I got this missive from Bartle
With qualms that my poetic art’ll
Diminish the blog —
Perhaps make it bog —
Take it over in whole or in partle.
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Mike Ashley has a good post on why XBox Live can be considered a hub-and-instances massively multiplayer game.
Not a “world,” mind you. I agree with him in that sense.
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For the academic-minded among you, the first issue of Games and Culture is out. Some usual suspects from the MMOG research and serious games fronts including Cory Ondrejka of Second Life, Dmitri Williams, Constance Steinkuehler, Celia Pearce, Ian Bogost, Greg Lastowka, Jim Gee, Nick Yee, and Henry Lowood.
And A Theory of Fun is actually cited. Yay, more academic cred.
Phil Steinmeyer has a great post up going over the process of creating a look for his word puzzle game Bonnie’s Bookstore. What this reveals is both how important the dressing of a game is, and also how paradoxically unimportant it is. It also suggests ways in which we can drive innovation in games in general.
Legal Affairs has an article by Julian Dibbell entitled “Dragon Slayers or Tax Evaders?” in which he admits that he actually asked the IRS whether or not earning virtual currency in an MMORPG could be construed as taxable income on the grounds that it could be sold for real money.
He got back a non-binding “probably.”
All I can say is, Julian, please stop talking to the government.
