Minecraft Games

By Bixyl Shuftan

Following the pirate ship battle in mid-September, Nydia wanted to do more group activities with her new server set up for uploaded maps. She found a couple more she liked, and on two different occasions invited residents in the HV Community sim group and her friends in the Angels community to take part.

On the evening of September 22, she uploaded a "Lord of the Rings" map. It was meant to be seen with some additional textures uploaded, so mobs could be seen as attacking orcs, etc. And the "swiss cheese" texture seen on some builds led to a few jokes. But there was quite a bit of detail, especially in the palaces and towns.

Nydia took on the role of a dungeon master for this game, leading the party down the path after leading us to a chest with a little gear, giving us a few rules and reading the introduction. We soon had to go through a dark cave, and when mobs attacked many of us lost sight of one another. Nydia ended up having to port those behind to the group. Our journey went across fields, mountain passes, towns, underground passageways, and more. Every so often, we would come to a chest with a notecard describing the next chapter in the action, such as having to carry a message to a leader.

One of the more thrilling parts of the map was the mine area, complete with a fast-moving minecart ride, which got a few comparisons to the one from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Unfortunetly, if anything went wrong, the character would end up off the cart, and one wrong step off the track and into the darkness. I myself ended up in a cavern under the rail, and had to find my way back, and go down the track until I finally found the cart.

Probably the scene that gave us the most headaches was having to go through a mob-filled town. The action was harrier than Nydia had expected, and she passed us chainmail armor, and then diamond. But we ended up getting split up again, and Minecraft veterans can pretty much guess what happens to players who get repeatedly assaulted by attackers. I was among them, but managed to find a two story house where I could wait for Nydia to port me over. Others weren't as fortunate.

The adventure for me lasted a few hours, and over 25 levels of experience from clobbering mobs.  Before it was finished, players began to drop out as it was getting late in the evening, and we had real-life work or college in the morning. Perhaps Nydia's next map adventure will start on a weekend afternoon.

Nydia's next map was "Race Fo Da Wool." This  would be a competition between two teams: red and blue. Each had an identical obstacle course to search for three colors of wool: blue, lime, and magneta. The base had receptacles for one of each of the wools, with trunks nearby with armor, weapons, food, and torches.

Just in front of the base was a forest area, which had some underground caves one could dig down into. Getting through the forest was a building a few stories tall. But getting through it, or up it, one had to get through a number of mob spawners. Past that was a chasm in which players had a choice: build a bridge across it, or go down and then back up, across a number of mob spawners. Getting past that was a thin bridge over a lava pit, followed by a vertical maze in which one went up and down some steep ladders. One wrong move near the top and one would plummet to their avatar's demise.

If one croaked, one had to take a waterfall down. To keep from drowning, one had to poke out just enough to breath, but not so far as to plummet. Player versus player action was allowed, either arrows or the cannons at one point on the course. But in the games I witnessed, the players concentrated on the mobs and getting through the course. For one player, the vertical maze part was the hardest, "Gaaah! I'm afraid of heights!"

We had choices to make, such as taking the time to destroy mob spawners or take chances and try to speed through. During the day, the mobs couldn't usually get far from the building. But at night, they could sneak through and attack the base. And for a newly respawned player whom was alone while the rest of the team was deep in the obstacle course, the relentless waves of zombies, skeletons and creepers could send them back to the respawn point before they could so much as grab a weapon. Players who respawned at night began to wait until daybreak to go back down.

I took part in two games, both which took well over an hour. In one match, I had found one of the wools, and was on my way back, only to find nightfall  had come, and ended up pushed off the edge by attacking mobs, and therefore loosing the wool that had taken me a while to get. My team lost that match.

Despite the frustration with getting clobbered and having to respawn repeatedly at times, everyone had fun. And the player who was afraid of heights, by the end of the game wasn't so afraid.

In the meantime, progress continues in the new Angels Village, with players spreading out again and making new builds. But this is another story.

Bixyl Shuftan

The Odd Ball's First Event in Inworldz

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Sunday Sept 29, Tuna Oddfellow and Shava Suntzu launched their first performance of the Odd Ball in the virtual world of InWorldz. The event took place just after Noon SL time and InWorlds time. Jana Kyomoon performed live music for the crowd.

