Year-end roundup

 Posted by (Visited 8724 times)  Misc
Dec 312007
 

It’s the end of the year as we know it, and I feel fine.

Well, no, not really. I still have the remnants of a chest cold. I am cancelling plans to head up to LA for a New Year’s Party that is always one of the highlights of the season. Ah well.

With the last blog entry or two, the blog quietly crested 500,000 words in the blog alone. The vast majority of it was about virtual worlds and massively multiplayer games, with a substrain about game grammar and game design. I slacked off hugely on book reviews (my desk is covered in books I was planning to post about — like, 40 of them). I almost might as not bother with the Watching category.

The blog is due for a redesign… it happens every couple of years. Ideas?

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ZT Online

 Posted by (Visited 12769 times)  Game talk
Dec 302007
 

PlayNoEvil’s description of ZT Online is worth reading.

As wonderfully described in Joel Martinsen’s translation at Danwei of an article that originally appeared in the Chinese Language Southern Weekly (courtesy of Frank Yu), the ZT Online’s history, game design, mechanics, and experience are revealed.And it is amazing.

Take everything you “think” is good MMO design and turn it on its head.