The (travelling) Guild of Healers invites you on a metaphorical caravan………..

through desert and mountain, climbing and descending, to the Mediterranean Sea following the interwoven complexities of the Silk Road. We’ve chosen to meet in Second Life in new facilities provided by the kind folks there, but the music can be heard anywhere people want to meet.

We met in Second Life, an online world where the members design and create the places in the world.  We met in an Uru themed location. Uru is a multiplayer game that was cancelled but still has a fan following.   We sat around a fountain. There was a map of our route on the wall. 

What followed could best be described as a virtual journey in a virtual space.  The creator of the event played music and talked to us as if we were on a journey – “the day is getting warmer”, “the camels are tired”.  The music had an evocative theme – think of a combination of a Hearts of Space radio show (http://www.hos.com) and the music of  Loreena McKennitt. The event creator text chatted, moving us along the route.  The participants also text chatted.  Sometimes the participants text chatted as if they were on the journey.  Sometimes they texted as if they were sitting around the fountain.  Sometimes they texted as if they were in front of their computer.  People welcomed other people, asked about something, made a comment on the journey, said they had to leave to do something in the real world, made a joke, talked about technical problems in Second Life (“sorry, I crashed”).  This is my favorite way to act in a virtual space, a way that seems most natural.  You act as if you are in a virtual space, but you also act as if you aren’t.

This type of event is very difficult to do well.  Aside from it being a pretend journey in a pretend space, the event was designed to be serious, which is hard to do well. It could have been a pretentious disaster.  It could have been boring.  It wasn’t either – it was spectacular!  In some way it felt like you were both sitting around a fountain and on a magical journey in a caravan on the Silk Route.

Here are some pictures.

Second Life - The Silk Route Musical Journey, June 2009

Second Life - event view from further away, June 2009

Free Realms is a new MMO, developed by Sony Online Entertainment. (http://www.freerealms.com) The game is one of the newest of the free to play games (FTP).  You can be online and play for free, but you get more content if you spend money in game, or if you pay an additional subscription fee, in this case a relatively inexpensive $5.00 per month, US dollars.  From what I’ve read, the “free to play” part doesn’t appear to be the proverbial “bait and switch” – it looks like you get a lot of game for free.

The game is ostensibly targeted to, as SOE puts it – “everyone young at heart: tweens, teens, and families alike. It’s a rich and magical world where even parents are welcome. In fact, you’ll want to jump right in and play with your kids! ”  http://www.freerealms.com/forParents.vm

Gameplay is stunningly diverse.  You can fight monsters, explore new areas, train pets, mine for things like shiny gems, cook, race cars, and play minigames. I may have left something off the list – there’s so much of it.  The game is set in a fantasy world, but not a heavy, dark one. The look of the game is bright, lively, pretty in parts, with a great sense of design.  It’s like a fun wacky cartoon you get to be in.  You can also play as a character (an avatar) with wings!  If I have a choice, I’m always going to play someone with wings.  Why would you not? 

Free Realms - starting area - May 2009

My character in the starting area, where we learn to play the game.  Notice the wings?

Free Worlds was originally marketed to families, but I’ve read articles and posts across the MMO world saying that adults are jumping in and having a great time.  Even at the, for want of a better word “hardcore” or “classic”, MMO sites such as TenTonHammer and MMORPG, I’m finding posts where grownups say that they are playing this game, sometimes as their secondary “no pressure” MMO.  I’m still at the beginning of the game, but it looks like a fun game I’ll enjoy playing.

Massively (http://www.massively.com) can do hardcore, but they aren’t snooty about what is supposed to count as an MMO.  They’ve done some interesting articles on Free Realms,  and a great little webcomic!

http://www.massively.com/2009/05/15/massively-webcomic-grinders-the-best-of-the-best/

Here’s a great picture of a crowd of people in Free Realms

http://www.massively.com/2009/05/16/one-shots-friday-night-dance-party/

Guild Wars, Guild Hall Party, April 2009

At the end of April, Guild Wars had an in game festival to celebrate their four year anniversary.

http://www.guildwars.com/events/ingame/four_year_anniversary/default.php

 I came from another multiplayer game world, Uru, where there was very little to do.  Consequently, I was amazed that a game company would give you fun stuff to do, in game, for something that only lasted one week.  We had events in Uru, but we had to “make do” with what we had.  One could say that this showed creativity on the part of the Uru players, but it just didn’t seem right.  It’s hard to play “let’s pretend” with no props and nothing changing in the game.

