Have you seen Gawain’s mmorpg Manifesto? He brings up some very good points and I think anyone that is interested in this kind of game should read his post. The growing list of what should be in a mmorpg is something every developer of these games should be emailed. Feel free to email G with suggestions if you think you have something that needs to be added to the list. Be prepared and have a good reason why your thing should be listed. G is awfully opinionated about these games, as we all are. Here are the first 5 on his list (to bait you into going to his site):

1. A 100% player-driven economy. NO npcs, except for possibly quest npcs, though only on a very limited basis.

2. A Dynamic landscape. The lands that the game takes place in MUST BE ABLE TO CHANGE EASILY. Trees must be able to be cut down, rocks must be able to be moved, and the landscape must be able to display damage. (from say, dragon fire or cannon shot)

3. The land must follow real-world physics and cycles, and must be affected by them. When it rains, rivers and lakes rise. It becomes more difficult to walk on bare land, as it becomes slippery and muddy. When it snows, the rivers and lakes freeze (or CAN freeze) allowing characters to walk on their surfaces. After rain, fog must form above bodies of water, limiting visibility. Lightning must be able to strike tries and tall buildings, as well as characters (though the chance can be obviously low).

4. Day, Night, Seasons, and other special conditions must have a real impact on characters. In the winter, characters without adequate clothing must slow down and eventually freeze, unless they find a heat source quickly. Rain must lower visibility, as must nightfall. If it rains blood and meteors, characters must be able to be damaged by falling debris.

5. Players must be able to have an effect on the game world. Players must be able to construct buildings anywhere they please, provided they have adequate materials and time, and the ground is reasonably flat, and they have the required skills to do so. Players must be able to chop down trees, haul lumber, and process minerals, etc etc.

Credit for the above list of course goes to Gawain. I had a small hand in the tweaking of number ten. And there has been a number of excellent suggestions from Doom.

I picked up the comics that the Hellboy movie was based on. I’m happy to report the comic books are good stuff. Mignola’s work on Hellboy has the same spirit that Jack Kirby maintained in the bulk of his work. If you don’t know who Kirby is, you will just have to trust me.

Thankfully the movie does uphold the vision of the comic book. While it is not a direct translation (and that would be hard), it is very faithful to the important plot points of the comic. Dark Horse Comics has five books collecting the comic Hellboy. I’ve only read the first two volumes are were the movie gets most of it’s inspiration. Seed of Destruction and Wake the Devil which are available to buy at your local comic book store. I would highly recommend anyone who liked the movie and hasn’t read the original comics to pick these up.

I’m lazy. I keep opening up my news posting system to write up a new article. But only end up staring at the blank news text box. So it’s a good thing I’ve saved some stuff to write about.

First up is the annual birthday dinner and a movie with the Izer’s. Each year we do this and each year is fun. I have yet to beat out the birthday of 2000 in the amount of fun I personally had, and I blame no one but me. We did get to see Kevin Smith’s new flick Jersey Girl. I found this movie to be the best of Smith’s work yet. They say he has matured as a film maker and I would second that statement.

Second and staying on the subject of movies, I saw Hellboy last week. First let me say that I have never read the original Hellboy comic by Mike Mignola. So you won’t find me as judgmental of this movie as say the Hulk or Daredevil movies. With that aside let me say I enjoyed the Hellboy movie. It’s the first comic book movie in a long time that I have enjoyed. I do plan on picking up a collection of the comic book Hellboy one of these days, so I can possibly add it to the list of comic book movies that have fucking sucked.

Traditionally on the first of April one writes up some bullshit make believe crap that is never true. I stopped even trying to do this kind of post as my imagination just can’t do this kind of thing. My ideas for an April Fool’s Day gag are all morbid, revolving around some kind of personal tragedy of some sort. And in the end I think only myself would be amused by that kind of thing.

The first idea that pops to my mind when this day springs around is the “I died” kind of post. I would either have my best friend post it, or just post it in his name as him. And start out with:

It is my unfortunate responsibility to inform the viewers of this website that Turk has passed away.

Which again, I find this rather amusing. Just to be able to see the reactions that come in (if any). I’m morbid enough to want to have a practice funeral. Just to see what kinds of things people would say about me. And I would be just as amused by the negative comments as the good.

The next idea is one that would take to much work to pull off. And I’m always tempted to start early on this one. The idea is to come out with an announcement that reveals that this entire website and content it contains are fiction. Say some kind of college theses kind of deal, one that studies the effects of an online community. I think the reactions (if any) would be worth the work alone. But thank god I’m to damn lazy to do anything creative like that.

Of course there is the work can go fuck off and I quit kind of angle. But that really doesn’t hold any merit in being something creative and interesting. It’s a boring topic and I for one get sick of writing about the hotel. They don’t really read the site in mass enough to get any worthy reaction.

But then as I said, I’m just no good at this kind of thing. Or I’m just to damn lazy to take the effort to do the work to make it a believable April Fool’s Day gag. So instead I write about the what ifs and maybes. Which in itself is a gag.

Farcry the fps designed by german developers Crytek has been keeping my attention from any other pc game. These guys may be fresh in your memory because they were raided by german police for supposed use of pirated software. Other than that you probably never heard of these guys. Well that’s not true, you may remember them for their Nvidia tech demo called X-Isle which became Farcry.

The above screen shots don’t do the games graphics engine justice. They were all I had at the moment. This game has amazing graphics, if your system can handle it. Storywise it’s the same old thing. Lame b movie plot that gets you trapped on an island with a shitload of bad guys that you more or less have to take on all by yourself.

And this is a great game to debate with Gawain about. As it is a 3d accelerated game that really offers nothing new. Yet it is lots of fun to play. The homicidal maniac in me loves the carnage one creates in this game. And the shear size of the landmass your on is perfect for the sniper rifle.

So I’m going to be 32 on saturday. I always get bummed out at the beginning of march, wondering about my life. Mistakes I’ve made and shit like that. It goes away by the time the actual day swings around. I got a good friend that shares the birthday with me. And we always go and celebrate our birthdays.

Getting older is just part of the way things work. I’m just fighting it all the way. They say your only as old as you feel. And some days I still feel like a punk ass teenager. And of course some days I feel like I’m 80 plus. You just got to enjoy your time how you see fit. Play games, booze it up, whatever it takes to live each day. My man Sinatra said it best “You only live once, and the way I live once is enough.”

This year is kinda cool of course because Troy (my best friend) hits the big 30. So it’s a special occasion and excuse to go and booze it up. Of course we will have his lovely wife to keep us from getting in any real trouble. Not that we would get in trouble. We also have to go see Scooby Doo 2 today. Which I am incredibly excited about. I’m going to see Velma, fuck Scooby and the rest of the gang.

My obsession for World of Warcraft builds. I can’t stop following the development of this game. I check the official Beta and the Non Beta forums on a daily basis. I just can’t get enough details about this game.

I just can’t get enough screen shots to satisfy my desire to play the game. This place in particular is really cool. It has some great screen shots journal style that shows off some of the neat things you will find in the game.

And this site I just can’t stop watching. It’s a really cool page that refreshes every 10 seconds and shows screen shots live from the game being played. The shots above are from the live “WoW TV” they got going on. I want to play the beta now! I don’t want to wait for it to go into the open beta.