My best friend(online)

Today I come to talk about Internet-based relationships. When you think about it, Internet friends are just new age pen pals who we can instantly write and sometimes hear and or see. Some think it's different in that you can't tell what they are really like and who they are, and are untrustable. But then again, so were the old pen pals, but this isn't a comparison post.
Why do we interact with them and become with friends with people that are far away, and could be lying about anything? For all that is known, they could be lying just for truth about you which they could just use against you. It sometimes becomes the opposite and the results are seen on the news, with someone running off in a hopeless thought of love with someone who they just met over the internet. But with all these cons, if you have the mid set to know the limit of the friendship and if you find someone who you know by the ways of webcam and vocal interaction. But even these aren't perfect ways of finding a person who's not bad.
But that's the thinking of someone who's going too far, the internet interaction is just for that, interact of someone who you don't know and then after you tur off the computer, the person doesn't exist in your life anymore. Myself, for example, have two friends who I have known for four years, and I have not met them in real life, but when I log off, I live my real life and don't go crazy thinking about them or wanting to meet them.
All of you may think, well what about my guildmates/clan buddies? Well those are game-linked people who after the raid/match is done, they are done interacting with you. This doesn't mean "oh, don't talk to anyone or even interact with them unless you have a game's objective together." no nothing like that, what I'm saying is that you shouldn't trust anyone and everyone you meet online.

Second Life

So far in Second Life I have made my character and have done a couple things about its appearance. I plan to do more but haven't really had the time yet. So far my opinion of the game is that it takes a little getting used to. I am use to playing WoW and Second Life is a little different mostly in the way of game play. I am going to download it on to my computer so that I can get better at in the ways of movement and changing of the characters looks and clothing as well as the game play. Now if I had just found this game when I was looking around on the internet for god knows what I would probably have downloaded it, played it, and then been done with playing it. So far the game for me has not been all that enjoyable but then again I am just beginning to play the game. I hope that the game will get better and I imagine that it will get better because for me most games start out boring and then get better as I play. I hope that everyone is enjoying the game so class will continue to be fun to go to.

Game violence

In almost every great game there is going to be some violence which is why they are great. But I don't think that it really matters how much violence is in that game. Some have argued that violent games makes people who play those games more violent while others have argued that game violence doesn't make anyone more violent any more than watching TV. I agree that violent games can have an effect on some people but on the majority they cannot. I have played violent games for years and years and years and I am still not a violent person. I have killed tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people in games and it hasn't changed me at all, except I have gotten better at killing people in games. But games that have such strong violence have a higher rating so that younger people cannot get those games. Now there are kids who can get any game they want just by asking for it from their parents. But not every parent will just buy whatever their kid(s) want, especially if the game has a mature rating because it has explicit content. But I am not an expert it is only my opinion and everyone can have their own opinion.

Second Life looks

Well I am back again. Its me Godzilla reporting back. Just stopping in to say that I got my elf form back and  I am having a blast.  I have decked out my elf with some black devil wings and red eyes. Man is it ever sweet because I started off as an elf and I think that my elf is the best looking elf out there. I  am thinking that I will take off my cloak and just keep the wings and my evil red eyes. I really like the demonic eyes if you haven't already guessed. I made my self taller and a little bigger but other then that I haven't changed much. Mainly because I have been to busy in my first life. Ummm not much else is going on and I am still hanging out with some of my other friends on SL and other then that not much is going on.

The Fashion and Economics of Second Life

As a 6 day member of Second Life starting today, I've had a chance to observe and absorb the different areas of Second Life, including the myriad of freebies you can obtain just by exploring a little bit. As a girl, I found the fashion having enough of a range to appeal to anyone's tastes, even if limited by a serious lack of Lindens. I also had a chance to pay attention to the guys' side of SL fashion and well I found it to be lacking. Girls can get anything from sporty to girly to just plain weird, while guys are limited to long sleeved shirts with various sayings and pants. Or maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, maybe that'll be my next experiment, starting an SL account from the veiw of a guy.

Second Life economy runs on a thing called Lindens, purchased with real currency, or if you don't want a lot and don't mind the work, through camping, money trees, and sometimes these lucky chair things. So what are these things that give you free Lindens?

Camping:

You find an area that offers camping, then look for a bench or chair and sit in it. The time you have to sit to earn 1 Linden is to the land owner's disgression. A good way to earn Lindens if you have the time to do so.