In the moments before the show started, Tuna and Shava's club looked much like it had when I was there a few days earlier, save for the piano where Jana was playing, and the huge magician's hat that's been the center of every Odd Ball I remember. A number of people showed up, sometimes one just after the other, "hope you don't mind me landing on your head." Some had longtime experience with InWorldz, others had shown up for only their first time today.

Then Tuna announced the start, "Welcome everyone to the first ever Odd Ball in InWorldz." And then things began to take shape. First the club vanished and the floor turned psychedelic shades. Then all around us, the sky turned kaleidoscope colors. The Odd Ball was back, and it was just as trippy as before, "it's a carnival ride for the mind." "Sure am glad I not did drugs in college. I wouldn't know what is show and what isn't."

Shava tried to explain the way the special effects worked, "The theory is that your brain's wiring for estimating space is being tricked into reframing the frame of reference, as though you were on a carnival ride, or as though you had entered a vaulted space like a cathedral or domed space in a big building, or were looking off a mountain top. There's a moment of a feeling of pure awe that our brains give us when we can't compute a space like that, left over from the reward our brains give us in childhood when it's so important that we master spatial relationships in play. That's our theory."

A few people had a little trouble with the sound, but not usually for long. And it took a while for some to get dancing with the animations in a whole new Grid. And the psychedelic colors had an effect on some people, "Oh my God, I'm getting dizzy." "Wow, couldn't find my mouse pointer for a sec." "Ohh this iss grreeaat." "Hey, try moving around in this." But everyone had a great time there. "If you know me in SL," Tuna told the audience, "please friend me here. If you know me here, please friend me here.- it's really that simple."

Tuna was happy that he was able to have the Odd Ball so soon after closing it in Second Life, "It took me years to deveiop our show. I am amazed we recreated it in days." "I'm surprised you got it up and running this fast too," another responded. Shava told, "We got it all working, you have no idea how hard Tuna was working on this this week! And Quadrapop has been so helpful and so many folks here too!"

People discussed what they had done here, "I think after 4 years I've got more stuff here (smile), certainly got a better avi." "Well, I could have never built Replicant City on SL. So that is a tremendously good trade-off." "With the exception of the shoes and hair, everything I'm in is either self made or uploaded from samples online I found." "First thing I did when I got here, made an RLV collar. (grin)"

People also discussed what others were doing in Inworldz, "Have you seen Wizard Gynoid's experiments with linkage geometry here? 80,000+ linked prims ROTATING!" "Here we can actually have single-object mega starships. Not to mention single-object ocean sailing ships."

Eventually, the hour was up, and the show was over. The triply effects soon faded, and the club was back, "Well folks, we've come to the end of another Sunday Odd Ball! We'll be back tomorrow at 6pm with more tripped out brain candy." "Thank you for the music that was awesome." "YEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH TUNA!" "Really do appreciate your support," Jana told the crowd, "and again a BIG congrats to Tuna." "Great time everyone and WELCOME TO INWORLDZ TUNA & SHAVA!" "Kewl show & really nice people doing it."

Shava commented, "So many people we know were already here -- both worlds or you know, we've been dual citizens three years. But a lot of folks came over first time from SL just for today and probably more for tomorrow's show. We do two shows every month with Jana this time of month, and we didn't miss them just because of this." There would be another show scheduled for Monday at 6PM Pacific/SL/InWorldz time. "This is only the beginning," Tuna told the crowd.

Before the crowd dispersed, Quadrapop handed me something: a "Wingless" anthro Fox avatar. I could look foxy again! I had to change the color of the hair, but there was no arguing with the price. Finally a foxy look.

As it turned out, there was an event in Inworldz just after the Odd Ball. Bain Finch and Panza Elde from the Relay for Life were there at a dance party, and invited me over. And earlier, there had been another. "Bixyl, you missed the fun this morning," Panza told me, "Sailing event. I ended up on the rocks." "Ya, you missed Panza's driving," Bain mused. The dance party had a number of Tinies there, some from Raglan Shire, which has a presence in Inworldz. I was also told that in the past week. a large number of residents from Second Life  had come over, notably content creators.

There was other thing I noticed. Lag was less in Inworldz than in Second Life. At least this was my experience with an older computer. I also didn't crash any. A few residents from the Odd Ball did seem to have some problems, though. SO the switch wasn't an improvement this way for all.

"Thanks for being our Tunaverse – can't have a consensual hallucination without the consenting!"