I’ve learned that many multiplayer games  have  festivals.   People like to come together, in a virtual space,  for a reason, for something special.  The festivals in Lord of the Rings Online are said to be quite good, particularly in the hobbit areas.  This makes sense – you can imagine the Shire having really good festivals!

 I enjoyed the Anniversary Celebration.

Guild Wars Festival Game, April 25, 2009

I’m playing a game of chance where you stand on a ring, and some sort of blast knocks you down.  If you don’t fall down (not up to you) you win.

GW Festival, another game, April 25, 2009

 

Guild Wars Festival, Dragon Arena, April 2009

 

  

 

 

 

Here is a view of the Dragon Arena, so lovely and festive.  I didn’t play, I just visited the place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All for now,

amarez – mszv

Sometimes we use our guild halls for parties. At this party we had to mute the in-game music, as we had a person playing music via shoutcast – a way for people to broadcast personal play lists over the internet.  We had our own personal music DJ!

The party (end of March) was fun.  Virtual parties aren’t exactly like in-person or “real” parties, but there is something real about them.   It’s a nice way to connect across physical spaces and time zones.

Guild Wars Party - March 28, 2009

It takes me forever to orient myself in a new part of the world.  My sense of direction is not great in “real life”, and it’s not great in the game.  I accepted a quest that sent me to Shalev’s cave (Old Ascalon area) – how hard could that be to find? I had it marked on a map I printed out.  3 hours later, I never found it, but me and my tough little priest henchwoman killed a bunch of monsters.  She’s my computer generated companion, but I’m getting quite fond of her.   The next day I discovered I was looking in the wrong place for Shalev.  I also learned what I didn’t know about the compass, the mission map and the general map!

I’m a member of a “Guild”.  More specifically, my characters in-game are in a guild.  My guild is in what is called an “Alliance” of 10 guilds.   The in-game purpose of guilds and alliances is for PvP – player versus player combat.  Combat can be between individuals or groups.   Guild Wars has several ways of doing this, all of which are said to be interesting and fun.  But – you don’t have to do it.  Some of our alliance guilds are into PvP, some are not, but it’s all OK.   We also use our guilds and alliance for friendly socialization, and for helping each other out in the PvE part (player versus environment) – where we defeat the evil beings in our world.   I was invited to join an established guild and alliance.  Each guild had made enough progress to get their members guild halls.  Guild halls consist of an interior and surrounding space, often an island.   These are shared spaces where only members of our guild and alliance can visit, unless we give someone an invitation.   The spaces are beautiful.  I love visiting them – so peaceful.

You can talk to people in Guild Wars via text chat to the people in your play area, your Guild, your Alliance.  I started to chat with people in the Alliance chat – nice friendly people.  It makes the world seem more like an actual world.  Even if you are doing something by yourself, there are other people in the world, some of whom you know.  It’s nice.

Old Ascalon – monster fight

My elementalist/priest (magician/healer), right, and my henchwoman priest (healer), left, battle a really ugly monster.

One of our Alliance Guild Halls

I walk through water.

amarez – mszv

I haven’t played Guild Wars much since school started at the end of August – no time – so my  February 27th and February 28th play time was a treat.  I fell in love with Guild Wars again.  It’s hard to explain if you’ve never gotten into an online world.  Yes, this is a fantasy setting (like Lord of the Rings, but different) but it works for me.  It’s a wonderful escape from the real world.  My primary character is a magician/healer – in Guild Wars terms that an elementalist/monk.  Combat is beautiful – calling on the elements (earth, fire, water, air) is great fun, and there are wonderful special effects. 

