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Second Life torture guide
No, not the torture of avatars – who cannot be harmed, nor even restrained against their will – but what is called prim torture. You see, prims (those deliciously smart building blocks from which almost everything in Second Life is made) can be made to behave very oddly, if you do things just right. With just the right settings in the right order, you can make a host of shapes that they were never actually designed to have. The gentle art of prim torturing (also called prim twisting) has been documented extensively in a catalogue of shapes by Second Life user Ayumi Cassini. It isn't every possible shape you can make, but there's a bewildering array of unusual and useful forms. By all means, check out Ayumi's guide, and be inspired. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Using kill-switches for safer Second Life scripts
Realistically, there are ton of things that can go wrong with scripted systems in Second Life. Most of them can be worked around comparatively easily, if you're willing to pay a little attention to the details. Skimping on those details can lead to runaway objects, or even executing a distributed denial-of-service attack against your own systems. A lot of people do skimp, however. Sometimes it's sloppiness, but more often it's just a matter of inexperience. Sometimes you need to be bitten before you think of these things. Some of us have been bitten more than once.
Ten great tips for new Second Life users
Over the last couple of weeks, a larger number of our readers than usual have decided to give Second Life a try (in some cases, a second try after some years). It seems appropriate therefore to lay out some essential tidbits to help you get to grips with your first few hours in Second Life. From quick graphical tune-ups to how to get help, we've got the stuff you need to know first.
Anti-Aliased: The reason why you hate Second Life and a few ways to fix that
Second Life gets a really bad rap from the MMO community that's largely undeserved. I get to hear all of these slams like it's a usless waste of data, there's nothing to do, it's a bunch of sex sims, and how I should work on my "first life" before my Second Life. Har, har, har.But, like I said at the opening of this column, Second Life doesn't deserve those punches to the gut. The world of SL is pretty vast and has much to offer any gamer, regardless of what they like. It's important to remember that this system is not a game. It has no objectives and no overt goals, but it does have an unlimited supply of imagination and creative possibilities. It's not a place of "serious business," because something that's fun shouldn't be taken quite that harshly. Sure, you can make money, but you guys want to have fun, right?So let's talk about Second Life, the reason the masses hate the system, and how you can find something enjoyable inside of "the grid" even if you've tried it before and got some negative first impressions.
Anti-Aliased: The reason why you hate Second Life and a few ways to fix that pt. 2
Tip #1 -- Take the time to learn the UI The tutorial, while not the best thing in the world, isn't a bad introduction to learning how to navigate the user interface. It shows you the ropes (dryly) and lets you get in some practice before you're dumped onto the main grid. Take your time through it, listen to what it has to say, and then jump on into the world. For gamers, here's a couple of protips. Right click opens a radial menu, and holding it down does nothing. If you're looking to spin the camera, remember to use alt + click and hold. However, also remember that alt + click centers your camera on whatever you clicked on. If you want to orbit your avatar, alt + click and hold on your avatar, then move the mouse left and right to orbit and forward and back to zoom. Resetting your camera is the escape key. That's very handy. Clicking activates many, many things. Try clicking on objects, as you never know what might occur. If moving is too slow for you, try flying. Hold down E to start flying, then use E to go up and C to go down. Beware that you can't fly everywhere though... look at the top bar to see if flying is amongst the "banned symbols." It looks like a little man flying.Tip #2 -- Search is your friend If Second Life is the internet, then the search button is your Google. This little fellow is super handy for finding stuff that you want. Interested in finding a Star Wars group? Just type Star Wars into the group search box after you press the search button, and you're on your way to finding Star Wars fans like yourself. Do you want to buy a lightsaber? Open the "places" tab and type in lightsaber -- you're sure to find a few hits. You always know where to go when you master the search tool. Tip #3 -- Be social! You see the people over there? Talk to them! You like someone's avatar? Tell them! You looking for a specific sim? Ask questions! One of the most important assets you can have is to speak with the others around you. Find out new things, make new friends, and actually experience SL rather than just watching it on your monitor. If you want a good place to check out that's reliably filled with people, I recommend the city of Nova Albion. If you're new and you want more help with Second Life, then I recommend checking out all of the help options at New Citizens Incorporated. Tip #4 -- Know what you want Lastly, set a goal for yourself in Second Life. Don't just go in to wander, go in and search for something you like. Does roleplaying interest you? Search for some roleplaying sims. Games? You'll find a wide variety of independently created games in Second Life. There's even an MMORPG inside of SL! Clubs? Yeah... there's way too many clubs to really count in SL. If you follow these few tips, your time in Second Life will probably benefit greatly. Of course, if the system isn't your thing, then it isn't your thing. You can't enjoy what you don't enjoy. But if you were always on the fence with Second Life, perhaps now you can give it a "second look" (see what I did there?) with confidence. Colin Seraphina Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who thinks all games should be given a fighting chance. When she's not writing here for Massively, she's rambling on her personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message her, send her an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow her on Twitter through Massively, or through her personal feed, @sera_brennan.