Bixyl Shuftan

Minecraft Ship Battle

By Bixyl Shuftan

On the evening of Wednesday Sept 18, the night before "Talk Like a Pirate Day," Nydia Tungsten wanted to do something with Minecraft. She mentioned she was uploading a "map" onto a new server, and invited people over.

Logging on, I found myself in the water, and had to swim for it. Getting to the surface, I found two ships, one with a pirate flag, the other with an English one. Both had four large openings on each side. I swam to one, and was told this was going to be a battle between the two ships. How would the ships fight? Looking around on the deck, I found above each of those holes I saw were loading mechanisms and buttons. On the other side of the deck were chests full of dynamite.

What we were supposed to do, at least once the signal was given, was to load the dynamite into the bottom part of the "cannons," press the piston button, then repeat a few more times. Then load another couple pieces of dynamite on a hole on the side. To fire the "cannon," one had to press the button to ignite the stacks of dynamite down below, which was to act as propellant, and *quickly* ignite the dynamite acting as the "cannonball" before it was launched, and scramble back a few feet. If all went right, a piece of ignited dynamite would be launched toward the other ship, where it would do some damage if it hit or blew up close enough.

But it was tricky to use, and I don't think I really got the hang of it. Once I figured out what to do, well, what came to mind was the expression "knowing just enough to be dangerous." I ended up blowing up the cannons when I fired them the way the girls were, leaving a huge hole on the side of the ship. It seemed to be safer to just fire the propellant, and wait for the gunner on the other ship to slip up and go boom. It seemed to work, as more often than not the other ship would end up unable to fire before ours was. The result was one or more of the other crew grabbing a sword, and swimming over to board us. I never could find the crate where the swords were, but the others on my team were able to beat them back. The exception was the "guys vs girls" round, in which the girls were just merciless with the stickers.

Eventually, it was time for some of us to go to bed, and the Minecraft ship battles came to an end. At least for now. Perhaps another day, It'll be time to once again "strike the colors."

If only I could get the hang of firing that blasted cannon.

Bixyl Shuftan

"Feed The Beast" and The Minecraft Building Contest

By Bixyl Shuftan

Since the Minecraft "Angels Village" server was updated, and it's contents wiped away, the attention of the game's players in the Sunweaver and Angels groups switched to the FTB, aka "Feed The Beast," servers set up by both Kit Repine and Nydia Tungsten. Kit's initial server went from a shack set up near the spawn point for anyone unfortunate to drop in at night to a small stone fort with an ever-expanding underground chamber and tunnel network. Valkyrie McGil built an impressive build on the cliff next to the fort.

Jasmine quickly noticed the wide variety of tools the FTB version of Minecraft offered, from robot miners that could clear out sections of underground for stone and ores, to better suits of armor, including one with limited flight ability, and some nifty gadgets. One I found useful was a mechanical arm that acted like a combination diamond pick and gun. One could use it against zombies and creepers, but it had a strong recoil. Another was a pair of boots that kept one from getting hurt when falling from a great distance. It's a safe bet most Minecrafters ended up back in their bed after making a misstep at least once. One gadget some players had fun with was the "Portal" gun, which acted like the one in the game. One fun thing that came later were the funny hats that one could collect from mobs they appeared on at random.

But building these tools and toys required machines, machines that required energy. Exploring around, I came across a few oil fields some distance away. Those were one source of energy. But Jasmine's bigger machines required more. One interesting feature of "Feed The Beast" was accessing other worlds, or overworlds in Minecraft jargon, besides the Nether and "The End." Some of these places were quite strange, such as one in which players could end up damaged from sunburn if not wearing certain types of armor, which put us in the same position as a zombie or skeleton. These worlds could be accessed through portals, but they could also be traveled to and back via special books, leading to this part of the game being called "Mystcraft," after the popular computer game Myst in the 1990s. Besides places to explore, Jasmine used them as a source for mass quantities of energy-supplying lava and lots of ores.

All these features were certainly a contrast from the Minecraft we'd first set foot it, and it came with a price. Lag began to become a problem. And then, the servers would start to occasionally crash. This became quite frustrating to players and server owners alike. As it turned out, "Feed The Beast" was the combined result of over a few hundred Minecraft modifications cobbled together. Little wonder it could get unstable at times. And then came the server updates, which would sometimes wipe out what was made.

Despite the bugs, interest in Minecraft persisted. Nydia took some time to clean up her new FTB server before inviting her friends over. Once she thought it was ready, she wondered how it could be tested.

