The MMO-LARP-ARG

I had a dream that is the coolest inspiration for a game. I know that most of the gamers that read my blog will know what these acronyms mean, but just in case . . . MMO: Massive Multi-player Online, a descriptor for huge on line games like Sword of the New World (Free to Play game) and World of Warcraft (Which is an insanely huge Pay to Play). LARP: Live Action Role-Playing Game, a game in which people take on characters and get together to play out a story. Some groups play fantasy games with ornate costumes and padded swords, others have modern day mystery cruises. ARG: Alternate Reality Game, is a game that has clues throughout the internet to help tell a story, the film Cloverfield has an ARG that is massive and has been used to promote the film and deepen the mystery of what is happening in the movie. If you are interested in the Cloverfield ARG the best place to start is here.

This brings me to the dream that I had last night. I was playing an MMO with a few of my close friends when this other player finds our group and tells us that he is trying to meet someone in real life, if we can help arrange this we will get $2000. The mystery man explains that the man he is looking for plays many MMO games and he can't personally monitor them all. Within hours we meet the target of the search and tell him about the unusual offer, he informs us that he is a data security expert named Bill and he explains that he gets crazy offers from headhunters all the time. Bill said he would be glad to help us out and meet with our mystery man, but he wants a free lunch as a show of good faith. My friends and I agreed to meet Tom at a restaurant and treat him too a meal. It is when we get together that I realize that the dream has been about a game within a game, "Bill" is a character played by my cousin. I woke up shortly after this, but I am curious about trying to create an ARG like this one. Character Profiles could be created in Myspace or Facebook, and the game would take place in online and offline meetings. It would be quite a bear to put together, but I imagine that it would be very fun.

Mass Effects . . .

Perhaps you have heard of the controversy surrounding the game Mass Effect. If not I highly recommend reading Game Politics for a quick recap starting with coverage from a Conservative site, and the very recently Mass Effect coverage on fox news.

Let me put it this way, a Mature rating on a video game is most similar to an R rating on a movie. People claim that mature video games are marketed toward children yet I have yet to see anyone put forth evidence of this. Here is an interesting fact: I have heard many people who favor video game legislation say that the typical video gamer is an adolescent male, but this is an often repeated lie. The truth is that the average video game player is male but he is 33 years old and has been playing games for 12 years, the typical video game buyer is 38 years old.

Video Game Frugality, Free Charities, & Joe Berry

One of my favorite frugality blogs, The Simple Dollar talked about video game frugality and getting the most bang for your buck. Not too long ago I talked about the joys of free gaming on the net his advice focuses on console gaming.

Ever want to give to a charity but you didn't have a spare time or a spare dime? Let advertisers foot the bill. The Literacy Site allows you to click through once a day to help fund the purchase of books, this site also has donation pages for hunger, breast cancer, child health, the rain forest, and animal rescue. The Ecology Fund, has a very similar mode of operation but it focuses entirely on environmental issues. FreeRice is unique in that you can make as many small donations of rice as you want, and you get to test your vocabulary while you do it.

Lately I have been on a music kick so I have to mention FineTune. This slick little site allows you to create your own mini-net radio with play lists of music. I have also recently had the honor of meeting country singer and all around cool guy Joe Berry today. Personally I am a big New Wave, Punk Rock, Celtic Rock (ETH Rules!), Classical, Big Band Jazz, and Heavy metal fan, but I have got to say country is growing on me.

Free Tabletop RPGs, Odd Batteries and Neat Houses

Hi everyone I just wanted to set up a quick post to show you a site dedicated to free table top RPG games Have fun delving through them.

I have been poking around sites looking for interesting tech I found Sugar powered batteries and liquid power batteries that you may find interesting.

Recently I have been considering a move and I found very interesting prefabricated houses