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Reputation changes: Tillers don't hate you
Regular reader Drakkenfyre tipped us off this morning about a change to reputation levels in Mists, which has just been implemented on the Armory. If you head over to your character's armory entry, and have a look at the Mists Tiller reputations, you'll notice that you're no longer hated. Instead, you're a stranger. So, for my shaman, all the Tillers factions, or all the Tillers themselves, consider me a stranger, despite the fact that the red bar shows 0/8,400 and the reputation level is in red. I think this is rather sweet, and reflective of the kind nature of the pandaren -- they haven't met me yet, but they have no reason to hate me, I'm just a stranger! I don't yet know whether the reputation required to move from stranger to best friend is any different to the reputation required to turn a hated reputation on its head, but it makes sense that it might be. But don't worry, the Netherwing, Kurenai and Sporeggar still hate me. They haven't come over all fluffy. [Thanks for the tip, Drakkenfyre!]
The Game Archaeologist spins A Tale in the Desert: The highlights
Readers of the ever-so-humble Game Archaeologist will recall that earlier this year I had the opportunity to exchange informative words with Dr. Richard Bartle, the creator of MUD. Since he was -- and is -- a highly opinionated designer, I asked him what he thought was the most innovative MMO from the last decade. The answer was short and succinct. "A Tale in the Desert, he replied, then added: "Note that 'innovative' doesn't necessarily mean 'successful.'" Right there is the crux of ATITD's unique position in the MMO industry. Instead of storming down a path well-traveled, it took a machete and made its own trail -- a trail down which few have followed. As Jef recently noted in Some Assembly Required, it is an "odd duck" of a game, skewing as far away from combat as possible to focus on two often-neglected aspects of MMOs: crafting and politics. Even though its population has pegged it as an eternally niche game, it's proven that constant fighting isn't the only thing that can draw an online community together. This week we're going to look at some of the more unique features of this innovative yet diminutive MMO, which began telling its tale back in 2003.
No Comment: Inneract provides antidote to restrictive social norms
If you've ever felt the urge to chest-bump a stranger or dance the cha-cha on a city street, you're probably a fan of the antics of Improv Everywhere. The NYC-based 'prank collective' executes missions large and small, defying the expectations of passersby with group freezes, flash musicals and the occasional Imperial arrest on a subway. Of course, for most of us the logistical and artistic challenge of creating a surreal and transgressive experience for ourselves and others is... well... just too much darn work. Now, thanks to the efforts of artist Lauren McCarthy, there's Inneract. This free app lets you post your location and your desired interaction so that other users of the app can find you and do unto you as you would have them. Want to create a drum circle? Splash in a public fountain? Have a tickle battle? If you can imagine it, you can put it into Inneract and let the world fulfill your wildest need for novelty. See the video below for some relatively staid examples. Sure, we could point out all the ways this concept could go very, very wrong. We could ponder the possibility that an evil companion might put your picture into the app along with a rather personal request, and then sit next to you to watch the fun. We could suggest some ideas for in-app purchases ($0.99 to enable Fight Club Mode, "I want someone to come over and kick my ass"), or muse on the irony of a location-based app that exposes your deepest fetish to everyone around you. Instead, though, we'll let this app stand as today's truly wacky No Comment. Thanks to Wilson for the tip.
All the World's a Stage: Anonymosity
All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles. Roleplaying is a journey of trust you take with strangers. You may now and then start out with a group of people you know in real life, but for the most part, the people you roleplay with have no idea who you really are, or why you are sitting here at the computer. You can tell them if you want to, but most people don't ask. Roleplayers tend to keep personal details private, and don't intrude on one another's space. Besides, other roleplayers don't necessarily care that much about who you "really are" either. They're there to get to know your character, not you as a person, unless your character first makes a very good impression and they decide that they actually want to be friends as real people. Even though you respect each other as people who share the same interest, there's still a distance between you which either (or both) of you may wish to maintain. And yet, the relationship you have is one of trust. It's not at all at the same level as a best friend of course, but you still have to trust one another in a very creative sense -- you rely on each other to create interesting things for your characters to share with one another. You're not just buying a shirt from a salesperson or holding the door for a passerby -- you're exchanging behavior and language in an unpredictable and totally interconnected way. Any little surprise a stranger brings to an interaction may completely alter the whole game session and stick in your mind as one of your most memorable gaming experiences. Roleplayers have to trust other roleplayers to help make those experiences positive, even without knowing anything at all about one another. Sometimes two characters can even become very close friends, even though the real people behind them do not.