Money Trees:

Well the name should be self-explaintory. Basically you just look in the tree for Linden Dollars, then click on or touch them to get 1 Linden. There are also bananas and golden apples, which may hold more money.

Lucky Chair(if that's whay they're called):

A chair that has a prize, sometimes Lindens, sometimes an item, it displays the letter of a first name and if its the letter of your name sit in it to claim your prize. ex. My name on SL is Ophelia Cooperstone, if the chair were to display an O I would sit in it and get something. I've gotten 6 or 7 items this way.

I'm sure there are more ways to get Lindens in Second Life, but I haven't discovered them yet.

not in your Second Lifetime?

Donut here again and it may be a surprise to everyone here, but I've tried Second Life recently and noticed that it's social interactive as well as a huge array of how to custom your avatar in so many ways.
At first, your stuck with stuff that's free (freebies) and your default stuff. From that you can change it's size in many areas of the article of clothing or item, as well as the color, this also includes your hair. And if you have an item( wing or holdable object) you wish to have on your avatar, it's easy to attach it to the desired area and then you may open an editing panel in which you are open to a 360 rotation, 3 planar axis for precision moving, and many other things which can assure that the object will fit perfectly where you want it.
But just making a body and having it look cool is not all to Second Life, you can also create and build items that look cool or nice, make animations and gestures from coding that will earn you money inside the world to obtain more money, which in turn can allow you to get some cool items.
There are some glitches and problems that can be annoying at times but mostly are easily overlooked. One which must be mentioned is the camera, this world's camera is like a five year old who broke into the sugar drawer at times, while other times it's so stubborn, I cry that I miss the hyper five year acting camera.
All in all, I don't think I have enough info to give a full basic off as that my other posts were from years of experience and this is only a nooblet's insight on this game from the viewpoint of a hardcore gamer and a casual social people all at once. But if you want to be part of an online community without having to waste three months doing pointless quests and such and just want to interact and be creative, this is the artist's MMO if any. This has been Donut, untill next time my friends.

Diablo 2

One my my favorite Virtual Worlds is that of the Diablo universe. This game was created by the same company that made World of Warcraft and Starcraft. Diablo is a RPG or Role Playing Game first released for Windows and Mac. In this game, players are allowed to choose from a handfull of hero's. From a powerful warrior to a squishy spellcaster. The game revolves around a deep story spread out over four acts, five in the expansion. The objective or "point" of the game is to progress through the world and defeat the forces of evil. The character does this by leveling up and finding better pieces of equipment to help defeat the endless hordes of monsters that the forces of evil throw at you. As you progress through the game, the player travels from the Earth to the depths of Hell. Diablo 2 also features a online play feature called Battle.Net. The online mode is the same as single player, but allows players to play the five acts with friends. A neat feature of the online mode is how the game difficulty scales with the amout of players in a game. There are three game modes for online play. The first is called Ladder. Ladder is a ranked version of the game and special ladder only items can be found here. Non-Ladder is the same as Ladder, But with out several special items and is non ranked. The last game mode is Hardcore. In this mode, if you die, you have to completly restart the game. Diablo 2 is a great game and I would highly recoment it to anyone. It may be an older game, But it's one of the best.

2Moons

Alright, so, 2Moons... Not many people have heard of this game but i think it's pretty sweet for being a free game. It's basically like WoW but not quite as good. So you get to start with a choice of 6 characters and you work your way through quests and different areas throughout the world. Some of the areas you need to be a certain level to get to. As you level there are different armor sets and weapons you can buy for your character and there are ways to make your armors stronger than the stock ones. I must say it's a pretty addicting game once you start.
I'd have to say one of the big downsides to this game is that there are way to many hackers throughout the game and they get really annoying after a while. The GM's have tried to get rid of them but the people that use these hacks just make more in game characters to use them. Other than that it's a pretty sweet game so if you have any extra time on your hands I'd recommend trying out this game.

Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangster

So i was just checking my Myspace the other day and ran into a pretty cool virtual world, it is called Mobsters. Its a application on Myspace where you can create your own mobster and join a mob with any of your friends on Myspace. You start out with $10,000 and you can buy different weapons so you can perform certain missions that will get you more money. Once you get enough money you are able to buy territories/land and rent it out to people and make money off of it. You can also find different mobsters and fight them to try and steal some of their money. It's not that in-depth of a game but its pretty entertaining if you are bored and have nothing better to do.

