David, Trek, and Ami part 1

A long time ago (I'd say about 12 or so years), I was making sprite comics on a geocities website, to leave my mark on the internet. As I've recently found my old sprite comics, I decided to upload them (13 or so total), here for posterity, and as a back up as well. Forgive my indulgence.

Sexuality

Everywhere I've been looking lately, I've been seeing people talk about sex. Whether virtual or discriminatory. The main point of it all, is that even after all this time, we haven't solved it, or figured it out to the point that everyone can agree. Now, I'm a big supporter that regardless of what anyone says, somethings are right, and some things are wrong. To me, figuring out the gray area, is what can lead us to advancement.

One of the problems with solving gray areas, and lets say, sexism, is that each man and woman is different. We are not all stereotypes. We are different gradations of what is expected, and because of that, there is no universal truth of what it means to be a woman, or a man, or gay, or straight. So what we have is each person's view of what it means to be a man and a woman, and they judge everything from that point of view. That point of view is formed by their parents, and by things that happened while they were growing up, and by in born genetic/hormonal effects (nurture AND nature). This means, that you have by default, your hormonal sex drive, which influences your behavior. Next you have what your parents taught you, or how they behaved around you while growing up (this can lead either to positive or negative views of what is taught), followed by events from outside the family unit (which either contradict or reinforce what the family taught).

So if your view is that "women like talking about clothing and shoes, and don't like to play sports, and since not many women are in the sciences, that means that women are stupid," then that is how you perceive every female. You then grade every woman you meet based on those criteria, and if they are more aggressive, then they are dykes, if they are smarter, then they have no life and never had sex, etc etc. You do the same thing for men, for children, for yourself. You also reflect what you think others think about you, and you add their views of you to how you view them. This all gets pretty complicated and layered in your head, even without really thinking about it.

So what stops people from becoming educated about the fact that not everyone fits a stereotype, and therefore proceed OUT of this misogynistic, anti-ethnic, xenophobic loop each and every generation?

The first hurdle is slowly being overtaken, which is globalization. By allowing us to more easily see the entire world, we can more easily come to understand the similarities that ties us together as a human race.

The second hurdle, is intelligence. I'm sorry to say, that there are many stupid people in the world, and as long as those people remain stupid, then we cannot even begin to challenge their way of thinking, since stupidity leads to the mule effect (stubbornness).

The third hurdle is ingrained teachings. This does not necessarily go hand in hand with stupidity, but it has similar traits. This is religion, fundamentalism, social nationalism, and other cult like brainwashing things.

Since intelligence is on a bell curve, we can assume, that 20-30% of people will always be too stupid to be reformed at an older age, meaning that we need to teach them before they are taught bigotry from their parents. This would also cover the ingrained teachings part.

Between a Nerd and a Jock Place

Its strange looking back at my life. I've never been much good for anything. All my efforts to be a good student or a good employee were nothing more than a pedantic waste, that amounted to nothing more than me becoming the most boring person in the world.

I've always been stuck in a strange roll in life. I was usually the top grade in my class, or at least in the top three. When teachers would grade finals on a bell curve, my grade was removed so that others would pass. I could do algebraic equations half asleep, fifteen minutes before class, and still get them all correct. I was the best reader in my classes, and I always put 100% into all of my work.

I would always strive to do my best in gym class. I was usually in the top five in running. On weights, despite my slight frame, I managed squatting over twice my weight. I never liked doing sports, but during sports days, I would do my best, which overall was below average, despite my best efforts.

So even though I was smart, and got good grades, I was a slacker, and didn't fit in with the other top students. They viewed me as a waste, and it seemed to upset them that I was coasting through the classes while they studied, and had a social stigma attached to them. Even so, I did become friends with a select few of them.

Even though I wasn't a slacker in P.E. the jocks didn't like socializing with me, because they viewed me as a nerd, and since I didn't participate in after school sports clubs, I was usually rejected.

I was never part of any group, yet I would visit all the different social groups of my school. I'd know one person at least in each one, and the rest of the group would hate me. I quote, "Why are you even here? No one here likes you, so why do you even hang out here? Go away!"

At the beginning of school, in both middle school and high school, the jocks would try to establish their dominance over the nerds. Most of the poor geeks would be bullied into submission. I would fight. I would scratch and bite, and yell, and punch and kick. After their first try, I would never be bullied again. Instead, I would be ignored.

