Perplex City Wiki - User contributions [en]

Tales From Earth:Authors

2005-12-18T22:11:47Z

Sentinel: /* Sentinel */

Authors should write about a 50 word blurb for themselves. This can be just about anything at all. Who are you? what would you like the worlds to know about you? If you don't write one, someone may be inviteed to write something about you. *cackle* *cackle* *cackle*

== IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ THIS ==

As you may know, to get this book published we need to get each author to sign up to the Creative Commons licencing agreement.

To do this you will need to send an e-mail to Ellen Moriyama containing the following to text as this will then sign you up for the agreement. Without this your work '''CANNOT BE USED.'''

The address to e-mail to is emoriyama'''SPLAT'''seaside-press.com with the subject line including 'Tales from Earth' and your mail should include the following text:

'''I, [insert name here], confirm that the work submitted in my name is licensed to Seaside Press under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 deed (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/).'''

Can you also cc the e-mail to tales.from.earth'''SPLAT'''gmail.com as well so that we know you have complied and won't spend time chasing you up!

Thanks

SledgeCallier
----

__TOC__

==Editors==
===Centipede===
===Scott===
Scott is an American, fFor which an apology seems appropriate. No sensible cause can be fFound fFor the queer lisp apparent in his writing, though sometimes gothic architecture is to blame. He is proud to drink plenty of hard liquor; He only smokes when on fFire, which as you can imagine is all the time. He has a bit of a fFastener fFetish, loves pirates, bad movies, and pi.

===SledgeCallier===
Having spent his formative years in rural Leicestershire, SledgeCallier was transplanted to Oxford in a failed attempt to absorb knowledge. Instead he found himself working as a Cartographer. After a few years of this Sledgecallier came to his senses and moved into an IT Helpdesk role from where he now hides his powers from the rest of the world.

==Authors==
===Ammonite===
Ammonite (real name Alex Fleetwood) lives in London, England. He works for old media. His favourite things include choral music, Anthony Lane reviews, shingle beaches and beer.

===Coxtin===
Conceived with an unusual amount of purpose and vigour Chris Martin finally arrived into the world after a record six thousand nine hundred and seventy two week gestation period inside his surrogate mother-Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips. Standing tall at six foot nine he often strides around London parks mimicking Peter Crouch mimicking John Cleese mimicking Hitler. Attaching loaves of bread to his shoes, elbows and eyes, tourists are often shocked to see a tall man goose-stepping around Hyde park with Ducks, Swans and Chihuahua dogs biting at his flailing arms, legs and head. Academically the man appears to be inconstant however his main ambition when he sat his GCSEs was to spell out the name of his best friend, Adae, with his results. Although this was seen by the London School of Economics and Political Science to be a failure Chris could only see his results as a good thing and wondered if anyone was called Lseps. Frequently bored by his job he can often be found sitting in a second floor office in Blackfriars, in the city of London, making absurd claims about his life-he never tells people about this hobby though as Chris feels that no one would believe him. As far as hobbies go this crab ridden freak of man has few-however he does tie small children to famous buildings. He once tied up Jimmy Cranky to the Taj Mahal. He was greatly distressed to find that Jimmy was not a small child, but just a bit odd. Chris, aged nine, can be easily recognised because he has a head made out of corrugated iron, wood and apples.

===Cronogenesis===

Conogenesis (Jack smith) is a student/giant/pirate from Heanor, Derbyshire. Although living in this area, he is actually a citizen of the nation of Lovely, a small country in the middle of London boasting a population of 52,000. Cron has been searching for the Cube since the early days althought is usually ignored due to his mass speculation. He is best known for his poetry, rather than stories. Some of his better known pieces include "Weather" and "Mr. Moonlight". If you are looking for Cron you will usually find him listening to Viards 'The Silver City' or helping some stranger. He says hello, have a great day and may fortune smile upon you in the future :).

(http://www.citizensrequired.com)

===Duckiemonster===
Duckiemonster is a medical student looking for something to fill the hole in her life left by the recent demise of a three-year relationship. She loves to write, play bass guitar and also runs knitting classes.