"I wanted to test the latest FTB server, see if the problems were solved," Nydia told me in a conversation, "so … I thought what a better way to test it than to have my friends go NUTS with their builds." Nydia decided to hold a competion to see who could come up with the best build, "So I turned them loose with OP powers and kept an eye on the server." The rules were fairly simple, build a town a small group of players could reside in, " purposely left the build requirements vague, I wanted to see how they would be interpreted, and I must say I was NOT disappointed in the creativity that was generated. (I wasn't the) only one impressed either, the builders were as well when they got to see each other's builds."

The competition attracted a number of players, "We started with over eight builders, but due to their real-lives, some had to drop out, which was a shame really. The beginnings of their builds looked so promising. We had futuristic to medevil and even fairy tale fantasy. We even had some Anime thrown in, but unfortunately that one wasn't finished. … This will sound obscure to those not familiar with the series 'Girls und Panzers' it was going to be a city ship," a ship with a city built inside, "It qualified for the contest (laughter)."

"The way it was judged was very unique as well," Nydia explained,  "I have never heard of (Minecraft) being done like this at all. I left some of the judging be done by the builders themselves. The only reason I did it that way was I knew all the builders and knew they would be fair. They would judge the others, but not themselves. And I had 2 people here with me in real life that don't play MC (yet) to help me with the judging. And yes I did the live broadcast the event to help." Nydia put a live feed of what she saw into her video channel on the day of the judging.

One problem the contest had was the unstable nature of FTB Minecraft, and the contest was suspended and extended a couple times due to the server crashing, " I run it off my same system I use I thought it could maybe it could handle it this time, unfortunately...it cant. … I wish I could invite everyone on to view the builds, but itwas just too hard on my system, I have 8GB of RAM with the server and (with) Second Life running, it would climb up to the 80% used area. If I was linked a video....it would go into the 90s. More than once it got to 98%, if it went higher I would crash." Still, she persisted, "But we were able to finish the contest and have a lot of fun in the process."

Of the winners, Skylark's village came in third place. Valkyrie was second "by only a few points." Her village was near the server spawn point, and had crop and berry bush areas, with miniature golems gathering the fruit. For first place, it was "a tie between 2 good friends and Angels Jasmine and Shion (Winkler), it was so close it was almost a 3 way tie!"

Jasmine's place was a treehouse village with buildings set up on super tall trees, "t was a fully function town any elf would DROOL over with all the tech any mage would envy and then it had the walk ways between the massive trees to count as a city in itself." Jasmine tapped into another overworld via "Mystcraft" for the lava to power it, "Val went into the Nether to power all of her computers and tech as well." Jasmine's village had a diner in which automated machines could dispense a variety of foods with the press of a button. Kryxia Silverfall helped her out during the building.

Shion's town was build around a cathedral, as were some Medieval cities. It was the most detailed building, both inside and out. It had a harbor with ships, and a balista and a number of cranes around, to give it the look of a place still in construction.

For the winners, Nydia had a prize, "I kept the prize secret until the day of Judging I was able to offer the winner $50 USD or split it as it turns out, but they both turned it down. Sooo, I donated it to 'The Furry Gamer' group to help some of our members get into the rest of (the games we play). They wanted me to use it for my Angels, which I will do if it is needed. But I think it could do better for a group dedicated to having some fun. Thats what this was all about, having fun."

As good as the builds were, Nydia had to take the server back down. The FTB was just too much on her systems to keep up without crashes. But her new "vanilla" server, updated to Minecraft 1.62, was available. This newer Minecraft is commonly called the "horse update" due to its now including horses. They can be fitted with a saddle and "broken" for riding.

So how to build a place for the Angels there? Nydia soon had her answer, "that night when I finally had all the votes, I brought them all to my office at home (in Second Life) and told them who won, well, they started talking about each others builds, and before I knew it I had a build crew on my hands for the new Angels Village. … once in and started they met up with 'Hojo' another builder from the last world we had and he joined in"

Dropping in for myself at Jasmine's invitation, the place wasn't too far from the spawn point. Just walk down the road for a few minutes, and one would soon see the place, encompassed by walls. Inside, they had built a barn for horses (by Jasmine) and other critters, a town hall, an inn, an outdoor market, a mages tower (by Valkyrie), a cathedral (by Shion), a harbor with ships (also by Shion), and more. When Nydia saw it for herself, "I can sum it up with one word: 'Whoah …' "

So what was next for Nydia and her Angels & friends in Minecraft? She does have some plans, "in the future I am planning on having adventure maps for group play. I have a bit to learn still before I can start hosting events but it IS planned for in the future. We have had 'End raids' in the past and those were a LOT of fun."

