“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend.  Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.  In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose….  The wind was not the beginning.  There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of time. 
But it was a beginning.”

I was saddened today to learn of the passing of Robert Jordan, one of the giants of modern fantasy literature with his Wheel of Time series.  I can remember first hearing about the WoT series.  I was a Junior in college sitting in a Sociology class.  My mind strayed from the lecture for a few moments, and as I glanced down the row there was a guy reading a book.  I leaned over to inquire what he was reading, and it was Robert Jordan.  He said it was good and I wasn’t reading anything at that time, so I figured I’d give it a shot.  That summer I spent a lot of my free time reading up through book six, the most current at the time.

I will miss seeing what Jordan would have done in the future with this series and others.  I do hope that someone who was close to him will continue his work, using his outlines and notes, and finish this grand epic in his honor.   You can find the official announcement on his blog at Dragonmount.com. 

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Our beloved pasttime was officially proclaimed innocent today by the official VA Tech review panel, led by the Governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine.

While the world was still reeling from the shock of the horrible tragedy that is the V-Tech shootings, a formal investigation into the murderer’s background - as well as what could have been done, and what should be done to prevent anything like this from happening again - was launched, and has recently concluded. Its findings, which should provide at the very least, solace to the bereaved, also provide an answer to a question that the videogame community (as well as the rest of the world) had been asking: was violence in videogames a factor in Seung Hui Cho’s outburst?

The answer is a resounding ‘no’.

I guess Dr. Phil will have to come up with some new material, at least until the next opportunity to blame videogames for societies ills presents itself.

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To this day, I still think one of the most useful (if not the most useful) courses I took in highschool was typing - yes it was still typing on a typewriter at that time, not keyboarding.  I learned all the basics there, from ASDF JKL; to speed.  By the time that class was finished I was typing very proficiently, and it’s served me well ever since.  In MMOs, it was typing by chat box that was the main vehicle of communication in-game for several years.  Even today it’s highly used and still very much has its place in these games.  But voicechat has come on strong - very strong - to the point where a lot of guilds use voicechat in addition to text, or sometimes exclusively.  In addition, some games have now been built with voicechat support from the ground up, or are including it in later patches.  Voicechat has come of age and is now spreading its wings.

Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane.  I can remember first learning about “voip” (voice over internet protocol) several years ago, back before the turn of the century (hehe…always wanted to say that).  I think the first voicechat programs (products actually) I used was Gamevoice by Microsoft (but Roger Wilco was also available at that time).  My dad and I used it while we played through Asheron’s Call and through some of the Baldur’s Gate games.  I then moved on to Teamspeak and used that in CoH and EQ2 when it launched.  I was finally introduced to Ventrilo in WoW, and found the audio to be superior to Teamspeak, so I switched over.  Recently I was introduced to Skype, and I have to say it is probably the clearest voicechat I’ve used to date.  I’ve definitely had more years at the keyboard, but I’m coming up on 6 years or so of using voicechat in MMOs.

Don’t get me wrong.  Typing still definitely has it’s place in the world of MMOs.  There are times when you don’t feel like talking, or you can get across more roleplaying goodness by typing than actually speaking.  It’s hard to LOL or ROFL or OMG over Vent sometimes, and it’s easier to just type BRB or AFK.  There are also those guildmates and friends who inevitably are not on voicechat, so you’ll need to continue to type to communicate with them.  Obviously typing was the exclusive method for awhile, and I remember forging good relationships and communicating well (I thought) back in the EQ days.  So it can definitely work, but I’ve grown to love voicechat for all that it can provide.  I don’t really see it as an “either/or”, I see them as both tools I want to use while playing an MMO.

All that said, I think voicechat is here to stay - and why not?  It’s how we naturally communicate.  I have found that the use of voicechat can offer a lot.  First, it offers fun - I can’t count the number of funny comments and moments that happened on my WoW guild’s ventrilo server.  Priceless stuff.  Secondly, it frees you up.  No longer are you trying to execute your abilties and move your character around while trying to type commands and information.  You can just naturally speak while you are also running things via the keyboard.  Third, it can increase efficiency in giving raid instructions.  You don’t have to macro and hotkey a bunch or raid instructions, or sit there and type a novel for five minutes while the raid waits around.  You can just speak and tell people what’s going on, answer a few quick questions, and get going.  Finally, voicechat can build and enhance relationships just as it does in real life as we talk to people and get to know them.  You actually come to associate each person’s voice with their character, to the point where it seems like a very natural extension of what you are seeing onscreen (at least for me).

Voicechat is great, and can work great provided you have a guild that’s mature enough to know how to use it properly, not talk over raid leader, not scream into the mic, etc.  So a level of maturity is needed, or else voicechat can become a complete nightmare.   So what are some of the objections to using voicechat?

