Green Gamer Girl

Move over darling

2006-11-05T16:55:00.000+02:00

I've moved it all over to www.acavill.com, where the husband and I write things. Hopefully i'll be updating it more often.

Second Life

2006-09-27T00:03:00.000+03:00

Second Life – Thinking about the

future

Second Life (SL) is a 3D world designed and partly owned by residents. You’ve probably heard that people “make money in a virtual world”, then take a look at it and read a few reviews on games websites and think it sounds like a bunch of fuss over nothing.

You should look again. If you want to think of yourself as a progressive thinker, you really can’t afford to ignore SL.

Firstly SL is not a game. You don’t shoot things for hour after hour, you don’t grind for XP, you don’t advance your character. Well not in a lvl 60 way.

Secondly it’s not just “Sexy Sim World”. You don’t have to get involved in anything seedy whatsoever. Even though some residents choose to create and indulge in virtual thrill seeking pleasures, most residents I’ve met are interested in using SL in a different way, for instance designing meditation spaces. Virtual spiritual retreats with streaming wisdom from the Dalai Lama, or support groups for manic depressives.

Education

Universities like Harvard have cottoned on to the benefits of virtual learning in SL. Here is what they have to say about their online course - Law in the Court of Public Opinion

“If we do say so ourselves, the course will be unlike any that has ever been taught. It is a course in persuasive, empathic argument in the Internet space. Throughout the course we will be studying many different media technologies to understand how their inherent characteristics and modes of distribution affect the arguments that are made using them. Students will be immersed in this study through project-based assignments in which they will be using these technologies to make their own arguments”

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/

Having tried a few of the online lessons in 3D building and scripting, I found the environment to be extremely creative. For a start my teachers varied in appearance, from a Feline Fatale to a “normal looking” Cheerleader, I got a unique perspective on how my teacher sees themselves. Of course my classmates were all pretty unique, one of them was actually a random object. And why not?

Entertainment

Public Radio’s popular health and Science show The Infinite Mind, recently ran interviews with novelist Kurt Vonnegut and technology and social forecaster Howard Rheingold.

(Click for clips and more info) http://lcmedia.com/

Performers like Duran Duran and Suzanne Vega have done live shows. Music concerts, sponsored by big movers have become more popular, with MTV and Coca Cola getting their filthy fists in on the action, however plenty of alternative groups are around, and you can’t keep a good bit of creativity down. Whilst the Evil Empire of Sony Online Entertainment shafted angry SWG players, the SW community thrives in SL, creating their own worlds, weapons and stories. There are weapon zones, but I've heard from other second lifers that they aren't that fantastic, however I've not tried them out myself. I know that people have fun shooting the "trespassers" on their land, so maybe that is something you should consider if you start exploring the infinite lands within SL.

You get what you put in

It’s not about possessing money either. If you look you can find financial opportunities within the game, but only if you are talented. There are plenty of guides to working in SL, but that is only going to be your thing if it is your thing, if you see what I mean.

For a deeper look at Second Life check the wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

Wagner James Au reports on SL

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/

Chip Guy gets it right

2006-09-14T16:54:00.000+03:00

Star Wars Galaxies: Anatomy of a PR Disaster

Click on Chip Guy for the skinny on the royal screwing that Sony Online Entertainment gave it's customers. It's a good antidote to the withdrawal pangs and reminds me that SOE is like an abusive ex-boyfriend that you shouldn't go back to, let alone google.

King Kong Phooey

2006-09-13T16:39:00.000+03:00

Ok it's a film review but as it's only me who reads this I can post what I damn well like.
King Kong.
Peter Jackson's slaughterpiece.

When we watched it with a friend, he was asleep for most of it and then woke up and said "Why does everyone in it want to eat Blondie?" Every single creature in it thinks that Blondie will taste better than the giant mouthful of tender Crocolisk meat that it already has.

I have a very beautiful friend who used to be blonde, and she is truly so darn attractive that I can imagine all sorts of monsters wanting to munch her up, but, knowing she was emigrating to Australia where there actually are large beasts roaming around, she sensibly dyed her hair to a kind of dark honey brown (obviously after watching King Kong)

Anyway, Wattsherface in this film is doing her best Nicole Kidman impression and the director of photography believes her, because every other shot of her in in excruciating slow Moulin Rouge motion "I'll be a real actress!" she whispers, before she dies, except she doesn't die.