So despite "Feed The Beast" acting a bit beasty, the action in Minecraft from residents of the Sunweaver and Angel's estates continues.

Nydia has a video of the villages during the contest judging donwloadable in the following link (here - 498MB).

Bixyl Shuftan

Holocluck Henly on Disney's "Toontown" Closing

By Bixyl Shuftan

On August 20, the players of Disney's multiplayer online game "Toontown" got some unwelcome news. The game would be closing in a month. One of the more well-known Toontown players in Second Life is Holocluck Henly. I met up with him and asked him a few questions about the game.

So how was the game played? Holocluck told me, "You're a happy go lucky cartoon animal in Toontown, but humanoid robots called Cogs are trying to take over. They are based on corporate stereotypes and they are turning shops into office buildings etc. The toons fight back using silly slapstick gags. The cogs retaliate with corporate clichés and office supplies. It,s intended for all ages, and like a classic cartoon people of all generations each get something out of it. … There are things you can do beside fighting cogs. You can socialize, you can play golf, race autos, fish, and more."

"An account comes with 6 characters sharing an estate where each of their homes are." The various toon types "are more preference and what you like to look and sound like in game. When you type to friends or use the vast library of pre-written phrases, your character makes animal gibberish to word balloons, different sounds based on questions, exclamations, one or several words etc. Originally only friends who traded special codes received outside the game could text chat. Everyone else was via the phrases and you could purchase phrases. But a few years ago they opened it up to parental permission and you just had to verify on the site and the inworld accounts could talk to each other. Still some words are not in the vocabulary and become animal gibberish. That's the other thing. if you were to read it, you saw 'arf arf ruff' in the word balloon for a dog for instance."

Of the toon types, "Originally there were cats, dogs, ducks, rabbits, horses, and mice. They aded monkeys and bears eventually, and then pigs."

"The amusing thing about the game was that so many adults played. many of them were parents whose kid may have started and then the parent got addicted while the kid moved on to something else." Ads at Nickelodian and Nick at Night attracted both kids and adults, "This was the ad: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCUTFd-ZRqM )."

Holocluck admitted he was "a great fan of the 30s-40s Warner Brothers" cartoons, "I'm a traditionalist." He stated he had learned animation "a few decades back. … I learned at a college owned by Disney called california institute of the arts. A few Disney veterans ran a character animation program. Toontown is 3D, I believe it utilizes Python. But it's the feel of a traditional cartoon, and some of the animation is just great. Going to Goofy's Speedway and watching Goofy walk around... to an animator it's very rewarding (laughter)."

"Being a Disney game, is that when you build your toon (when you first join the game) it can come in a combination of proportions. And each one moves differently. Same as the cogs, who have about three different basic physiques. they move different from one another in everything they do. That sounds a bit technical but I'm an adult and an adult cartoonist. I look at it a little differently. He smiled, "And then I drop a piano on the head of some lawyer robot."

I asked him about the attacks, and he answered you start with small ones and work your way up, "you start with a squirting lapel flower and a cupcake. These can be worked up to a geyser and a wedding cake." Attacks like the dropped piano need the help of another toon to distract the target first.

"Walking around Toontown is just great. there are several neighborhoods with themes. Obviously in the game you work your way in tasks and challenges from neighborhood to neighborhood. But the meticulous attention made to these, the names of the shops, the styles... and the last few years some things like hydrants and mailboxes have personalities and animate."

I asked Holocluck about the tasks, "They start off simple enough, a cog, fish something out of the pond. there is a narrative which flows through the neighborhood of some shopkeeper or other who was harassed by cogs or something was stolen etc. And as you achieve these you can carry more gags at a time, jellybeans at a time, get bigger, maybe handle many tasks at once. And eventually you fight the source of the cogs. Not for the faint of heart."

"There are four categories of cogs: the lawyers, the salesmen, the financiers and the bosses. Each has a headquarters and there's someone making them. (It's) Usually a behemoth of a robot in charge and up to 8 toons go in together to defeat them. There is usually a battle not unlike the ones in the streets or in buildings, a stream of four cogs at a time versus up to four toons at a time for about ten minutes. Then the special, direct fight with the one in charge."