How to get yourself unbanned from Second Life
This is a topic we get queries about every day of the week. I've previously written a more general "How go get yourself unbanned" piece, which you should definitely also read, but this guide will be specific to Second Life. What should be helpful advice, and something we strongly urge you to consider is that you shouldn't do things that will get you banned to start with. However, the regrettable fact is that you're quite probably reading this because you didn't take that advice in the first place. Your options are now very limited, but let's go through what you have to do to get unbanned.
Mac 101: Getting the most out of Dictionary.app
Welcome back to Mac 101, our series of posts aimed at novice Mac users and veterans who like the occasional refresher.Mac OS X is equipped with a dictionary application that does pretty much what you'd expect, and a few things you might not. Here's how you can get the most out of Dictionary.Most people use a dictionary to look up a word's definition. Doing so in Dictionary is pretty straightforward: Just launch the app, type your target term into the search field and hit return. That's all well and good, but not very interesting.Here's what is. Click any word in the definition to find the meaning of that word. Do this just once, and an orange "Snap Back" icon appears in the search field. When clicked, it brings you back to your original search term. Here's another cool trick. Let's say you looked up "Surname." Dictionary displays it broken up by syllable: "sur•name." If you highlight and copy it, it will paste as it should be written: "surname."But wait, there's more! Highlight or position the cursor over a word in any Cocoa application (Safari, for example) and hit Control-Command-D. A small window appears that displays that word's definition and thesaurus alternative(s). If the term in question is the name of an Apple product, you'll see that product's official description from Apple. Clicking "More" at the bottom of this tiny window launches Dictionary.Let's say you typically misspell a word that you have to type often (my Achilles' heel is "Twitterrific"). Simply right- or Control-click that word and select "Learn Spelling" to add it to Dictionary.Dictionary is also more than a collection of definitions. You can quickly switch between a thesaurus, official descriptions of Apple products and Wikipedia. Additionally, select "Font/Back Matter" from the Go menu to access a slew of great information, like Proofreader's Marks The History of English Countries of the World Chemical Elements Of course, every single word you find there can be clicked to reveal its definition. Finally, here's a bit of eye candy that isn't useful but still fun. You can browse every photo in Dictionary by navigating to /Library/Dictionaries/New Oxford American Dictionary.dictionary/Contents/Images and switching to Cover Flow view.
EVE Online article on piloting savvy a condensed gem of a resource
We read a lot of what EVE Online players have to say about the game, whether it's on the growing number of blogs out there, in the official forums, or at Scrapheap Challenge. In fact we've noted an ever-increasing amount of excellent content out there, particularly among the EVE Blog Pack that's either informative or entertaining, and often both. The only downside, if there even is one, is that we don't get the chance to highlight as much of what people are doing out there quite as much as we'd like. Now and again though, we come across something that we feel really stands out and truly deserves a mention. This is the case with "Piloting Savviness", one condensed gem of a post by 00sage00 on his blog Yarrbear Tales. 00sage00's article is chock full of tips on how to improve your effectiveness as a pilot, ranging from pointers on knowing your ship and its limitations to gaining an an awareness of your opposition, as well as your surroundings. If you're an EVE Online player getting into PvP, "Piloting Savviness" is a must-read.
