Over the weekend I found myself bored, as I refuse to go outside during winter. This, generally leads to me playing a lot of video games, and watching quite a bit of sports. I’ve still got a couple of weeks before many retail games come out that I’m thinking about buying, so I started to search around for a cheap alternative until said release.

I ran into a game called Perfect World International. It’s a MMORPG that originally released in China but due to its popularity has become a cult hit around the world. After playing it until level 6, I really saw nothing special with the game. To be fair though, you can’t accurately judge an MMO until you get deeper into a game. However, during my time playing I really didn’t see anything that leapt out to me as being amazing.

So, why therefore are so many people playing it? All because of that ever glorious word, ‘free’. Yes, I’ll give Perfect World credit, in that it’s a game worth playing if you don’t have to pay for it. In fact, I’d say it’s probably the highest quality free game I’ve ever played.

Of course, no MMO can be played without sustaining some kind of profit. Perfect World makes its cash from a system called ‘micro-transactions’. This is a system where players can pay cash for in-game money, or items. Nearly every ‘free’ MMO has this system with varying levels of success. Perfect World seems to be doing just fine, as they keep increasing the number of countries where the game is available.

While the micro-transaction system can work in a financial sense, I think it greatly throws off the balance of the in-game world. Of course, you’ll have the dedicated gamers who don’t care how much they have to spend aslong as they can get some killer loot. Then you’ll have people who just want to play, and earn what they get through actually playing the game.

If you have someone who is dedicated to the game, and plays it a lot but doesn’t necessarily have the money to invest frequently, then he is penalized. But if someone plays for quite a bit but has some money to throw around then being able to advance and obtain some great items will have an easier go of things.

It appears that BioWare, developer of Star Wars: The Old Republic might be looking into the micro-transaction system. I really hope not, as it really just messes things up in the game world. Plus, giving players an extra advantage because of something they do outside of the game kind of ruins the immersiveness.

What are your thoughts on micro-transactions? Do you prefer the system, or do you not mind paying a monthly fee to play a MMO?

Net Neutrality has been a hot word to use the past couple of years. With questionable tactics being raised by telecommunication companies to control internet access for users, it will only continue to grow. The latest Net Neutrality incident comes from the Northeast, with the telecom FairPoint Communications.

FairPoint is taking over internet distribution from Verizon, who is giving up 1.5 million landline accounts going into the new year. All of this is pretty standard fare, but the big question is the handling of email accounts through FairPoint’s service. All of the Verizon accounts will have to be switched over to FairPoint. This can either be a small, or big hassle depending on how much you rely on your email address for communication.

I can actually forgive FairPoint for having customers switch from their Verizon accounts, to theirs. It makes sense, considering it’s a huge telecom switch. Where I draw the line though, is that FairPoint is restricting access to third party email services (AOL, Yahoo, Google etc..). Users of these services will still be able to keep their addresses, but can only access their accounts through FairPoint’s email portal.

Needless to say this is a huge breach of privacy in terms of a provider-client relationship. Restricting access to a site because of a service that millions across the country use every day? I’m not sure what the thought process behind the decision was. If anything, having customers rely on other third party services helps keep the strain off their servers. The only real advantage to forcing users to use FairPoint’s portal would be if they have advertising on their pages.

This is quite upsetting, as it’s but one step (albeit a small one) towards telecoms garnering more control over content. First, it started with capping bandwidth for people utilizing a large about of data transfer. Now, FairPoint has taken it a step further restricting users from free services on the internet.

Where/When is it going to end?

[via: Rutland Herald]

The fight against online piracy has been a grueling uphill battle, with many left scarred and wounded. From the artists who’ve seen album sales drop, to the people who’ve been sued by the RIAA. Each side has their reasons for conducting themselves the way they do. Depending on which side of the argument you fall on probably rests on how important Copyright law are to you.

I’ll admit that I’m rather neutral in the debate, but there’s one thing that has always confused me with the RIAA. Their practices of finding justice in lawsuits against people who download music illegally. Not only are some of the lawsuits ridiculous in terms of how much is paid, but it’s who they go after. They don’t take into consideration that some of the people they go after aren’t what most people consider to be criminals.

My favorite take on illegal downloading is this video from the Musical parody artist, Weird Al Yankovic.

There have been cases that the RIAA has gone after teenagers, some who are having struggles paying medical bills for surgeries. They’ve gone after grandma’s, financial struggling families, and even the deceased. While stealing music is never right, is putting even more financial burden on people who have enough as is all that fair? No one likes Prince John in the Robin Hood stories, and movies.

