by Baz Anderson on March 2, 2010
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The game “There” (www.there.com) is closing. What is “There”? “There” was a virtual reality chat/adventure environment combined with elements of the massive multiplayer online role-playing game. Roughly 8 years ago I logged in during the summer months and interacted with people as far away as Australia, England’s and other parts of my own native United States. Some of those people remain my friends to this day.
The game was unique in its ability to imbue avatars with ay sense of life. In most games avatars stand like statues, occasionally looking around or making a small animated movement. But in “There” avatars had body language. A person would interact based on the movement of your hands as he spoke (via in world voice-chat). As they heard your voice your avatar would seem to be making your point with body language, and the other avatars around you would look directly at you, sometimes nodding – that is just a couple of examples of many. The designers put a great deal of thought into how to make virtual world avatars more realistic.
Realism aside for a moment, his hair had an almost cartoonish feel. Before World of Warcraft, “There” had a stylized look reminiscent of a cartoon or Japanese Anime.
But perhaps the most important thing about this now vanishing virtual world is that it changed how I looked at games and virtual world interaction. Whether I realized it or not I compared every game that came afterwards with “There” and to this day I have still not seen that kind of interaction available in any of the game that I’ve played; and many times I looked and wish that I could find.
The MMO industry would do well to take a look at what “There” was, and what it did right.
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by Baz Anderson on February 25, 2010
Celebrity Laughs I love:
- Artie Lange (Comedian on the Howard Stern Show):I remember once hearing himself nearly laughing himself to death and the sheer joy of listening to that, then feeling sad because of how fragile he is; know that his laugh might go away. I hope that hasn’t happened.
- Ricky Gervais (British Writer/Creator/Comedian): Listening to his podcasts and “Guides” on Itunes is fun. His laugh is about three octaves above anyone else I can think of – woman or man. There is something about someone with a completely wild laugh that is unselfconscious about it that makes me happy.
- Gilbert Gottfried (Comedian): When he starts cackling it’s how you imagine the Riddler would sound: Completely insane. The madness in that laugh is amazing.
by Baz Anderson on February 10, 2010
Go if you have to go. Stay if you have to stay. But decide where your umbrella goes: in the stand or under the rain.
There have been times when I knew goodbye was coming and I found myself smiling when the bullet hit; not out of bitter gallows-humor or nastiness. Sometimes it just comes because you saw it coming and you knew why. Sometimes you get too close. Sometimes you share an amazing moment, and the other person does something to screw it up because you touched their heart, and they couldn’t take it.
You smile out of a bit of sadness and bit of “Just one of those things”.
The Dance, if you will, is of give and take.
No, this is not a goodbye post to the blog. I will continue doing what I do here for as long as I feel it has worth – which should be quite a while. It is more of a goodbye to bad times. Sometimes you see yourself slump when you are with someone because somehow they take and take and take beneath the polite veneer. Somehow no matter how close you feel to them they have to test you, or they have to screw it up – maybe because you dared to get close. Maybe because they like you, and it frightens them.
You smile because it’s sad. It’s just one of those things people do people do that leaves them alone and bitter. It’s one of those things that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but you can spit it out easily and move along, but you know the other person won’t be so lucky.
There are moments when you are caught up in the whirlwind and you act like there aren’t a million other people in the world looking for what you’ve got. Then the storm passes and you look up at the sun and feel the rain on your face drying quickly, and you feel ready to move forward again.
At something like 100 posts – give or take a few clunkers – I’ve given my heart and soul to this site. From early one when a major game developer crashed the site when I wrote an article about them, to leaner times when as few as a couple hundred would stop by – to times when a few thousand a day became the norm based, again, on a single article; there have been good times and bad. This site has weathered them all, as will I.
I’ve written longer articles, but sometimes short and sweet is best. Goodbyes are like that. Sometimes people just don’t have the heart to love, and those people you have to walk away from. Maybe it is not their fault. Maybe it’s just a bad time for them to let in love. You pity them and wish them well. You love them and let them be who they are, and hope they hit on better times.
The dance goes on in their hearts and their minds. But in the real world the give and take of real, and difficult, relationships isn’t a game or a dance. It is a struggle to be as real and honest as you can be, and hope that you meet someone with the soul and the brains to see that what you’re putting on the table is all of you…. not part, not polished… just what is real and honest in this often dishonest world.
Don’t let anyone tell you any different.