Despite all these social limitations, I made a couple of friends (which I still talk to today, 10-16 years later). I was too much of a slacker to be a nerd, and I was too nerdy to be with the jocks. I refused to do drugs, so the slackers ignored me, after their first invitation. My laziness meant that I never tried to succeed, instead I'd get my A's, and I'd ignore everything else. I ignored college prep, I ignored life goals and planning. I got out of high school without a direction to go in. I wasn't interested in college, viewing it as nothing more than a continuation of the torture I had been experiencing for over 10 years.

I started working. At work I had the same attitude as I had in school, get the A, but don't bother with anything after that. It wasn't until I met the woman that would become my wife, that I went for a promotion.

So now, I've started planning for my future. One of those things is going to college. But old habits and feelings die hard, and the time to act is slipping by. Once again, I'm sabotaging myself. Even knowing this, looking to go to school, I feel the same strange weighted feelings in my chest. I'm not sure if its fear, or hate, or loathing. But the more I try to think about going, the more I feel like crying, and curling up.

Are 2nd Markets Piracy?

Such a huge topic today, almost as bad as the piracy debate itself. This goes hand in hand with piracy into causing things such as DRM, and the latest tactics of game companies: Not including the full game at retail. A while ago one of the VG podcasts I watch talked about how some games coming out, have DLC available right away. Sometimes for free, often times for another $15. Why would they do this?

The answer is simple, they are not getting money from the 2nd Market, which by definition they never would. So, does the 2nd Market only cause damage? Or is it really as bad as piracy? Are the gate keepers of the 2nd Market the reason that things are as bad as they are now, or have they been helping game companies?

So lets take a look at what exactly happens: Company A (the developer) makes a game. Company B (the distributer aka Gamestop) sells the game. Company B purchases the game from Company A, in bulk, and sells it for the MSRP. Customer A, buys the new game from Company B. Customer B cannot afford to buy the game new, and does not purchase the game. Customer A finishes the game, and decides he's done with it. Customer A goes to Company B, and trades the game in for in-store credit. Customer A now either uses that credit to purchase new or used games, but being the Customer A that he is, he buys new games. This may not directly support original Company A (Customer A may be buying a game from another developer), but it does get money going back to publishers. Customer B, sees the game he wanted on sale used, and purchases it, supporting Company B, helping them stay in business to sell new games to people like Customer A.

Now obviously, this works fine with brick and mortar stores, and games that are on a physical medium. But we are in a digital age, and as proponents for Piracy state over and over again, it takes no effort to copy 1s and 0s. We can understand a $60 MSRP, because of the cost to get the game on disc, and ship it, and the packaging, etc etc etc. But why is the same game $60 to download? Because the download services get a cut of the sale (Apple Itunes gets 20% I believe).

So digital distribution does not result in cheaper games for Buyers, but it does guarantee revenue for the game companies. Furthermore, Digital Distribution negates the possibility of the 2nd Market. But why shouldn't I be able to sell my right to play a game to someone else? I paid for that right, so if I no longer want it, I should be able to sell it, or even give it away to someone who would not have purchased it otherwise, right? I mean, they wouldn't have bought it for full price, but for cheaper or free, they at least are playing the game, resulting in more people online to bring the "fun" to those who did pay the original cost. I mean, its not really that different whether I'm playing it or someone else is it?

But game companies want to make money from the 2nd Market. So they release DLC on launch date, so that one day (and some games have done this already), if you purchase a game new, you get the DLC for free, but if you purchase it from the 2nd Market, you have to pay $15 for the DLC. DLC that isn't really DLC, but usually on the disc already, but locked. In other words, you have to pay $15 for a lie.

Now I suggested what the benefits and actual damage of Piracy was for the game companies, regardless of how I feel about that, it is still immoral. But with the 2nd hand market, you have similar benefits, sometimes better benefits (Customer A gets money to reinvest into game companies), and you end up with similar damages to piracy (developer gets no additional money, except for DLC, which is good for them right?).

So is the 2nd Market Piracy? I don't think so. I think its very good for game companies, and their efforts to damage it may end up damaging only themselves.

What do you think?

NWN - Without Roper

After two years, Chief Creative Officer, Bill Roper has left Cryptic to pursue something else (apparently to start a new company).

Now, for the past year, they've been working on Neverwinter Nights, and since they are starting to do interviews, I'm guessing that its starting to reach fulfillment. Now, Bill Roper was heavily involved with Champions Online, but he said he only barely touched on Star Trek Online. So how much involvement did he have with NWN, and if not enough, could that be why he left? Was he suddenly feeling stifled by it all?