===Enigmaster===
Born and currently living on the friendly island of Jersey, Enigmaster (real name Lyle Entwistle) often finds himself cut off from the action surrounding the efforts of the mainland Cube-hunters, but still enjoys the thrill of the (metaphorical) chase. When he's not surfing or solving, he indulges in fresh and varied rock music, gadget shopping and can even be seen attempting a 'normal' teenage social life - with debatable success. Carpe Noctem!

===Fantasticalan===
Fantastic Alan takes absolutely no pride in the ridiclously non-modest nickname he was given once upon a time. Similarly, however, he doesn't attempt to stop its propagation (well, would you?). Hailing from God's own town of Hinckley, in God's own county of Leicestershire (OK, I'll stop there), he isn't yet thirty and might do karaoke if he's drunk enough. He doesn't like cushions.

===Frankie Roberto===
===Forg===
Forg comes from a small little village outside Loughborough in which he has just inhabited. Starting his first year of A levels and spends all of his life either at his wonderful girlfriends house, working or spending huge amount of times sitting here learning about the wonderful world of Perplex City. Being fairly new to the community he is just getting settled into the goings on however he's loving every minute and one day, we will find that cube! The rest of his wonderful life is spent eating sleeping and playing his guitar.

===GasparLewis===
===Gibbet===

The story of Gibbet stretches back over two centuries. In the year 1765 at the crossroads between Coventry and Kenilworth, three scoundrels were hung for murder on a freshly erected gibbet. Flash forward to the present day and this place has become part of the vibrant Warwick University campus. And in 2002, young David Hill enrolled as a fresher. It took a rugby drinking social to notice the connection between his surname and this famous section of campus. But since that day Gibbet he became. Some say that if you listen to him talk you can just about make out the screams for mercy from the condemned men hung there all those years ago. Others just say that he talks rubbish! On a lighter note, he enjoys racket sports, plays trombone and spends far too much time on the computer!

===Hituro===
Hituro is an electronic enigma, a personality created by an out of work web designer with too much time on his hands. When translated into the real world Hituro enjoys reading, writing, roleplaying, gaming and running large multi-player online games which take up entirely too much of his time!

===Josh Black===
===MagikGuy===
MagikGuy (Stefan Marseglia) falls under the Perplexian zodiac sign of "The Apple-Thief" and is currently studying A-Levels at his local Sixth Form in the areas of English Literature, French, General Studies, Information Communication Technology and Sociology. MagikGuy would like to aspire to become a Journalist when he is older and would like to study at Marmalejo College in Perplex City, the same place where Scarlett Kiteway is currently majoring in Journalism. MagikGuy has been a devoted member of the Perplex City phenomenon from early August 2005 and wishes to do his best in order to help out Perplexians by finding the whereabouts of The Receda Cube.

===Katie Goldblatt===
Katie Goldblatt is, at seven years old, one of our youngest participants in the cube retrieval scheme. This brown haired, green eyed young cube hunter goes to St Peter at Gowts in Lincoln and says her most treasured possession is a picture of Scarlett Kiteway that was sent to her by Sente's youngest daughter. Her interests include her baby sister Amy, playing and talking and learning about Perplex City. Her favourite computer games are the SSX series of snowboarding games and Sims 2.
Katie's mum & dad, Nikki Jenkins & James Goldblatt, have been known to join in with cube hunting too! They all play together online as Roxeth.

===MikeyJ===

MikeyJ, was born in Plymouth, UK and is slowly making his way northward. A seasoned porn star (under his full name Michael J Cox), he now intends to turn his hand (and other parts of his anatomy) to more literary pusuits. He hopes you prefer them.

===Mokey F. Rock===
Mokey belly dances and studies Japanese, which (sort of) accounts for her strange hybrid of the two cultures in her story. She believes in literature, the theatre, games, and all forms of healthy entertainment. When she isn't goofing off, Mokey writes and teaches English, which unfortunately does not mean she gets paid to talk about Shakespeare every waking moment -- just some of the time.

===number9dream===
Number9dream (aka Simon Douglas): fondness for flying kites, wearing ladies underwear and drinking espresso. That’s it.

