Where is the super secret squirrel stuff?

[Kadagan]

just wondering

[Slink]

look in the tree

[Freeman]

Look for a guy named Tag in the market. He's got the real super-secret-squirrel stuff. You have to have the right items before he'll reveal it though.

[Tolero]

Still not here yet. You'll know it when you see it.

[Phineasj]

[Beherit_Baphomar]

Still not here yet. You'll know it when you see it.

Is it gonna be a live event?

Gawds, I hope not...

[smatt]

Or at least part of it.....

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features...17TDY13004.htm


The Yomiuri Shimbun
If you haven't yet digested the concept of massive, multiplayer online games, or MMOs, then watch out: James Crowley has announced the advent of what he calls MMO 2.0. And if you can't guess what that means, you probably weren't "born digital."
Crowley is the president of Turbine, Inc., which runs such MMOs as Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online. In an Oct. 10 speech at the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba, Crowley called MMOs the place where social networks, virtual worlds and conventional online games overlap. But he also said that MMOs would have to reinvent themselves to appeal to the new "born digital" generation.
Crowley called social networks, such as MySpace and Facebook, "the telephones of the 21st century" because they are accessible and easy to use. But, he said, they have "no real native hook to establish a broad community other than your own network of friends."
Virtual worlds, such as Second Life, are more interactive in that they rely on user-created content, but they lack unifying themes, he said. "There is a sense when one enters a virtual world...that, 'OK, I'm here, what do I do?'"
That question is not a problem with online games, such as Halo, The Sims and Grand Theft Auto. "You're grabbed by this thematic structure, and you have this entertainment experience that becomes incredibly directed," Crowley said, adding that such games have short life cycles and limited opportunity for community-building or user self-expression.
"Let's look at the traditional MMO [compared to the other online environments]. It's fully immersive, it's incredibly persistent, it's a themed experience. That thematic structure allows one to automatically establish a common community...It empowers users to participate in that world, and share in the creation of that experience," Crowley said.
But the traditional MMO needs to evolve to appeal to the born-digital generation, he argued.
People over 30 have had to learn to use digital tools, Crowley said, but those born from about 1995 onward "are different. They have not had to learn to operate this way; it is the only world they've ever known. These kids are joining social networks by the time they're 6, they're enjoying online games and online gameplay by that time."
"[A] fundamental change is that people are living their lives publically, but in a digital space," he said.
To facilitate sharing, Turbine is working on "a version of Facebook or MySpace that sits directly on top of our gaming worlds. This [will be] a fully featured, rich, robust social network...themed directly around the community."
The addition of a social network layer allows for monetization through advertising that is not "in conflict with the fundamental game world. By way of example, with Lord of the Rings Online, or World of Warcraft, it would be very difficult to insert a Coca-Cola bottle into that world as an advertisement. It would not make sense.
"But in the social network space, where a lot of communication will take place while people are not in the game," advertising is more natural, Crowley said.
Sharing tools that already exist in Lord of the Rings Online include blogs, a Wikipedia-style "Lorebook" and a Google Maps view of Middle Earth that allows users to share "how they moved from point A to point B."
There is also "an incredibly rich and robust music system...The fundamental reason is music is social by nature; it creates a social experience. And what that music system allows players to do is...literally compose music inside that world, to play music inside that world, to share that music with others, to perform that music with others."
"If you go do a search on YouTube for 'LOTRO music,' you would find thousands upon thousands of videos that the customers and players have made of themselves creating music and performing that music in-world. That is explicitly telling us that people want to share these experiences, and the game world where they have existed so far has not provided enough mechanics for them to share."
"The purpose to build this social ecosystem is because the born-digital generation wants to share," Crowley said.

[Tolero]

Is it gonna be a live event?

Gawds, I hope not...

Nope.