MMO gaming under quarantine
If you're unlucky enough to be quarantined because of Influenza A(H1N1), commonly referred to in the media as "Swine flu", trying to find ways to pass the time without wrecking yourself might seem a bit elusive. Since some of us, here at Massively, are stuck in quarantine right now ourselves, it seems only fitting that we try to pass on a few useful tips. Obviously, you're already reading Massively, so we don't need to recommend that. Since you can't infect others online, gaming seems like a great option, but there are some things you'll want to watch out for, because the last thing you want is to make things worse for yourself.
How to stop worrying and enjoy games like Darkfall
While they seem to draw a fair amount of controversy and commentary, massively multiplayer online games that offer kick-in-your-ribs PvP aren't really a new thing. Darkfall is the title that everyone's talking about of late, but it's really cut from the same cloth as the progenitor of all MMOs, Ultima Online. Granted, Ultima Online wasn't and isn't purely focused on player killing, but the fact remains that when you log into games that allow for the possibility of being ganked, in some respects it is what you signed up for. While the no-holds-barred style of play isn't for everyone, it certainly is what some players want. Or at least think they want. MMO world celeb Sanya Weathers, writing for Examiner, says "Darkfall has been, since its conception, an unapologetic return to Ultima Online's original style of full metal ham kicking. The gang at Aventurine never pretended their game would appeal to a mass market, and certainly never pretended that the game would have anything but a vicious learning curve."
Video tutorial explains EVE Online's new exploration system
The latest expansion for EVE Online is Apocrypha, which has added numerous exploration-intensive elements to the sci-fi game. Apocrypha brought drag-and-drop to the exploration system, making the discovery of hidden encounters (and now wormholes) a more visual process than the old system. However, for those players who are accustomed to the old methods of exploration, Apocrypha's revamped system can take some getting used to. EVE Online developer CCP Greyscale posted a dev blog earlier in the week which is a visual tutorial explaining how to find all that hidden content in the game. It's pretty much essential reading for any would-be explorers in New Eden. We also came across a player-created video tutorial showing how it's done, by Espoir from TridentGuild. The video covers everything from exploration probe placement to how to focus in on the signatures you discover. We've got the YouTube embed of the Apocrypha exploration tutorial for you below the cut:
CCP Games launches EVElopedia beta
As anyone who's ever tried to use EVE Online's item database knows, it's woefully out of date. Given the complexity of EVE, and the fact that the collective knowledge of the players is a resource unto itself, the developers announced they would create a sort of Wikipedia for EVE.This player resource, dubbed the "EVElopedia", would also be available via EVE Online's in-game web browser, as confirmed in July. Indeed, CCP Games is putting more emphasis on making EVE into a game that's better integrated with the web and social networking in general. What we didn't know, however, was when this would actually start to happen. At least, not until today. EVE developer "CCP VonSometime" announced this afternoon that a beta version of the EVElopedia is live, and already has over 6000 pages of content. The official EVE wiki is still in its infancy, but already it's looking to be a useful resource that EVE players didn't have before (beyond combing the forums.) Have a look at the EVElopedia and see for yourself. Or, in the words of CCP VonSometime, "Go forth, explore, and grow the EVE universe. Your community awaits it."
