2Moons

So I haven't played 2Moons for quite a while cause of school and all, and last week I started playing again. At the time I started playing again I was level 84 and o% and now about a week later I'm currently at 86 and 42% which is kinda sad...this basically means I've been playing a LOT. This is bad because I should really be studying for finals, but anyway most of the time I'm playing its either farming vouchers to g to Dead Front or fighting in Dead Front. Vouchers are items that monsters drop and when you get 20 of one kind, you exchange them for a map which is manditory to get into Dead Front. Dead Front, itself, is kinda hard to explain. There are only 4 parties of 6 people allowed in at one time, which is why I normally only go later at night. There aren't nearly as many people there at night. All 4 parties are working together to get to a common goal, but there are LOADS of monsters you have to hack your way through to get to this final boss. I have only successfully finished Dead Front once, if the creators gave more time to get through it, I would have finished it multiple times, but no...they only give you 30min. So yeah theres my rant of 2Moons....enjoy! xD

Something I Learned...

I actually learned quite a few things in this class and most of it was about Second Life. First of all theres the basic stuff like creating my character's dimensions and getting good hair. Then I learned how to make different objects and upload images to the objects to make signs or advertisements. The next thing I learned was how to use my AO's without then constantly playing so that was pretty sweet. I don't know there was a ton of stuff we learned how to do, I'm constantly learning new things like how to use the different weapons you can get. I remember learning how to turn someone into a vampire, too. It's a heck of a lot more complicated than it seems, there's like..10 steps you have to go through in order to do it in the first place. That is why I have only done it once and honestly, I can't really even remember how to do it anymore. :D So yeah, I know there's more stuff I learned but I can't remember them all at the moment so yeah...that's all! :)

As the Curtain Falls...

       And now it all comes to an end, when everyone within the blog parts and says goodbye. As I sit and ponder, "What have I learned from these experiences?". After thinking back on the time our class started, I can't really think of something new I've learned, but I have learned to see deeper in a game or virtual world. 

    When I used to look at games, I would just examine the whole thing completed(like many others do). As the class started each day, the professor would challenge us to think beyond just a game and examine what it is individually. When I would put this to the test I would examine the coding of the game or virtual world. But as time slipped away and had ground my examination process to an almost art-form observation. So now I look at any and every game I play in a critical light, to see what the developers added to enhance the experience, and how it all comes together to complete the feeling of the game.

     Also, I've learned more about communities within virtual worlds through witnessing and becoming a part of the Second Life community (Which I add, is a nice and sociable "game"). I've learned why some people act like jerks, why many act so narcissist and why no one within an objective MMORPG( World of Warcraft and such) have nice and humble players to talk to.

     The biggest thing I've learned within the class is the fact that many real life non-game companies are using Second Life to hold meetings. School and colleges are also doing this, having virtual replicas of classrooms within the real world as humans listen to others through voice communication provided by Second Life or the chat boxes for ease in coping the assignment/lecture.

      All in all I've learned a lot in general about virtual worlds, from a sociable aspect, a coding/art-form aspect, and most importantly, a learning aspect. I enjoyed how the professor also made the experience while learning all this very fun,interactive, and of course worthwhile. Thank you all for enduring with me through the months and all of you have a great Holiday Break!

The Last One Forever

This time I come to you with a feeling of saddness because I have to now write to you about what I have learned..

    Let me start with the most basic thing possable because I know that almost everyone will say this with out even reading my blog..I learned that their is an online game called Second life. I also learned that it is really fun and entertaining if you have nothing else to do and or you are bored out of your mind. Another thing that I have learned from this class is that we have the WORST ADVISOR IN THE FREE WORLD...(let me take a minute to explain...not Twombly himself but our FYE advisor...if you already know about that experience then just skip down to the next caps locked letter. if not  then leave a comment and i will get back to you when possible.) 

   Now that I have gotten that out of the way the last thing that I learned was that blogging can be fun and informative especially when you need some ideas on what to write about for a paper. I cant say that this class has changed my view on MMORPGS/ MMOG and the such but I can say that if I had to take this class again I would do it with out a second thought cause it was fun and intresting playing in a class and actually getting away with it the whole time.  I dont know if you can tell from the blogs but I think that I have changed a little anyway... But that is a blog for another time...*walks out of the room laughing *

  GODZILLA

Trivial secrets

   Ever noticed when playing your games the amount (or lack there of) in detail of the area around the avatar? Most people, unless told to analyze it, will miss it completely and just focus on the garbage that nowadays are the "focus" of a game. Little to most of the gamer's knowledge, the subtle and beautiful designs are what make the player so drawn in by the experience.