===oliverkeers13===
oliverkeers13: Real name Oliver Keers. This young man started his life of crime early. His most recent, and arguably most infamous, illegal activity was at a recent Cube Hunting event in London, UK, Earth. He beat up several small children, and an elderly couple, in order to obtain exclusive cards. These were held by a secret illegal organisation, prompting much speculation as to his involvement with this organisation. Oliver refuses to comment on this matter.

===Ryan Andrew===
Ryan Andrew is 20 years old and from Manchester, England. He is currently studing Television Production and Design in London. He recently made The Sentinel when there was a small outcry asking for his public execution. A method involving "a corkscrew, a 9 volt battery, and a colony of fire ants" was asked for, but that bizarre, and frankly mentally unhinged request was denied due to Ryan being an (almost) upstanding member of the community.

===Sentinel===
===Specterz===
Erik Nusselder, aka specterz, is from the Netherlands. He is 21 years old, and studying law school. His hobbies are music and tennis.
Although quite new to the Cube Retrieval Team he has been diligently read up on everything, and hope to assist in finding the cube for the people of Perplex City.

===TheBozzball===

TheBozzball is a mathematician with a PhD from the University of Memphis, and is for a very short time working as a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge before going off to be a quantitative analyst in New York. When not doing mathematics/mind problems, he likes to direct, adapt and perform in theatrical adventures such as his five-man adaptation of Twelfth Night.

===The Unfiction Community===
''See colaborative story fFor this blurb''

===Watusi===
Watusi is a dance or an album by the Wedding Present or a Rwandan tribe, or a small person who got sucked into the whole Perplex City thing and appears to have entirely too much time on her hands.

===Zaeil===
Stacy Gray, aka Zaeil, can’t write a paragraph to save her life, let alone a story--but she’s been drawing since she was able to hold a pencil and hopes that a picture really is worth a thousand words.

===Sentinel===
Real name: Lee Horsley, Star Sign: Taurus / The Wave; 22 year old 'student' *Ahem.* Doesn't like writing about himself and so disguises it in a third person perspective; does like reading, astronomy, and basically anything that challenges my brain... I mean his brain =/

Tales From Earth:Authors

2005-12-18T22:09:32Z

Sentinel: /* Authors */

Authors should write about a 50 word blurb for themselves. This can be just about anything at all. Who are you? what would you like the worlds to know about you? If you don't write one, someone may be inviteed to write something about you. *cackle* *cackle* *cackle*

== IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ THIS ==

As you may know, to get this book published we need to get each author to sign up to the Creative Commons licencing agreement.

To do this you will need to send an e-mail to Ellen Moriyama containing the following to text as this will then sign you up for the agreement. Without this your work '''CANNOT BE USED.'''

The address to e-mail to is emoriyama'''SPLAT'''seaside-press.com with the subject line including 'Tales from Earth' and your mail should include the following text:

'''I, [insert name here], confirm that the work submitted in my name is licensed to Seaside Press under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 deed (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/).'''

Can you also cc the e-mail to tales.from.earth'''SPLAT'''gmail.com as well so that we know you have complied and won't spend time chasing you up!

Thanks

SledgeCallier
----

__TOC__

==Editors==
===Centipede===
===Scott===
Scott is an American, fFor which an apology seems appropriate. No sensible cause can be fFound fFor the queer lisp apparent in his writing, though sometimes gothic architecture is to blame. He is proud to drink plenty of hard liquor; He only smokes when on fFire, which as you can imagine is all the time. He has a bit of a fFastener fFetish, loves pirates, bad movies, and pi.

===SledgeCallier===
Having spent his formative years in rural Leicestershire, SledgeCallier was transplanted to Oxford in a failed attempt to absorb knowledge. Instead he found himself working as a Cartographer. After a few years of this Sledgecallier came to his senses and moved into an IT Helpdesk role from where he now hides his powers from the rest of the world.

==Authors==
===Ammonite===
Ammonite (real name Alex Fleetwood) lives in London, England. He works for old media. His favourite things include choral music, Anthony Lane reviews, shingle beaches and beer.