Wrath of the Lich King 101
The much-anticipated Wrath of the Lich King expansion has arrived for World of Warcraft, and may well be one of the most popular expansions we've ever seen in the MMO industry. That said, WoW players may find themselves a bit overwhelmed by their unfamiliar surroundings. Fortunately, our friends over at our sister site WoW Insider have been tearing into WotLK, and put together a series of guides called "Wrath 101." The WoW Insider guides will give you an in-depth look at the Wrath expansion's geography, and help you to find your way around. We've rounded up the entire guide series and assembled them for you here. Enjoy, and keep watching Massively for our ongoing news and features focusing on the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Wrath 101: How to get to Northrend and where to go once you're thereHow do I get to Northrend? For Alliance, head to the northernmost dock at Stormwind Harbor to get to Borean Tundra or take the boat out of Menethil Harbor in the Wetlands to be dropped off in Howling Fjord. Wrath 101: Level 70 PvP gearIf you were looking forward to getting gear upgrades through Honor at Level 70 when Wrath of the Lich King finally arrives in a few days, you probably shouldn't hold your breath. I know I advised doing a lot of PvP, but I meant that you should be keeping all that Honor for Level 80 rewards. Wrath 101: Getting from Borean Tundra to Howling Fjord and vice versaOne of the questions frequently asked is which zone will you be leveling in first? A large majority of players will pick Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord. Why not both? Wrath 101: Alliance flight paths in Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, and DragonblightWe'll all be storming the (figurative) gates of Northrend, in one of two zones: Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord. The zones are pretty large, but fortunately, they're replete with flight paths. Wrath 101: Horde flight paths in Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, and DragonblightPreviously, we covered the Alliance flight paths of the first three zones in Northrend. Now it's the Horde's turn.
An insider's tips on drug smuggling in EVE Online
Among the numerous professions available to players in EVE Online, there are few that seem as arcane to an outsider as engaging in the booster (drug) trade and smuggling. One of the newest EVE blogs out there -- part of the ever-growing Blog Pack -- is something quite different. "Paradise Engineering" is written by Uhr Ptrak, who is part of the Es and Whizz cartel of drug producers and smugglers in EVE. Paradise Engineering is a blog dedicated to giving readers some more exposure to this shady side of the game. "Many pilots may not even be aware of the vibrant black market in contraband in EVE... combat boosters get a hard rap from the larger EVE community, either scorned or unknown to many pilots. I thought I'd try to correct the record through a series of posts and guides on boosters and smuggling," Uhr Ptrak writes.
EVE University explains benefits of cooperative mining
Dee Carson is a Director at EVE University, a corporation in EVE Online devoted to showing newer players the ropes of the game. Budding industry-types in EVE (as well as players interested in other professions) will want to refer to Carson's recent post at the Miner with Fangs blog -- he's made his 'EVE University Co-Operative Mining Guide' available as a pdf, and is definitely worth a read.The guide walks a newer player through all aspects of mining in groups, from the skills required to the different ship choices and their relative merits. Most importantly, he lays out why players should mine cooperatively rather than it simply being a solo pursuit, namely that it's more profitable and adds a social dynamic to the activity. Of course there's safety in numbers, particularly when you've got a good mix of the different professions in EVE represented in the operation -- an ideal operation being comprised of miners, haulers, salvagers and 'top cover' damage dealers. Given that the guide was originally intended for EVE University students, the terminology and information imparted in the guide are accessible to most any pilot in the game, regardless of their familiarity with the industry side of EVE Online. It serves as an excellent introduction to the mining profession, and a stepping stone to more advanced guides like Halada's 'The Complete Mining Guide'. You can find the link to EVE University's guide in Carson's post over at Miner with Fangs.
Analogy explains PvP basics in EVE Online
PvP in EVE Online can take a while to become effective at, and there are a number of factors a player must consider -- both in terms of ship fittings and tactics used -- when engaging opponents. Speed, range, damage types, active tanking vs. passive tanking, when to engage and when to evade, are but a few things that need to be taken into account. Given this complexity, there are players in the game who've recognized that there's a real need for PvP instruction in the game and offer services to that end. Agony Unleashed stands as EVE's premier PvP school, regularly offering courses that show players how to use a given type of ship to its deadliest potential. Baka Lakadaka, of Agony Unleashed, has written a piece for EVE Tribune called "A Tale of Three Waterpistols" that could be useful to a newer player trying to get a handle on PvP in EVE. Check out his article for a look at how tracking, speed, and optimal range are interrelated in EVE, through the easily-understood analogy between children (of different sizes) shooting waterpistols at one another, and the relative strengths and limitations of different ship types.