Wattsherface is a good friend of Kidman (and they share the same facemaker surgeon) I'm assuming Kidman turned the role down, probably because she didn't want to star with Beautiful Bignose actor Adrian Brody in case he was offended and yet deeply moved by her Oscar winning portrayal of him in The Hours.

Oh and Jack Black spends the whole film in the wrong film.

And all darkies are evil.

2006-09-13T16:26:00.000+03:00

I suppose the problem is that nothing can eclipse the experience I had when I played Progress Quest. Those halcyon days gathering the penii of Kobold on the Shores of Orion, my character JootMoot (Race - Talking Pony, Class - Hunter Strangler) would laugh and play alongside many, many others. Thanks guys for the companionship and love.
I will never, ever, ever forget you.
Ever.

Ever.

Don't Shatner your illusions

2006-09-13T15:47:00.000+03:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx6VgkeMZVw

He is still My Captain.

WoW

2006-09-13T15:05:00.000+03:00

So this is where I have been for the last few months. In Azeroth*.

*Armed with the fully illustrated World of Warcraft Atlas (published by www.bradygames.com ISBN 0-7440-0441-1) It's on Amazon. It's lovely. Glossy.

We wait eagerly for the Burning Crusade expansion.
I'm a noob, just two lvl 30 Priests (one on each side) and a small clawful of lower level characters. Everyone plays this, most of the SWG community migrated here I suspect.

Basics is that it's set in Elf land.
There are two sides, Alliance and Horde.
Alliance are Night Elves, Dwarves, Humans and Gnomes.
Horde are Undead, Trolls, Taurens and Orcs.

Alliance are soon to be joined by the hoofy Draenei http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draenei

Horde get the blonde horror of the Blood Elves http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Elves

Ok, I'm sure that the Blood elves aren't just blonde, but right now, the screenshots look like pointy Barbie dolls who are slightly cross. Still, just as long as I can make one in a brusier set of colours, I'll try one out, it's not that I don't like playing my Undead character Crazylina, it's just that sometimes her bony spine sticking out from her cloak makes me feel like I'm playing as Kiera "anorexia? never heard of it!" Knightley. But then Kiera's jaw sticks out, where as my characters jawbone keeps falling off, so they are different in that respect. At least for the moment.

Personally I think that Troll girls have more fun. They certainly seem to get the most howling, whistling and bashful looks from the male folk. I think it is the sheer brazen Tina Turner Thunderdome Warrior Queenishness of them. That and their sexy tusks.

Sexy Troll Lady

Sexier Tina Lady

Seed

2006-09-13T14:58:00.000+03:00

Ugh. Did I mention Seed?
Well if you like standing in the same spot as thirty other players for ages, if you like talking to an NPC thinking it's another player and if you like having an incredibly crap navigation, this is the game for you.

Agony Online

2006-09-13T12:29:00.000+03:00

I dabbled with Anarchy Online for a bit and decided it was too murky and flat looking, plus I was getting cheesed off with endless adverts in noobland for the Posiedon (Upsidedown) Adventure. I like the concept, very Blade Runner, but the graphics just felt too angular. I'm probably doing my self a big diservice here, they seem to be offering all sorts of incentives to play. Hold on though, this was meant to be a post about World of Warcraft and I find myself instead giving AO a second go...

(logs on)
(logs off)

Well that lasted all of 10 minutes. But I took a screenshot for you. Gameplay is stunted, graphics are really boxy and character customisation is pretty basic. Navigation is stiff. I'm sure some players love it, but I just feel that the game could look better. It's landscapes are bland, and I do have a good computer. An Alienware no less. And yet the "freeness" is nice of Funcom. Their heart is in the right place. Might be difficult to see from the screenshot, but here I am standing limply on Noob Island. I have lost the will to live. Also I have no idea which button to use to run.

Dungeons and Drabness Unfortunately Online

2006-03-06T22:56:00.000+02:00

I was excited about getting this after all the hype, but unfortunately it is just hype.

For a start, the Gameplay is laggy in busy places, you get masses of characters all jumbled up inside each other in a pixelated mess in doorways, entrances etc and some of the texture rendering wasn't very good, bald patches appearing on characters heads for instance. I have a very fast PC and it still looked messy. Honestly, is it too much to ask for your toon to have the ability not to be able to run through other toons? It just sorta ruins the whole effect.