===Coxtin===
Conceived with an unusual amount of purpose and vigour Chris Martin finally arrived into the world after a record six thousand nine hundred and seventy two week gestation period inside his surrogate mother-Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips. Standing tall at six foot nine he often strides around London parks mimicking Peter Crouch mimicking John Cleese mimicking Hitler. Attaching loaves of bread to his shoes, elbows and eyes, tourists are often shocked to see a tall man goose-stepping around Hyde park with Ducks, Swans and Chihuahua dogs biting at his flailing arms, legs and head. Academically the man appears to be inconstant however his main ambition when he sat his GCSEs was to spell out the name of his best friend, Adae, with his results. Although this was seen by the London School of Economics and Political Science to be a failure Chris could only see his results as a good thing and wondered if anyone was called Lseps. Frequently bored by his job he can often be found sitting in a second floor office in Blackfriars, in the city of London, making absurd claims about his life-he never tells people about this hobby though as Chris feels that no one would believe him. As far as hobbies go this crab ridden freak of man has few-however he does tie small children to famous buildings. He once tied up Jimmy Cranky to the Taj Mahal. He was greatly distressed to find that Jimmy was not a small child, but just a bit odd. Chris, aged nine, can be easily recognised because he has a head made out of corrugated iron, wood and apples.

===Cronogenesis===

Conogenesis (Jack smith) is a student/giant/pirate from Heanor, Derbyshire. Although living in this area, he is actually a citizen of the nation of Lovely, a small country in the middle of London boasting a population of 52,000. Cron has been searching for the Cube since the early days althought is usually ignored due to his mass speculation. He is best known for his poetry, rather than stories. Some of his better known pieces include "Weather" and "Mr. Moonlight". If you are looking for Cron you will usually find him listening to Viards 'The Silver City' or helping some stranger. He says hello, have a great day and may fortune smile upon you in the future :).

(http://www.citizensrequired.com)

===Duckiemonster===
Duckiemonster is a medical student looking for something to fill the hole in her life left by the recent demise of a three-year relationship. She loves to write, play bass guitar and also runs knitting classes.

===Enigmaster===
Born and currently living on the friendly island of Jersey, Enigmaster (real name Lyle Entwistle) often finds himself cut off from the action surrounding the efforts of the mainland Cube-hunters, but still enjoys the thrill of the (metaphorical) chase. When he's not surfing or solving, he indulges in fresh and varied rock music, gadget shopping and can even be seen attempting a 'normal' teenage social life - with debatable success. Carpe Noctem!

===Fantasticalan===
Fantastic Alan takes absolutely no pride in the ridiclously non-modest nickname he was given once upon a time. Similarly, however, he doesn't attempt to stop its propagation (well, would you?). Hailing from God's own town of Hinckley, in God's own county of Leicestershire (OK, I'll stop there), he isn't yet thirty and might do karaoke if he's drunk enough. He doesn't like cushions.

===Frankie Roberto===
===Forg===
Forg comes from a small little village outside Loughborough in which he has just inhabited. Starting his first year of A levels and spends all of his life either at his wonderful girlfriends house, working or spending huge amount of times sitting here learning about the wonderful world of Perplex City. Being fairly new to the community he is just getting settled into the goings on however he's loving every minute and one day, we will find that cube! The rest of his wonderful life is spent eating sleeping and playing his guitar.

===GasparLewis===
===Gibbet===

The story of Gibbet stretches back over two centuries. In the year 1765 at the crossroads between Coventry and Kenilworth, three scoundrels were hung for murder on a freshly erected gibbet. Flash forward to the present day and this place has become part of the vibrant Warwick University campus. And in 2002, young David Hill enrolled as a fresher. It took a rugby drinking social to notice the connection between his surname and this famous section of campus. But since that day Gibbet he became. Some say that if you listen to him talk you can just about make out the screams for mercy from the condemned men hung there all those years ago. Others just say that he talks rubbish! On a lighter note, he enjoys racket sports, plays trombone and spends far too much time on the computer!

===Hituro===
Hituro is an electronic enigma, a personality created by an out of work web designer with too much time on his hands. When translated into the real world Hituro enjoys reading, writing, roleplaying, gaming and running large multi-player online games which take up entirely too much of his time!