There’s also a story.  I’ve finally gotten past the good times – before terrible things happened to my part of the world.  I’m at the point where evil monsters almost destroyed our main city, and us.  The world is different now – a different kind of beauty, more stark, ruined, we are barely holding on.  The world has also opened up to me.  I’ll be able to travel to other areas that aren’t destroyed and see new things.

I’m looking forward to seeing the Jade Sea. From one of the Guild Wars wikis – “The Jade Sea is located on the eastern side of the Canthan continent. It is the home of the Luxons, whose entire watery realm was frozen into solid jade when the Jade Wind swept across the region.” (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Jade_Sea).  What could be better?

Here are some pictures -

My Desktop

My desktop, a Dell Dimension 8400 is 4 years old, but I just got the hard drive replaced, and it was still under warranty!  It runs fine, though I’ll be putting more memory in it – 1GB is not enough nowadays.  I want to get a new desktop, but I think I’ll wait until Windows 7 is out.                 

I do like my new screen setup.  Last Thanksgiving I participated in the “Black Friday” shopping experience. I showed up at Fry’s Electronics at 4:50 AM, the Friday after Thankgiving (US Holiday in November) to get my 21.6 inch wide screen monitor, for cheap.  Combined with my 17 inch monitor, I finally have enough screen real estate so that playing games and doing work is a pleasant experience.

GW Prophesies Pre Searing – Bandit Blood Sworns

Guild Wars Prophesies, pre searing.  My elementalist is battling two Blood Bandit Sworns, female bandits who roam the pre-searing world of Ascalon.  These are vicious fighters, and they attack on site! 

You can view yourself closer in Guild Wars, but sometimes I like to pan all the way out to get a more panoramic view of my avatar in the world.

GW Prophesies Post Searing – Outside of Ascalon

Guild Wars Prophesies, post searing.  I’ve pushed the in-game view far away from my avator to get this view. My elementalist (on the right) is on a quest in the area west of Ascalon City. 

I’m with a henchman, a computer generated character who is a member of my party.  She’s good at healing, but not much of a talker.

amarez – mszv

Let’s talk about instancing, in two multiplayer games (MMOs):

     Guild Wars – http://www.guildwars.com

     Myst Online: Restoration Experiment – Uru – http:/www.mystonline.com. 

From the official Guild wars Wiki – “An instance is a game location that is specifically generated by the game for a party or group…… Instancing allows a party to adventure by itself without other players stealing kills/loot, but also precludes any chance of meeting a random stranger at a secluded location ……” (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Instance)

Scenario time -  I’m in Guild Wars, and I need to find 5 gargoyle skulls. I start in an area with people, and I enter an instance of an area – the catacombs. The area is mine alone to play in. The magic, the beauty, the wonder and the fun – it’s all mine! I wander around, and I find some gargoyles – those meanies! I rain fire, and I get my skulls. I leave the catacombs and go back to town.

In Guild Wars an instance is not permanent. When you leave an instanced area, your copy goes away. The next time you go exploring , another copy of the area is generated for you. It sounds disjointed, but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels like you exploring the same area. This works because there are things you can accomplish in an hour or two of play.

In Uru instancing is permanent.  When I play Uru, areas of the world, called ages, are set up for me as I explore. Unless I decide to reset an age, whatever I do in my private ages stays “done”, even if I leave and come back to the age. If I push a lever in Teledahn to turn on power, the next time I enter Teledahn, the power is still on. It makes sense to have permanent instanced ages in Uru because the puzzles are lengthy and complicated. If an age was reset whenever I left – I wouldn’t get anywhere! I can also invite people to my private ages – I can share them with friends.

This feature of Uru is very appealing. All of my private ages feel, in some way, like home.

Both Uru and Guild Wars have shared spaces, an area owned by a group of people. Uru calls them neighborhoods. Guild Wars calls them Guild Halls.

Both games have multiplayer public spaces. Guild Wars has towns, estates, outposts. Guild Wars makes copies of the public spaces, so the towns don’t feel too crowded.  Each copy of a public space can be visited by any player. If your friends are in a different public space from the one you are in, you can join them.  Uru has one public space, Ae’gura, the city. About 100 people at one time can be in the public Ae’gura.  Uru also makes copies of the city accessible from the neighborhoods, to enable everyone to visit the city, whenever they want to.