1.  “I don’t want to hear the voice of a 14 year old boy coming from our Ogre main tank.”  This is probably the most common objection (or fear?) I hear.  In practice, I’ve never seen this happen.  For me, hearing a real person’s voice has not broken immersion, it’s only become an extension of the character itself.  And best of all, I’m actually hearing (and getting to know) the real person, not reading lines of text having to imagine (or infer) meaning. 

2.  “I don’t like how I sound - I’d rather type“.  O.k…well, not much to say there.  If you don’t like how you sound and want to type, that’s perfectly fine in my book. 

3.  “Everyone talks over each other during raids and it’s too chaotic“.  I think some simple groundrules, moderation and maturity nip this objection in the bud.  If you use voicechat a lot, and raid a lot, people learn when to speak up and ask a question and when not too.  Or when it’s o.k. to crack a joke and b.s. a bit and when not to.  At least that’s been my experience.  I raided very extensively in WoW using Ventrilo, and we never had an issue with hearing instructions because people knew to be quiet during those times.  At other times however, even during a boss fight (if it was one we knew well), we might be joking and cutting up, just enjoying the game.  Some guilds have solved this issue by only allowing raid leaders to talk, or by coordinating instructions with group leaders in separate channels, etc.  Whatever works!

So what is the future of voicechat?  Will it continue to be mainly provided by third parties, or will more and more MMOs build in voicechat from the ground up.  Well, one company is trying to do that latter - Vivox. 

Vivox provides online games, virtual worlds and other online communities with robust, integrated voice chat. Vivox delivers superior quality voice chat, video, Instant Messaging (IM) and presence – all of which greatly improve gameplay and social interaction. Today, Vivox is bringing voice to over one million subscribers in more than 180 countries.

Vivox’s integrated voice solution and managed communication services enable you to create an online experience that reflects the individuality of your game or online community, including its social structure, look and feel, user interface, brand identity, and genre. Tightly integrated within your virtual world, Vivox voice chat services make real-time communication simple and scalable – whether you support thousands or millions of users.

Vivox will be making an appearance at the Austin GDC in September.  Just take a look at some of the technologies they will be showcasing - this is cool stuff!  3D Positional Sound?  That sounds pretty darn interesting in itself.  I think Vivox has some interesting technology there, and I’ll be interested to see how voicechat from this company and others is integrated into MMOs over the next several years. 

If you’ve always been skeptical of voicechat, heard horror stories, or just have the fear of hearing that 14 year old Ogre, I’d urge you to give it another try.  You may find that you actually enjoy talking, laughing and celebrating with your friends and guildmates using your voice, instead of the keyboard.

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One hundred and thirty one.  What could that number possibly signify?  The number of times they pushed the button on LOST during season 2?  The amount of money I spent last weekend on entertainment?  The sheer volume of papers I had to write during my college career?  None of the above my friends.  It signifies the number of MMO blogging sites that I researched and found as of the end of July of this year.  Since then, I’ve seen several new sites (my own included) spring up and start rolling.  Talk about feeling like a small fish in a big pond! 

 When I was looking into starting a blog, I thought about a lot of different things.  Why do I want to blog?  What am I going to write about?  What’s my angle?  How will I be different?  Will I be around in thirty days, much less six months or a year?  And maybe most importantly of all, Will anyone even know my site exists, much less read it with any regularity? 

When I saw that initial number, it felt pretty daunting.  What could I possibly have to say that someone out there isn’t already saying on a blog?  And we’re just talking blogs folks - not all the MMO and gaming new sites and semi-bloggish stuff out there.  That is a lot of content going up daily, as my time spent perusing it all on my RSS feeder can attest.  So I had some anxiety and uncertainty going in, but also some hope and excitement that I could enjoy doing this and that maybe, someday, I might get a comment.

But you know what I’ve found?  I’ve found I really enjoy the blog-pond.  I have enjoyed writing for my site, and for the most part am content with the articles and information I’ve put up.  I’ve really enjoyed getting into the mix in other blogs, reading their content and commenting on something that really hits home for me.  I love giving props to people and “pimping” other folks sites.  And best of all, I’ve already made some new friends who I hope to get in touch with for years to come.  Overall, it’s been really interesting to see the blog-o-sphere at work and how news, ideas, debate, and personalities all co-mingle to form a vibrant community of dedicated fans.

I’m content to be a small fish in a big pond.  I enjoy seeing what everyone else is doing and celebrating what’s being achieved.  I’m satisfied with my own creative outlet here and want to continue to develop it with time.  And lo and behold, I actually did get some comments along the way.

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It had been a long day, and an even longer night.  My group and I had been in the depths of Guk for hours, fighting waves upon waves of frogloks in all shapes and sizes.  Despite our best efforts, the rare drops we sought eluded us.  Deciding to move on and try another time, we decided to pack it in and head for the surface. 