Depending on how involved he was with this game, will decide for many people how much they feel they will like or dislike this game. Now, apparently I'm a big fun of Bill Roper (I may be the only one!?), so how sure can we be about the quality of this game? Who is involved?

So, I found an interview that Gamespot recently did with Jack Emmert (chief operating officer). Some points from the interview are as follows:

The game is not massively at all. It is simply an online multiplayer game. Imagine logging into (unmentionable MMO) and only using the Dungeon Finder. Some zones will be public, and some will be for teammates only. But not in the concept of a "hub world".

They are translating D&D4e rules into computer lingo, so, even though the starting classes are only five or so (fighter, wizard, rogue, ranger, cleric), we can expect that many can be showing up further down the line.

With how they break down the abilities, they translated D&D4e's, at-will, encounter, and daily powers into any-time, each encounter, and every few hours. This means that you would log in, play through a session, and log out for a few hours.

They are investing in including flanking, positioning, and tactics into the gameplay (not sure how it will be implemented, but in D&D4e, flanking makes it easier for you to hit).

The character editor, will be similar to CO and STO, and they will have Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and a few mysterious others (Drow, Eladrin, Warforged, Teifling, what? Honestly, being mysterious about this now is just stupid). It might mean that they are currently incomplete.

The storyline is tied into R.A. Salvatore stories (though not necessarily written by him). The adventures will occur within Neverwinter, and just outside of it, at least in the beginning. They have plans to expand after release. The game will take place 100 years in the future.

Players will be able to create stories, maps, and create quests for the map. Emmert specifically made the effort to point out that people will easily be able to tell they are using User Generated Content versus in-game content. So, that is almost a guarantee that "Forge" (their ingame creator) will be pretty lame.

It is set to be released in tandem with the R.A. Salvatore book, Gauntlegrym, which is being released October 5th, 2010.

Champions Online - State of the Game Aug. 24th

So an update is coming soon for CO, which will bring with it, such excellent things as: Supergroup improvements, an updated Renaissance Center (the main hub of Millennium City) , many new emotes, a harder difficulty setting, costume unlock fixes, and more tights!

They had planned to release a pet update, but they weren't satisfied with the results, so they'll be holding back on it for now. They are also doing a 1-week promotion to celebrate their 1 year anniversary. So I invite everyone to try this game again for FREE (unrestricted to boot!) from Sept. 1st to Sept 7th (ends 3am PST). You can go to their website and sign up and download the client now, if you want to get a head start! (and as always they have their unlimited demo that you can play within the starting crisis zone).

To top it off, they also have another Adventure Pack coming out at the end of September/early October, called the Demon Flame. The best part about these adventure packs is that they scale, so you can go in there at any level and have some awesome fun. They are very cohesive, and give you a little story line each.

Promised Announcement

I hope I got everyone's juices flowing as to what this announcement could be. Especially after Tobold made a big issue of it a few days ago, I decided to add one more reference, to bloggoleechification.

This of course, is not interesting at all, and my attempts at suspense and build up were simply because of the delay of Urban Dictionary's definition upload process. I decided since Tobold took the time to create this wonderful new word for us, that we should add it to the lexicon of everyone out there.

To make this extra special, I decided to do it without permission, if anything, to leech off of his success!

Bill of Rights - in Cyberspace

This is going to be a repost from Jeff Jarvis's Buzz Machine website. I'm not sure how many people who game, read Buzz Machine, so if this interests you, I suggest you go check out that website.

A Bill of Rights in Cyberspace
I. We have the right to connect.

This is a preamble and precondition to the American First Amendment: before we can speak, we must be able to connect. Hillary Clinton defines the freedom to connect as “the idea that governments should not prevent people from connecting to the internet, to websites, or to each other.” It is this principle that also informs discussion of net neutrality.

II. We have the right to speak.

No one may abridge our freedom of speech. We acknowledge the limitations on freedom of speech but they must defined as narrowly as possible, lest we find ourselves operating under a lowest common denominator of offense. Freedom is our default.

III. We have the right to speak in our languages.

The English language’s domination of the internet has faded as more languages and alphabets have joined the net, which is to be celebrated. But Ethan Zuckerman also cautions that in our polyglot internet, we will want to build bridges across languages. We will want to speak in our own languages but also speak with others’.

IV. We have the right to assemble.

In the American Bill of Rights, the right to assemble is listed separately from the right to speak. The internet enables us to organize without organizations and collaborate and that now threatens repressive regimes as much as speech.