Not all MMO players like instancing.  Arenanet plans to reduce instancing for its next game, Guild Wars II, and focus on more of a classic MMO shared game world.  But – I want to say to Arenanet – I love instancing!  Uru is currently not open for play, but there is some possiblity that it will come back.  MORE/Uru will continue to have permanent instanced areas.

Here’s what I love about instancing. Online games can be messy, complicated places, particularly for a devoted but intermittent player. They can be annoying to the player who likes both an online world with “people” and a virtual world where you can be alone – or with a few companions. My game time is very limited, and I want to have a good time each time I play. Sometimes I want to experience the beauty and the wonder of the worlds all by myself. I’m social, but there are times when I want to be alone. I don’t want to ignore the people in an online space, like you ignore strangers on the street in a real city. Sometimes I want the “people” to not be there at all! I want to control it – I want to be the one who decides when to be with people and when to be alone, in my beautiful online multiplayer worlds.

So please – Uru and Guild Wars – keep my private space!

A few pictures – because I like pictures

Teledahn - a private age

Teledahn, a private age in Uru

Guild Hall View

View from my  guild hall, a shared space in Guild Wars.

Regards,

amarez – mszv

In July 2008, Cyan announced that they would self publish a multiplayer version, making this the fourth time a multiplayer version of Uru will be released! The initial release by Cyan will have no new Cyan content, but fans will be able to create their own content (with some restrictions).  Cyan will review player created content and add it to the game, for other players to enjoy.

Two good links

MMORPG Article

http://mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?LOADNEWS=7159&bhcp=1

History of Uru – Wikipedia entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst_Online:_Uru_Live

Three screenshots

Uru - opening screenshot - the desert

My first screenshot from the 2003 beta.  I start Uru.  I am in the desert in New Mexico.  What will I find?

Uru - Relto - my home

My private age – Relto – my home in Uru .  This is a private age, though I can invite other players as guests.

Uru - Bevin - a neighborhood

 Bevin, a neighorhood in Uru.  This is a shared age, an age owned by more than one player.  The age can be open to all players, or private, which means that only the owners can access it.

Do I like Uru?  Yes – I do.  Would I recommend that you play Uru.   My answer – I don’t know.

I’ve been with Uru for…well…forever.  I was one of the first people admitted to the 2003 beta test.  I’m been a player, a supporter, a critic.  I’ve been a volunteer moderator for the official web forum, starting with the first publisher, Ubisoft, in 2003, then with Gametap and Cyan. (I don’t mod anymore – short answer – no time).  I’ve made friends.

When I was laid off in 2003 (company merger, layoffs, you know the story, working again, all is good), Uru kept me going during unhappy times.  I’ve never considered myself to be what we call an “avid” fan – though if you look at how long I’ve been in Uru, and my involvement in the community, I’m much more of a fan than I think I am!  Uru has been a constant in my life since 2003.   I know the game world - it’s a part of me.  I’ve lived there.  There were times when I would not logon for weeks, but I would always come back.  I have the solo player version of Uru,; it’s beautiful, but I miss the multiplayer version.  I will play MMO URU when it comes back

I’ve also been a critic.  Uru is beautiful and sometimes it’s wonderful, but it’s also flawed.  I won’t go into the flaws here (maybe a later post), but think about it.  There is enough interest to resurrect Uru three times (four if you count Until Uru), but then the game was cancelled, several times.  Something is going on.

Will you like it?  I don’t know.  I don’t think those of us who have been with Uru forever are the best judges of whether other people will like it.  We aren’t objective.  Uru is our history, our community, our home.  I recommend that you read up, and perhaps, give it a try.  Uru (called MORE) is going to be very reasonably priced – about $25.00 (US) for a 6 month subscription – payable via Paypal, so it will be available around the world.  Here’s a link to the official site, including the online forum.

http://www.mystonline.com

Enjoy.

 amarez – mszv