"As an example, the cashbot CFO (chief financial officer) looks like a cash register for a head, a large body with dollar signs for the suit pattern, and the bottom half of him looks like tank treads. There are some toons who take to cranes (I do that) where we work with the other toons who disabled these special sentinels coming out from between the treads,. and we take large magnets and fling the things into the CFO in the middle. Then when he periodically gets dizzy we grab large safes and smack him." Holocluck laughed, "then we win! And we get some special perk. The fight itself may be different each type of cog."

I asked Holocluck what kind of perks did toons get for beating boses. He answered,  "Well for the CFO fights we get special phrases we can say which can endow anyone within range with jellybeans, more gags, or more laff. (Toons) don't die but our levels called laff can diminish in a fight."

For the lawyer cog boss battle, "in the case of the lawbot CJ aka Chief Justice, the CJ is blindfolded, love that one. After the cog battle there is a sequence where for a limited time the cogs are landing into the jury seats and we use cannons to shoot toons to replace them. When time is up the more toons means the scale in the center of the large room may be in our favor. There comes a sequence where once side of the room the cogs are lined up throwing evidence aka books at their side of the scale, and we throw on our side and run to restock etc from the witness. They occasionally skid their evidence on the ground to trip us. we gotta know to jump (grin). Oh and the giant gavels. gotta be careful where to stand." Holockuck laughed, "We win when the scale reaches down on our side."

One element of character advancement was deciding on what new skills to have, "as they advanced and added other types of gags … you had to leave one off. One gag was not for the cogs but for fellow tons: the toon-up." This move ranged, "from a tickle feather to a high dive act into a glass of water, making friends laugh during battle to being their numbers up."

"We had pets called Doodles which look like a 'Lil Abner' 'Schmoo,' and we could train them to do tricks and come out during battle for that. The animatons on those are marvelous and the personalities are very complex. That alone makes it a shame (Toontown) is leaving."

There were some special happenings during holidays. For instance, one could make a black cat character around Halloween. Besides those, "there are invasions, when a particular cog is everywhere at once. regardless of the type of building etc. when that happens everything is double value in your efforts."

That a major corporation like Disney  would make a game in which the characters spent much of their time fighting corporate stereotypes, Holocluck commented, "Well, there was an inevitable irony waiting to happen." Toontown would soon be closing.

"Last month, Toontown was hit by teen hackers and they closed it and the test servers, for about a week, to patch the game up. The test server never came back but they made up for things with free beans (money) and other perks to celebrate returning and for our patience." Holocluck sighed, "But face it, that's a resource. If they have to work on that, and if they're scaling down guess what leaves."

An article on CNN stated Toontown had experienced a "significant drop in user numbers." Holocluck admitted after ten years, things were not looking as rosy for the game as in the past, "Times have since changed. things have gone mobile, they lost many players in the past to sophisticated MMORPG like star wars or WoW." Although Disney promoted the game in the past with commercials on television, they weren't doing so now. With the public " looking to apps, etc., they just launched Inifinity and pushing that." Holocluck concluded that Disney felt, "Disney online is just in the way."

Holocluck stated Toontown wasn't the only game closing, "A friend in Second Life goes to 'Pixie Hollow,' another game. The third is 'Pirates of the Caribean.' All three are closing Sept 19.  I believe … Disney pulled the plug on the Disney Online project. There was news this morning of major layoffs at ABC as part of their downsizing plan."

So where might the players go after the game closed, Holocluck didn't have an answer, "Nothing will take the place of Toontown. It was a nice game for people who wanted light hearted entertainment and challenges, some funny mixed with getting back at the corporate world, and beautiful Disney animation."

When not playing Toontown for the next few weeks, Holocluck Henly manages the Starship Diner at Hydrangea (77, 173, 72). He also DJs for Relay for Life events.

One can check out Holocluck's Youtube stream for more Toontown videos, and his Flickr page for pictures.

Image credit: Holocluck Henly

Bixyl Shuftan

World of Warcraft To Test Using Real Money to Buy Experience Buffs

By Bixyl Shuftan

While World of Warcraft players have been busy with the Battle of the Barrens and other places, earlier this month there was some news that Blizzard would be testing out something never done before in the game - allowing players to gain experience faster by using real money purchases.