Call Of Duty 4

Call Of Duty. These three words may not mean anything to you. To me, these words mean one of the greatest online games, and most sophisticated virtual world, to date. Call Of Duty 4 has shown me that video games can be very entertaining, while having a more subtle and creative side.

When playing single player, there is so much going on in the game, it is sometimes hard to focus on your objective in the level. The stunning graphics add to the chaos and draw the player in to give them a real butt-whooping to the senses. However, thats not where the fun ends. In online multiplayer, the player is dumped into a world of sheer beauty. The levels are gorgeous, and each have their certain quirks and main places of battle. Each player is able to customize classes by selecting primary weapons, secondary weapons, attachments to weapons, camouflage patterns, and "perks," which give the player an upper hand against opponents. These customizations allow for an added level of intensity in gameplay. Also when playing online, the player levels up as one would change rank in the Marines. Growing in level unlocks new weapons, perks, camo patterns, and other features. Yet another added level of gameplay. If you have an XBOX360, a PS3, or a souped up PC, I would seriously recommend picking up this game.

Variety

What I love best about World of Warcraft is its variety. In the game you can do a multitude of things. You can both go into a battleground and kill other players or you can go and do dungeons to get higher quality gear. You can also go and complete quests to gain money and/or experience or just go around killing mobs for rare items. But if you don't want to do any of those things you can simply talk to friends. I myself prefer to just go off and quest. I find the most enjoyment from them game just going and killing mobs or collecting materials to complete quest and gain money and/or experience depending on my characters level. I do get enjoyment from doing all of the other activities but I tend to get bored doing them. Now there are many other people that probably have the same opinion but then there are some people who greatly prefer to do just one aspect of the game and just that one. But think that people who just do one aspect of the game never truly know how great a game really is, that they are only getting a small part of a game that could be much bigger and much better. And then again there are people who like to do every aspect of the game that they can to be able to decide what they like best.

Halo 3....the final chapter in the gripping halo series

Halo. One word. Many different reactions to it. You may be reading this thinking "Halo is terrible, Call of Duty is so much better". You may also think that halo is the greatest game ever soncieved by man. That's what i think. It is epic. I was hardcore into halo before i started playing World of Warcraft. I bought the 160$ legendary edition. I have halo posters and paraphanalia scattered across my room. I've done two charcoal drawings that are straight up badass. Some pics are right up there ^^^^^^^^^^^^^Ive made a montage. I've spent so much time making maps and getting the perfect screenshot angle that my memory bank is full. People see the word "Halo" and think of mindless shooting, bashing and killing. It's so much more than that. Halo has one of the deepest storylines of any video game. The voice acting is brilliant, the soundtrack has blown away any other game soundtrack in sales. I myself own a copy of the two disc soundtrack. Even if you are playing multiplayer, if you go in blindly "shooting and bashing", you will get your face kicked. It requires strategy, skill, and teamwork. You must know the map. Where the weapons spawn, where the enemies spawn, and where the enemies will most likely go. If you play this game for fun, stay in the social playlists. If you play to test your skill, join me in the ranked playlists. Thats where is stay. Halo is awesome.

World of Addictcraft

So there's this game i play, you may have heard of it. World of Warcraft. I know many people who absolutely hate this game and would love to see it obliterated. I also know many more people who have become so addicted to this game that they blow off real life friends for a big raid. This is why the first type of people hate WoW. I hated WoW. I wanted it wiped from the face of the earth. One of my good friendswho plays it now still played it back then, back before i played. He's an addict. One time when he was raiding me and another friend went over to tear him away from his computer. We walked into his room and said hi. He acknowledged us and waved. We stood behind him, watching, for fifteen or twenty minutes, then left. To this day he does not remember that event. We asked him about it, told him that we were there. We told him that he waved at us. He laughed and said we were on crack, which, i assure you, we weren't.
A few weeks later, he convinced me to pick up a trial version of the game. I did. I told myself that I would only play it casually. I installed it, downloaded the patches, and started a new character(A gnome rogue by the name of Edgaralenpwn). Since that fateful day, i haven't gone more than a week without hopping on. I am an addict. Is it a bad addiction? I'm not harming anyone by doing it, I'm not harming myself by doing it. Sure, I've blown of friends and family for a raid, but they have other people to hang out with. If they really wanted to hang out, they would pick up a trial.
Edgaralenpwn is now top level, decked out in season 2 gear for pvp and tier 4 and some tier 5 for pve. My time played on him is over 25 days. That's over 600 hours put into that one character. If I would have been working at my 6.25 and hour job i would have made over 3500 dollars. What do i have to show for those many hours? 2000 gold? Brutal gloves? Nothing that is worth anything in the "real" world. Sure, i could sell my account for a hundred bucks. I would be out an account, and all those hours would seem wasted. For that reason i am going to keep playing WoW. It is addicting. I love it.