I think the RIAA is starting to catch on to the problems with their lawsuits. In a recent WSJ article, it appears that the RIAA is giving up on their lawsuits against downloaders. I’m not sure what light bulb went off in someone’s head, but they are now shifting their focus towards the uploaders.

Although the RIAA will still finish up their current cases, they’ve concoted a new strategy that appears to make more sense. The RIAA will be working closely with ISP’s, in monitoring customers who upload files for others to download. Instead of trying to sue people, they are going to allow the ISP’s to handle the matter.

When someone is found to be uploading files for illegal sharing, an email warning will be sent. If the problem continues to happen, there will be more warnings. If the user then refuses to give up then the ISP will purposefully slow down their internet connect, and eventually restrict access altogether.

I actually think that this plan has a chance of working, much more so than the lawsuits. First, there’s a lot less people uploading files than downloading them. Second, there’s no nasty lawsuits that need to be filed; ones in which that make the RIAA look like the bad guys. This plan also will be cutting the problem off at the source, which is the most important aspect.

Time will only tell if their plan works. I have enough confidence in it to believe that it’s better than their current course of action.

So, I caught wind yesterday that the Club Nintendo service had finally launched for North America. I mentioned Club Nintendo in a ‘Top 5 Reasons For Wii Owners To Smile’ post earlier in the year. After my experience with Club Nintendo last night, I might list it as a reason to throw something breakable against the wall.

For those who aren’t sure of what Club Nintendo is, I’ll break it down for you. It’s a service in which Nintendo allows you register games onto a website, and will give you a survey about said game. The surveys are only 5 questions long, so it won’t take to long to complete them. The more games that you register the more coins you accrue. Once you’ve earned enough coins, you then are able to order some free Nintendo swag from Club Nintendo. The prizes range anywhere from Nintendo DS stylus kits, all the way up to a free video game.

To say that the site launched with a few problems is an understatement. My experience last night with Club Nintendo was full of slow load times. Bizarre instances that the site would log me out when I clicked on certain links. There were a couple of error messages when I tried to register some of my games.

I was able to get four of my 8 games registered, before going to bed. Which leaves me with 140 Coins at the moment. Unfortunately that’s not quite enough, as 300 Coins is the minimum prize for now.

So far the reward list is quite small, but that’s forgivable seeing as the site just launched this week. The prizes range in cost anywhere from 300 coins - 800 coins. The largest reward right now is the Game & Watch Collection for the Nintendo DS.

Here are a few of the rewards available…

Hanafuda Cards - 800 Coins

Wii Remote Holder - 300 Coins

Mario Party Playing Cards - 500 Coins

I logged on to Club Nintendo just before writing this article, and everything appears to be running a bit more smooth. I don’t have any games here to register, so not sure if that’s running better or not.

I highly recommend that you sign up for Club Nintendo. There’s really no reason not to sign up for something that’s only going to give you free stuff in the future. I’m saving my coins for now, until the reward catalog grows a bit.

Has anyone else signed up for Club Nintendo yet? Have you had any problems logging on, or have you been able to load it at all?

It’s never a good thing to hear that the internet browser that has close to a 70% market share hold has become vulnerable. Internet Explorer has just been discovered to have a huge vulnerability in its code, according to a BBC report.

The problem with the IE browser is of the worse kind as well. It allows cons to take control of someone’s computer and retrieve passwords and usernames.

Alot of internet experts are advising IE users to switch browsers while Microsoft finds a fix for the problem.

Rick Ferguson of Trend Micro issued this statement to IE users, “If users can find an alternative browser, then that’s good mitigation against the threat.”

Microsoft has advised against this, of course, stating they are working as fast as possible to find a patch for the browser.

So far the exploit has only been used to hack usernames and passwords for video games. It’s only a matter of time before it shifts from gaming, into more important regions of the internet.

I don’t claim to be an expert, but it seems to me that if there’s a chance of financial information being stolen then switching browsers for a short amount of time isn’t bad advice.

Let me preface this article by stating that I don’t condone piracy. I believe that piracy of electronic media is wrong and should definitely not be condoned.

Now, that my preface is out of the way I’ll say that the RIAA is one of the most heartless organizations in existence. I really don’t think they care about who they go after aslong as they make an example out of dirty downloaders.

I don’t have very much pity for pirates who get caught downloading, or in this case uploading. There are circumstances though, that the RIAA should just back off. Their latest victim, being one of them.

Ciara Sauro is a nineteen year old, who suffers from pancreatitis. She is continually in a hospital, as she waits for a rightful donor. I’m not going to do the math for you, but just research how much it costs to have a hospital visit that long. Now, Sauro could be looking at fines around $8,000 for uploading 10 songs.