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Facebook and MTV are revamping 'The Real World'
Facebook's big push into original video content is only getting stronger. Less than two months after the worldwide launch of its Watch streaming service, which is also trying to lure in independent creators, the company is making some major show announcements. For starters, Facebook is now teaming up with MTV on a "reimagined" version of the popular reality series The Real World, which will have an interactive, social component that'll let viewers vote one housemate onto the show before it airs. The new seasons of The Real World, set to debut exclusively on Facebook Watch in 2019, will be produced in Mexico, Thailand and, of course, the United States.
Shadow Era getting physical cards to go with iOS game
I am a big fan of Shadow Era, a really solid World of Warcraft-style virtual collectible card game for iOS. It's been out for a little while, and with a few excellent updates and expansion packs released, there's a lot of game here to be had, starting at the low price of free. Now there's news that the game is about to get a lot less virtual: Shadow Era is releasing real, physical cards to play with. It's a great deal, especially if you're a fan of the game. Wulven Game Studios has teamed up with cardmaker Cartamundi to make high-quality real cards to play with, and they're selling them in a Kickstarter-esque "crowdfunding" format, with multiple rewards levels to play at. Perhaps best of all, every penny you spend on the real cards will get matched with virtual currency in the game, so you're essentially getting both real and virtual cards for your money. The cards themselves will debut at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH in the beginning of June, and the physical cards are expected to start shipping later this month. It's great to see a big iOS property like this get so popular that it's extending off into the real world in such a huge way.
The BBC examines love in Azeroth
There's an interesting piece up over at the BBC's State of Play blog about how online games are becoming more and more social places, not just for friendly relationships, but for romantic ones as well. While meeting online used to be an embarassing thing for couples, nowadays it's much, much more common, and what better place to meet online than in a social MMORPG like World of Warcraft?Unfortunately, the idea doesn't quite fly with me. In an online situation like, say Facebook, you're more or less playing yourself-- odds are you've posted your own picture, your own opinions, and your own favorite music. But in World of Warcraft, you're playing a character. And even if that character isn't completely different from your real-life persona (most people actually are themselves in the game, unlike hardcore roleplayers), it's still different enough, in my opinion, to be a significant barrier to actually judging someone as a relationship partner.But that's just me-- lots of people have found significant others in online games, and even more have met lots of people in MMOs, and then actually become better friends or partners after meeting them in real life. But while an online space like Myspace or Facebook might be very conducive to getting a real sense of new people, an online game set in a fictional universe like WoW is still too separate from the real world to allow for a real love connection on its own.
Real reactions to virtual environments
The always-interesting Terra Nova has a piece up about Nick Yee's the Proteus Effect, which is based around how we relate to (and interact with) stimuli in virtual worlds, specifically our and others' avatars.Basically, almost all of the research so far shows that we react to virtual stimuli exactly the same way as if it were real stimuli-- we don't want our characters standing too close to other characters, because it's a social convention in the real world that we all have our own individual space. But we still react positively to attractive avatars, whether we know it or not. No matter how much we're supposed to be roleplaying, or how much we realize consciously that the virtual world is different from the real world, we still react in a real way to virtual stimuli. It's heady stuff, but here's Terra Nova's soundbite, by Dmitri Williams: "You can take the person out of the real, but not the real out of the person."And Williams closes with an extremely interesting proposition, considering how the interaction works: what if, by making many parts of Outland dark and gloomy, Blizzard has caused us to react realistically and feel depressed? TN's informal survey says that players' favorite zone is Nagrand-- is that because it's sunny and green there? And if so, what does that say about our reaction to the expected upcoming expansion-- should Blizzard reconsider the dark, cold stretches of Northrend for a more tropical locale?
Breakfast topic: WoW in the world
It's been a while since we last did this, so let's do it again: Where have you seen WoW in your real life world?Umi on WoW Ladies sees BOP, and automatically thinks Bind on Pickup. I was once driving around looking for a party, and had been playing WoW so much lately that when I realized I was lost, my first thought was to type /1 (without a computer in the car, mind you), and ask where the party was in General chat. No one was in the car, but I felt pretty stupid after having a thought like that.And my favorite lately came from that post on boss quotes the other day. Here's what happened to commenter Thingy at work:Person 1: "How about we get that stuff in next week?"Person 2: "Too soon"Me: "You have awakened me too soon, Executus."*odd looks from the rest*Me: *finally realises what I just said*Funny. Where have you seen WoW in the world?
NPR commentator: Wii Sports bad for self-esteem
First Newsweek's Stephen Levy alleges that Guitar Hero is "dumbing down musicianship," and now this. NPR commentator Kelly McBride recently aired her fears that Wii Sports is artificially inflating the self-esteem of her Wii-playing children. According to McBride's logic, children used to effortless success with minimum effort in Wii Sports tennis will be frustrated when they pick up a real tennis racket and aren't immediately experts. She has a point -- mastering a video game simulation is often much easier than mastering the real world activity it mimics. Just ask a fighter pilot or a world leader. But while the barriers to success are lower for many video games, the rewards for success are also lower. While schooling someone in virtual basketball might let you hear your opponent's moan of defeat over a headset, the real look of anguish when you take someone down in a hard-fought game of real basketball is infinitely more satisfying. There's something about the physical exertion and human interaction of real sports that makes it compelling in a way that's totally different from sitting alone playing a video game. Even jumping around and playing Wii Sports with friends isn't quite as interesting as taking them on in a real sport (though it's often more practical). This is why paintball hasn't gone away even though Halo is popular and people continue to ski even when Alpine Racer might be available at a nearby arcade. Sure, children will often be more interested in the instant gratification of a simple game than the complex rewards of real competition, but as they get older most mature adults will come to realize the importance of sticking with something and attaining new skills in the real world. Video games aren't a replacement for real world activities. They never have been and they won't start to be now just because Nintendo lets you move your arms a bit while you play them.