How to play Superstruct
While dealing with these sweeping global issues would seem to be impossibly complex, Superstruct's gameplay -- fortunately-- is not. The game is comprised of a kind of storytelling on the part of its players, based off of the scenarios and updates presented by The Institute for the Future. Some of these scenarios, like the superthreat videos seen earlier, are there to establish the game's backdrop, but more info is on the way. Superstruct players will spin off their own ideas based on both the IFTF-provided scenario updates and (especially) player-generated content. In this respect, the gameplay is quite freeform. Playing the game breaks down to a few easy steps: Join the Superstruct community by registering at the official site. Create your 'future self' through your personal survival profile. Discover the superthreats (via the breaking news videos). Adopt a superthreat. Tell a superthreat story, through whatever medium you choose, via the Tell-a-Story form. Search for allies. Start superstructing on the wikis (sharing your ideas for redesigning the future.) Check out the video below and let one of the game's creators, Jane McGonigal, show you how the game is played, and be sure to note her tips on how to succeed in Superstruct.
A newbie's first war declaration in EVE Online
It's almost guaranteed that at some point in your time as an EVE Online pilot, you'll encounter a war declaration from another corporation. In some cases, the wardec may be provoked -- another corp's pilot killed or harassed, perhaps one ninja salvaging too many, and the next thing you know Concord sends you an email notifying you of hard times ahead. Then again, wardecs can also simply be used for kicks and consequence-free highsec kills. Potentially, a war declaration can also be a form of ransoming, a way for aggressors to extort money as a 'fee' to retract the wardec. Regardless of its cause, the situation remains the same: your opponents are free to fire upon you in high security space without triggering a response from Concord. For a newer player, a feeling of panic can sink in. That warm, comfy security blanket of highsec no longer offers its sheltering protection from harm. Perhaps for the first time, there's real risk involved in playing the game. That's an angle of war declarations that writer Sam Guss discusses in a piece for MMORPG.com called "EVE Online: Surviving Your First War." (Guss is also a writer at EVE-Mag). But that's really just the backdrop. He recounts his own experience with being wardecced, from the surprise of the initial wardec to the sobering 24-hour countdown to war against far more experienced PvP-ers.
Leopard Tips and Tricks for client management will improve your admin life
Keeping up with the Leopard-centric changes to managed preferences and mobile accounts is crucial if you're responsible for a labful or campus-ful of Macs, and you want to gracefully control what permissions or resources your wanton users have when they log in. One great resource for Mac admins diving into MCX (managed clients for OS X) for the first (or hundredth) time is Apple engineer John DeTroye's Tips & Tricks documentation.We mentioned John's Tiger edition of the T&T docs last year, and now that he's updated the handbook for Mac OS X 10.5 and Server 10.5, you'll want to bring your library up to date. Gone is most of the material specific to machine imaging techniques (I strongly recommend NetInstall [PDF], which is working better under Leopard than it ever did before), making room for more discussion of MCX settings and portable home directories. Download your free copy of the T&T file today and it'll make your life easier tomorrow.
A look at the salvaging mini-profession in EVE Online
EVE Online is a game where players don't need to choose a certain class and remain locked into that role as they progress. Essentially, any player can learn to do anything in the game, given enough skill training time and backed by enough isk. Professions in EVE can be freeform and varied, allowing a player to try their hand at a number of different playstyles in the game. One of these 'mini-professions' is salvaging the wrecks of NPCs and other players. Salvaging can be learned in a rather short amount of time, yet can be quite lucrative, especially for a newer player. MMORPG.com's EVE Online correspondent, Andrew Wallace, put together a guide to salvaging, laying out how the game mechanics work, and explaining how he salvages in different scenarios and with what ship fittings. Check out MMORPG.com's Salvaging Guide for Wallace's take on how to reap the greatest rewards from the misfortunes of your fellow EVE pilots.