Usernames

Usernames allow us a myriad of things, from hiding our true identity to standing out, or both. All of this is great but sometimes usernames, to put bluntly are stupid. And you know we've all done it, created a username that we think is cool only to find out later that it really isn't. But that's okay because creating a good username takes expermentation. =)
I think a few things make a username good:
-Uniqueness: If your username is taken, it's taken, don't add numbers to it or underscores or the equivilent. Try a variation or choose something else.
-Showcases something about you: Don't choose a username just to choose one. Think of a random word or name that you think fits you well. (ex. Tangerine is my nickname and also has my alias for one of my gaia accounts hidden in it)
-It isn't too explict. This one should be self explaintory.
Once you find a username you can stick with it for all sites, or you can experiment a bit. xD For example my newly made SL name is Ophelia Cooperstone, while I have used the name Ophelia quite a bit I think adding the new lastname(chosen from a list might I add) makes it an entirely different username the previous ones and sounds a bit more realistic.

World of Warcraft

I play World of Warcraft like millions of other people. I have been playing the game for about two years. I am not one of the serious players who raid everyday or PvP ever day but more of a casual player. I do the raids when I have time which is usually once a week. I admit that I am addicted to the game and that I have put off school work so that I could play the game instead. I have lost a great amount of needed sleep and barely made it to school before the first class has started.
What I like most about WoW is that there is so much to do. You can go off and do quests and make money. Or you can join a group with friends and raid a town or do an instance. Or you can just go around and kill other players if you are on a PvP server. Or you can just simply go and help the lower level players with quests or instances.
There are many people that play the game just for the PvP aspect of it. I myself do enjoy it for short periods of time but usually cant stand playing against the players who have the Season Four Brutal Gladiator PvP gear which seems to happen every time. I also dont like to PvP as much because the usual total lack of team work. People always seem to be off trying to take the whole enemy team. But then again there are always the rare group of people who work together and help each other out which almost always get me to play another round.

Avatars...

Why exactly do we make and love our avatars so much? Why do I call myself Donut, a junk food, and like the name so much? I personally think it's because we love the fact that we can be whoever we want without a restriction like we do in the real world. I also think many love avatars because they want to escape themselves and experience being someone else.
My avatar name comes from the parody series, Red vs Blue, from the character of the same name. I chose him because he was seen as a goofball with outrageous comment and remarks but was still accepted by everyone. I loved his name was well as him so I chose that name. My avatar name comes from a fan standpoint, like most names, but I choose to have an odd one that no one else does because I hate having numbers in my name since I don't like to be thought of as a number. Others who choose their name based on a common loved thing like a popular anime/video game are bound to be taken and then must add numbers. No one wants to add numbers in their name, because by doing so, you've lost the purpose of being orignal by just becoming another number like the real world sees you as.
Some who have avatar names like the one above and have the same hate I do towards numbers have mutliple Avatar names and aliases. Since I'm in that group, whenever one of my personal avatar names is taken(very rare), I will go to one of four others I have been known as, not ones I thought up because they were cool, but because they are dear to me or explain my personally to me. Such as another name I go by is Thron, which you would think "that's not even a real word, what could it mean about you?" It was a name from my Warrior from World of Warcraft, Thronhorn wom I spelled his name wrong and didn't notice my mistake till 40-50's and by that time I grew to like the name, with friends even using it over my real name, because it had become a part of me and sentimental value grew on it.
But to some people, avatars are not just names of people they like or has meaning to them, but a curtain they hide behind for fear of people finding out who they are, as well as talk bad about someone who they don't want figuring them out. This is common on fourms and borads such as GameFaqs.

Have you ever wanted to be a gangster? or should i say E-Thug?

Themafianetwork is an online MMORPG where your goal is to become the most respected and fearful gangster to live. Once you become a member of this gangster world you are on your own.

To excel in this game you need to first spend a good month to allow yourself to rank-up through committing "crimes, drug-runs and organized-crime". As time is spent you make "friends" within the game. Through these friendships you can split costs to create crime rings which allow you to buy businesses and casino's . The objective of the game is to get to the highest rank and own businesses.