===Josh Black===
===MagikGuy===
MagikGuy (Stefan Marseglia) falls under the Perplexian zodiac sign of "The Apple-Thief" and is currently studying A-Levels at his local Sixth Form in the areas of English Literature, French, General Studies, Information Communication Technology and Sociology. MagikGuy would like to aspire to become a Journalist when he is older and would like to study at Marmalejo College in Perplex City, the same place where Scarlett Kiteway is currently majoring in Journalism. MagikGuy has been a devoted member of the Perplex City phenomenon from early August 2005 and wishes to do his best in order to help out Perplexians by finding the whereabouts of The Receda Cube.

===Katie Goldblatt===
Katie Goldblatt is, at seven years old, one of our youngest participants in the cube retrieval scheme. This brown haired, green eyed young cube hunter goes to St Peter at Gowts in Lincoln and says her most treasured possession is a picture of Scarlett Kiteway that was sent to her by Sente's youngest daughter. Her interests include her baby sister Amy, playing and talking and learning about Perplex City. Her favourite computer games are the SSX series of snowboarding games and Sims 2.
Katie's mum & dad, Nikki Jenkins & James Goldblatt, have been known to join in with cube hunting too! They all play together online as Roxeth.

===MikeyJ===

MikeyJ, was born in Plymouth, UK and is slowly making his way northward. A seasoned porn star (under his full name Michael J Cox), he now intends to turn his hand (and other parts of his anatomy) to more literary pusuits. He hopes you prefer them.

===Mokey F. Rock===
Mokey belly dances and studies Japanese, which (sort of) accounts for her strange hybrid of the two cultures in her story. She believes in literature, the theatre, games, and all forms of healthy entertainment. When she isn't goofing off, Mokey writes and teaches English, which unfortunately does not mean she gets paid to talk about Shakespeare every waking moment -- just some of the time.

===number9dream===
Number9dream (aka Simon Douglas): fondness for flying kites, wearing ladies underwear and drinking espresso. That’s it.

===oliverkeers13===
oliverkeers13: Real name Oliver Keers. This young man started his life of crime early. His most recent, and arguably most infamous, illegal activity was at a recent Cube Hunting event in London, UK, Earth. He beat up several small children, and an elderly couple, in order to obtain exclusive cards. These were held by a secret illegal organisation, prompting much speculation as to his involvement with this organisation. Oliver refuses to comment on this matter.

===Ryan Andrew===
Ryan Andrew is 20 years old and from Manchester, England. He is currently studing Television Production and Design in London. He recently made The Sentinel when there was a small outcry asking for his public execution. A method involving "a corkscrew, a 9 volt battery, and a colony of fire ants" was asked for, but that bizarre, and frankly mentally unhinged request was denied due to Ryan being an (almost) upstanding member of the community.

===Sentinel===
===Specterz===
Erik Nusselder, aka specterz, is from the Netherlands. He is 21 years old, and studying law school. His hobbies are music and tennis.
Although quite new to the Cube Retrieval Team he has been diligently read up on everything, and hope to assist in finding the cube for the people of Perplex City.

===TheBozzball===

TheBozzball is a mathematician with a PhD from the University of Memphis, and is for a very short time working as a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge before going off to be a quantitative analyst in New York. When not doing mathematics/mind problems, he likes to direct, adapt and perform in theatrical adventures such as his five-man adaptation of Twelfth Night.

===The Unfiction Community===
''See colaborative story fFor this blurb''

===Watusi===
Watusi is a dance or an album by the Wedding Present or a Rwandan tribe, or a small person who got sucked into the whole Perplex City thing and appears to have entirely too much time on her hands.

===Zaeil===
Stacy Gray, aka Zaeil, can’t write a paragraph to save her life, let alone a story--but she’s been drawing since she was able to hold a pencil and hopes that a picture really is worth a thousand words.

===Sentinel===
Real name: Lee Horsley, 22 year old 'student' *Ahem.* Doesn't like writing about himself and so disguises it in a third person perspective; does like reading, astronomy, and basically anything that challenges my brain... I mean his brain =/

User:Sentinel

2005-12-04T22:00:19Z

Sentinel:

User:Sentinel

2005-12-04T21:58:08Z

Sentinel:

User: Sentinel 28-Nov-05, 2531 Words

Tales From Earth:Reality? Virtually!