Visual character customisation is very limited, there are no options to change the body weight or shape of the character, and another more sinister problem, I couldn't make the skin colour of the Elf I had chosen to play, dark. OK this sounds a bit weird, but I'm a dark skinned girl, I don't necessarily always want to play a light skinned character. There was a light green, a light pink, a light blue option... but no dark green, no dark pink... no dark Elf skin colours at all. It may seem trivial, but it's worth mentioning. Also there are no options to change your characters appearance after the first screen, so if your Dwarf fancies a beard trim, SHE will not have the option to have a wee shave later. I don't think it's just female players who like variety in the customisation of games, from what I have seen, male players are equally sophisticated in their tailoring needs.

I don't think you should have to be a D&D expert to play this game, if you aren't, the learning curve will be very steep, with neither the instruction booklet or initial screens being particularly user friendly. Honestly, I was snoring after the User Agreement.

City of Villians Villianesses

2006-02-06T20:55:00.000+02:00

I've been a bit occupied for a little while playing new characters on City of Villians to see what I like doing. But here are the pictures of them...as you can see, the character creation page is a huge amount of fun!

So this Green lady is Arachnia9 who is inspired by a song that Adam and I perform called the Siren Song of Arachnia 9, which is basically a torch song about a Star Trek Villianess who gets to consume her Captain in a blaze of murderous seductive green lady-ness...

You can listen to it here (or you could have if the site was still up, I got bored didn't I?) you can email me for a copy.
www.arachnia9.com

In CoV, Archnia 9 is a sonic corruptor which basically means she shrieks and shouts and sings her way into the bones of the enemy. Lovely.

This is my favorite character to play. Sister Sadista.
She trained to a very high standard at Silent Hill general hospital, and as you would expect, she uses no aneasthetic, has little regard for hygiene, uses a rusty scalpel and couldn't care a toss wether you like her bedside manner.

'There there there.... Mummy Kiss it better'

Here is Monster's Mate. The warm and loving companion to Monster Fred. They offer marriage counselling to all villians.

She's a Villian

2006-01-26T03:04:00.000+02:00

I couldn't resist making a Connie character in City of Villians. Only problem was she was too boring to play, so I deleted her Digital Smugness.

2006-01-24T11:37:00.000+02:00

Connie. So very horrible. Can shrivel a dick from 50 paces.

I'm enjoying the current AOL campaign, a piece of inspired advertising which throws up different takes on whether or not the internet is a good thing. Using the voice of John Hurt, the original actor who played Winston in the film version of 1984, the narration says either 'Orwell was wrong' Or 'Orwell was right' whilst showing the positive and negative sides of internet culture.

Alternately uplifting and terrifying, the ad campaign is a million miles away from the truly awful AOL Dominatrix, Connie (above) and of course then there was the dreadful cheap Elvis campaign and the badly acted Vanessa (spoilt child actor, do you even remember seeing it?) campaign.

Suddenly there is this inspired piece of film, urging us quietly to /discuss, the merits or madness of the internet, people like Will Self, Desmond Morris and Alastair Campbell are on board to give their views.

Excited, you go to AOL's website... and are greeting with the familiar cluttered mishmash which is AOL and you know that yep, you were right.

AOL is still shit.

Star Wars Knight of the Old Republic II

2006-01-20T17:54:00.000+02:00

Set five years after the bestselling Knights of the Old Republic, Sith Lords have slaughtered the Jedi in an attempt to end the Old Republic. You get to choose one of three kinds of Jedi, with unique abilities and you get a group of characters to interact with and play as.

There is this character Atton Rand. Atton thinks he is sexy.

Atton - what a beast

Now Atton is pretty cute, but I don't really want to date him, especially as I've seen him in his underwear and it's just not happening down there. Nevertherless, it doesn't stop him wisecracking his way through your adventures and trying to get your clothes off.

Adam doesn't like him.

Then there is Kreia, an old force sensitive hag, who is played by Dahlia from Silent Hill.

Kreia - lovely grandmother, she gives you a cookie if you help her feed all her cats

Dahlia is getting less work as she gets older, and I suspect it is because of the gin.

Dahlia from Silent Hill - makes you feel all warm inside

Black and White 2

2006-01-20T17:32:00.000+02:00

v
I'm a bit of an inept player. Not terrible, you understand, but not the greatest either. A game has to really capture my attention for me to finish it. My favourite games are MMORPG's, where you learn, rinse and repeat until you are good at what you do.