The buying of game items, or "micro-transactions," are not new to gaming, or even to WoW. Some smaller Internet games such as Evony allow players to purchase a variety of buffs, better equipment, etc. As these purchases give the buyer an advantage over free players, they are sometimes called "Pay to Win" games. Larger MMOs have tended to avoid such offers, not wanting to give loyal players who've gamed a long time the impression someone can just buy their way to the top and avoid the time and hard work in getting there. Instead some, WoW included, offer the sale of items that do not affect gameplay, such as mounts and pets.

In Summer 2011, Eve Online players protested plans to allow the purchase of items that would affect gameplay, and eventually the company relented. "It's one thing to add non-game items and make money off that," one reader wrote, "It's another entirely to screw up the whole game mechanics so that veteran players who've worked a year to get where they are get bumped by some snotnosed kid who's using Daddy's credit card to buy his way to the top."

Earlier this month, Blizzard forum moderators admitted to plans to "exploring" options after it was discovered there were plans for items to be sold at an "in game store," such as an "Enduring Elixir of Wisdom" that gave a 100% experience boost. The store will reportedly be only on Asian servers at first, and the item is described as currently only on test servers and only available to players level 85 or more.

The response from the players was mostly negative, "The item itself is mostly harmless … the problem is that it opens doors to (the) 'Pay to Win' model. And we already pay the game and a monthy fee just to skip that." Some stated they would leave the game, or feared others would if the In Game Store was released. Some stated they wouldn't mind the option to level other characters this way once a player had brought one up to the maximum Level 90 anyway.

This comes soon after some less than happy news for World of Warcraft. In May, Blizzard stated they had lost more than a million players in the first three months of the year, from 9.6 million n January 2013 to 8.3 million in March. While most of the losses were from Asia (where the in-game store will be tested), some Western gamers left as well. This continues a long-term drop from it's peak of 12 million in 2010, and the company admitted further decline was likely, "we expect to have fewer subscribers at year end than we do today." The reasons for the drop, players were leaving for cheaper games, notably those playable on mobile devices. The video game industry, in addition to virtual words such as Second Life, has been facing increased competition from handhelds such as tablets, iPods, and others.

At the time, Blizzard stated they would be investing more in WoW, with more storylines and features. Since then, the Darkspear Rebellion was introduced. But that even the largest of MMOs would resort to "dabbling in the darkest gold-producing alchemy of them all" of microtransactions allowing those with deeper pockets an edge over conventional players, this could be taken as a sign that even the people behind World of Warcraft are wondering if it won't be long before they no longer dominate online gaming.

Sources: Gamasutra, BBC News, Rock Paper Shotgun, Blizzard Forums,

Bixyl Shuftan

Game Review: World of Warcraft - The Darkspear Rebellion

By Bixyl Shuftan

(Note, the article has some spoilers about what happens in this World of Warcraft adventure)

The biggest Multiplayer Online Game, World of Warcraft, recently went though a few changes in the form of a "patch." Patch 5.3, also known as "Escalation." There are four new scenarios players can play out, two of which are aimed at one of the factions, one Horde, one Alliance. Two new battlegrounds for player vs player action. There's new PvP gear and some Pet Battle and Brawler's Guild Tweaks. But the biggest feature is the Darkspear Rebellion.

For those who don't remember much about the game in it's earlier days, the Horde used to be led by Orcish Warchief Thrall. Thrall valued peace with the Alliance and the freedom of the Horde's peoples. But when Azeroth was threatened with being torn apart in the Cataclysm, Thrall steped down to help stop it as a shaman. In his place, he appoints Garrosh Hellscream as the new Orc and Horde leader. But unlike Thrall, Hellscream sees little need to negotiate for what can be taken by force, and refuses to listen to the Orcs' allies. His brutal ways lead to increased conflict with the Alliance, and the alienation of the other peoples of the Horde who see him more and more as a tyrant.

With opposition against him increasing, Garrosh brands the the Trolls of the Horde, the Darkspear, as traitors, rounding up those still in the Orc capital Ogrimmar and moves against them elsewhere in the province of Durotar (the home province to the Orcs and trolls). The Troll leader Vol'jin responds by declaring open rebellion, dubbed the Darkspear Rebellion.