2005-11-29T18:39:38Z

Sentinel:

Reality? Virtually!

Gaming, on Earth, is increasingly becoming a way of life. I don't mean sports, which have been around as long as man. I mean electronic gaming. Which although they have been around for over 30 years, with titles such as pong, have only recently started to 'take-off.' From flight simulators (please excuse the pun) to brain-bending strategy games. This is due to the advances in computer technology and the development of computer consoles. However the thing I find most interesting about this phenomenon is the ever blurring boundary between reality and gaming, or fantasy.
Just to further emphasise this point, it is stated that Japan describes electronic gaming as a national sport holding annual national tournaments, which involve 'games consoles' as I mentioned above.

Ever since the internet became widely available into people's homes, we have been using it to communicate on a global scale; often using an alter-ego, an 'online handle' living as a character which can be who, or whatever you want it to be. Unfortunately some people use this ability for unsavory activities, however I still have faith in mankind as I have taken many hours of pleasure from playing games which harness the power and opportunities of the internet.
There are 2 types of games that I feel blur the lines of reality, ARG's (Alternate Reality Games) where the players are submerged in the story by means of interaction with characters and real world events or advertisements; and the second type is affectionately known as MMORPG, or Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games.

Whether or not this cross-over is a good thing, is something for debate elsewhere. I am just here to give you my take on the phenomenon.
I have only recently been introduced into the world of ARG's and have been loving my experience. If nothing else, this is a great way to make friends and meet new people that you would have otherwise probably never met. Most people however, take much more from there experiences in ARG's as each one is different and there are so many different aspects to each Scenario. People of all ages, abilities, and origins can come together to 'solve' or 'explore' the events and characters involved, each using their own specific skills and talents. Racism and Prejudice can be forgotten about in the Alternate Reality world, either by way of people working together towards a common goal or by means of creating yourself an 'online handle' to hide anything you fear may be subject to prejudice. For example, I use a wheelchair and have done all my life due to a condition known as Spina Bifida, I do not hide this fact from people but in the world of ARG's I have the option to only reveal this information to those people whom I feel will not think any differently of me because of it, so that my ideas and input may be given the same respect as anyone elses. I am happy to say that everyone I have spoken to in the virtual world has been open-minded enough to accept people for whoever they are, and therefore I have enjoyed my experiences browsing forums, surfing websites, cracking codes found in newspapers and monitoring live chatter during live events to help my comrades in the quest to reach the goal of the ARG. I feel I should aknowledge that this almost disputes my original claim about the blurring of reality and gaming, however I feel that rather than dispute, it PROVES my point, in that sometimes it is possible for people to feel more comfortable in a virtual world rather than reality.
This has only been a short insight into the world of Alternate Reality Gaming, because as I said above, I have only recently been introduced to it. I would highly recommend this activity to anyone who likes to meet and chat to people, work as part of a team, and basically just have fun working through the various puzzles and challenges that the different scenarios pose, and I hope that some of you at least take a look at the world of ARG's as a result of reading this brief insight.
I would like to thank the moderators and members of WWW.UNFICTION.COM for taking me in and helping me out in understanding the goings on in the exciting virtual world, and making it a most enjoyable experience.

