Woman Arrested for WoW Love Affair

"She was a 31 mage, he was a 17 warrior. Unfortunately, we're talking about their ages."The synompsis is short, a 17 year old American NC boy meets 31 (admittedly kinda cute) Aussie from World of Warcraft and agree to meet in the States. In fact the 17 year old boy (or as the Aussie's family suggest, the parents of the 17 year old) fund the ticket for her to come and visit and immediately gets picked up by police. Unfortunately for her, a year is all that seperates prison and freedom. Now the big question, if it was an Aussie man visiting an NC girl, there would be an outrage. It'd be on the news everywhere and Hannity and Colmes would be interviewing everyone and their brother, touting justice has been served. Since I was 17 years old once, I feel like I could say how I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with the situation. If this was a 27 year old and a 41 year old, this wouldn't even be a blip in interest, so the difference? The law, apparently, and the fact that I wouldn't trust the love judgements from a 17 male WoW player. If I was a judge, I'd probably just extradite her and give her a year in prison or serveral years of probation. Yeah, 18 is the law but its not some magical number. In the end, I don't get the 'sicko' feeling and more like 'the law pwned you hardcore'. Life lesson learned kids: Wait another year IMO.

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ESRB vs NIMF vs MILFs

Ok, that last part was made up. No one is against MILFs, at least not yet. Doesn't it seem weird though that everything has an orginization against it? Drunk driving has MADD, Google has privacy advocate groups, RIAA and MPAA have the entire world, ACLU has reason.... it never seems to end does it? Well lucky for us, for all you parents that don't have the common sense to figure out how the ESRB works, we have an advocacy group for you. Its called The National Institute on Media and the Family, and its sole purpose is to make sure you're kids aren't being marketed things like Halo or Grand Theft Auto for your little young ones so they don't trick you into buying said games without doing any research at all. Cause God forbid there is an easy-to-use system on all of the boxes that clearly tell you what age groups should be playing said games.

Alright, enough sarcasm. Do I care about Manhunt 2 getting pulled from distrobution or Rockstar getting this black eye? No. There is a line called taste, and Rockstar may have crossed it. But, because of the naysayers track records on past games like Bully, I actually gave Rockstar the benifit of a doubt. No, I've never played or seen footage of Manhunt 2. I agree that making an innocent civillian shooter is a terrible thing, including those created in completely bad taste, but is it protected under free speech? Personally I think ESRB did this soley because it wasn't a popular game to begin with, it was developed by Rockstar, and it was violent. Rockstar didn't lose terribly over missing the ship date of this game, and the ESRB can look good by showing NIMF that it can prevent violent games from entering the market, which I guess looks good to NIMF because it keeps the truth from their supporters that they don't have a constitutional leg to stand on.

Enough ranting and raving. I'm done. I got a different viewpoint from a mother and still feel like I made some good points on my own. We don't need a lettered orginization telling people what to buy. Take some responsibility for your own actions.

The Church of Halo

America has been an interesting hotbed of convenience inventions including but not limited to all-you-can-eat pizza places, wireless internet, and the Roomba® have come up with another idea for worship. Converting a big box store into an 111,000 sq ft mega church won't be an easy task but the most interesting addition is the arcade for kids/teens which will have a Halo running Xbox. Halo, of course, is rated by the ESRB as M for Mature so it begs the question why in the world a church would sponsor the addition.

(from the Detroit News article )

"We want going to church to be an enjoyable and enriching experience for the whole family," said Senior Pastor Jerry Weinzierl, 50, of Warren. "Even if someone comes in for the wrong reason, I can maybe make an impact on them for that moment." "This will be a very peaceful place."

Using contemporary culture to be bait for fishers of men isn't necessarily a new concept. Crosswinds, a local university youth group, had every Wednesday a "Halo Night" that provided the space and projectors for 4 linked Xboxes to run Halo 2, and was by far the most popular event. I hope in this Wal-Mart style church these people won't have too many distractions.

Link via Detroit News

Gaming and Whatnot

Ever since 1up Yours people started harping on Puzzle Quest for the DS, I've been wanting to check it out. Unfortunately theres another unmentionable game that recently came out thats been lookin fun to play.

Its been every pokefan's dream to play wirelessly over great distances, even if they didn't know it yet.

My roommate and I made a 2v2 arena team called No Innocent Victim. Logging with a 14-7 win/loss and a 1600+ rating ain't bad. The sad thing is I've been wanting to level Shaman. Who knows.

Keri was talking up Gears of War and all I could think of was, "that'd be fun after WoW". Pretty much if it wasn't for that game I'd care more about others. Honestly though, I've been having plenty of fun just playing with my real life AND WoW friends. I know it doesn't last forever but I'm along for the ride.

To Explain Away a Phenomenon

Gamers.
For some, this is you. The people who choose to play digital entertainment for the sole reason of having fun, killing your friends, or the simple glory of the high score. For those of you who don't identify, this is not you. Those people are the nerdy, socially closed in people who need a good drink and get laid worse then any other social group out there (including Al Queda). Personally as someone single, and dating, this tag presents a huge problem. While it's simple enough to find someone who doesn't play and meet somehow halfway, that its problematic. Especially for MMO players, non-gamers rarely understand the motivation of playing, let alone be able to explain the expense.