Both Horde and Alliance players can take part in quest chains, Horde players as part of the rebellion, and Alliance players aiding it. Level 90 players will get a letter in the mail from Lorewalker Cho, and upon entering the Vale of Eternal Blossoms in Pandaria will see him waving at them from Mogu'shan Palace. Talking to him, the player hears about actions concerning the Alliance and the Horde, and sends out the player in two scenarios via his "dream brew" on a nearby table: "Blood in the Snow," and "The Warchief and the Darkness." Normally playable by just one faction, in this case the opposite one can do so as well, Horde players in "Blood" disguised as humans, and Alliance ones in "Darkness" taking on the guise of Goblins.

Following the revelations, Cho will send the player off. For Horde players, they head to Duartor and to Sen'jin Village. Vol'jin is there, among with Chen Stormstout and Thrall. Thrall has finally had enough of Hellscream, and is aiding the effort against him.

Speaking to Vol'jin, the player hears about the rebellion, and will be asked to gather resources from the Northern Barrens to help supply it. These resources are in camps set up by Hellscream's Kor'kron, once elite soldiers of the Horde now Hellscream's personal army, loyal only to him and determined to carry out his will (see later in the article on more how to get the resources). After the player returns to the village, the place is attacked by the Kor'kron.

After the player helps defeat the assault, Thrall heads off to convince some Orc leaders to more actively support the rebellion. Vol'jin will launch a counterattack north to Razor Hill. There, the player has to free several captives (dissident Orcs are among the Trolls), in addition to defeating three elite NPC enemies, a gunman, a shaman, and a Lvl 92 axe-wielding melee fighter. Speaking to the NPC Zulu de Voice just outside the town will provide a healing buff that without defeating them single-handed is nearly impossible. Even with it, players may need to team up to defeat them.

After the battle, Horde players will see a scene between Vol'jin and the Tauren leader Baine Bloodhoof, discussing the future of the rebellion.

For Alliance players, they can take a shortcut to Duartor via a teleporter at the upper level on the Summer Terrace (the Alliance hub in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms), which takes them to the town of Ratchet in the Southern Barrens. Flying to above the defenses south of Ogrimmar, they'll see two Alliance agents, who will ask them to help scout for intelligence. Once they find out just how badly Hellscream and Vol'jin have fallen out, the player is send as an emissary to contact them. After talking to the Troll leader, the player is offered a chance to show his good intentions by getting some supplies from the Kor'kron camps in the Barrens and delivering them to the insurrection.

Following these quests, both Horde and Alliance players will be asked by Chen Stormstout to return to Pandaria to Mount Neverest in the Kun-Lai Summit to talk to an old seer about some answers to questions about Pandaria's situation. Meeting up with him, he accompanies the player up the mountain. Once they reach Seeker's Point, the seer will reveal his true identity, why Pandaria was hidden from the world, and how that is relevant to the current situation, "Only by working together can we overcome the darkness."

Horde and Alliance players can continue to gather supplies in a weekly "Battlefied: Barrens" quest. The player needs to gather 150 units each of lumber, stone, oil, and meat. These can be gathered at four camps in the Northern Barrens. Players can gather them by clobbering Kor'kron guards or the workers helping them or swiping crates and slabs of meat there. One can also get meat from slain wolf mounts.

There are two quicker ways to get resources. One is by escorting caravans of goods. Multiple players are needed to ensure the caravans survive the attacks by Kor'kron raiders. Once it reaches it's destination, the player gets rewarded with surplus supplies. You can also get supplies by taking down elite Kor'kron commanders, but they're too tough to fight alone. It takes a team to defeat them. One can also get supplies by overturned Kor'kron caravans, announced in Barrens chat when these events happen. But only if you can get them before they're recovered.

Rewards include new titles, "Darkspear Revolutionary" for Horde Players, and "Hordebreaker" for Alliance, some high level gear from some of the quests, and the "Radical Mojo" rewards from the weekly Barrens quests can be combined with "Latent Kor'kron armor" you get either from battle or the Darkspear Quartermaster into items with "randomized stats that may have some unexpected results that you won't be able to get from other gear."

The Darkspear Rebellion won't last forever. Eventually another patch will close these events, "where the story will continue beyond the Barrens and take the next step toward what could be a historic shift in power."

So players of WoW, whether you're "For the Horde" or "For the Alliance," get into the action while you can in this turning point in Azeroth's history.

Sources: Blizzard,  Wowpedia

Bixyl Shuftan