mark-wallace
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Linden Lab acquires Avatars United, Enemy Unknown AB
In a move that will no doubt perplex, flummox and befuddle many media commentators and technology columnists who erroneously believed that Second Life was a Web 2.0 social networking tool, Linden Lab has acquired social networking site, Avatars United (and developers of same, Enemy Unknown AB). This also has the side-effect of shooting down any semblance of Wallace Linden's identity piece last week being an overture of a conversation, instead making it look like the usual introduction to a Linden Lab fait accompli. We've written about Avatars United on a couple of previous occasions, but never really had much call to get involved ourselves. The social networking tool includes a large number of MMOGs and non-game virtual environments, being best known for it's strong application support of open-ended space-based MMOG, EVE Online.
Will the real topic please stand up? Anatomy of a community communications breakdown
Traditionally, Linden Lab's blog communications have seemed to be reserved for things that had been finalized, were being finalized but already set in stone, or may not have been set in stone but gave that appearance by being nearly identical both before and after user-feedback. All this punctuated by a smattering of video tutorials, infomercials and statistics. Wallace Linden's recent attempt at (what we think might possibly be) a productive conversation on Second Life identification linking looks like a bit of a failure, mostly because it seems to have failed to distinguish itself from these traditional developer/operator communication patterns.
Good deeds
Issue 28 of The Escapist has two pieces that look at the good deeds players do, and both are interesting to read. Mark Wallace's "One Night in Arathi" is a tale of cross-faction co-operation, and John Walker's "Sick of Healing" talks about the problems healers can face as a support class.I've encountered cross-faction friendliness a number of times, occasionally instigating it. My PvE server characters shy away from unnecessary combat, and although my PvP toons are much more battle-hungry, some bad ganking experiences make me steer clear of any rogue Alliance players. Sure, it's the carebear way to play, but one of the great things about WoW is that you can have moments like Mark Wallace's Arathi adventure as well as some terrific in-the-field PvP.As for the healing, I wholeheartedly agree that healers tend to get a raw deal. One slip up--one!--and it can all be over in a heartbeat, with the healer getting the blame for everything. Fortunately, the death penalty in WoW isn't as severe as in some other games--John Walker's article talks about City of Heroes, which uses an "XP debt" system to make death a real pain. I enjoy playing a healer most of the time, but John is spot on about many players' attitudes to us.
