I went to great trouble to score a Wii. Nintendo’s new console is quite coveted for this holiday season. After many MANY hours of play, and after careful reflection upon my experiences with this new system, I have compiled my thoughts on the Wii. No aspect of the Wii was neglected. From installing the Wii, to playing virtual console games, the details are meticulously covered. If you’ve been wondering if a Wii is the right console for you, this special edition of Photics might help you decide.
The Zboard Review – With Guild Wars: Factions Keyset
The Zboard passes my sandwich test. I’m not afraid to eat over this thing. Since the keysets are removable, it’s easy to shake crumbs out of them. I’m not sure if I would submerge a keyset in water though. I haven’t tested if the Zboard is dishwasher safe either.
I looked at my old keyboard and I had to decide if it was time to go back. I couldn’t do it. It was plain and boring. The Zboard is sexy. It was designed for someone like me – a player! Yet, when there’s work to be done, the Zboard can do that too. In addition to a standard keyboard layout, you can get business minded keysets. I was surprised to see keysets for Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Flash. If you spend your whole day in a single program, why wouldn’t you want a Zboard? It can make life easier, whether you’re playing games or doing work.
The Bottom Line: The Zboard is not the most ergonomic keyboard you can find, but it is definitely one of the sexiest keyboards around. It is fairly easy to switch keysets, but I seem to have settled on the Guild Wars keyset. I enjoy having a keyboard that reflects my interests. The Zboard can improve your game, as it clearly labels game commands. I’ve spent the last two years memorizing the details of Guild Wars, but the Zboard did show me some new tricks. Combine that with two extra USB ports and nine programmable function keys, the Zboard is also a boon for basic computing tasks. It’s a little on the spendy side, but that tends to happen when you mix fun and function. The Zboard took some getting used to, but I can’t see going back to a vanilla keyboard.
Guild Wars Emote List
There are plenty of ways to express yourself in Guild Wars. Although, you’ll need to know the commands. If you do not know all the emote commands, there’s no need to get emotional. Photics.com has a Guild Wars emote list available for you.
MMORPG Subscriptions Continue to Climb
Mythic Entertainment published Dark Age of Camelot, which originally released in the fall of 2001. Mythic continually has to fight off the popularity of newer MMOGs, to keep DAoC subscribers. Jacob says, “New games will always cannibalize the subscriptions of existing online games to some extent. However, we have seen that players are willing to maintain accounts with multiple games for as long as they still enjoy both the older and newer games.”
Keeping an MMOG account active requires more than money. It also requires a lot of time. Online Gamer Kris Heireth explains, “I wouldn’t normally have more than one account due to the sheer amount of time you need to invest on some of these online games.” Heireth also goes by the name of “Falkeids”, the level 60 Night Elf Hunter in World of Warcraft. He adds, “You need to spend time developing a character and that keeps you in check.”
Heireth dropped all of his other MMOG subscriptions, opting to play World of Warcraft. He is not alone in his choice. Blizzard Entertainment’s first MMOG has been tremendously successful, reaching 1.5 million subscribers worldwide. “We thought World of Warcraft would do well, but we had no idea it would be so extremely successful at launch,” says Paul Sams, Blizzard Entertainment’s Senior Vice President of Business Operations. Sams adds, “MMOs are constantly evolving, and the true measure of success is whether we can retain all the initial players in the months and years ahead.”
Not all game developers believe in the subscription business model. Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet and former lead programmer for World of Warcraft explains, “We think that many gamers prefer the freedom to play a lot of different games, and don’t want to feel pressure to ‘justify’ a monthly expenditure. Even hardcore gamers who are willing to pay a monthly subscription fee are unlikely to do so for more than one game at a time, which ultimately means that they will play fewer online games. That’s not good for gamers, and that’s not good for the industry.”
The Crusaders Scandal…
Henchy – He groped me. It was clear that I would never be respected as a fighter. To TANK, I was nothing more than a play thing. I was a trophy to feed his ego. That’s when I left. I hope other henchmen follow my lead. We don’t deserve to be mistreated like this.
Photics – What are you doing now to make ends meet?
Henchy – I hunt Charr for steel. It’s a very lucrative business.
Photics – Thank you for sharing your story with us.
Henchy – Thanks for having me.
(TANK was not available for comment)
The purpose of this rather unorthodox article is not to make light of a serious issue. Sexual harassment is a very real problem. That’s exactly the point. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how real world issues can collide with a fantasy game. Have the new emotes created a Pandora’s box of rude behavior? Do you want to see a Warrior gyrating his pelvis like that? Can you be sexually harassed in an MMORPG?
I’m not personally offended by some of the new emotes, but I do find some of them out of place. I can see a Mesmer doing a jig, but I don’t think some of the other dance emotes fall into character. More importantly, should ArenaNet be concerned how mischievous behavior can result from the current environment? It doesn’t take a social engineer to figure out what happens when you combine an underwear donning female Elementalist with a thrusting Warrior.
I wrote this article to present the issue to the community. How does the rest of the Guild Wars community feel about the emotes? Do you think emotes should be censored, to discourage sexual connotations, or should they be left as is? Have you ever felt uncomfortable when other players flagrantly used the emotes for deviant means?
All else aside… while I love the new emotes, TANK just can’t dance. Perhaps this is an inside joke from ArenaNet, to take a shot at the dance emotes from other MMORPGs? This is beta after all, and ArenaNet is known for making jokes. So… how do you think the Guild Wars emotes compare to other MMORPGs?