Personally I believe that excessive gaming is a sign of a myraid of mental illness ranging from depression to anxiety problems, I still feel though that its a better outlet then some alternatives like drug use or drinking. If a gamer is willing to go halfway to say, "Hey maybe we do play excessively" isn't it equally important to acknowlegde that the non-gamer likewise does something all encompassing and possibly more destructive.

All of this talk came from a friend of mine's discussion of my playing World of Warcraft (Asad on the http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/ website). While I might play 2-3 hours a day, I'm usually with friends and even having fun doing it.

And in the end, that's what its all about.

Melee Hunters and Being Epically Mounted

The Lone Melee Hunter

Gweryc Halfhand is a hunter with a mission. Forego any notions of being a ranged class and fight right there with your pet, melee style. Now you may ask why anyone would make such a seemingly unsound decision. After all, the game is pretty much drawn out all abilities, weapons, and gear for the hunter for its ranged aspect, its a little understatement to say this is swimming upstream. Stated on his blog, his reasoning:

"For me, World of Warcraft ceased being about pwnage and phat lewtz a very, very long time ago. My monthly subscription rents me a playground, not a bunch of pixellated e-peen enlargers, not a spot as somebody's slave in a raid guild. It's all about fun, and I get a major kick out of pushing the envelope. So I suppose it was really inevitable that I level a 100% pure melee hunter at some point."

On his blog are the various links that circle around what hes trying to do as well as another example, specifically talking about the Naked Troll Project as well as his armory links and forum posts on the official WoW forums.



Whats the Cost of That Mount Again?

Whats funny though is thats not even the strangest WoW news to come from the internets. As reported by Kotaku as well as the Lengendary Thread podcast, a female WoW player offered on Craigslist to have sex for the gold to buy an epic flying mount. In real world value that comes out to $800 USD ($16 per 100g). In an update she had voiced her opinion that, contrary to Kotaku's post, she is not a whore, she and her benifactor both got what they wanted, and were going to see each other the following week. §

On the Eve of Burning Crusade...

Actually, technically, when you read this it will have "hit the streets" as they say. So as I sit here, I'm wondering what's causing this visceral reaction inside me about the game. Yes, the game itself is expensive, but I gotten value from playing my friends in it, no matter where I am, and get to have fun. True, its only one game....but the CDs in the box I have are NOTHING like the game it is today. In true value fashion, about 60% of the game content was added post-purchase of the initial game. For better or for worse, and a lot of testing, the game is relatively balanced where I can't use the same old excuse of "well damnit, I died cause of my character sucks to THAT guy who killed me" and is turning into more like "Uhh....F$%#in lag! Thats Bull$h!t~~"

Something you WoW players might have to realize, is that eventually all things go to the wayside. And this is the warning that starts the armagheddon for World of Warcraft.

I could explain that unless Blizzard Entertainment, and in effect Vivendi Universal, pay the creative people in yachts...the designers will leave. As a wannabe artist myself, I hate doing the same thing exactly the same way for extended periods. The talent, by nature, will change and thus the game won't be the same. But thats not what I'm most worried about. When this change happens, and people decide to move on, I will have realized for some instant how much time I've sunk into the game. Granted I've met people through WoW that I wouldn't've otherwise, and very grateful for that, but the actual characters are NOT forever. And thats kinda sad. I can remember when I came up the name for my first character, going to the show where Azariah's Prayer and In the Face of War were supposed to play. I wrote a lot of things down like Night Elf backwards or Warrior interchanged when I decided something more biblical. But nothing too obvious. Then I remembered the show that I went to way so long ago and the name came up. Azariah. Sure enough, it worked, and the rest as the say became history.

Unless something drastic happens, like the name Azariah frees up, I won't be able to recreate that. I've been thinking about names, and saved a few, but nothing will have as much meaning. It was a cool name too....versitile enough to be shortened to Az and have crazy characters. No, the only thing I can think of is Balhepsi, which is the name of my friends bellydancing troope. And already its been deemed 'ghey', so we'll have to see.

In closing, I'm going to be able to experiance the new content almost for the first time and play with friends in groups just like we've been planning.

And I can't wait. §

Gaming for the Masses

Something that will always impress me is gaming. Video, paper, card, computer, any kind of gaming that brings happiness to people is as interesting as the personality. From the solo experiance of a first-person shooter to the cultural immersion of a massive multiplayer game like World of Warcraft, gaming is pressing against the mainstream. The first sucessfull salvo came in the form of Brain Age, a Touch Gaming game from Nintendo on the Nintendo DS game platform that actually gets adults to play aand not feel embarassed. And maybe, just maybe they'll go "Hey I want to try out that Mario my kids loved so much..."

I doubt it. The most likely thing to happen is that it becomes a passing fancy, and discussing videogaming will go back under the tables of Starbucks once again. But there will be a day, mind you, when there will be a "multimedia device" that Nintendo comes out with that not only plays games amazing but gets online, holds your music collection and even a few videos. Shoot, might as well connect to Myspace too.

Anyway, all I'm going to say is, if I could see into my crystal ball....Nintendo is the most poised for a company to be the ulimate mobile device. §