V. We have the right to act.

These first articles are a thread: We connect to speak and speak to assemble and assemble to act and that is how we can and will change the world, not just putting forth grievances but creating the means to fix them. That is what threatens the institutions that would stop us.

VI. We have the right to control our data.

You should have access to data about you. And what’s yours is yours. We want the internet to operate on a principle of portability, so your information and creations cannot be held prisoner by a service or government and so you retain control. But keep in mind that when control is given to one, it is taken from another; in those details lurk devils. This principle thus speaks to copyright and its laws, which set the definitions and limits of control or creation. This principle also raises questions about whether the wisdom of the crowd belongs to the crowd.

VII. We have the right to our own identity.

This is not as simple as a name. Our identity online is made up of our names, addresses, speech, creations, actions, connections. Note also that in repressive regimes, maintaining anonymity — hiding one’s identity — is a necessity; thus anonymity, with all its faults and baggage and trolls, must also be protected online to protect the dissenter and the whistleblower. Note finally that these two articles — controlling our data and our identities — make up the right to privacy, which is really a matter of control.

VIII. What is public is a public good.

The internet is public; indeed, it is a public place (rather than a medium). In the rush to protect privacy, we must beware the dangers of restricting the definition of public. What’s public is owned by the public. Making the public private or secret serves the corrupt and tyrannical.

IX. The internet shall be built and operated openly.

The internet must continue to be built and operated to open standards. It must not be taken over or controlled by any company or government. It must not be taxed. It is the internet’s openness that gives it its freedom. It is this freedom that defines the internet.

Announcement Coming Soon!

Recently something has been approved. They said it would take a few days to be up and running, but I'll check everyday! When it goes up I'll let everyone know here!

This of course will end up being of particular interest to Tobold (or not, I actually don't know how interested he'll be in this at all).

Piracy: An attractive word?

Who would have thought, all those years ago, when they labeled copying digital information as piracy, that being a pirate would become so attractive to so many people? Perhaps if they had called it something less attractive, like shit-covered vagina, that it would make people less likely to perform the act. On the other hand, what are the motivations for pirating software, music, and movies?

There are different motivations, and perhaps it might be prudent to figure out if the act alone is destructive, or if the reasons behind the act, are what cause the problems. There is also an issue of whether accepting the act causes it to redefine the value of people's work.

The biggest issue that I've come across is that people say that pirating does not equal theft. Pirating is illegally copying published materials (many people say the laws haven't caught up to what should be legal or not, but for right now, anything that is not okay to copy, is piracy). Theft is the dishonest appropriation of someone's property, without the owner's consent, with the intent to deprive them of its use, either temporarily or permanently (taking something from someone, with the result being that they cannot use it).

In the case of the most horrible offenders of plagiarism and piracy, an intellectual work, would be copied, and sold or even given away, for less than the price that the owner of the material intended, resulting in the owner not gaining value for their work (depriving use).

In that sense, piracy IS theft.

There are a few other situations, such as people who stream movies/tv shows online, when the company itself doesn't.

Or, the wouldn't have bought it anyway argument, for those who make a copy of a digital product. Or the act of ripping a DVD movie and condensing it for use in a portable device. At what point is the product yours to use, for your own personal use, and at what point is the product just the purchase of a use as is license?

We still define a purchase as product transferring from one entity to another. So if an artist made a painting, and sold it, it became your painting. If you wanted to duplicated, the artist was SOL since he sold the painting to you (and therefore all rights to the painting). That concept stayed with us into the world of mass production, and later into the world of commercial art (current music, literature and what not), which is where copyright laws came into play.

With copyright, the artist retains the right on duplication and distribution of their work, unless explicitly given to the purchaser. This remains for such a time until the work is considered public domain (note nothing modern would be considered public domain, unless explicitly put there by the creator). So now, we see that piracy (duplication of the work) violates copyright, which fits perfectly with its current definition.

Now if you are to purchase a book, and scan every page, and put it into a pdf for personal use, does that make it piracy? What about copying a video game, and playing it on the computer instead of on its original medium? I'm still unclear about that, and for the most part, I feel its okay (even though I say I feel its okay, I know that currently it is against the law, just a btw to those who read this). The line, for me, comes when you make a copy for a friend, or distribute it for money, or for any other reason than your own personal use.

So perhaps we need to redefine what is being sold and purchased, the product, or a license to use the product for a certain amount of time (this of course would result in LESS creativity and exploration, wouldn't it?).

