Apethetic to Technology

So I read on CNN awhile ago that if you want to stay current in today’s tech memes you needed to learn about Twitter. I’d never used Twitter before, never even knew what it was until that moment.

For those of you who are like me, and aren’t always into the latest internet fashions, Twitter is a strange alien sounding thing. Really, it’s one of those words that sounds like it really means: an onomatopoeia (yes I had to look it up). It’s a bunch of strangers all across the world saying what they’re doing/thinking. Not everyone is a stranger, but many to most of them are. They’re connecting in a strange light.

The reason I bring this up today (and not a few days ago) was I mentioned it to someone I knew who also didn’t get it. I thought how do you explain new technology to someone who doesn’t get it?

Imagine the first people to try to use telephones. “Here, you talk into this end” – Talk into an inanimate object? People will think I’m crazy. “No really, talk into this end, and someone on the other side will hear you.”

I wonder if the first time someone who wasn’t a techie kind of person spoke on the phone what their response was. Did they cry? Did they think it was God? Did they laugh or express some other kind of emotion?

Today we’re so apathetic (one I didn’t look up :p) to new technology I wonder what type of major milestone in our crazy world will provoke an emotional reaction like something as simple as the telephone had to have created.

Yes, I got excited when I brought home my first HD Television, but I didn’t cry. Maybe it’ll be some sort of faster transportation system, like vehicles that could almost instaneously get you from one place to another. Or a way to solve one of the world’s monster problems.

I don’t know about you, but I hope that the cure for Cancer, Aids or global hunger will provoke a human reaction. As for Twitter, it’s like people watching, but with the ability to get inside their heads.

Tech I'm Thankful For

• Sweet Graphics Cards
• Hard Drive Space With Room to Groove
• C# and it's Classes
• Sliced Bread
• HD Monitors
• Google
• Youtube
  

Gaming with People You Know (Really!)

I currently game with my husband and my nephew. I’ve also gamed with friends in the past, and I think there are interesting points to gaming anonymously to gaming with friends and family.

With my husband, it’s natural. We met in an online game (back before they had MMO’s mind you, yes I’m that old) before we met in this realm of life. We’ve gamed since then, and I imagine we’ll always game. It’s our “date” night. Some people go to fancy dinners, my husband and I stay up till four A.M. questing, talking, and killing things. We learn team work, communication, and are an awesome team. We always have been, which is why we’re married. (Don’t worry ladies, he still takes me out once in awhile, but most of the time I’m more happy at home than I am out.)

The friend that I gamed with a long time ago I’m no longer friends with. I think I would be if I had the choice, but she really doesn’t seem that interested in a relationship anymore. Perhaps I’m still too much of a gamer for her. When I was younger (and before I was married) I found that gaming with another girl often leads to competition with guys. That can be healthy, and it can be annoying. I don’t mind anonymous females that I don’t have to face in real life, but I still get jealous.

The family part is to me the coolest one. Before gaming with my nephew I didn’t know him nearly as well as I wanted to. I used to watch him when he was really young, and I knew him then. Over the years, we went our separate ways. When he learned we were fairly serious about sticking with WoW, he relocated to our server, and we’ve been playing together since. I know a lot more about him now, and enjoy spending time with him. It makes my gaming time more fun knowing that I get to share that time with him.

I’ve been thinking about picking up some FPS games to play with some of the people I work with. I’m a little worried about it as I don’t know a lot of them nearly as well as I know the people I play WoW with, but I think I’d be up for the challenge. It’d give me a chance to get to know more people around here, and I could always use more people to hang out with.

All in all I tend to be a loner and a leader playing games. I like going my own way, and I like helping others in their own quests. It may seem like an odd combination, but it suits me.

Sorry

No post yesterday. But I did get to Herbalism 450. Now I can start questing again.

Re-Painting a Home Without Paint

I came up with a great idea while driving to work today. This idea is one of those strange ones that makes you sit and wonder.

Painting a room takes a lot of time, money and effort. Few people like the effort that is involved from scraping the old color off, and even less from making sure they don’t miss every single little spot. It has to look nice, and it has to be clean. Never mind the amount of money that’s involved in buying all that paint.