Virtual World- GaiaOnline =)

Alright, so this is the virtual world I've decided to write about. GaiaOnline, which started up in 2003 is one of the largest forum based communities out there and a new member can get eaisly overwhelmed. Ha ha. I myself joined in March of 2004 so as you can see I've been a member for awhile. The art of gaia is based on manga and anime but you don't need to be a fan to enjoy the site, in fact I've ran into a few people who don't even like anime.
When you first join Gaia you make an avatar with whatever items they have available for newbies, if you don't like your avatar you can pay gold to change it's hair, clothes, race, and now even it's skin color. I have to admit a lot of the newbie items do suck, but it's not that hard to earn gold.
Gold is earned by a number of activties: posting in the forums, voting on polls in the forms, visting the arenas, browsing, posting comments on peoples' profiles and games. You might be able to get donations but don't beg to people because it's highly frowned upon. If you're fairly active your gold will build as long as you don't blow it all quickly like I do. Do you have any skills? If you can draw, or use CSS code your at an advantadge when it comes to earing gold. Gaia members will pay a lot of gold for art and profiles if you're skilled enough. The market place, where you buy and sell different items also allows you to make gold.
As I mentioned previously having skills in CSS code can benifit you. Besides providing you a way to earn gold you can make a cool profile for yourself that stands out from the rest. Don't worry though if you don't know CSS, you can go to TekTek to get a nice profile for yourself, just don't be suprised if you see someone else with the same profile.
On Gaia you can also join guilds, which is basically a mini-forum that units those of a common interest. Most Guilds are free but some do you require a gold fee, this is up to the owner's disgression. If you want to you can even make your own guild, this costs 20,000 gold though. If you do join and are interested in art check out AIG(Art Institute of Gaia) , which I'm a member and Co-Captian of. That's about it. =)

The Virtual World

Hello all, Donut here and I've been anintense internet user for over eight years and tried many different things (IM, MMO, Etc.) and learned many are good escapes from reality or keep in touch (whatever the purpose of the device). I've played World of Warcraft for three years now as well a huge list of other MMO's including Guildwars,Maplestory, and even RuneScape. This is the way many people choose to spend their time and interact with friends people all around the world.
In World of Warcraft, ypu can quest with friends and enjoying vast landscapes while fighting against mystical creatures and beasts. Along with the adventuring world, there is an ingame auction house which allows players to interact in an econmic way, trading items of great value to useless trinkets and funny items. This can steal just as much time from people if they like the econmic value as much as adventuring. And in later levels, the options of everything opens up, you can join battlegrounds and arenas to fight other players and still have fun while interacting with other factions as well as your chosen faction. And if your not the PVP(player verus player) type, then you can join a guild in which many players join togethor to do things that one couldn't do alone. This helps promote interaction with other players to obtain goals that they share as well as make people take leadership/take orders and understand them.
Many MMO's are like World of Warcraft but not exactly like I shortly explained. Other online interaction decives like IM's(Instant Messagers) let you talk with someone who not present with you quickly and easily as if they were in the same room as you. It's perfect to keep in touch with friends, talk with family across the country, and sometimes talk when other interactive decives and programs are unavailable. I havn't used them too much over the years but I've recently been using an IM called Xfire, which is an average IM but can interact with a varily of games. I've used it for just keeping in touch with friends whom I left by moving away( which is a core reason for IMs).
With all the increasing tech and online interaction decive getting more and more powerful,interactive and better, we are subject to see the world become closer by online programs in the years such as these.

Virtual Worlds - Spore and the Spore Creature Creator

My friend Dewy told me about this game called Spore, where you could create your own creature any way you wanted and interact with other creatures in the different worlds.  I decided to try it and see what it was about.  Here is what I found out:

There is a free version of the creature creator but its only a trial version.  The full version of the creature creator has hundreds more ways to customize your creature, allowing for an almost infinite number of combinations.  Even though I only had the trial version, I found that I could keep myself entertained for hours making goofy creatures.  I decided to read more about the game.  I found out that in the game, although there are no "quests" or "missions" to do, but rather to interact with other elements in the game.  In spore, you start out on the cellular level, end evolve into more advanced and sophisticated beings by choosing appendages and additions onto your creature .  After you are fully satisfied with your creature, you can start to colonize the continent you're on, and eventually, the whole world.  After you have "taken over the world," you can start to venture out into your solar system, and even into other galaxies.  If you like the sound of this game, check out the video below, or go to this link to learn more.