Monday, May 16, 2005

Everquest: The Mall Warriors

I've decided to become a Virtual Power Broker. Column One in today's LA Times discusses businesses that traffic in virtual goods, goods that don't actually exist in real life:
For $179.88, there's the Blade of the Righteous, a sword forged specifically to slay demons. The $69.88 Shadow Dancer Leggings allow their wearer to sneak about undetected. And then there's Titan's Hammer, which wreaks $129.88 worth of unmitigated havoc...
About $100 million to $200 million a year changes hands for stuff that exists only as bits of data on the hard drives of far-flung computers, said Edward Castronova, a professor at Indiana University and author of the upcoming book "Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games."


All I know of this fascinating world is that my friend Guy is incredibly pleased with himself for making it to level 14 in World of Warcraft. Is that even right? I dunno. These magical goods are worth big money for folks who like Everquest and other games of which I'm not aware.

And that got me thinking. Right now gaming seems to be a male-dominated market, a place where boys get to brandish weapons with names like "Blade of the Righteous", "Dagger of Doom & Damnation" and "Spear of Unimaginable Destruction." Are there any female role-playing games? Because I can easily see myself hawking magical leggings which, when donned, give its wearer the appearance of having lost 20-30 pounds. How about colored contact lenses that allow the user to see what it would be like to date a certain guy before she dates him, thus helping her to avoid months or years of "Why hasn't he called me back yet?" misery. Actually, she still might date the guy despite the lenses, but at least she'd know what she's getting into.

Now let's all take a moment of silence to mourn the loss of a beloved show: "Everybody Loves Raymond." Nobody loved Raymond more than me, except for people who actually watched the show. Sadly, I missed the last episode EVER this past Friday. I can't remember what I was doing that was so important I'd miss the show. Oh yeah, I was drinking. Anyway, the Barone family was just like my family, but without the Italians, parents that live across the street, a brother who's a cop (I think) and kids running under foot. I think that's what makes this loss especially difficult.

Unrelatedly, I'm now up to Chapter 13 in my HTML/Xhtml 1 book. Yep, I now know how to create numbered lists and, if I have to, can nest a list within a list.

Okay, all for now.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

PayPal is the devils work. More money is changing hands for useless crap than ever before.

eBay is the Devil's hobby...and he owns PayPal too. More useless crap is being exchanged than ever before. Trash dumps are experiencing an all time low of junk to bury. Layoffs are coming. :)

I was thinking of selling myself to the highest bidder on eBay, and seeing how much I'm worth. After I wrote out my human profile, I realizied I really didn't want to know my worth, at least not in dollar terms.


If they will buy it, sell it.


p.s. - Where do you get the energy to write so much, so clearly...Great thoughts!!

"Z" said...

I happen to know a few female gamers. They may not be into all of the blood and gore or fighting games or the fantasy of Final Fantasy. They are more into Karaoke and DDR and Wario World on NDS. To each their own I guess.

We have homeless in my city as well. The other day while on my way to work I happened to see the spot where one guy in particular sleep and he had a nice overhang and a little "nest" set up. I thought he was out of the bad weather so that's cool. Then on my way home that night I happened to look over again and I didn't see him in his spot..instead I seen him about 10 yards from a railroad track and I wondered if he got hit. Traffic was heavy so I couldn't get out and check on him but the next time I went by there I didn't see him. I wonder if the news would report homeless deaths?

I think it's awesome how you make time for your blog Swish. I feel like I'm getting reading a scene or something that could be titled "In the Life Of The Swish" Keep doin what u do, Peace

estevan carlos benson said...

My friend is a level 40 druid, orc, magic, thing or some crap like that. He'll whoop your puny friend Guy. and by the way

I'm considering moving to L.A. for graduate school. I'm originally from Texas and currently in Boston. Does anyone have any opinions or warnings against doing so?

Butternut said...

Level 14 takes about 3 weekday nights. So, not too much to crow about right now.

My buddy paid $50 once for some sword in EQ. His justification was, "I can either spend 12 hours playing the game to get the sword or 2 hours at work to get the money to buy it."

A few girls at my work play WoW. Not many, but a few. I think games like "The Sims" are more interesting to girls. They just need a game where you can collect shoes/clothes and the girls will swarm all over it like a sale at the mall.

I can't say I know Raymond, but I'm sure he's a nice fellow. :)

Trey Goals said...

I like to play "Winebottle: Emptiness." I'm a level 14 liverabuser.