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AlisonW

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Not playing at politics

2020-01-13 18:42:41 - by alisonw Meta Gaming

Way back in June 2008 I headed off to Iceland to meet with the developers at CCP, authors of the EVE-Online MMORPG. A couple of months previously I was elected to the 'Council of Stellar Management' they had set up as a player-elected group to liase with the devs in creating new content.

Given there were 66 candidates from all over the world, I was rather chuffed indeed to be one of the nine elected, especially as unlike most of the other successful candidates I didn't have a guaranteed body of supporters from being part of a large player alliance. Probably the most successful election I've stood in therefore!

For such an unusual event the New York Times sent a reporter to cover the five-day meeting. Seth Schiesel's article (with a terrible picture of me) can be read at

www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/arts/television/28eve.html

Iceland

2008-11-12 12:00:00 - by alisonw Personal Gaming Travel

Flew up to Reykjavik last Wednesday for the Eve online Fanfest event. Mostly great fun with lots of news about upcoming changes to the game along with discussions about what direction it should take in the future. I was also on one of the panels, which was enjoyable too. being the report-back session of the Council of Stellar Management.

Didn't like Iceland in Winter though. Going down to breakfast at nine am and then seeing the dawn start to turn the view through the windows turn from pitch black to dull grey – and then the afternoon turn back to black around 3pm – is not my idea of a good climate. I like sunshine every day, indeed it was one of the reasons I really liked flying all around Europe daily in the late 90s – at 30,000ft you are guaranteed to get sunshine (except at night, obviously!)

Leaving Life

2008-10-17 23:40:00 - by alisonw Personal Gaming

Second Life, that is. I joined the artificial world that is 'SL' a few years ago, eventually buying quite a lot of virtual 'land' and building a beautiful home by a waterfall along with shopping malls, nightclubs and even an office for my 'real life' company, but now I've cashed out.

Why? Because, eventually, it becomes more expensive that 'first life'. A monthly fee for the land rental which wasn't too far off the monthly council tax (UK land tax) and whereas when I'm walking down a real street or across the real Hampstead Heath I don't suddenly disappear in SL the technology doesn't always keep up with the ideal, so sudden loss of connection ('disconnects') or suddenly finding yourself mov-i-n-g a-t a q–a–r–t–e–r speed ('lag') meant that the enjoyment factor, so necessary for any online experience, was slowly disappearing. Going 'in world' became more of a chore than a happy pastime.

So in the last month, as I was approaching my annual account renewal at the end of this month, a started knocking down my buildings and selling off my unreal real estate, transferring the cash generated (called 'linden dollars') into real money in the bank.

Over the three years I met some interesting people and worked in-world with them on various projects. Fun times, yes, but now ultimately unrewarding and a money pit.

My spaceship is docked

2008-10-04 16:30:00 - by alisonw Personal Gaming Travel

About four months ago I was elected to the 'Council of Stellar Management ' in the Eve Online MMORPG.

In the summer this meant a four-day trip to Iceland to meet with the folks at CCP who develop the product.

Symbol of the Matari peoples Today is time for the second meeting (the New York Times wrote about the first one ), but this time it is taking place via an in-game chat room with 'our side' sitting at keyboard in their homes in the UK, Denmark, The Netherlands, Eastern Europe and Australia. At some point the USA will be added to that. On the CCP management side they are also mostly at home, but in Reykjavik! And so far, so smoothly (but so slowly too!)

Of course, because we aren't face-to-face during the meeting I can run that on one machine while continuing to write and test new code on another... and drink coffee... and listen to music... ;-P

In brief …