Tag: 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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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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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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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…
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Wednesday film: Understanding graphic settings in a game
World of Tanks is a hugely successful massively multiplayer online game. I rarely see it mentioned in the gaming media, but since my husband is an avid player, I hear about it all the time. He sent me a link to the video below. Even if World of Tanks isn’t your jam, this 15 minute “Developer…
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Return to ArcheAge
I did a speed review of ArcheAge last August, during the final hours of open beta, and I was unimpressed. Curious if things had improved, I installed it again in early June. It’s providing me some hours of mindless entertainment while I heal and I thought I should reexamine that review. Below is my character Tsofia at level…
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Urban planning is much more fun in game form
Though Jakob gave me a pet wolf to keep me company when he’s unable to visit with me in Second Life, I didn’t open SL all weekend while he was in the hospital. The weather was gorgeous and I spent some time puttering in my yard or sprawled on the deck, enjoying the sunshine. I also…
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Considering the impact of virtual gacha
Gacha machines have been spreading like wildfire through Second Life in the past couple years and they’re bringing a number of changes to the world. In fact, they’re so ubiquitous now that maybe we’re getting close to “Peak Gacha”. I think through my fingers sometimes, so let’s consider the impact they’ve had. What are gacha?…