Backseat Playground to integrate GPS into in-car gaming
If you thought your portable gaming options were all but limited to Sony's PSP or Nintendo's DS / DS Lite (or those Korean-based all-in-one gizmos), a group of Swedish programmers are hoping to change all that in drastic fashion. Concocting an "in-car gaming system" that utilizes a GPS receiver, handheld computer, headphones, and a laptop in the trunk of the whip, the Backseat Playground would eventually turn real world "sights, attractions, and locations" into in-game characters and events for the lucky passenger(s). The basic idea is to start the game off in a primarily audio-based murder mystery scenario where "actual forests, skyscrapers, and rivers" become part of the story, giving children (or adults, too) a way to virtually interact with their surroundings while traveling. The laptop uses the GPS data to maintain a 3D model which keeps the vehicle correctly positioned in the virtual world, and much "like a novel," the story unfolds as different turns (ahem) take place based on the decisions players make. While the entire system is still prototypical, it currently works "over a 35 square kilometer area in Stockholm," and designers are currently testing interest in other locales throughout the UK. Personally, we can't wait to see the variations in storylines while cruising down the 101 versus the pits of Hell's Kitchen, but we'll probably just wait for third party reports of the later.[Via The Raw Feed]
A near-death experience? WoW!
We may have had plenty of brushes with death ingame, but this real-world story is something else. Livejournal user antiotter was calmly playing WoW one evening when:My neighbor accidentally put a .44 Magnum round though my wall. It missed my head by three inches. It started in his bathroom, went through the mirror, went through the closet on the other side, blew through that closet door, traveled across his hallway, blew through our common wall, richocheted upward off my computer desk, and lodged in the doorframe.[Via Wonderland]
Guitar Hero alongside bands at Download UK
There's something about playing Guitar Hero that appeals to the exhibitionist in all of us. This year, the UK's Download Festival will cater to that by allowing Guitar Hero players to take to the Third Stage in between acts -- although there will be limited walk-up opportunities, they'd like you to register in advance.This might not seem like quite such a good idea when fifteen consecutive rockers fail to finish Bark at the Moon on expert, as events like this often lead us to overstretch ourselves in an attempt to show off. However, it's a clever marketing move for RedOctane as well as a great chance to break some of gaming's stereotypes -- or at least the one about us all being self-conscious tone-deaf nerds.
Cash card taps into virtual funds
The MMORPG Project Entropia is known for its economic experiments, with pieces of virtual land being bought for high real-world prices. This latest news breaks the barrier between real and virtual money even further, however; a new cash card will let owners withdraw from their ingame balances using real ATMs.Some MMOs entirely shun the idea of converting money earned online to real money, but Project Entropia is taking this to the other extreme. The game's economy is built around real-money transfer, so a move like this simply adds a logical ending to the cashflow pipeline, with developer MindArk sitting in the middle profiting from the whole process.[Thanks, pandlcg]
Breakfast Topic: Virtual achievements
A topic of contention, which neatly fits in with yesterday's topic of spouses who don't play WoW, is the value of WoW when compared to "real" hobbies. The argument is one that many gamers are familiar with: why spend time achieving greatness in a virtual world, when at the end of the day you will have nothing tangible to show for it?Of course, as the recent story of Stephen Gillett shows, many of the things we learn in WoW carry on into the real world. Leadership and dealing with people are two of the most transferable skills around, and WoW also teaches many things from multitasking to hand-eye co-ordination. However, after putting in hours of work, a few skills seem to pale in comparison to the physical rewards other hobbies produce -- a work of art is something people can relate to, even if they didn't create it themselves, whereas "level 60" or "rank 14" mean very little outside of a specific circle.The circle, however, is widening. As MMOs like WoW become more and more popular, more people will understand the lure of achievement in a digital dimension. Have you had trouble convincing people your hobby is worthwhile and important? Or have you found a killer argument to win sceptics over?[Thanks to Mike for the suggestion.]
Orgrimmar and Stormwind on a par with real cities?
Seattle, New York, LA, London... Azeroth? The latest addition to city-specific blog site Metroblogs' line-up is none other than our favourite virtual destination. Although there's not much on the site at the moment (watch out for NSFW language in the first link), it's an interesting move to consider.Only a few of Metroblogs' other locales -- including London, New York and Istanbul -- have a higher population than Azeroth, although some would say there are big differences between a real urban population and an online game's subscriber base. We, of course, welcome those who think WoW is diverse enough to merit a dedicated blog, but it's going to be interesting to see how "metroblogging" a virtual world controlled by a single entity compares to a real live city.
Is MTV's The Real World going high definition?
MTV announced today that the next season of their granddaddy of reality TV will be shot in Denver, CO. Where is MTV's high definition station MHD based? Colorado. It makes complete sense to me for them to use one of their longest running and most popular series (especially since they don't show music videos anymore) to promote their new station.
