The Industrialization of MMOs

Theme park MMOs function exactly like theme parks elsewhere, like Disneyland. It’s a vast, mass market, fantasy rendering of an idealized world. Nothing is real, yet it feels exactly how you want it to feel and it idealizes reality in a way that alters our expectations of the real world. Talking mice, fairies, castles, and magic wands …all of these are features in the theme park alongside the side shows and thrill rides. They are there to entertain. As a collection they are designed to allow visitors to wander around all day in any manner they like: in groups, by themselves, and it even invites them to blend in and become invisible (costuming). Most importantly, theme parks aren’t designed for meeting new people or even for enjoying the attractions with them. That is incidental. Friends and family are only welcome insofar as they also pay an entry fee and the park would like their money. Interaction is not encouraged and not discouraged, but is an ever available option since you are constantly surrounded by people. Does this sound like any MMO you have ever played or heard of? It should.

Took the words right out of my mouth.  MMOs used to represent to me the first step in virtual reality.  The Rift is another step towards the ultimate goal of actually "jacking in", but MMOs as virtual worlds represented the foundation of that goal.  A way to get thousands of people together to live and share an idealized virtual existence that could be just as meaningful as meatspace.

But this "industrialization" bastardized that concept.  The idea of virtual worlds was replaced with the shovelware of virtual Disneylands.  How many parks can you visit before you start to notice that all of them only offer slight variations of the same rides?

Any PC release date for GTAV yet?

It's all speculation at this point.

Maybe have three separate "Recent Posts" blocks.  One for TOR forums, one for GW2 forums, one for EVE forums.  I know SMF allows for this.

People can then minimize the blocks they don't want to see by clicking the arrow in the top-right.

The way some people rave about cane sugar vs. HFCS, I feel like I'm the only person who really cannot tell the difference.

abbyshot.com

They discontinued my coat a few years ago due to low sales. But they still make the coat that Neo wore during the lobby sequence.

All of their stuff is pricey, but you get what you pay for. It's quality work and people really notice.

Comic Con: Never again.

It looks like the biggest hurdles are the sensitivity of the sensor, (it can't be too sensitive or too un-sensitive), and the fact that there is absolutely no physical resistance to know the optimal sensing area.  It's just way too easy to move your hands out of its range.

Some of those calibration exercises required him to hold his hands/fingers still in pretty small areas, which is difficult to do without some resistance.  I wonder if it would have been more effective if he rested his elbows on the table, but then that might limit his range of motion.

I see the potential, but yeah, I would absolutely not want to game with this.  Even the simplest tasks like opening applications seemed spotty.  Like they said, there is nothing about this that couldn't be more effective with a mouse.