LEGO Universe Building & Behaviors Trailer

LEGO Universe Building & Behaviors Trailer

The more I see about LEGO Universe, the more I want to play this game. So we saw this a bit in previews, but there are 3 tiers of building in the game.

There is the quick build from the console LEGO games.

Then there is a modular build, where you have choices of what pieces to use for each section, allowing you to have a custom item.

Finally, is an analog type build type, which is almost like playing LEGO in the virtual world. You do it in your own "chunk" of land, meaning you can build your own castle, wild west fort, or any other number of things.

So not only do they have their own content that they are pushing out, but the players will be making content for others to explore.

I'm pretty sure that this is a game that will not only be profitable, but that it will last for years and years to come. I know that the adventure side will probably be really light for MMO veterans, but the free build mode, will attract people of ALL ages.

A question of Piracy

This is a reply to a post at Tobold's, it was pretty big, so I decided to make a post here (edited to remove the names of offending parties):

Pirate servers often offered 4x leveling speed, and the ability to go up to level 120.

Many features didn't work, etc etc, you had to upgrade to a specific version of (unmentionable MMO), and all sorts of things.

In the end, it was pretty lame, since you essentially playing (unmentionable MMO) as a single player rpg, without the benefit of having enough people on. Like playing on a dead server in the middle of the night, with no one else on.

It did wonders to show me the flaws of (unmentionable MMO)s leveling game.

Not to mention, these servers are run by people who get community support for the servers, so some people were paying MORE than $15 a month for this. (and the ones who paid were usually given GM powers).

I'm with Spitfires on this though, that maybe it's my getting older, but I'm much less inclined to pirate now, than I was when I was in my late teens/early 20s. Or perhaps its because I have money to spend.

Thing is, as far as I can tell, pirates aren't really removing THAT much revenue from the game companies (or music industry, or movie industry).

When I had anything, I wouldn't have bought it (I didn't have the money). I experienced something for free. But once I HAD money, if I liked something, I would buy it, and would never think to pirate it.

I need to find the story, but one author, put his story (in DRM free pdf format) for free on torrent, and several thousand people downloaded it. He became popular enough, that his books started selling.

The thing is, if you have a good product, it will generate buzz. Piracy is a buzz that you are not paying for, as it is a "free gift" to all the people who would NEVER have paid for your product anyways (this would be considered pricing the item for each individual, in this case, free), which in turn can cause those who DO pay for things to be more apt to purchase something, as they are interested in the product, since so many people are talking about it.

At the same time, (unmentionable MMO) private servers do not serve that function at all. But would those people really be paying for (unmentionable MMO)? I know for the month that I played on a private server all those years ago, that I wouldn't have paid for (unmentionable MMO) then. But if the server wasn't complete crap, would I have come back to (unmentionable MMO)?

As far as I can tell, I came back to (unmentionable MMO) to play with friends, and not necessarily to play the game. Now, most of the friends I'd be interested in playing with no longer play, so that made things easier for me.

So I know it was anecdotal, but that is my "evidence" of the effect of piracy.

Movement in Games

One of the most important aspects of playing a game is feedback. When you press a button, you see something happen, and witnessing the actions that play out on the screen, you learn how to react to situations that crop up in the game.

One of the first types of feedback you get in a game, is moving your character. Whether it is a 2d game or a WASD computer game, one of your first interactions is movement. Left, right, jumping, turning, back and forth. You mouse over an object, and the icon changes to reflect an action that can be taken. You come into range of an enemy and a button lights up. You click on something, and it glows, letting you know that your interaction was successful.

Because of all of this, one of the most important things any game must do, is to ensure that movement in their game is fun, fluid, and fancy (I needed another f word).

One of the biggest issues that repeatedly comes up with video games, is the "underwater level". Adventure games tend to run across this the most, since they usually have different types of levels to help vary the landscape of their games (the mountain level, the ice level, the fire level, etc etc.). Movement in the underwater areas, are usually tedious and un-fun, yet developers have been putting it in for years now, as if their version was the best one ever.

With MMOs in particular, the move important type of feedback is actually the chat box. The biggest complaint I heard from people who liked WAR? The chat box!
My complaint about Champions Online is the chat box. Again, my feedback to talk to others is hindered!

What is the most important aspect of a video game to you?

Auction Expired

So for the first time in Champions Online, I've had my auction expire. It did take a while, so I suppose that I either was charging too much, or someone just wasn't looking for it.

