I dinked with Spore a little bit. I like it, but it's sort of a Massively Solitaire Online Game. I think Little Big Planet may be the same; there's another group at work looking at LBG and I have just been dropping their correspondence into a folder for later reading.

So here's a scary story. My DH has a friend from high school, who is a long-time gamer, as is her husband. They live in Utah and are Mormon, but I'm not sure if that's relevant or not. They have two kids, ages 7 and 12, who are perfectly lovely kids and grew up with gamer parents.

Their gaming group is mostly composed of people with kids, all in that same age range. One of the guys in the gaming group just got divorced. His wife got custody.

And is suing to deny him visitation rights because he games.

Seriously. The records she filed with the court say that the gamers are at best neglectful and at worst abusive parents who ignore their children, and the kids cry themselves to sleep at night.

What she said off the record was "freaking weirdos."

So if the court finds that being a gamer makes this guy unfit to have his kids visit, it's possible that the enitre gaming group will be judged unfit parents. Social Services has indicated that they may attend a gaming session to see how abusive/neglectful the environment is. If the court finds that gamers=unfit, then they'll have to stop gaming to keep their kids.

The implications are a little staggering. I can't imagine that the court would find in this woman's favor, but courts do weird things and the fact that it's in Utah and I believe all the gamers in question are Mormon might be a factor.

The case is moving slowly, but I am waiting to see if these friends will lose their right to game.

the fact that it's in Utah and I believe all the gamers in question are Mormon might be a factor.

It can be a factor, but a previous president of the Mormon Church made a formal statement that D&D was a waste of time but not more harmful than anything else that wastes time.

Let me look for a cite.

OK, not finding the official, but I've heard it many times.

Also, Mike Stackpole has been quietly been part of GAMA's Industry Watch Committee since the late 80s, sometimes the sole member, helping to counteract 'D&D players are demon worshipers' and other forms of bad press.

I would consider D&D players being unfit parents would qualify as bad press.

I can give you his IWC email, or try contacting him myself. We've talked a few times...

I know that the Mormon Church hasn't spoken against D&D or said it was devil worship or anything, so hopefully that will allow cooler heads to prevail.

Thanks, CaBil. I will wait to contact him until either the case goes forward or the press picks it up.

anyone play Anarchy online? I just got started , I've never been a gamer or played WoW or anything but it's fun so far.

Shooting nad looting, which is different from the fashion and freebie hunting I do in SL (although I guess the looting is similiar).

I keep wanting to say "It's like shooint swamp rats back home" every time I kill a little critter. So far Ive only bugged my Internet Boyfriend with that line once.

I can die happy now.

I spent Friday at a demonstration I'd arranged for folks at work. They wanted to experience some virtual worlds, because it's hard to explain them without living them.

We spent the afternoon in WoW. I got to hear some middle-aged mid-level professionals earnestly asking other middle-aged mid-level professionals things like "So, is it always the same number of experience points to level up to the next level?" and "will a higher-level character always kill a lower-level character?" and "Do quests vary based on gender as well as race and class?" because it's important for their jobs.

Two things that brought my brain up short; the n00bs were unclear on which avatars were being run by people and which were computer-run (PCs vs. NPCs). That's something I take for granted but apparently it's confusing from the outside.

Also, during the demo a guildmate of one of the presenters stopped by to chat and they talked about some in-world stuff, then she said she couldn't hang around because she had to go pick up her kids. The n00bs were like "You can have kids in this game?" They were slightly left behind by the context-based communication; something they do without thinking about IRL.

Anyway, it was really a cool day, and made up for the fact that our Rock Band drums broke.

I got to hear some middle-aged mid-level professionals earnestly asking other middle-aged mid-level professionals things like "So, is it always the same number of experience points to level up to the next level?" and "will a higher-level character always kill a lower-level character?" and "Do quests vary based on gender as well as race and class?" because it's important for their jobs.

Awesome!

The n00bs were like "You can have kids in this game?"

Better! I love those moments of watching people's perceptions and expectations suddenly jump a step or two sideways.

The PC/NPC thing is really interesting to me. I've never played WoW, so I don't know how clear the distinction is in the particular game, but it seems like there's also a more general strangeness of dealing with a mix of people and not-people -- much less straightforward than either single-player or everyone's-a-person worlds, wouldn't you say?

Rock Band drums broke.

They haven't come out with a Mal-proof set yet, huh?

it's ok for me to be insanely jealous of Raq right now, isn't it?

Gods, I hope so.

They haven't come out with a Mal-proof set yet, huh?

While Mal has gotten much better, esp. with the new "no-fail" and "freeform" settings on RB2, we can all blame my DH, our drummer, for killing the original drums.

The PC/NPC thing is interesting to me too, esp. since one of the gamer guys said that he thought Blizzard folks could "inhabit" any of the NPCs in WoW if they wanted, at least the level bosses. I don't know whether that's true or not, but I wonder how long it would take an observer to tell. And I wonder if a possessed NPC could leave their prescribed area.

I was thinking that I might host an offsite where we play pen-and-paper D&D, as I think watching the game mechanics happen in meatspace might be more clear for the folks. Since, as much as it totally should, my company does not have a gaming room.