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Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.

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l2spell kthxbye

Raph asks, Is Text Chat Corrupting Our Language? I agree with his answer and direct you here for an understanding of why. The letter that Bob Yates transcribes is not some off-the-cuff IM — it is a representative letter to a head of state. I will fully grant that more stupid things are written today than ever before in history. This is because more people are writing today than ever before in history. A century ago, a 50% literacy rate would not have been bad. Now anyone with a two-digit IQ can get on LiveJournal, MySpace, and Blogspot to tell you all about what her cats did today (LOL!) or how he wtfpwned that n00bz0r pally (cmn l2p). Our language has been corrupt for centuries, we just have slightly different forms of degeneracy these days, combined with better records of it.

: Zubon

Yes, I am a daily reader of a blog about linguistics. I read a lot.

Breakthrough

coh[City of Heroes] Issue 9 is live, with the Invention system, CoX’s answer to loot. I worry about that, since one of the things I liked about CoX was the lack of loot (and need to worry about it), and now I assume that some things will be rebalanced with the expectation of players using Invented stuff.

Links: [announcement], [patch notes], [ruminations on the third anniversary]

I was planning to resubscribe tonight, but that was before I saw the new Issue. I am not sure that I want to suggest to their data-mining that I came back because I really wanted loot in CoX, so I am here bright and happy one Day One of its existence. Conveniently, it looks like the game will be updating for at least an hour, so I don’t need to worry about that tonight. The download continues…

: Zubon

We Want Your Game to Fail, Too

The industry is stuck in its comfort zone, too. Commenters on yesterday’s post successfully covered most of my thoughts, so I will direct you there. Same thing: we need to experiment and sometimes stumble to learn. Heartless, amongst others, is hoping for that comfort zone to implode:

We really needed a big, AAA title to fail miserably trying to follow the old “release now, fix later” mentality.

Our own Nicodemus is predicting that we are on the upswing of a boom-bust cycle in MMOs, so maybe we will see that creative destruction in action soon.

: Zubon

I’m Dumb

It took me a minute to figure out why Google was giving us ads about vermin control. “Get Rid of Raccoons”? And then I remembered what site I write for. *smack*

: Zubon

“‘Mice control’?” I’m thinking, “you just move it with your hand. Maybe they’re selling wireless ones…”

Failure FTW

You know what your problem is? You’re too good. You have found what you are good at and stuck with it. You are the best tank out there, and you have been tanking for your guild for three games now. Everyone relies on you for that. You leveled a (feral) druid alt, and you tried a mage, but the playstyle is uncomfortably different and you’re not good at it. Why be a lousy mage when you could be a great tank?

You are stuck in your comfort zone. You need to go out there and fail. Try a lot of things. A lot. You will be lousy at most of them and you will do dumb things. But a few of them will really work for you. Maybe you are not such a bad rogue once you stop trying to play the class like a tank. Maybe you could be the best healer ever because you know exactly what the tank needs. Maybe you find that one type of PvP is fun, or you miss racing games, or that small publisher made the best little niche game you have ever seen.

That’s the entire basis a major component of our economy: failure is easy to recover from, but success is rewarding and lasting. That is why your game has a light death penalty: try everything, even dumb things, and you can find something new and fun. And if not, if nothing is better or is even a viable alternative, you are still the best tank on your server. You are accepting that role consciously and knowingly, rather than just clinging to the familiar.

: Zubon

Crap, I don’t have do that, do I? I’ve been playing a mage or a healer since like 1999.

Indie MMORPGs: CHALLENGE!

Some conversation about independent MMORPGs has started in my last post, mostly about getting exposure and getting the word out.

So here is my challenge, if you are working on or starting an independent MMORPG, drop me a line. Tell us about what you are working on and what your goals are. Get on the radar. No, I won’t ask you about the super secret stuff you should be keeping under NDA, but I will talk about you.

Be careful if you ask for my opinion though, I’m a mean old ogre and very critical!

So, what are you working on?

PS: I’m interested in non-game virtual worlds, as well as any MMO style projects going on in the academic and “serious games” sectors.