Black and White 2 is interesting though.
http://www.lionhead.com/bw2/

You play a God, who along with a complex AI creature, build a civilization, and an army and then conquer other lands. There is a choice of four creatures, a lion, a cow, an ape (ginger) and a wolf. You can also have an option for a tiger with a special unlocking key.

I chose the nice wolf. He looked cute. He growled and whimpered and behaved well with some firm training and some reassuring petting. All was well, the land was sunny, the villagers were happily ploughing the land and having babies and building houses.

So I went to have a bath.

Upon my return, thunderclouds swirled round the land, the wolf had eaten some of the villagers, pooed on the houses and the the survivors were screaming.

''Perhaps you shouldn't leave it running?'' suggested Adam. Thanks.

Dont Flirt and Fight

2006-01-20T03:40:00.000+02:00

I'm just laughing about something I remembered a fellow gamer telling me. He used to often have cyber sex with his online girlfriend, and one day was doing so via a private chat whilst at the same time fighting with a team of hunters.
He got his chat menus mixed up and accidentally ended up telling the fighting group the details of his planned perv session.

I laughed for ages and then finally asked him what their reaction was.
He said there was a stunned silence for a few minutes. He was horrified.

Horrified, I tell you.

Missing Star Wars Galaxies and How to Kill your Sims

2006-01-20T02:32:00.000+02:00

Ok City of Villians first impressions. It's not Star Wars.
I'm in mourning. Its a valid thing.
I'll get to the City of Villians experience soon enough, don't worry. I'm quite committed to making it work, and I have a very nice set of characters that I am levelling.

After playing SWG (Star Wars Galaxies) for long enough to get a happy Imperial Bounty Hunter/ Combat Medic lvl 80 character, plus several beautifully decorated houses, enough vehicles to become a used speeder salesman, and enough weapons to be arrested, I finally cancelled my account after the controversial and quite frankly rubbish game overhaul they put us through at the end of last year (2005)

Everyone knows what happened and there is enough crying about it on enough websites for me not to go on and on and on and on about it here. (Although I might go on a little teeny bit)

But I miss it. I miss the fighting and the fun I had healing the injured players. I miss being a momma to teams of Noobs, taking them out and showing them round and helping them get their XP. I miss the ambient way I could just drive around in the rain on Dantooine and go shopping for furniture or clothes, weapons and shiny new armor, and was in serious negotations to acquire a baby Bantha (it was soooo cute) when it all went crappy. My Bantha trader had cancelled his account. So had my weaponsmith. Along with my RP friends.

I think my tailor, the Exquisite Mexia Firesun, aka Madame Makeover, still has her boutiques there, visiting her was a truly lovely experience, especially as in the real world people who work in clothes boutiques normally ignore me whilst reading Heat magazine, let alone are able to give me advice on the stats of my armor or what to do when a Wookie is asking you to marry him, and you just know that you'll have horrible furballs in the bed if you do.

I don't miss the endless grind for XP, killing the Pickets (Giraffe type things) and the Bols (Dhino hybrid lumps) or the Pillocks and Bastards as we renamed them. True, it got more interesting killing Nudfers (more lumps) and Tortons (even bigger lumps) on one of the more dangerous planets, but really, it was the community that made it special.

Oh and did I mention the houses? I loved decorating the houses. Great thing to do when you can't sleep. Now before you start thinking I would be better off playing the Sim's, I do miss the carnage and being a loyal Imperial servant of our Glorious Leader, and I miss very much having a big gun. (Even if I was wearing an evening dress sometimes) Plus the only good thing about the Sim's as far as I could see after playing it for a day before getting bored of it, was that you could make characters that looked like your ex partners, put them all in a house, take all the toilets and beds away, (so they have to piss on the floor and can't sleep) give them multiple coffee machines (so they have to stay awake) and ovens, ovens, lots of ovens. Block all the doors to the house so they can't get out, and then watch them die one by one, as the ovens caught fire.
Then they cry and cry. How you laugh.

There is a most wonderful site on how to do this and more at

http://www.theinsanedomain.com/KillingSimms/index.htm

But enough about killing your Sims. No actually, a bit more. At the end of the carnage, when the last Sim is standing, weeping over the multiple deaths of his friends in the Big Brother house, give him a set of Pink Flamingos and some balloons to cheer him up.