   One such example is Diablo 2's walls and floor within a dungeon, I've witnessed many overlook how the walls are torn down and/or splattered with blood to help create the feel that the idea is dangerous and that death is around. It's simple to overlook because the players think of it as a dungeon crawler and that all to be had is just kill enemy after enemy to get new skill, rinse and repeat till bored( Which a lot of my comrades seem to think with games). The worst of it is the game developers must continue to create such sublime subtle details, knowing that gamers will completely overlook something like this.  As many would ponder from that statement, "why would game developers care then"? The answer is back in the topic, it creates the feel for the game and no matter the game, it's required to let the player enjoy the whole variety of the game better. 

   Indeed, this quality doesn't get it's own category for rating when a game is reviewed because it helps on all ends of the game. If the physics are great and the detail of pushing a box in a zero gravity instance,and it will react and hit a wall, AND return (Thus proving Newton's laws)! Then the player can thoroughly enjoy as the fine tuned detail makes the player giggle with glee and think it's all just physics. Or when a monster is killed instantly and instant of the body just dropping to the ground, the body sprays blood all over the person and sticks while the pavement has an in-print of when he was standing when the crimson shower occurred. While at monster slaying, when an enemy is felled within most games, they all die the same. Either a bladed weapon or a blunt eating utensil, the beast within most games will die EXACTLY the same. And the most common and probably easiest noted is the ambience sound. When sounds that are distantly heard join in tune with the music (if you don't listen to music in games, try it for once) to enhance the player's ordeal of the game.

    While most don't expect something to have such a dire effect on their gameplay. But with all that is truly affecting the player, the subtle and trivial effects add up to be something just as important to games as gameplay or graphics.

First 25man raid.

Our first 25man raid was completed this evening for my new guild. We killed the only boss in the current Obsidan Scantum with 18 people. We killed this boss after killing the four leaders of the alliance citys and each being awarded a war bear! The boss fight is very simple if you kill the three other dragons prior to the main boss. The less dragons killed, the harder the main boss will be. We killed all of the dragons to make it a simple and clean first kill. While we were very heal heavy and tank heavy, with only 5 or 6 dps, we managed to slowly burn 7.5 million heath in a quick and simple maner. I hope to see the fight again with increased difficulty in the weeks to come. More dragons means better loot, but im happy. Im looking at my new teir 7.5 gloves as I write this.

Opehlia's Introduction (Late Post #1)

A quick note about my method for completeing my late posts:
I'm probably going to do 2 or 3 a day until they're done. =)
Now, onto the blog....

Hey! I’m Ophelia Cooperstone. =) My name was taken from the Shakespearian play Hamlet. Anyways, I’m mainly based off my creator, with a little extra thrown in for fun. My personality and age are what we share. If you see me on Second Life I’m probably exploring some sim, I don’t talk to people on my own, but I do respond if they say something to me. I don’t share my creators’ appearance however. And my appearance is changed a lot! I usually am spotted with some sort of long hair, either in an updo, or down. And I wear a lot of dresses. In a way, I could be considered girly, but I don’t care. I hang out a lot in nature or fantasy sims, as I enjoy them, and sometimes I explore the ‘haunted’ sims, I enjoy those also. I tend go away from the highly social sims though, I’m not sure why, but I only like talking to people every so often, that doesn’t mean I won’t talk to someone though! I am open for that! =D I’m just an independent sort of person. My appearance usually takes on that of a human, but I have been spotted with wings. Why? Cause wings are cool…ha ha. =P Yeah, another thing I have in common with my creator, I’m quite random! It makes life more interesting. *shrugs* This has been a look into the mind of Ophelia Cooperstone, which isn’t very far off from Tangerine herself. =)

Precious Item

So I found this place that sells luxury houses on second life, and they're pretty cool. They basically go for around L$10,000 which it about $40.00. Honestly, I don't think I would ever pay that much money for one item on Second Life, but obviously there are some people who will so...yeah. Anyway, each house is different from one another but you can see similarities between them too. They're basically made of boxes, you know like, no rounded edges or anything. They have big windows and they kinda look like a house you would see in a rich area on the ocean, or up in hills. A lot of them also have windows in their roof and have swimming pools in the back. I’ve noticed that most of them also have decks/patios off the back and they’re all tan in color, like the walls are made of big slabs of stone. I remember when I visited my cousins in Arizona last time, I realized that their houses were made out of stone rather than wood or sheetrock or whatever. I guess that’s because the stone help to keep the temperature inside the house cooler than it is outside, so I guess that’s another reason why I think these houses look like they would be by the ocean, or something. It's kinda like someone’s dream house, I know I'd love to live in one in real life. :)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/ScarletCreative/191/75/3/

