Bureaucracy Across the Pond

It's nice to see that ridiculous government bureaucracies aren't just here in the US, as this article shows. Though that's "nice" in the sense of "glad to see I'm not the only one being savagely mauled by that bear".

Of course, this is the region that requires a license to watch TV. But then, our Congress is looking at taxing virtual wealth in Second Life or Warcraft. Or maybe since the Democrats control Congress they'll focus on more important matters than the Republican-controlled Congress did.

OK, you can stop laughing now (and if you're not, you're delusional. Both parties are quite worthless).

Now, if Congress really wanted to make money they should just apply a $1/month tax on Warcraft accounts and some surcharge for the Warcraft CCG. That would generate a lot of revenue without touching "virtual" goods.

We're Experiencing Technical Difficulties...

Unwisely I've switched over to the "new" version of Blogger. Since it's Google, it's naturally a beta. Unfortunately, I'm running into a number of problems with the beta so there may be some issues with this blog for awhile. Please bear with me as I try to get this working properly.

UPDATE: OK, apparently the main problem was with one of my settings, pointing to the archive URL. Never needed it before...but things seem to be working now. The addition of labels is very nice (and long overdue); I'm in the process of going back and removing my "Keywords" and applying Blogger labels.

I Have Joined the Cult of Apple

Bought a Mac? No, I wouldn't do that. But I did purchase my first Apple product - one of them fancy new iPods (the 30GB model). I have a new job that involves an hour train ride into the city (Chicago), so I figured I was finally justified in getting one. Right at the point where they're going to die, according to this article (which I agree with; the comments amuse me since they make it obvious that the fanboys posting really don't understand markets or economics...though most people don't, but that's a discussion for another time). Well, not die, but fall out of the vast market share they've had. But, for my purposes, it does the job so I can't complain. Not about the iPod, at least. iTunes leaves a bit to be desired. I'm getting more used to it, but my initial use of the software was a bit frustrating, which surprised me since Apple products are supposed to be so awesome and intuitive. Uh...sure. And desktop publishing isn't painful in Scribus on Linux.

But, in any case, I'm enjoying it so far. And it's finally allowing me to watch the episodes of BSG.

No opened-ended game was addictive prior to Warcraft...

A recent blog post [Editor's Note: I wrote this piece and lost the original link unfortunately, but most of what I say here is still relevant] was rather amusing (though more amusing are the rationalizations in the comments there or other places it's being discussed, like Slashdot, from people who obviously have a problem but can't admit it yet). What I found most interesting is that a lot of the complaints about WoW are the same things people complained about with RPGs - well, pretty much just D&D - back in the early 80's. That whole "open-ended" thing really throws people.

That's not to say that addiction isn't a concern. Rather, it's just ridiculous that this is treated as something new. Before WoW you had this with EverQuest, and before that D&D, and parallel to that golf or whatever.

Anyway, this post isn't to discuss the mental state of WoW guild raiders, but rather some thoughts that occurred to me. On tabletop RPG forums it's not uncommon to find discussions debating tabletop gaming versus online gaming, and which one is "better" and what advantages each has. One advantage cited about MMORPGs is that you can play them whenever you want for as long as you want. With a tabletop RPG, you have to find a time for everyone to meet, and physical constraints limit the time you play (when people can arrive from work, or when they need to get to bed, how long it takes to drive to someone's house to play, the amount of prep time involved, etc.).

It occurred to me in reading a comment about the post on Slashdot that that in fact may be an advantage to tabletop games versus online games. Scheduling and travel can be a hassle, but the fact that a tabletop session is something you can't just do at a drop of a hat (generally) should make those sessions more meaningful. The physical constraints encourage a deeper game experience, and thus one could argue that a tabletop game represents "quality" to an MMORPG's "quantity" - i.e.; preventing too much of a "good thing".

Of course, that's complete crap if you have a Gamemaster who doesn't care to put enough effort into the game or if the players are just on a power fantasy trip and don't care if they ruin the experience for the rest of the group. Not to mention that you can have MMORPG sessions that are just as fun as a good tabletop session. Though one would expect a higher proportion that are boring (how many times can you run the same instance before the fun evaporates? And what's fun about farming?). Appropriate analogies could be listening to a band's CDs (MMORPG) versus seeing them in concert (tabletop), or watching a TV show (MMORPG) versus seeing a movie based on the show (tabletop).

Again, you have to have a good group of people. I can recall some AD&D sessions I played in not too long ago that really blew, such that I was thinking how I'd rather have been playing WoW at the time. It didn't help that the DM and half the players were of the "old school" mentality (which is a misnomer since that thinking is still prevelant in new, on-line games) that basically dictated pounds of tediousness for every ounce of fun.

Anyway, this is more of a stream-of-consciousness than anything. More to the point may be the idea that tabletop sessions should stress quality, since the quantity part of the equation is being addressed (and more efficiently than possible for a tabletop game).