New World Notes

Underwhelmed by the Xbox One Reveal? It's Not Nearly As Bad As It Seems

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Tuesday's reveal of the new Xbox, Xbox One (a name that definitely leaves the door open for a lot of awkward family pranks this Christmas) hasn't exactly been resonating with the gaming community. The only part that really did seem to resonate were a few shots of a german shepherd being mocapped for the next game in the Call of Duty franchise. An adorable new meme was born from the internet's apathy for just about everything else shown on stage.

So the event wasn't 100% well received, and press confusion after the fact about issues like used/shared games has only made it worse. If you're feeling a bit bummed by what you've heard so far, here are a few things to bear in mind, along with a few more awesome mocap dog pictures to make it all that much more palatable:

Gold Harvesting Bots Nearly Destroy Diablo III's Economy

If you're a virtual economy geek this is a very interesting post on the recent woes suffered in the virtual economy of Diablo III, which allows the buying and selling for in-game goods for real world money. However, hundreds and hundreds of gold-harvesting bots nearly collapsed the economy, apparently:

[S]everal weeks after the game’s debut a source claimed that there were at least 1,000 bots active 24/7 in the Diablo 3 game world, allegedly “harvesting” (producing) 4 million virtual gold per hour.[4] Most of the gold generated by the ruthlessly productive, rapidly adapting bots found its way to third party vendors in a black market which undercut the prices in the sanctioned, in-game auction houses... the Diablo 3 economy appears to have entered hyperinflation between February and March of 2013, when the black market price of gold fell from $0.20/million to $0.05/million — a decline of over 75 percent in a few weeks.

Diablo III publisher Blizzard seems to have stabilized the economy for now, but the post describes an important object lesson for managing a virtual economy. Especially because it's likely many thousands of players make a real life living from the Diablo III economy.

Hat tip: Scott "Lum the Mad" Jennings.

Downton Abbey meets The Sims 3, Snowflake Day Special Part 2: It Takes Two to Igloo

Iris Ophelia's ongoing effort to simulate Downton Abbey in The Sims 3

Winter has been bleak and unforgiving at Sim Downton Abbey. The family is nearly destitute, and the biggest holiday of the year, Snowflake Day, is just around the corner. It wouldn't be Snowflake Day without a gift-giving party, but parties aren't cheap -- the cost of a proper holiday tree or even a few modest plates of cookies would put the family in the red.

But where there there's a will, there's a way... No series-appropriate pun intended.

New MMO Marvel Heroes Has Its Fair Share of Problems (And Nearly None of Them Were Caused by Dr. Doom)

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Last weekend I had the chance to play Marvel Heroes, an MMO that combines Diablo-esque play with a litany of characters from the Marvel universe. It'll be free-to-play right from its June 4th launch, complete with an in-game store bursting at the seams with premium content like extra characters, costumes, and powerups.

I really enjoyed playing Marvel Heroes at first, but unfortunately it didn't take long for the veneer to fade. Fans of Marvel comics (even just the movies to be honest) may be thrilled to play what's been described as a much improved version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but for poseurs like me who merely have vague and/or nostalgic interest in the characters this game leaves a lot to be desired. For instance...

Upcoming Puzzle Game Road Not Taken Might Look (And Sound) Familiar to Fans of Defunct Virtual World Glitch

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Spry Fox, the indie publisher behind the addictive multi-platform puzzle/strategy game Triple Town, has been working with two Tiny Speck alums to put together Road Not Taken, a puzzle game inspired by Robert Frost coming later this year. If the aesthetic style in the image above looks familiar, it's because the game's art has been in the hands of Spry Fox's art director Kukubee (a.k.a. Meowza), who also helped realize the distinct and darling visuals of browser-based MMO Glitch.

It's not just the art that should inspire nostalgia in the hearts of Glitch-lovers, though...

Dear Internet: If You Must, Harass me for What I'm Doing -- Not for What I Am

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in a charity streamathon, an event where people essentially play games for an online audience to raise money. I was playing and watching others play alongside a slew of outstanding guests. We raised a hell of a lot of money for an incredibly worthy cause, and the whole thing was a resounding (if exhausting) success. I'm not going to name the event here -- though it's not hard to figure out -- because this post isn't about the streamathon. We contributed to something amazing, and nothing can or should change that.

This post is about the creeps and the jerks; the ones who donate under names like "JanineMakeMeHot", who look for any opportunity to embarrass a woman no matter what the context, who may even think they're being flattering. The people who left their bitter little marks on an otherwise amazing event.

For all I know, this post may be about you.

Strangelings Virtual Pets Auction for Up to $30 in Real Cash

Strangelings, the cross-platform virtual pet game from Linden Lab veterans, has gained nearly 2,500 players since launching last month, and recently launched an Auction House where players can sell their pets for real money. Most recently, one pet went for USD$30.

"The Auctions run live with real-time chat and live bidding with the seller making money from their animals," Strangelings head developer Chris Collins tells me. "Strangelings could be the first casual game that offers this kind of capability." (Offhand, I think that sounds right.)

As I said, Strangelings was founded by Linden Lab vets, most especially Collins, who was an executive during Second Life's salad days. And he's learned a lot from those times that he's applying to Strangelings, he tells me:

Downton Abbey meets The Sims 3, Snowflake Day Special Part 1: A Song of Ice and Fire Alarms

Iris Ophelia's ongoing effort to simulate Downton Abbey in The Sims 3

Winter is coming.

... Actually, it's already here; the abbey grounds were enveloped in a thick layer of snow almost overnight. The scenic ponds and rivers may have frozen over, but the heat is on at Sim Downton. Although things seemed to be going relatively well a series of unfortunate events have put the Crawleys in crisis just in time for the holidays, and even I'm not sure they'll be able to escape it unscathed.

There's a Lot to Hate About Ultra-Trashy Sci-Fi MMO Scarlet Blade, So Why Don't I Actually Hate It?

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Today I want to write about something I've been wrestling with for a few weeks, a new MMO for mature audiences that makes me feel very... conflicted. I'm not quite sure where I stand when it comes to Aeria Games' Scarlet Blade. So far most of the coverage of this game has either focussed on how appalling the avatars are or how awesome they are, but few people have tried to engage with it beyond that. The avatars certainly are... something else... but they're barely the tip of the iceberg.

I played Scarlet Blade for the first time a few weeks ago, and since then I've been struggling to form a solid opinion about it. I feel almost guilty about my continued ambivalence. There are a lot of reasons to hate Scarlet Blade... So why don't I? (NSFW)

Game Dev Tycoon Offers Surprising Insight into Game Development... Especially If You've Pirated It

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

There's a new indie game in the spotlight this week, but it's not there for the reasons you might expect. At first blush, Game Dev Tycoon by two-man team Greenheart Games might seem like a simple clone of Kairosoft's wildly successful Game Dev Story (which is not quite fair, for reasons I'll discuss later) but it's the game's anti-piracy measures that have been turning heads more than the game itself.

This isn't the first time that developers have added entertaining features to their game specifically to punish pirates, but in this case it's the sheer irony that makes it stand out. Pirates of Game Dev Tycoon may not notice any difference in their game at first, but gradually software piracy increases until their studio will inevitably go bankrupt from dwindling prices and insurmountable theft rates. Of course Greenheart Games only tipped their hand on this recently, sharing forum posts from players ironically lamenting the effects of piracy in their games, and even asking if they can research DRM. It's well worth reading Greenheart Games' own post on the subject for a full summary.

However, with so many people talking about Game Dev Tycoon, not many of them are really talking about Game Dev Tycoon. Is it any good? Is it just a Game Dev Story clone? Here are my thoughts: