dimanche, avril 29, 2007 Encounters with computer games: my Second Life experience  I don't gaming because I generally suck at it, but I look upon the Nintendo era games with fondness, like Contra, Bubble Bobble, Penguin on skates (I think it was also called Winter Wonderland, or something similar), and of course, the evergreen Super Mario Brothers, Luigi and Mario. I actually remember a real-life show which featured them, something like the real-life Spider-man show that used to show on Sesame Street - or some other similar show.I generally sucked at it anyway, so I left the gaming to my brother, but tried all the junk he got - you know, the Nintendo Game Boy, the Sega Game gear, etc, but the only thing I was remotely good at was Tetris, which really isn't in the same league as Sonic the Hedgehog, if you know your computer game history. When the computer game phenomenon, I tried it. My brother went mad, of course (and those of you who know him know that he's STILL a computer game freak, CS and WOWing 24-7.) I TRIED, I really did, to get "into" it, but Sim City took too much planning for a secondary school kid like me who was putting in time and a half for my grades, and DOOM was fun, but only when played with the full IDDQD and the IDKFJ or whatever the other ID-cryptograms were for the unlimited ammo and immortality. My brother, of course, would scoff and go into the dungeons killing monsters with only a pistol - a PISTOL, I tell you! I used NUCLEAR WEAPONS everytime I saw something move! The only game that I actually loved playing was Westwood Studio's Dune - the game made sense: collect $X and move to the next "location". Atreides, Harkonnen, Fremen, Saudukaur - wonderful names that resonated with me, and made the reading of the book (which would happen to me about 5 years down the road) a lot easier. (Incidentally, I've just finished reading the second book, Dune Messiah, today. Interesting stuff.) After Dune, I kind of gave up on computer games, until a while ago, while helping Rie do some training on blogging (which was unfortunately thwarted by earth - literally, since it was the day of the Taiwan earthquake which made Internet access suck for two weeks), I tried Counter Strike with a whole bunch of other n00bie teachers - which was really funny, since the girls kept winning because they just kept their eyes on the prize - i.e. getting the flags - instead of killing people, which seemed to occupy an unhealthy amount of headspace in the male teachers' minds. This fact is quite telling of gender differences. SX tried to make me play Audition with her and laughed at my ineptness, but after that one single time that I downloaded, installed and played the game with her, I gave it up - it wasn't very fun, and it just needed practice, not skill or tactics. I think I'd rather play online chess with the computer. Now, I'm trying Second Life, which didn't sound very fun. There doesn't seem to be anything to DO, except meet people and have virtual sex (which is kind of NOT hot at all). Honestly, after 4 hours of trying it out, my verdict: don't bother.  My avatar at n00bie islandIf you're still reading, then you must be a sucker for punishment, or are just curious about how Second Life works (same difference.) AVATARS. It's a "world" where you can enter, and you create an avatar (or "av" for short) to visually represent you. This is quite exciting because you do get quite a lot of choice of what to do with your face and body and clothes - it's quite advanced stuff like choosing the size, width, depth, colour, shape of your EYES for a start.  my av sitting atop a mountain watching the "sun" setVISITING. After you've created yourself, you can visit "islands", or square plots of land that people, or Linden Labs, have created. There's lots of stuff to "do" there - like casinos, beaches, casinos, car rallys, casinos, art galleries, casinos, porn clubs, strip clubs, pick-up clubs, and have I mentioned CASINOS? You get the idea.  my avatar at a casino, sitting down for money - L$3 per 10 minsBUILD AND SCRIPT. If you want to build stuff, it means that you have to be a crossbreed munkey who can both use AutoCAD and LindenScript, which looks like a bastard form of Java (OMG, this language will NOT LEAVE ME ALONE), in order to build objects that you can either (1) just own and interact with, or (2) sell for Linden Dollars (L$). EARN MONEY. You can also earn money by gambling, or dancing (L$2 for 20 minutes of letting your character stand there and dance - good for when you're sleeping in real life.) Alternate means of earning money would involve taking off items of clothing, and other dodgy activities. But hey, good news is that they haven't found a way to script in HIV/AIDS yet, so it's always safe! I'm not sure what would happen in Mr. Smith got into the world though. HAVE FUN. After you get tired of wandering around doing NOTHING (because sunbathing on the beach means you click a button, and then STARE AT YOUR AVATAR WHO LOOKS LIKE SHE'S HAVING FUN, BUT YOU'RE JUST STARING AT HER HAVING FUN, you can go talk to people. This means using the chat function to say (25m range), shout (100m) or whisper (10m) anything to your fellow Lindens. Now, if you're like me who has an aversion to MUDs and MMPORPGs, there's really no point to this - switch on your MSN or ICQ or Yahoo messenger or Skype, and roll with those; there's NO POINT in picking Second Life as a medium of communication with people you already know. If you don't, have fun chatting with people who will (1) be very very very nice, or (2) proposition you. The latter happens less than you would imagine, thank God. Overview: this is a game for hardcore gamers that are sick of the shooting and the fighting and the general unpleasantness that comes from being in a competitive game. Second Life is Sim City writ large, and writ with a huge profit in mind for Linden Labs. Build, script, and make friends in Second Life. And be happy - it's always safe here. Libellés : technology [Encounters with computer games: my Second Life experience] |
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