First, some bastard already had my name...I mean come on. How many people want Meatball as their handle? I settled for MeatballB and was then dragged through pages upon pages that I'm sure the Sony Marketing folks get their panties in a bunch over. How old was I, what type of PC, how many kids do I have, do I like smooth or creamy? Urgh!! After un-checking at least 10 checkboxes that would have sent me Newsletters, Updates, and Coupons I desperately tried to dig myself out of Sony's game site. Finally fifteen minutes passed before I determined I was no longer on anything resembling the Star Wars site...heck, I could have been in W.O.P.R. for all I know. Greetings Professor Falcon.

What is going on here? Every big software company is sucking up anything with MMORPG attached to it's development scream sheet. You would think they were investment bankers looking at dot coms. Anyway...I understand why small developers would jump at the chance to team up with Microsoft, Sony, etc, etc...but it cheapens the whole genre. Everything is vanillaized down to the lowest common denominator...moolah. This also means that any game that doesn't rack in the subscriptions will die a quick death, so be careful where you place your addictions.

The exact same situation happened in the pen and paper RPG world not too long ago and basically killed it. Did you know Hasbro owns Dungeons and Dragons? It's like the Kevin Bacon game, how many steps does it take to get from Tiamat to the Monopoly guy? Give up? One... FASA is going out business and being bought out. There goes Shadowrun and Battletech...aiiieee!

Anyhow...all we can do is pray that the competition between developers to get married to these megacorps keeps creativity alive. Damn that Sony site....

Due to a change in our billing system, we are no longer able to process account payments until we have the payment in the office or through the online registration. Once we receive the payment, it will be processed the same working day. Unfortunately, we cannot accept 'promised' payments in the form of faxed copies of checks or money orders that are on the way.

I installed Asheron’s Call. I ran the game for the first time in 7 months, and waited for the next hour while the client updated itself.

I’m now officially addicted…again.

My new little character, Yamamana (named after the...More

Buy my time in getting yourself 1000pp for free. Bid on one unit of time and get 1000pp f

The Tail that Wags the Dog: Is Entertainment Driving Technology? I wouldn't know, I left halfway through. Tom Hershey of Sony Pictures and Imageworks and Paul Debevec of USC's Institute for Creative Technology were putting me to sleep. I left before Ken Perlin of NYU and David Javelosa of Yamaha got up to speak. It was either going and having a cigarette or using the sniper rifle and being in prison. So my life was technically saved a second time, and while Raph had nothing to do with it, I'd like to make him responsible again - Just cause I can.