New MMORPG "First Life" gaining popularity.

[reddragdiva]

BOOSTERISM, Techno-Utopia — It's the newest social networking fad, a place of unparalleled delights and frightening possibilities. It's First Life, a new Massively Multiplayer Offline Reality Playing Game, produced by Jehovah Labs six thousand years ago and only accelerating in popularity.

While First Life is referred to as a game, it does not have points, scores, fixed levels or an end-strategy. The environment is known to players as "The Real World." As of December 2006, over six billion users are in the World at any one time. It is famous for its ultra-realistic play and its amazing high-resolution 3-D graphics, framerate and physics engine.

In First Life, you are assigned a body type. You cannot trade it up or easily change its basic characteristics, though you can outfit it in various ways.

"It's weird," said one player. "You can hardly buy cool replacement penises anywhere. But sex in First Life is amazing. It's really hard to level up to, though, and it cost me a fortune."

Some players' First Life avatars cause distress to other players.

Journalists wonder at the long-term robustness of First Life, comparing it to the tech bubble of several years ago and saying those who fell for the hype were part of the problem. "It's a result of someone extrapolating what something could have been worth," said games journalist DeathBoy Nozomi, "rather than what has actually happened. It's a classic example of bubble journalism, where we print what we believe, rather than what we've checked."

Many now suggest that First Life could be a passing fad, with the World being all but abandoned after a few decades. But nearly half of all Americans who belong to the First Life community claim that it is almost as important as the virtual world.

Some worry about the apparently addictive nature of First Life. The huge growth in reality gaming in the last century means a sharp increase in the numbers of people who take their passion for the hobby too far. "I know of people who are spending their week's holiday from EverQuest playing First Life. An addiction to a game like this is far more costly in time than any substance. Keep track of time, make sure your Eve Online characters don't go stale."

In the game, you can buy accessories for your character with an exchange mechanism called "money." People have started working in First Life to earn "money." Part of the addiction problem is "jobs" — in which players have to perform long-winded, mindless tasks, up to forty hours a week or even more, to bring up their levels and gain access to more adventure.

Stories of gamers spending ten to fifteen hours a day in First Life are becoming more frequent. And the impact that is having on their families is quite distressing for some. "He said that if he could spend 24 hours a day in the World, he would," sobbed the avatar of one player's mother. "His Kingdom of Loathing character's died of neglect. An Adventurer isn't Him any more."

The Archbishop of Alphaville condemned First Life's moral integrity. "Whoever designed First Life has watched too much EastEnders and read too much Tom Clancy.

"It's a psychosexual nightmare given virtual form, where giant flying penises are nowhere to be seen and disturbed people fail to wear even slightly less disgusting forms when having repulsive intercourse."

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Uncyclopedia, CC-by-nc-sa 2.0. It's all deathboy's fault.

Comments

[hirez.livejournal.com]

You've seen Avalon and 'mode real', right?

[reddragdiva]

No, I have not! Do tell ...

[hirez.livejournal.com]

(Apologies: 'class real')

It's a Japanese/Polish co-production best seen on a large screen with a headful of MDMA, concerning the adventures of Ash (played by Malgorzata Foremniak who is just... Startling) as she plays in some massive VR multi-player game (mad tanks supplied by the Polish forces) which looks a lot more real than the monochrome post-communist 'real' life she exists in. 'Class real' is a very good excuse for her to flounce around in evening dress, show off her cheekbones and shoot people.

It's got that anime vibe of all guns and running about but not much substance, which is entirely not the case. It's very strange.

[vampwillow]

so true, so true ... lol

[ladystardust-xs.livejournal.com]

A timely piece as I just joined Gaia Online last night - just for the avatars of course. :P

btw I've done some stuff for you on my journal. Go look.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Won't play it myself, I mean it's OK but it's not the kind of thing I'd loose sleep to play. 100% closed source, not even an open API for developers. The documentation is shit and reverse engineering it is a nightmare. Plus the helpdesk procedure at Jehovah labs? Well, some guys *claim* to have got a response but you know...

Still, on the other hand the players are, IMHO, nicer and more mature than the typical RPG crowd.

[reddragdiva]

The third-party documentation is amazingly comprehensive. And there's user forums about just about anything.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Sure and their efforts are appreciated but such documentation is by necessity incomplete. Try getting a straight answer to "Does P = NP?" or "How can I reconcile relativity with quantum mechanics?"

[reddragdiva]

Yeah, but reverse engineering is part of the gameplay and gets you rewards! I note your "Richard Clegg" character has leveled up to a Ph.D, for example. If they handed all this stuff out, there'd be no quests left for anyone else!

[steer.livejournal.com]

On another subject this limited inventory restriction sucks. I'm having to dump acres of stuff just because I can't carry it all around with me. What if I *need* some of this to solve a puzzle later? I know you said this shouldn't be a problem but I keep thinking "that cardboard model of Tipu's tiger might come in handy later in the game".

[reddragdiva]

You can rent storage places for stuff and/or houses for your avatar. It's really quite an industry in the First Life "economy." Bit of a pyramid scheme, though, if you ask me.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I just can't imagine that catching on though!

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

*applause* brilliant!

[steer.livejournal.com]

Also, while I agree on the point about sex, the solo module sucks by comparison. Sure, I know the idea is to find other players and go adventuring but sometimes that just isn't possibl.

[kherber.livejournal.com]

I think First-Life is over-rated. The lack of flying and teleport facilities is frustrating, because you have to walk everywhere, and the worst thing is, the only way for most First Life players to earn money is to sit in a camping chair (in places called Offices) for eight hours a day. There's also far too much griefing, and the game moderators just can't keep control of these rogue unpaid accounts. On the other hand the quality of the graphics and animations in First Life is far superior to any other MMORPG I've played.

[catscratchziggy.livejournal.com]

OMG I never heard of this!!!!

[reddragdiva]

If you read the rest of the journal, you'll see the scoop on everything.

[catscratchziggy.livejournal.com]

oh ok.....i didn't realize it was fake.

[reddragdiva]

:-) I'd be interested to know where you saw it linked from ...