Baby Jesus hits you for 43 points of soul damage. You have been saved.

Should here about Anarchy-Online get real competition? We hope it for all players! Into the deed, its ideas are transferred probably by means of the "Feature Characters".

You said it, brother.

Or, given the testosterone-drenched product emanating from these paragons of creativity, you haven't dated at all, since no real life woman can ever have Lara Croft's figure. Really. If they did, they'd topple over. Poor Angelina Jolie has to have support wiring and guide wires just to walk across a room. All because you pinheads can't figure out what a woman in real life actually looks like. Maybe going outside would help. Then again, that would probably result in another news story about sad-assed EQ players encountering the rest of humanity.

1. The game must be very profitable.
2. The game must be fun.

...Of course, she then goes on to elaborate on those points for the next 10 or 12 paragraphs.

Consequence. There needs to be consequence for making the life of a fellow gamer miserable. There's currently no real community, as I think I've stressed before, so the they will be outcast mindset won't work. You also don't want to run your game tyrannically, as I think this site has stressed, so that too wouldn't work. The consequence needs to come in the form of what the griefer desires most: attention. Granted, the drive may also be achievement, but more often than not, I've noticed that the true motivation has been attention. The gloating, the bragging, and the infamy that come with being a notorious griefer are all too often the real force behind the actions.

Reward. Currently, the reward for slaughtering the enjoyment of your fellow player is too great. Overcoming a human opponent that thinks and reacts as you do should be reward enough. The loot system's also play a large role: Killing a single opponent and likely getting a fine reward (because more often than not, he won't be using substandard equipment) rather than waiting in line for hours or killing dozens, if not hundreds, of monsters is much more desirable. Yes, I will agree that some other reward is appropriate too, but not when it is obviously leading to the unhappiness of a paying customer.

To agree or disagree with Savant's rantings, you'll need to read the rest of the article.

In contrast, the next panel seemed to illustrate an absolute dichotomy of thought on entertainment.

I think that is probably the key. I am thrilled about the opportunity, becau

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....

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.