inventory-management
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MMO MMOnkey: MMOs as conditioned learning engines (Part 2)
In a previous column we looked at some of the many ways that game designers use positive reinforcement and reward in MMOs. Positive reinforcement occurs whenever an action is accompanied by or results in something pleasant or enjoyable. When a person is positively reinforced or rewarded they are more likely to repeat the action that is associated with the reward. The importance of reinforcement for MMOs is obvious; the more the player is rewarded, the more likely she is to play the game. A deeper understanding of how reinforcement works in MMOs can be gained by comparing an example of where it's done well with a case where it's done poorly and Everquest 2 provides just the examples we need.
The Traveling Avatar's useful tips for SL inventory management
Your inventory. It's something that's extremely easy to ignore, because Linden Lab doesn't force you to acknowledge how much stuff you're carrying. What this means, however, is that you're likely to accumulate quite a lot of junk during the course of your stay in Second Life. Oh, sure, most of that junk started out as interesting, useful, fun stuff, but after wearing a dancing cow animator a few times, you'll tuck it away and move on to the next fun toy. In the meantime, that cow's still in there, taking up space, adding to the total number of objects -- a number that will likely give you a heart attack when you take the time to look at it.So what's to do? Well, there's no way around it: you'll have to do some weeding. And while there's no tool to magically get rid of the things you know you don't need anymore, The Traveling Avatar has come up with an article full of great management tips. Some of these tips may seem like no-brainers to some of you, but that doesn't mean that you exercise them, Ms. 20,000 Inventory Items Girl. I'm looking at you, Moo! GO check out the article and make 2008 the year you conquer the Inventory Beast!
Inventory management
Bags. We all got 'em, we all put stuff in 'em, but I'll bet that each and every one of us has a slightly different way of organizing and managing our inventories. Personally, I find that I'm a "less is more" kind of guy, probably because I get a bit overwhelmed with seemingly innumerable slots full of items both usable and junk-worthy. I like to make frequent trips to the Inn and sell off anything that I don't think I will use again or that I can't auction for a decent price. Seeing as I'm absolutely lousy at working the AH for any kind of profit, I vendor a LOT of things. Back in the day, I used to try to keep my hearthstone and any important quest items in my last bag, along with a few food and drink items. This way, I could just open my backpack and say, "Oh look, stuff I looted that I need to vendor." Now that I'm 60 and raiding, I've found that my bag slots are taken up with different types of situational items - a few trinkets, my Nature Resist gear for AQ40, my Fire Resist gear for BWL, and a couple of different weapons for whether I'm standing back and need buffs, or in the mix and need to do damage. Popping open bags and trying to find what's what became a bit of a chore, and so I started looking for tools that'd help me manage my inventory.
Motorola buying Symbol Technologies for $3.9 billion
Two of our favorite companies (well, more like two companies that we've heard of) have just announced that they'll be getting nice and cozy in the next few months, with cellphone giant Motorola agreeing to buy barcode-scannin', RFID-taggin' Symbol Technologies for about $3.9 billion. Besides handsets, Moto also has a significant foothold in the mobile enterprise market, and Symbol's RFID, barcode, and ruggedized PDA products will supposedly double its presence in inventory management while at the same time "being accretive to earnings," according to analyst Lawrence Harris of Oppenheimer & Company. The deal will reportedly be completed later this year or in early 2007, at which time Motorola will change the name of its new acquisition to SMBL.
Introducing: Keyrings!
Eyonix announced this afternoon that keyrings have been implemented in the game starting with patch 1.11. The keyring will hold multiple dungeon keys, and the number of keys your keyring will hold is based on level (4 for levels 40 and under, 8 for 41 to 50, and 12 for 51 and over). While a small change, it certainly makes me happy - my bank will no longer be cluttered with keys and I'll have far fewer moments where I arrive at a dungeon only to say "Oops... that key is in my bank."