Yay games! xD

So I lent Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 9 to one of my friends like...a year ago. She said she was gunna play them but I guess she got too busy and wasn't able to play them. She told me she most likely wasn't gunna be able to finish them any time soon and I wanted to play them, this was about 2 months ago mindyou ><. Every time I would ask for them back she was either busy, or didnt have them. Then I would forget about them for about a week. So I finally just called her one day and told her to get her butt over to my room and to bring my games, and now I have them back! WOOT!! Yeah, amazing story right? I try :) So anyway I've already finished FF8 and I'm about half way through FF9 'cause I love them that much. Yeah, that's about it for my rambling. :D

A Random Blurb About the Internet

If anything is true about the internet, it'd be that virtually every site out there is composed of text. In fact I have yet to discover a purely pictorial site, while I can't say the same about a textual site. As soon as someone starts to explore the internet they might realize how communicative it really is. Many of the forum sites I access regularly, are also accessed regularly by thousands of other members. With all this going on it's easy to get confused, and more so, learn something new. When I first started using the computer seriously myself, that was a long span of time, probably when I was in 4 or 5th grade, I didn't really think about it. It also seems the age group on the web is expanding in both directions. My longest active membership would have to be GaiaOnline. This site is pictorial and textual, and i find it to be enjoyable. It took me a few years to really get all I could do on the computer, and now it would be an understatement to say I've spent a large portion of my time posting whatever I want, as well as playing online games. It seems that only yesterday the computer was considered to be a once-in-a-while thing, and that if a person accessed the internet continuously some would say that person had no life. Now, with the development of social networking websites, that isn't necessarily true. So here’s to the internet, and its increasing growth!

Something Presicous this way comes.

Well as much as I don't want to I have no choice I have to write about something from a blog that

I thought was precious. The only Blog to actually catch my attention was the one about the dragons and how they are one big happy family. I beleive that they are special because it is family based and from what I have seen it really is a community. you guys can find it here. But I digress they are really a nice bunch of dragons who ( depending upon who you talk to ) are very friendly and will answer any and all questions to the best of their abilities. Their dragons are so cool and they also have a drawing for who gets the dragons and what not. I beleive that this is precisous because it shows that families can be connected through internet connections and the like. It also shows just how much people love dragons. By the way these dragons cost upwards of 3,000 lindens to buy. so they arn't cheap but once you buy one your in for life. 

any way that was it nice and short and sweet. Hope you enjoied it. 

  Godzilla.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/cathedral/125/20/97

Twombly this is the address

Politics in SL

Politics have a presence in secondlife, even if it is not a very large presence. Political parties may attempt to persuade undecided voters by doing a few different things. First, they may try to bring voters in by offering them free items, such as t-shirts or banners. Second, they may attempt to spam chat in many different zones. This has only happened to me once, and it was very annoying. Constant spamming of pro-mccain ads. Obama will raise taxes! And then kill your first born! All lies. Personally, i think that political campaigns in second life are fairly pointless, as people who go to the places that the political parties own most likely have already made up their mind on who to vote for. I didn't, however, mind getting a free tshirt and banner out of going to Obama'a campaign spot.

O' My pretty Precious!

