup
Second Life isn’t a place I spend much time now, though my posts about SL continue to be get the most traffic and my daily companions also have unused, long time SL avatars. I’m more active in ArcheAge than ever. I left my drama-filled guild and now spend most of my time with my game…
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Multilayered communications in an MMORPG
When I was in my mid-20s, if I wanted to talk with another person while we were gaming together, we needed to be in the same room. Fast forward a couple decades and I find myself in an MMORPG, communicating with dozens of other players over numerous simultaneous text channels and on voice in TeamSpeak. At…
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Small update: Gear VR, ArcheAge, SL
Sorry for neglecting this blog. I have two half-written posts but I ran out of steam and interest before they were done. So, a small update to get back in the swing of things: I’ll have more coming about the Samsung Gear VR soon, but I haven’t picked it up again after the first day…
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Friday night in virtual worlds
It’s been a rough week: I haven’t felt well, the news has been lousy, and I’ve been frustrated and lonely in my online worlds. I’m bored in ArcheAge, though I’m finding some amusement in traveling the oceans, killing sea monsters for drops to upgrade my clipper. Other than that? Blah. Second Life hasn’t been much better.…
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I’m still alive, really
I’ve been neglecting this blog terribly. The good news is that it’s because I’ve been busy. My broken leg is doing pretty well, so I’ve gone back to normal activities plus writing. I still read tech blogs and websites, but honestly, research for my novel has taken most of my free reading time. I share interesting…
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Endgame and being a little less solitary in ArcheAge
My husband is out of town this weekend and I’ve spent too many hours playing ArcheAge. I joined a guild with the character I play most often, hoping that someone could teach me PvP techniques now that I’m almost maximum level and have passable gear. I chose the wrong guild for that, but spending time with…
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Lessons from a failed launch
The relaunch of ArcheAge this weekend is snafu. There are three elements contributing to most of the player anger: a disregard for global time zones, an unusual game element (land), and inconsistent communication. I’ve been inside companies when we had to rollback a disastrous launch and I’ve been an impatient user, so I think it’s interesting to…
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Robots, MMORPGs, and the usual suspects
The MMORPG I play (sort-of, for now, that’s one of my alts above), ArcheAge, is offline for a couple days while they perform server balancing. If all goes well, on Saturday the game will return and I’ll log on to find my avatars moved to a new server with approximately double the population of the old…
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Personal stuff spread across worlds
The photo above is one of my avatars in the MMORPG ArcheAge. She’s not a rocketeer; I had her swimming in the ocean at night and noticed that if I angled my camera below her, the effect was interesting. Things are kind of nutty in that game right now. The company that runs it is…
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Video game summer school
As someone who enjoys video games, even those I’m lousy at playing, it’s no surprise that I think gaming can provide unintentional learning opportunities. Of course there are games that target specific skills, but I’m seeing many ways that even the MMORPG I’ve been playing can be educational. That’s my second avatar in ArcheAge. Like my first, she’s of…