By this time, we were all intimately familiar with every hallway, waterway and shortcut that lower and upper Guk had to offer.  So it with no hesitation at all that I auto-followed a member of my group as we trekked back toward the zone line to upper Guk.  Glancing over, I snagged the book I had been reading and opened up to the bookmarked page.  I began to read and was quickly engrossed in the story.

* As a sidenote, I typically do keep a book close by when I play MMOs, although it’s especially true on an MMO I’ve played a long time and/or one that has a lot of downtime built in, as EQ did.*

The book was good - it really was, and I was at a place in the story where you just have to keep going - you know what I mean.  Finally, I reached a point where I could take a break in the action, insert my bookmark, and return to the world of Norrath.  I had only been reading for 30 seconds or so, right?  It was then that I heard a very disturbing sound, and glanced at my screen.  Red text was scrolling in the chat box, my party was nowhere to be seen, and I was underwater.  Applying my Holmes-ian skills, I quickly deduced that I was in fact drowning!  (My group had apparently swam up a waterway and hit a zone point to upper Guk.  Due to the autofollow, I zoned through, but after that it broke off).

Unfortunately for me, my realization came too late to save my character, who drowned right after the zone point into upper Guk.  As I continued to look at the chat box, I saw several comments scrolling quickly by such as “What happened??” or “Senjen!?” or “How did you die…we just zoned?”  It was with a little embrassment that I had to explain what had occured, but it provided my group with plenty of laughs from that point on.  I don’t think I ever did hear the end of it.  Here we had survived endless battles in the depths of Guk, yet I had been felled by reading a book.

 What the funniest/dumbest death you’ve had in an MMO?  I’d love to hear about it.

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Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games.  We love em.  We live in them.  Often we dedicate more time to them than we do to real life relationships.  Or our jobs.  Or sometimes our health.  We think about our characters, our guild, our equipment and our raiding strategies more than we like to admit.  Clearly we are part of a community of people that has found a strong connection with this medium, this genre.  Either that, or I’m in dire need of a padded room.

Be that as it may, I wondered today about the nature of the MMO.  Are companies like SOE and Blizzard trying to sell us a product to own, or are they selling us a service - an experience?  After thinking about it awhile, I came to a few conclusions:

1. Most of us buy a product - a game box with CD/DVDs and a rulebook in it;
2. That product is expanded over time by patches and expansions, some of which we also buy in a store;
3. Ultimately however, what MMO developers have really sold us is a service, an “experience”; and 
4. The service/experience can actually become ”the product” to differentiate themselves from competitors. 

Honestly, we’re being sold an experience - an entertainment experience.  A service that companies like SOE and Blizzard are more than happy to provide.  And to be honest, it’s a service I’m more than happy to pay for.  For my entertainment dollar, MMOs are still the most afforadle way to go for dollars to hours spent on a monthly basis.

Developers obviously spend a lot of time looking at the “experience” they are creating.  What setting is the game in?  What about races or classes?  Lore and history.  Graphical look.  PvP.  PvE.  Raiding.  Housing.  Mounts.  Guilds.  Skills/Abilities/Talents.  Each part in the process, each decision that is made, adds in one way or another to this conceptual soup that finally becomes the experience that we enjoy (or hate!). 

All of us have played more and more MMOs over the years.  As a group we are becoming more demanding in what we want to experience.  The bar keeps rising.  We want to see new things.  We want to see innovation.  What once delighted and surprised us now seems normal at best and boring at worst.  Jaded?  Maybe…but it’s like riding a rollercoaster one too many times.  Eventually it just doesn’t hold the excitement it once did.

Remember, players don’t take loot with them when they leave a game.  What do we take?  Emotions, experiences, and memories.  We’re human - we can’t help but walk away with those things.  Developers have to be focused on excellent service, and unique, entertaining experiences.  If MMOs are just a product, they ultimately will fail.

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Was browsing the shirts at Jinx and came across a very appropriate t-shirt for my site.  I may have to pick this one up.  Lots of great shirts over there if you are into gamer/geek wear.  Appropriate for an evening out gaming, at a Con, or just lying around the house.  And of course it’s entirely appropriate if you happen to be reading this particular site. 

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I find myself, much like Captain Picard (man I miss that show!), exploring a strange new world and new civilization.  Boldly blogging where….many have gone before.  I hope over the coming weeks and months to record my thoughts and opinions of various MMOs.  I hope it will be an enjoyable experience and allow me to voice some of the thoughts and opinions I’ve formed over the last 13 years or so of online gaming. 

If you have yet to read my pages, give them a look see to find out a little more about me and how to get in touch.  You might also want to peek at the “My Characters” page to see what names, guilds and games I’ve been associated with the most the last several years.  I may know you from somewhere!

Again, welcome to TSID.  The cookies and punch are on the back table.  Be sure to sign in and get a nametag.

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