While wandering the world of Second Life, I noticed a great variety of items. Among the things I like, I absolutely love dragons, all shape,sizes, and types. The area in which I find them is also well done, millions of prims are used to create an atmosphere that's beyond some damned area with a few billboards. The seller also shows off what the product looks like as well as what it will do and look like. The Sim is called Cathedral, in the Isle of the Wyrms.
As much as I love when people use their creativity to make something awesome/beautiful, it fails to surpass my love for Dragons. This group( I say group for the reason that I feel no one soul could create something so grand!) has more than just a single dragon object, they have an array of scaled beasts that range from the tiny and somewhat cute whelps, to the dragons which are available as a mount or statue. And with each, they have different purposes/responses to interaction and inactivity, such as the whelps will sit on the character's shoulder and unleash some puffs of smoke. The dragons, from what I read in the library( that is stationed just on the side of the area in which the Eggs to "rise" your own dragon is), can fly quickly through the skies with your AND another on it's back as it breaths flames. Pictures to show it's proof are within the books in the library, which brings me to another point about the area, instead of billboards clogging the skies and flashing, they cleverly make a library and signs pointing to it to tell the character where to go to learn about the dragons. And in the library are actual books that when clicked on will turn the page to allow someone to feel like they are reading about a beast within an old age Cathedral! Something that rose my curiosity is that in the big room were eggs of the dragons, when clicked opened a menu to learn about that specific type. Also the menu allowed the player to see if the Whelp,Dragon, or hybrid was available,price, and even what the product looked like in full scale in the center for all to see. I noted over 12 different eggs that sported this ability, and behind them, a giant book said everything about the selected dragon at the time.
Alas, from what I scanned from the glorious area, even the whelps, the smallest and cheapest of the bunch, are 600 Lindens just for the generic fire or ice ones. The price on ones such as Spirit and Shadow rose to anywhere between 700-900 Lindens. The dragons I only noted the Tiamat (from what I know, it's the Goddess Dragon) Dragon was over 1000 Lindens. I was unable to find any price on the hybrids, which interested me to see what they were like but I couldn't dream of being a half-breed monster.
As it seems, in Second Life many see these beautiful beasts as the most precious thing in all of SL and I would have to agree. It's due mostly to the fact that I couldn't stop drooling as soon as I entered the giant building so well done. The Dragons themselves bring a twinkle to my eye as I stand before all it's artisan crafted glory and an easy and fast interface before purchase only shows that these creations are so well defined and professionally made that every Linden is worth it in my opinion.

The Season Changing Trees at Kenroku

After visiting New World Notes and looking at the precious items post, I decided to look at the trees at the region Kenroku. These trees are nice looking, so I can see why they’d be popular, there were two comments on the blog about them in fact. I found the cherry blossom tree to especially alluring. There are several other trees there, including maples. There are even trees that have falling snow. The cherry blossoms had petals falling down from the branches. There is a shop where the trees can be purchased, where I found the cherry blossom tree, which offers a nice variety. Also, I believe the trees are positioned around the sim. I saw a lot of trees with falling leaves as well as a few Christmas trees. The sim looks like it would be an interesting place to visit too. When I didn’t notice the shop after first arriving, I noticed a path instead. This path led through threes, and I presume to more shops or a garden, or maybe even someone’s land, since the land is group owned. The trees themselves cost around one thousand Lindens. I didn’t explore very much of the land, because I have serious lack of Lindens, but someone else might find something they like and can afford there. The SLurl can be found below:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kenroku/60/26/51

Precious Things in SL.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dejavu/39/42/22/

The location that I visited during class was a place that sold a special item called the Tornado Hud. This item seemed to be something that the player could equip and wear on their bodies. The item had a very special feature. The item can summon a Tornado from the sky and allow the user to control it. Aside from the standard funnel of the storm, sound effects, rain and, lightning are present. The item even has scripted items that can be destructable buildings that can be spawned in the path of your Tornado. I believe this item to be the most precious item to me because of my love for the weather and the fact that it is most likely what I am majoring in. The item and a demo of it can be found at the link above, it sells for a price of 1700 Lindins.

the most precious thing in SL

There is a place not so far away that sells all things dragon and dragon related. This place is called the Isle of Wyrms.  This area has 25 sims devoted directly to it and other related areas. These sims are devoted completely to dragons. Here they sell dragon avatars, dragon pets, dragon eggs, and many magic items. Most of these items are very expensive, but very elaborate. Many would argue that these are very precious indeed, but some would say that they are just useless junk. The most popular of these items are the full body dragon avatars, which breath fire and are animated. The cost of these are 1200 lindens, or $4.69 in USD. I personally think that this is a fairly reasonable price for something as elaborate as this. the URL for this place is http://slurl.com/secondlife/cathedral/123/229/106/

My most precious item

SLurL Link to Item on SL

As i was reading the blog from New World Notes, I found a link that indicated a precious item called "Black Swan."   Through this link it took me to a place in Second life where i found items that where considered "Precious Items."  I browsed the area and found many "Precious Items."  One item really caught my eye.  Its a statue of an angel on its knees with his wings spread out and arms behind its back.  The item is called "Light Waves Angel without Base Medium."  The item cost L$29500 which is roughly one-hundred and six dollars ( $106 USD). 

I've concluded that the reason why this item cost so much is because it is quite a massive object.  But more importantly the detail of the Angel is very good.  You can see every muscle structure,  every feather of the wings, and every detail in the face.  It is a very good piece of work but obviously very expensive to own.  "Light Waves Angel," is currently owned by a user named "CounterFactual Fizzle."  Not sure where the name came from LOL.  