My main area of expertise in the field of online gaming is MMORPG's. I have been taking part in this activity for about 3 years now, starting with a game called Legend of Mir: The Three Heroes (from here-on in, referred to as LoM) [WWW.LEGENDOFMIR.NET]
There are 3 main types of MMORPG: Real Life, Sci-fi and Fantasy. LoM falls into the fantasy category and this is the first MMORPG I had heard of as it was recommended to me by a friend. There are 3 available characters classes to choose from: Warrior, Taoist, and Wizard. This is your first opportunity to choose who you want to be and how you want to play. LoM was one of the first generation of MMORPG's and is therefore one of the more basic examples of the genre. Each class of character has different attributes which you as the player can choose between to 'level-up' by adding or 'wearing' items. which can either be found or 'bought' in-game, using the LoM currency of gold. Items and even character's or 'game accounts' can even be bought using 'real-world' money, for example via WWW.EBAY.COM i.e. A Judgement Mace, which is a rare, heavy duty weapon for a Warrior (the class that I chose) in LoM currency would cost about 30 million gold pieces, has been known to sell for around £100 real world money on ebay. Just to put things in perspective, i've played on and off for around 3 years, playing 4 hours a day sometimes, and have amassed no more than 6 million including items, so you can imagine how much time and effort someone would have to put in to get some of the more valuable items. Or maybe you could just be a lucky begger and find the items. This cross-over, or merging between the virtual world of online gaming and the real-world trading, at first boggled my mind. I couldn't believe, or understand, why someone would be willing to part with so much real world money for something that didn't even exist, except in the virtual world. Until, that is I began to make money from this myself, selling items that I found in the world of LoM via real world methods. Unfortunately I was never lucky enough to find anything of exceptional value. On top of all this, there is a sociological aspect of LoM, in that you can join or form your own 'Guild.' A guild is a group of people (players) who all share a common interest in the game, or who have a similar playing style. Some guild's prefer to hunt certain areas, some to hunt certain prey, and some to mine for resources or trade/craft items etc. These are just a few of the activities which you can take part in in the world of LoM. Some guilds even are formed by people who share real-world interests and just spend time in the world of LoM discussing real-world events. There are players in LoM known as PKers, or Player Killers, who's sole pleasure whilst playing LoM is to kill the characters of other people. Death does not have a terminal effect on your character, you are resurrected at the nearest town by logging of and back on again. Although you are not permanently dead, you do require healing after death and there is the possibility of losing items which may have taken you a very long time to find or acquire enough gold to buy, so as you can imagine it is very frustrating when you encounter PKers, I suppose in a way, the virtual world's representation of murderers or muggers. For some people who take their participation in MMORPG's very seriously, this can manifest itself in the real-world at events such as Mir-stock, which is an event for players of LoM. If someone let's their identity be known, and someone recognises them as an in-game PKer, tensions may arise in the real world. Make of that, what you will.
Legend of Mir is a very good example of a simple MMORPG and I would recommend it to anyone just beginning to explore the world of MMORPG's.

My next foray into MMORPG's was Puzzle Pirates. In this example you are a pirate, and your first opportunity to individualise your online handle is the initial character creation, in the you can choose what clothes to adorn your character with and even style your hair or facial hair. This 'game'... (I use the term game lightly, because to a lot of people MMORPG's are so much more than that)...This 'game' is classified as Real-Life by WWW.MMORPG.COM and blurs the boundaries of reality more-so than LoM. Your pirate can look like whatever you choose, and do all manner of piratey things. To start with, the easiest activity to participate in is just working on already established ships, completing puzzles which are designed to represent, carpentry, operating the sails, loading the guns of the ships and manning the bilge pumps, all activities that would be required to be carried out on board a real pirate ship of days-gone-by. These are all individual activities, however as the captain of the ship you get the opportunity to 'Attack' other ships and plunder them for booty if you are victorious, this is also represented as a strategy puzzle, the actual gunfight between ships and then the ensuing sword fight between enemy crews. Here-in lies the interaction between characters. This is further developed on land, i.e. the many islands in the 'Emerald Sea.' characters can open their own shops to sell commodities such as cotton or wood etc. or offer services i.e. estate agents or tailors etc. and of course no pirate game would be complete without the taverns which can be player owned. All these shops require staff, who as players have to complete puzzles to represent the tasks done in each shop. This all leads to the creation of an in-game economy.
Ultimately the goal of the game is to own your own fleet of ships, these of course, first have to be built, which requires a ship-yard. Further opportunities for interaction and individualisation are created here, you can choose the type of ship you would like, what it will look like, what it will be called etc. Next you need a crew to man your fleet and head out to sea to plunder more booty for you to expand. The vast opportunity for interaction on opportunities to individualise your character and in-game experience make this a more life-like online experience.