Then of course, if you try out a room color, and it looks terrible – then what do you do? You have to re-do the whole thing! More time and effort and money are again eaten. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a way of having a wall décor that wasn’t based on physical items like paint, wallpaper or molding?

It exists today, but isn’t being put to use in the mainstream market yet. I think it should be, and I think this application would be rather cool. They’re called E-Textiles, and once they hit mainstream, this would be a very cool application for them.

Imagine, instead of having walls, having a screen of E-Cloth lying flat on your wall. Your home computer has a program that tells the wall what shade to be. You could have family photos, paintings, and any decoration or style that you want to be displayed. You can have a different look today than you do tomorrow, and have different displays in each room.

You could also incorporate sound with tiny speakers inter-dispersed within the fabric. Have a room that makes you feel like the ocean with a beach scenery, and ocean noises. Better yet, can you imagine video gaming technology off of this kind of fabric? Talk about being in the action! Imagine flying around Netherstorm while it’s surrounding you – literally.

Receive phone calls or videos from friends. Check your e-mail. All of this is possible with an E-Textile wall.

I think this is very cool tech, and I hope home applications are put to use within the next few years.

Crafting in MMO's

I'm sick of it.

No, really, I'm sick of it.

You know that feeling you get when you're about to start a new MMO (or one you've played forever) and you have to decide what crafting you want to choose? Then once you've ground it up to its highest level you suddenly discover it's not really all that fun, and there isn't much use for it for you anymore?

Yeah, that feeling. I'm sick of it!

I want a crafting profession in a game where for once the resources are cheaper than the items you sell. I want a crafting profession with items you can use at any point in time. I want one that is fun to grind up, and it needs to be something I can spend time doing instead of mindlessly killing my foes.

Is that too much to ask? Apparently, because I get this feeling in every MMO I've ever played, and I think it's going to happen forever. I understand the logic behind why it happens. Everyone who wants to craft doesn't want to get their own resources, so they pay (and pay high prices) to have other people get them for them. Then, because so many people are "x" profession, the price of the item you want to sell is pennies in comparision. You'd think that they'd eventually even out, but game economy is a strange thing.

I think real world economists should study gaming economy because in some ways some of this madness may be useful. Imagine if Iron was more expensive than the cars you bought? In games, we except not making a profit, but in real life profit is king.

Who knows, but I'm still tired of it.

Trust in Guilds

I’m a guild leader in that massive online game known as World of Warcraft. You know the one. You probably know someone who plays it, or wishes they could play it. We now have about 100 characters in the guild, and had yet to have anyone really steal from us. We have 5 bank tabs (think storage for a large group of people), and everyone had played it fair. In fact, we usually had to empty it about once or twice a week because it got full from the items everyone put in it. Every time we’d empty it, the money from the sales would go back into the bank.

My current system I thought was more than fair. You put more into the bank, you get to take more out of it. Promotions were based on what people did for the guild as a whole, and what effort they put into it. With a promotion you got access to more items, and more varied items.

We had a member who had been playing in our guild for a few months. He was friendly enough, and fairly active. He had four alts in the guild, each of which was active enough to be promoted at least once.

As a result of the fairness, and the number of alts, he was able to take over 30 items from our bank. Granted, we’re still fairly young enough that it mostly contained items to help other people in the guild level. From blue items, to blue card items to gems, these items could have helped someone else. Instead, they helped him get money for this character, or another one of his characters.

We demoted him immediately. We sent mails and tells to him when he logged in. He didn’t quit the guild. After about two days with no response, we kicked him. Since it was an “Unknown” that was kicked, we assume that either the characters were deleted or transferred.

The hardest part about this situation is deciding what to do next. We’d rather not punish everyone in the guild. That’s silly. We have a lot of responsible individuals who have done nothing but help each other.

My first instinctual reaction was to only allow one character to be promoted for each player. This idea wasn’t the best because then people would be uncomfortable telling you who their alts were. I’d rather have an open honesty like we’ve had in the past.

In the end, I think we’ve decided to add two ranks, and limit the amount of items people can take out on a daily basis for the lower ranks. It’s not an easy decision, and I don’t like feeling like anyone else would take advantage of their other guild mates. I can only hope that it won’t happen again.