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How gadgets could open the potential of lucid dreaming
Recent experiments show we can learn in our dreams. What else could we do with the right technology?
The Daily Grind: Do you daydream about games?
I admit it without shame. When I'm not doing my job, which is to think about MMOs for a living, one of my little free-time hobbies is to daydream about MMOs for a living. I come up with elaborate ability sets for classes that don't yet exist, because for some strange reason I find that fun. The results that we get almost never line up with what I had thought of, but I've been doing it since I started playing Final Fantasy XI and I'm not about to stop. I fully recognize that this is odd, within the larger context of our odd little hobby. But do you do the same thing, dear reader? Do you daydream about what could be the next big thing in Star Trek Online? Do you construct fanciful possibilities about endgame content in World of Warcraft? Do you daydream about games, even when you know most of that daydreaming will come to nothing? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Massively tours EverQuest's House of Thule expansion
The House of Thule. Not to be confused with the Summer Cottage of Thule, or the Awkwardly-Small-Yet-Expensive Inner City Apartment of Thule. Thule's house is a scary place, and it's a place that all denizens of Norrath shall soon be intimately familiar with. Sony Online Entertainment recently gave us a deep tour of its 17th EverQuest expansion, and it's the first time I've set foot in pre-EQII Norrath in years. Luckily I can report that Sony isn't letting EverQuest lie on its laurels. While this next expansion may not sound like much (it's just a house... or is it?), it's packed with enough content to send me through a two-and-a-half hour long developer tour. Plus, I should mention that I only got to see about half of the new zones, and none of the new raids. But why should we stand outside of this lovely home when there's so much madness hidden within? Come, journey with me, and lose all sense of what is reality.
Gamers more likely to experience sweet, lucid dreams
New research coming out of Grant MacEwan University in Alberta, Canada has left us feeling a little... creepy. It turns out that gamers and those who have lucid dreams -- in which the person is aware of the fact that they're dreaming and can sometimes control the dreams -- have a few things in common. Namely, both are usually less prone to motion sickness and possess better spatial skills, as well as demonstrating higher levels of concentration. This led Jayne Gackenbach -- whose previous work had been in the field of lucid dreaming -- to surmise that incessant gamers might just be more likely to also be lucid dreamers. And guess what? Her research corroborated that -- and a second study revealed even more interesting tidbits -- such as the fact that gamers are also more likely to switch from first person to third person "out of body" views in dreams, as well. So, where does all of this lead us? Gackenbach sees the data and findings as applicable in the treatment of persistent nightmares, which can often be "ended" if the dreamer is able to take control of the situation, and ultimately could help treat certain stress-related disorders like PTSD. We'll have to see what the future holds, but we certainly aren't surprised to hear that heavy gamers can be cool even as they sleep.
Jade Dynasty goes into open beta, supplies new trailer
Perfect World Entertainment's new flagship game, Jade Dynasty, has pulled itself out of closed beta right on time and has jumped into open beta, swords and magic at the ready.If you're looking to check out this new free-to-play MMO, or at least judge some of the controversial game options for yourself, you can head right on over to the Jade Dynasty website, sign up for Perfect World Entertainment's portal, and jump into the game with no beta key required.With the release of the open beta client comes a new trailer, and we here at Massively have cleverly embedded the video after the break. If you want to see some high flying combat, just hit continue reading and enjoy the video!
E3 2009: Jade Dynasty at a glance
The third game in Perfect World's portfolio, Jade Dynasty, has been riding quietly in closed beta for a while. At this year's E3, however, the Jade Dynasty crew brought out their game and let us here at Massively take it for a test drive. They also hit us with an announcement as well -- Jade Dynasty will be jumping out of closed beta on June 15th, and a European server will be added in on that day as well.Overall, Jade Dynasty pulls much from Perfect World's other games: Perfect World and Ether Saga Online. The click on map to automatically move feature, cosmetic cash shop, and large amount of in-game quests returns, but a few new features have been added in that make this game a very interesting experience.Join us after the break as we break down Jade Dynasty's features, a few of which may be controversial for some gamers.
The Daily Grind: Your craziest idea for an MMO?
Some of the fun we have in working at Massively is just talking to each other about all the different things that would be interesting for an MMO. We've discussed mashing up Hello Kitty Online and Age of Conan among many other strange combinations. We've thought about what an MMO based on some of our favorite memories might be like; basing them on things like the A-Team, Transformers, MacGuyver, Monty Python, etc. And none of that even touches on all the comic mashups we'd have put into an MMO. This morning we thought we'd ask what the craziest idea you have for an MMO is? You know, the one that will never get made in a billion years, but still - you'd just like to see it for the sake of amusement? We know we can't be the only ones who get the urge to mash MMOs together or create them from comics, toys, movies, or strange things we find laying about.
Generation raised with black and white TV dreams in monochrome
This one's pretty wild -- recent research in the UK finds that people who grew up in the era of black and white media dream in monochrome about a quarter of the time, while those of us raised with color TV almost always dream in full-on Technicolor. The research suggests that exposure to media between the ages of three and 10 is when the switch is set, since that's when the ability to dream kicks in -- which means we're suddenly terrified our kids are going to wind up dreaming in heavily-compressed SD stretched to the wrong aspect ratio, buffering endlessly before failing out due to a missing plugin. Here's to the future.[Via Switched]
Do you ever dream of WoW?
Imagine the scene: the boss has been defeated, and after five grueling hours you're finally able to step out of the instance victorious. You log out to catch some shut eye, and your mind fills with images of the mobs you've just defeated. You're now dreaming of WoW. A forum post about this subject really got me thinking. In fact, evidently even Eyonix dreams of WoW, which I guess isn't all that surprising really. I often dream that I am in game when I am happily zonked out. For me, I think it is a case of sensory input; I dream a lot of times about what I see and hear. A while back I prepared the night before a business meeting by printing out my reports and leaving them by the door so that I wouldn't forget them. I didn't, but in my dreams that night I did. The same is true of World of Warcraft. I spent so much time immersed in the game that it sometimes slips into my dreams as well. Do you dream of WoW? What sorts of in game elements slip into your slumber?