I find my self wondering why in the hell would anyone pay that much money for something they cant even use....  It is a beautiful piece of work and could be placed in multiple areas in Second Life. 

Gaming madness

This is the only time that I will be talking about the massively multi player game known as World of Warcraft. Now having never played it myself I can't say too much and be taken seriously by the rest of the gaming population. But from what  I have seen and heard of the world so far has promoted me to start this rant. 

The first thing that I want to say about this game is that it can destroy a persons life. A friend of mine told me that his friend actually stayed up for three days straight and played it only stopping to eat and go to the bathroom. That is a sad statement to say the least. 

  The next case I bring forward is that even though playing World of Warcraft in a way promotes social gathering's it does so in almost a negative way. By pulling people in and creating an addicting game that can destroy someones life if they haven't got any shred of will power in their body. Blizzard is almost as bad as 4Kids  in my opinion, but much more dangerous due to the fact that 4Kids doesn't have nearly the same amount of fans and followers as WoW does. 

Ok and then the final thing that I am going to say before I end this blog in a most dissappointing mannor. Because of WoW video gamers world wide have been branded as people who sit in their parents houses at the age of 34 and play WoW in the basement. But mostly I think that......well I dont know what I think any more...Its 8:41 in the morning and I have no Idea wheather or not I have just kicked up a hornets nest or if I am screwing with a hedge hog. Either I am about to die or I am safe... time will tell.....any way Talk to you all later Godzilla.

Your blood is my trophy...

This is old stomping ground for me, the first person shooters (FPS) games. I recalled playing counterstrike 1.6 and other Half-life based competitive shooters. The community that revolves around these games are the single reason I left the games. Most people that play an FPS that I would encounter either had a very short temper or had an attitude that rivaled a 13 year old (or were of that age).
But among the community, achievements and respect are earned not from being sociable or well-known, but for how many have been slain and how well the character can dodge a helping of lead. And if that's not enough, there are stats that involve the victories of the bloodbaths and stack them versus how much the player is a meat shield(their deaths), and make the Kill-to-death ratio percentage. That lone percentage is so crucial in these communities, it's almost as important as the number the government labels a person with, only thee percentage can change depending on how well someone can do, basically the measure of someone's skill within the game.
Normally, I would agree to something like the ratio, but when weapons of different powers and other factors don't affect the percentage, then it's not a true measure of the player's skill. As an example, Player1 (P1) plays with normal powered weapons and with most of the people doing same, no overpowered instant kill guns. While Player2 (P2) plays with the weapons that guarantee an instant kill with little drawbacks, and plays with people that P1 would play against. Obviously P2 would dominate the game and kill almost everyone while P1 would have a bit of trouble killing just one person. And before the comment of "It's skill that determines who's best" I've already called BS, and my proof is the AWP from Counterstrike (any version really). It's a Sniper true, but when someone shoots a toe to kill a people instantly, the Army needs to start researching how to make AWP's in real life.
Another ratio FPS fans like is the kill per minute. Again, I would normally accept the stat, but this is against the clock rather than the other players. Looking back to the first example, when P1 kills all his foes, he takes at least five shots before he can claim a kill unless he gets the head shot and then it's a quick kill. But since he is an average gamer, he can't pull off the head shots and takes about ten seconds for a kill. On the other hand, P2 can look at a player and they are dead, it's instant and takes only a second. His kills are going to be alot higher than P1's kills, therefore his kills per minute will be higher than P1's, just like the kill-to-death ratio, except it's a much bigger difference between the two players.
I guess this time, the rant wasn't targeting an audience of gamers (go figure...), rather their idea of ranking. As I speak of ranking, FPS ranks aren't alter by the guns as well. P2 will still have a higher rank than P1 for the sole fact P2 can spatter anyone with one hit and P1 needs to actually try and has a fair chance (dear *insert divine figure* no!) of death. And the icing on the cake is I found the only thing to prevent this is other players calling P1 a noob. Last I checked, muting and ignoring features prevented that and if he remembered that in grade school we were taught stick and stones proverb...

Virtual meetings

Having a meeting over the internet has several advantages to a meeting in person. For one, people don't have to be worried about how they present themselvs or how they look when useing a virtual avatar. This allows for people to work and get the job at hand completed without these issues. Also, use of internet for meetings allows for little to no racism to take place. People can choose to hide their identity if they choose and not show who they are in real life. This allows for people to act and do their work without fear of interference.