Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm, the video game

I'm not even where to start on this one. Look, I love the show but I'm not sure I want to play it.

Some choice bits from the press release:

Battle 40-foot waves, storms, ice and a nearly 100 percent crew member injury rate in the dangerous hunt for undersea riches on the Bering Sea with the new video game Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm...

Okay, that sounds great and all but (1) it's crab fishing and (2) "nearly 100 percent crew member injury rate"?

Gamers then recruit and lead their own crew from a roster of 20 real crab fishermen. Selecting the wrong boat or recruiting the wrong crew member can mean the difference between landing a Bering Sea jackpot or disaster.

I love how it is real crab fishermen, like they making an NFL game with real players. Makes me want to start a fantasy crab fishing league.

With waves over 40 feet high, Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm features the best wave effects in a video game to date.

Game designers love to brag about water effects. Hey, I understand that it's tricky business. And this is a case where it does matter. I mean, if you screw up the wave effects in a Deadliest Catch game, you don't have a whole lot else.

Let's look at some video:

Well, that does look a bit exciting. Not much crab fishing. Let's look at some gameplay:

Um... yeah... looks like... um...

I think I'll hold out for the MythBusters game (which I picture as a 3D platformer).

Second Life and Age Play

As I've stated before, it was only a matter of time. The Lindens have laid down the law of age play in Second Life: No more.

This is clearly a premptive move before the media and/or legal forces start moving in. It will be interesting to watch how users respond.

SecondLife, Age-Play, and the Flood Gates

The virtual world SecondLife is easy to dismiss by most folks. To many it appears just to be EverQuest or World of Warcraft without a real game attached to it. But is coming a fascinating experiment of what people do given almost total freedom.

How will the economy develop? (It is all about owning land.)
Who owns something when it is virtual, when the concept is virtual? (That is still up in the air. I would love to see a survey of "creators/sellers" in SL and how they feel about DRM on music and movies and such.)
When vandalism and anarchy become relatively easy and non-punishable and anonymous, will everything slip into anarchy? (A bit but in general folks like order.)
What will people do will freedom to act out their fantasies?

Turns out the answer to that last one is that some people will "play" at child-adult sex.

This should surprise no one. I am going to pass on making statements about sexual fantasy roleplay and how it is healthy in some cases... if everyone is one the same page and everyone is a consenting adult. I'm not going to talk about the dangers of not actually knowing who the person behind that virtual avatar of an eight-year old is.

But I have been expecting for awhile that SL was just a media uproar in the waiting. Companies and musicians and artists have been running to SL as the "next big thing." And so have politicians. It was only 2004 when the media became amazed at Howard Dean's use of the Internet. Three years later politicians see SL as a relatively cheap way to reach people. I am just not aware how many of them realize what also goes one there and that when the media gets their mitts onto it what will happen.

Well, apparently the Dutch have noticed and are looking to take legal action. The Netherlands has laws about virtual child pornography. It's hard to say where this lands. Is there a difference between disturbing pictures/video of adults pretending to be children (and perhaps not telling the viewer it is an adult) and two consenting adults roleplaying? But I imagine that distinction will not be debated with much coherency. As the media, especially the U.S. media start to pick up the story, SL is going to be seen in a whole other light.

It shall be interesting to see how it is covered and how it effects the SL community.

Lawyers of Second Life

Law.com has a fascinating article by John Bringardner discussing lawyers setting up shop in Second Life. It is the best article that I have seen that touches on Second Life's importance. It isn't about the marketing or the age play or the furries. It's about who owns what and how they own it. A lot of IP law future is going to fought and possibly decided in the Liden's little sandbox.

The First Virtual Embassy for A Real World Country

Sweden is going to open an embassy in Second Life.

In the scheme of things, is that important? No, not really. But it is interesting watching the freight train that is Second Life. Not in popularity, since it is nigh impossible to figure out how popular SL actually is or how much it is riding off of people making accounts, getting bored and leaving. But it is a cultural freight train, one that seems to have avoided the actual culture part. The flood of coprtations and news agencies and now frackin' countries that are jumping in is a bit insane.

I suppose it is the wonder of having such a low starting cost/low risk. I mean, the worst that happens is that they hire two people for 6 months and pay a a few bucks for virtual land. If it fails, who cares. If it suceeds and increases tourism to Sweden, good for them.

It is still insane.

Money Laundering Made Easy

Kenneth Rijock over at World-check brings up an interesting thought about virtual online games and how they are handling the exchange of currency. Basically the easy at which it is to get an account if with little ID verification, to translate real world cash into online currency, transfer it to another account and withdraw that back as real world cash. Basically the perfect money laundering scenario with little t no oversight. Here is a scenario he presents:

• I open 15 to 25 accounts at the virtual universe website, all with counterfeit identification. I fund the accounts with narcotics proceeds cash, all patiently deposited at the available ATMs by my smurfs.
• I then purchase some virtual real estate from a co-conspirator, as a partnership of my bogus identities, and funnel all the virtual purchase money into his account.
• The "seller" can then access these funds, either through ATMs, or through a bank. Perhaps I open a small bank account, using bogus ID,and obtain cashiers' cheques with my now-converted "virtual" profits. Is this a great way to move criminal profits ? You bet it is.

And finishes off with this thought:

Have they created a " financial institution" as the term is defined in the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 ? It would seem that the answer is yes. Let us see just how long regulators and law enforcement allow this scheme to exist before taking action.

So it may not be age play that brings down Second Life and the like.

(via Second Life Herald)

CrimeCraft, WarTheftAuto

Vogster Entertainment is making a cross platform MMO game revolving around the idea of crime. CrimeCraft. As they say, "Players will take part in the political, economical and social life of a big city. They will run businesses, engage in commerce, and suffer the consequences of confrontations with criminal groups and shadowy law enforcement figures."

Okay, could be fun. Is there anything more?

The key game features include:
- ownership of real-estate and cars
- possibility to run shops, warehouses, banks, productions
- fight over territories and clan wars
- combat system unique for MMO
- developed social system. Possibility to solve conflicts without a single shot
- or possibility to choose law-obeying, criminal or financial professions and changing of those throughout the game.

Nothing here sounds too cutting edge, but I'm all for MMO's that don't involve elves or spaceships. Nothing wrong with elves or spaceships, but it's god to see something new.

Of course, this doesn't sound all that new. It sounds a lot like their was a deveopers meeting where someone asked what games were hot and someone else said, "World of Warcraft" and "Grand Theft Auto." Heck, they just took the Craft part and slapped the word "Crime" at the start. Way to break new ground there.

My question is will this create "PimpFarming." And if that will be considered a crime in a game about crime.

Behind the scenes of "Make Love, Not Warcraft"

Last month, South Park had an episode dealing with the World of Warcraft. It was pretty dead on with tons of inside jokes. And, like the best South Park episodes, addressed real world issues in an intelligent and moronic way at the same time.

Anywhozits, there is a good artice about the making of the episode over at Machinima.com. Ths could be the way animation (at least television animation) is done in the future. Take a look.

(via Kotaku)

Virtual Property as Events

I am just fascinated by online realities like second life... even if I only spent a grand total of twenty minutes there. But it is on the edge of where a lot of us will be going, like it or not.

For awhile I have been ruminating on the importance of these worlds, trying to come up with a cohesive article n the subject. I'm not there yet. Maybe after November is done. But until I do, I think you should read Prokofy Neva's article in The Second Life Herald. It may not make 100% sense to you, as it is written by a Second Lifer for other Second Lifers, but give it a read. This my be the future of creative content.