На иллюстрации представлена чудо гномьей инженерии Stonewrought Dam в местности Loch Modan мира WoW. У игровок появилось новое хобби - base jumping... Внизу ждет смерть, но во время полета можно сдлеать несколько скриншотов или снять видео...
Аналоничная забава была ранее замечена в другой MMORPG - Asheron's Call 2, cliff-diving was so popular that we actually put a diving board on a high peak overlooking the ocean and held Best Diving Death competitions.
The activity is shaped by the game. For example, in Air Warrior back in '88 to '92, we used to have competitions to see who could fly under the bridges at the highest speed, recording it all in the gun camera for verification. When that became relatively easy, we added complexity by requiring players to fly inverted under a bridge at top speed. And when that became boring, we abandoned the planes for Jeep races, then full contact Jeep races with .50 caliber machine guns and a gunner, and then Flakpanzers with only 5% of a tank of gas and a half-load of ammo...
In MUD1, you could jump off a cliff and, if you had an open umbrella (or parasol) float serenely to the beach a few seconds later (rather than plummeting to your death pretty well immediately). There are some other examples of jumps in MUD2, too, but I don't think any of them correspond directly to the emotional reaction you get from jumping in a graphical world. That's not to say you couldn't get it if you programmed it right, but a player would have to be very immersed to get such an effect. The thing is, base jumping involves a continuously-changing description, which works in a 3D environment but is difficult to sustain in a contiguous world (which is what textual worlds almost invariably are). You can tell someone they're falling, and in their imagination they will be, but that's not necessarily going to be as intense as in the graphical case where you're tricking the senses into sending warnings of impending doom to the mind. I get motion sickness in some graphical games, but I don't in textual ones.
The fact that this is one of those oft-talked about emergent, player-based activities didn't surprise me much. I'm used to that. (Though I do wonder how emergent in this case--Thousand Needles seems like it was designed for base jumping). In Second Life, btw, there is also a skydiving operation. The thing that struck me about base-jumping was more of a formal game studies observation. Roger Caillois divided games into four types: agon, alea, mimicry, and ilinx. It strikes me that jumping is a very ilinx kind of play -- one that has, as its central pleasure, a feeling of movement/dizziness/intoxication/vertigo. Once you jump, there really isn't much to do but enjoy it.
For some reason, I hadn't concentrated on this ilinx aspect of MMORPGs much -- I associated ilinx with more physical activities (like *real* base jumping). But after thinking about it a bit, I suppose there's a long history of ilinx in video games. Jess's description of the bridge stunts in Air Warrior were, at least in part, about the thrill of sheer speed. And the rush of movement is certainly the most prominent feature in the popular genre of racing games... Burnout (например)
Аналогично только более зрелищно - специальные моды для UT2004 и Battlefield которые немного изменяют физику и возможности игроков и их средств передвижения - в результате полеты на джипах и трюки которые просто сложно себе представить - лучше смотреть видео
http://www.stunthq.com/
А это для любителей готики и всего такого...
Suicide Solution is DVD documentation collected over the last year of committing suicide in over 50 first and third person shooter games. The title is a reference to the 1981 song of the same name by Ozzie Osbourne that was blamed for the suicide of an American teenager in 1984. Through the angst ridden logic of teen existentialism, the work offers a repetitive meditation on the act of taking one's own life in a contemporary culture intertwined with interactive screen based entertainment.
http://www.tmpspace.com/suicides.html
Гонки на выживание в World of Warcraft
Марафон через весь континент первойровневыми персонажами, умирающими от одного удара сильных монстров... победитель получает 100 золотых (аккурат хватит на покупку виртуальной лошади...). Подобные мероприятия проводятся и в других MMORPG
Используя команду /roll - генератор случайных чисел встроенный в WoW заскучавшие игроки могут поиграть на деньги в аналог трясучки...
Спидраннеры (speed runs) - игроки поставившие себе цель пройти игру за минмально возможное время
http://speeddemosarchive.com/rules.html - существуют соревнования и формализованные правила
http://speeddemosarchive.com/gamelist/FullList.html - внушительный список игр где такие соревнования проводятся
http://www.archive.org/details/speed_runs - архив записей скоростного прохождения
В качестве примера
Diablo (PC) - 0:53:13 - David Gibbons (2005) http://www.archive.org/details/Diablo_5313
This is by far the most random game I've ever attempted to speed run. Similar to my Diablo 2 run, I simply played ahead and saved the character files so I had perfect knowledge. I had lucky map layouts, good quests, and good monster combinations overall. The good thing about this method is that in single player Diablo's drop system will give the same items from the same monsters, chests, and book shelves every single time. Thus, I simply skip every floor unless I need to grab some important items (minus some much needed leveling in the beginning, but it's better to level as late as possible because you obviously get more experience points the tougher the enemies).
Иногда сами разработчики создают в игре миниигры типа отличного от соновного игрового процесса... один из ярких примеров карточная игра Arcomage в которую можно было поиграть в тавернах ролевой игры Might and Magic
Arcomage is a Minigame included in two installments of the Might and Magic series of fantasy role-playing games. It is included in both Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor and Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer. 3D0 also released it as a stand-alone game in 2000. In the stand-alone version a single player could play against a computer opponent or two players could play via a LAN or TCP/IP connection. Arcomage is a computer based card game which takes on many of the themes of the game in which it is set. Arcomage is an actual part of the story of the game - in that charcters may enter a tavern and play for money. In both games, there is a quest to win a game of arcomage in every tavern in the land.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcomage
В MMORPG EverQuest присуствует тетрисоподобная игра Gems - которая призвана скарсить жизнь игрока томящегося в ожидании партии или возраждения монстра... Аналогичная игра в виде специального аддона появилась и в WOW http://ui.worldofwar.net/ui.php?id=1078