Currently I am exploring the sci-fi world of Project Entropia (PE) [WWW.PROJECT-ENTROPIA.COM] This is the first 3D MMORPG I have taken part in and is also the most realistic. The in-game economy of Project Entropia Dollars PED, is tied directly with the real-world economy, with a ratio of $1 U.S. = 10PED. The scenario is based on another planet (ok just use your imagination) where humans have been evacuated too, as a newcomer you have to explore your surroundings and learn the customs. In order to survive in the virtual world, you have to first of all create your character, as with the previous examples. There is much more scope for individuality here where everything from height and weight down to eye and hair colour and style can be altered as desired. The ultimate choice is what sex your character is, just because you're a bloke in the real world doesn't mean you can't be a hot blonde in the virtual world. This is option is available to you in the other two examples I have written about but it is more relevant, I feel, in PE. Once you have created your character and explored your surroundings and in-game customs, you need to start 'earning' money so that you can continue your experience, there are several ways this can be achieved. For example, hunting and mining are the simplest and most popular, I chose to be a hunter. This can be further divided in to hunting with melee weapons or ranged weapons depending on your personal style. Once you have saved up enough money from your 'job' which as a hunter is not easy, you make money by selling animal hides to tailors or skulls to collectors etc, but it also costs money to repair your weapons and first aid pack which you need to take with you to repair damage caused by the animals. Mining gets you money by selling the resources but costs money to buy/repair tools. All this and more helps to create a very dynamic trading economy in-game. The reality of this game is enhanced further, by the ability to purchase your own home in game and decorate it however you wish and also dress however you wish. Competitions are held such as Miss entropia and boxing tournaments, all these activities mirror real-life in that you can get your own job, your own house and choose how you want your character to behave. This is the most technologically advanced of all the games I have played and also by far the closest to reality. The lines between reality and virtual reality are blown apart by this game in that, someone has purchased an island in the game with an equivalent real-world value of over £15000 pounds!!! and another player won an auction to own a spacestation which can be reached using in-game space-travel. The final value of which was £1,000,000 PED which roughly translates to $100,000 U.S.!!! Referring back to the relationship between the in-game and real world economies, money can be deposited onto your game account to enable you to purchase items etc. but it can also be withdrawn for a fee so that in theory a profit can be made by playing this game.

The latest development in MMORPG's is called Second Life [WWW.SECONDLIFE.COM]. I have not been able to experience this yet due to technical difficulties but have heard good things about it. It has been described as 'the real world, online' again with this, the economy is tied in to the real world economy and you can have your own home etc. but from what I understand you can do anything in-game that can be done in the real-world. this is the ultimate merging of realities and I hope to be able to experience it soon.

These are just a few examples out of thousands, of the ever increasing break-down of the boundaries between real-life and virtual-reality and it seems to me that as technology improves, the boundaries will increase more and more.

Are we heading towards a scenario not unlike The Matrix, where WE ARE the alternate reality???

Written by Lee Horsley. Online handles: Unfiction - Sentinel / LoM - Mirlord / Puzzle Pirates - Jaks / PE - Flame

Tales From Earth

2005-11-29T17:21:03Z

Sentinel: /* Index of articles */

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==Index of articles==

'''[[Tales From Earth:Ramblerhymes I and II]] - [[User:GasparLewis]] 29-NOV-05, 1000+ words'''
A free-form, semi-poignant tirade about nothing... in a good way.

'''[[Tales From Earth: The night]] - [[User:Specterz]] 29-NOV-05, 500 words'''
A little rant about nights on Earth.

'''[[Tales From Earth:Coffee Addiction]] - [[User:Coxtin]] 29-NOV-05, 1081 words'''
A NON_AUTOBIOGRAHPICAL story about a man who loves coffee.

'''[[Tales From Earth:peta]] - [[User:Coxtin]] 29-NOV-05, 1225 words'''
A story in which a monkey gives relationship advice which is unwelcome

'''[[Tales From Earth:Expidition]] - [[User:Forg]] 29-NOV-05, 1290 words'''
A description...

'''[[Tales From Earth:Reality? Virtually!]] - [[User:Sentinel]] 28-NOV-05 2581 words'''
A discussion of the ever blurring boundaries between reality and the world of gaming.