I never thought playing a video game would teach me so much about real life and myself. Yep, you can learn about leadership, teamwork, and yourself as a leader and a team player by playing MMORPGs. I had an encounter tonight with a player who was quite a control freak. This person claimed to be leading 4 Warbands in an effort to lock one of the tier 4 zones in “Warhammer Online”. He was telling players who were below level 40 to refrain from playing in contested scenarios because he or she wanted to have only his or her pre-made groups in scenarios. I popped into a contested scenario without knowing what was going on and then was promptly asked not to queue up anymore. My feeling was that I paid to play the game, and so I will play however I please. This guy then proceeded to ramble on about how low level players will cause our side to lose. I was laughing pretty hard because his pre-made parties were getting their asses handed to them in this particular scenario and I felt he needed all the help he could get. Continue reading Learning about Leadership Through MMORPGs, Part 1
Category Archives: Gaming
Consumers Want More Home Networking
Here’s a little article from InformationWeek about consumers’ desire for more interoperability and networking options for their various personal gadgets. Hahaha!!! Well … in terms of networking, WiFi, Bluetooth, TCP/IP are just that. All of the devices I have that use these protocols I can see on their respective networks. When I remove DRM and other barriers I can push and pull data between these devices over their respective networks, too. However, I would imagine for those that are not inclined to explore or are technically challenged, all of this networking stuff is daunting.
Because the electronics manufacturers want to lock consumers into their product ecosystems, the manufacturers are not inclined to make their products open to consumers. Of course this never really works. Successful products like the iPod work with a great many accessories and other non-Apple products and crafty people have come up with ways to “crack” the iPod so users can get around DRM and reclaim the music they have purchased. These products also tend to have a bunch of third party companies that make accessories and software for the devices. Of, course it takes market dominance to begin with to have cottage industries pop up around a product. iPod can thank the mp3 format, USB, and great product design for their success. The glue, though, for interoperability are the mp3 file format and the USB hardware interface. iPod took advantage of protocols that were already well established as universal.
So it seems to me that the foundation for device interoperability already exists. It’s simply a matter of making it such that ordinary people can communicate with their devices over the common networks. Centralized network devices like home servers and the third generation consoles like the xBox360 come close, now, to knitting everything together. The problem is that these devices are not accessible to the lowest common denominator of consumers. The wii comes closest to a device that is very accessible, but its hardware and software are not capable. Continue reading Consumers Want More Home Networking
Aeronna and Kahnroy are in Tier 4
Last night Aeronna and Kahnroy finally made it to tier 4 of the Elf storyline in “Warhammer Online.” I had one small quest hiccup on the way, but customer support was excellent and helped me out within 15-minutes of my complaint registration. With Tier 4, comes a whole new set of scenarios. I had played a couple with Giyosephina earlier in the week, but it wasn’t as exciting as last night. Last night I was flying through the air, dying, and dragons appear from out of someone’s behind. It was total chaos and racous fun. I have to give kudos to “Domintrix Vortex” whose excellent blender action killed me and my comrades several times, leaving our bodies in a big vomit pile on the sands of Serpent’s Passage. For that, you have earned the honor of being on my “Kill on Sight” list, an honor I had only bestowed upon certain extremely devilish Witch Elves and pesky MFing Gits ;p.
General Warhammer Update:
Giyosephina Gunslinger: Lvl 31 in Reikland, chp 16
Aeronna Bramblerose: Lvl 31 in Eataine, chp 15
St Clair Full of Mercy: Lvl 24 in High Pass, chp 12
New characters:
NightJasmine: Lvl 19 Shadow Warrior, Elf Storyline, chp 8
Guntilda: Lvl 13 Rune Priest, chp 6 Dwarf storyline
Inori: Lvl 9 Healer, chp 2 Elf storyline
Pixistick: Lvl 5 Witch Elf on the Red Eye Mt server
On the WEs: after playing one, I see that they are incredibly strong and very hard to hit. I would play Pixistick more seriously if the Dark Elf storyline were deeper. I was hoping for duel storylines in which the dark elves are righteous in their struggle too. But it seems that they are consumed with hate and like doing mean things. I don’t know if this is across the board, but the scenerio conversation between Desto players was very ineffective. They were rude to each other and cussed a lot. I really didn’t like it and for the most part, I kept silent. Given that, I’m surprised that they manage to trounce all over Order.
On the new Knight Class: Basically, the new Knight character is a paladin. I took my character to level 5 before deciding I really didn’t like this class. I think my view, though, is tainted by the awesomeness of Miss Aeronna Bramblerose. She is a beautiful, graceful, hearty, and deadly Sword Master.
Warhammer Online Server Move
Aeronna and Kahnroy, along, with our alternate characters have been moved from the Drifting Castle server to Iron Fist. It looks like WOW still has a tight hold, so people dropped after the first month’s free membership. I suppose it’s good in the sense that we all know who’s dedicated to the Warhammer Online. Anyhow, come join us in our adventures, especially if you are a blog buddy from my ex-employer. I’d love to play with you and keep in touch through guild chat :).
Summary of Adventures:
- Aeronna and Kahnroy are lvl 27 and hanging out in Avelorn/Sephery in tier 3
- Giyosephina is also lvl 27, but hanging out in Tabecland
- Stclair, Stoutaxe, and Papparune are lvl 15 – 17 and hanging out in Troll Country
Having Fun in Gunbad
I went to the Gunbad for the third time last night. I went via an invitation from some high level guild members — the same ones who invited me the first time. I also brought along Kahnroy, though, with 7 players, Kahnroy could not go on into the final boss battle. That was okay, though, because there was no big loot to roll for after defeating the big boss. Anyhow, everybody, including Kahnroy got some loot and I learned how to use my “guard” skill. Yeah for Kahnroy! So I’ll be sharing his damage from now on. Hopefully, that will help him stay alive longer when we get in sticky situations. I can’t wait to try it!
As for Gunbad, if you haven’t been there, it’s a dungeon in tier 3 located in the Northwest corner of the Badlands in the Dwarf storyline. To the left the battles are harder, but the loot is better. We did the squig quests last night. There’s some bug in the game, so some of the loot in Gunbad and in the game, in general, are for the wrong realm. Hopefully, they’ll fix that soon.
We played using “vent” which allows players to chat with voice. We didn’t have our headsets set-up yet, so Kahnroy and I could only listen in. It took a little time for me to get used to vent because when I play, I generally discount external noise. So early on, I heard the chatter but I wasn’t processing it. Kahnroy had to repeat what was going on to me when I was able to slice off a little piece of my brain to actually listen. I think things went well and it was great to hear the voices of some of the folks I’ve been playing and chatting with for the past month. It definitely enhanced teamwork and I understand that the folks I’m playing with are having fun like I am. It’s a great way to get a job done by remote teams.
More Rambling 