The Lagg Dolls

2006-01-20T02:03:00.000+02:00

'I've seen women get ragged on by other women just because they enjoyed a good fragging here and there.' DekaGreen posted on http://www.joystiq.com/bloggers/jennie-lees

Now obviously I spent about 3 minutes (long long minutes) laughing at that.

I had been looking for info about the Frag Dolls
http://www.fragdolls.com

Yep, the Slag Dolls, Ubisofts all girl game gang (bang?)
Yep, pretty girls who enjoy gaming and specifically like to enjoy showing the guys how hot and hard they are as rare girl gamers.

The Cragg Dolls might be strategically placed 'models' who's blogs are written by short fat hairy guys.

Dunno.

Too early in my research to say. I do know that the Hag Dolls are recruited by Games Developer Ubisoft (Splinter Cell, King Kong, Prince of Persia) to promote their games.

Here is the quote from Brag Doll 'Rhoulette's' blog about their connection with Ubisoft
http://www.fragdolls.com/us/post.php?id=84

''The Frag Dolls are a group of girl gamers brought together by Ubisoft to play and promote games. It’s much like a sports sponsorship in which a company helps the athlete do what she does best. Ubisoft asks us to be informed about certain games so that we can talk about and play them well. In exchange, we’re supported in playing video games, competing, going to events all over the country, writing our own editorial blogs about whatever, being involved in online communities, and generally representing girl gamers by being ourselves. Because this is a community outreach effort on Ubisoft’s part as much as it is anything else, we have a mutually beneficial relationship.

The recruitment process was straightforward. The Craig's List ''casting call'' for girl gamers was posted. Respondents went through a multi-stage interview process in which the coordinators and candidates discussed the project’s overall goals and direction. In the final interview stage each candidate’s gaming skills were tested via Xbox Live. The competition was intense and final offers were made to the cream of the crop.''

So they are manufactured as a group. They insist they are authentic girl gamers, which is probably true, and if not at the beginning, they certainly will be now because of all the appearances they have to make. From what I'm reading they compete in tournaments and hurt little boys.

It's probably a great job to have. Lots of free games and offers of sex from hairy men.
Lucky Spag Bols, with the enthusiasm of cheerleaders they talk about how much they like to beat the boys. ('beat' being the operative perv word)
But they talk about it all in a way that makes it all seem so...plastic and professional.

Anyway I'll read up on them a bit more before being a complete bitch about them. I suppose the question is, are they irritating because there isn't a single minging girl amongst them? Or is it that they wouldn't have formed organically? Or is it that I hate boy bands and girl groups that are thrown together by a Svengali.

And...to be a cool gamer girl, do you have to be pretty too? I dunno, I dunno... It's all marketing. Make a buck. Buy a fuck.

Gamers and Depression

2006-01-20T01:37:00.000+02:00

An interesting article about Gamers and Depression

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/11045.html

Now I am depressed for long periods at a time, and I am a gamer, and for a while I was depressed about how much time I was spending gaming, until I decided try to make my avocation my vocation. But for a while there, I was beginning to think I was making everything worse in the world by spending so much time gaming. But I was making things nicer in the online world, and really what difference does it make which one I spend my time in as long as it is with people?

Feeling the Flow

2006-01-20T01:31:00.000+02:00

I'm watching that programme about the aspiring fashion designers whilst waiting for City of Villians to load and it's so wrong.
Fashion designers have the easiest job in the world. I could do that job if the people in the industry didn't look so horrible... And if I was interested. Oh and if I knew about making clothes, which I don't. What am I saying? I don't want to be a fashion designer.
Now I'm beginning to wonder if its the people in industries like that who are nasty, or if it is just the students. I think it is the students.

Adam Skull King is playing already. He's feeling down and the best way to deal with feeling down is to knock the fuck out of something large and fanged. Add a few encouraging teammates, throw in a bit of XP, hope that there is no lag and log on. Lose 3 hours in the flow.

A nice little definition of Flow - stolen from Jesper Juul's website http://www.half-real.net/

The concept of flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1990) describes an optimal mental state where a person is complete occupied with a task that matches the person's skills, being neither too hard (leading to anxiety) or easy (leading to boredom).

Flow has seven traits:

A challenging Activity That Requires Skills
The Merging of Action and Awareness
Clear Goals and Feedback
Concentration on the Task at Hand
The Paradox of Control
The loss of Self-Consciousness
The Transformation of Time

It's so obvious isn't it? Fun is simple.