One of the best things about all the items you get in CO is that you can use them to get raw materials for your crafting. Now this is very necessary, since "disenchanting" the items into mats, gives you skill points, and you need those skill points every time you change specialties.

If you do decide to switch, you at least "remember" all of your designs etc., and you can go back anytime... you'll just have level the crafting back up, which, for enough money, can be done while getting resources.

Moving on....

The benefits of inviting a friend to Champions Online are as follows:
As soon as your friend or family creates an account, he or she becomes your recruit. You'll both receive an exclusive in-game action figure!
You will be linked automatically in the friends list, and be able to teleport to each other anytime! (This doesn't end, and is a permanent gift for recruiting your friend)
For the first 15 days, you'll get 5% bonus Experience, 5% bonus Resources (money), and 5% bonus Damage.
For each recruit that purchases Champions Online, you get an extra costume slot, and the first two converts gives you a bonus item. One is a powerhouse teleporter, and the other one takes you to the nearest transport location (helicopters that take you to another zone).
Every recruit gives you 400 cryptic points ($5 value) and every two gets you a free 30 days.

It does seem like they want people to bring their friends into the game. I'm not sure how effective this is, but it does seem to cover something that each type of player would want as a reward.

Comment Flirting

I went to every single blog on my blog roll, and did a flirting comment to the latest post there. To each person I flirted with, if you come back here, I challenge you to flirt with each of the people on your blog roll, in their comments section, and then write a post about it.

It was hard to stay on topic, but I tried to at least incorporate something about the post in the flirt. I had no shame at what gender the blogger was, and in some, I ended up being more lewd than I intended! They were each done one after the other, which also made the flirting harder!

It was fun at the same time, and I even though I was forcing myself to come up with flirts, I was sincere with wanting to show some "love" for my favorite bloggers! Now I know some of you, or even all of you, will not follow through with this challenge, and some don't even have a blog roll, like I do.

Also some of the blogs I commented on, the comments are moderated, so my flirt might never show up!

Either way, it was fun, and I was hoping to see how many people would follow through on a whim!

So keep blogging cuties! I'll keep reading ;)

Legend of Neil Season 3

Season 3 is available to watch, here.

Blood Elf Porn

Tobold asks us, "Why is there not more Porn MMOs?"

He provides several links to articles, and provides some insights himself. Go on, read all that then come back.

One of the articles Tobold linked to, speak of the biggest limitation to a Porn MMO. You would need to cater the game to women. That means less having the game look like a "college guys frat party fantasy" and more of a focus on what women want.

Of course as XKCD points out, in porn, even in porn for women, people fuck.

Reading through the comments section at Tobolds, you see that another concern is the "Play Time" which one commenter estimated about 12 minutes. This of course goes counter grain to the "grind" of an MMORPG. Not to mention most "cyber" sessions are between two people.

Tobold touches on the Uncanny Valley concept, which he dismisses, but I think has a sideways merit. Many people that I talk to (who are typically of a "jock" persuasion) are often against animated pornography, and would ever only watch it for laughs. They strictly adhere to only "real porn" since to them at least the girl is real (never mind that this would require over 50,000 words to fully explore, not including investigating stories of how the mind functions, how our eye sees, and several other studies of the theory of what is reality).

So if we take out all the kids that play MMOs, all the women who specifically are unsatisfied with the available pornographic activities of the game, and all the guys who are against "animated porn lol", we see that the demographic for a porn MMO is probably MORE niche than an ALL PVP MMO.

As for porn games in general, there are plenty of them out there.

Thing is, that people who want to "cyber" don't really need a complicated GUI to do so. From AOL and Yahoo chats back in the day asking A/S/L (I haven't been there in a while, do they still do that?), to the ERP that occurs in Goldshire Inn (in the MMO that shall remain nameless), we see that there is already people who want to "get off" while in a virtual space (because at least the person on the other end is "real").

While I can't imagine someone designing a raid dungeon for a one handed (zero handed for those who like to attack multiple sensitive areas) group of players, I can see how an M rated MMO that specifically allows for ERP and "cyber" to happen, and to go so far as to include easily manipulated animations, then we can see the concept of a porn MMO coming to fruition. In the end, the most important aspects would be, the avatar, the text box, the setting, and the animations.

Looking specifically at Champions Online, and the unnamed MMO, the difference is truly the ease of chatting. Champions Online is specifically weak in that respect, and has resulted in less desire to chat in general (from me at least).

So do we really NEED a porn specific MMO? Not really. What we need, is for MMOs to do what they do best, and people will find a way to make it about sex.