Bonus points for the nonsensical “I got laid on laid” part which is probably some sort of automated spam. There wasn’t any link with the comment, but maybe that comes later, pardon the pun.

Will existing dating sites add virtual worlds?
After chuckling I started to think about people who seriously use MMO environments as the 2008 version of dating sites. I started to wonder why established dating sites like match.com don’t have virtual worlds? Or do some of them? Looking around match.com and eharmony.com I didn’t see any sort of virtual world option.

There are a few dating-oriented adult MMOs like Naughty America that I wrote about a year ago, but to date I’m unaware of any mainstream popular dating site adding a virtual world feature. Have you heard of any?

A bit dated now, but still very funny. And while we’re talking humor, just received a funny Runescape rage comment. Close your eyes if you don’t like the F word in the following screenshot:

Sorry to say, this comment has not get approved. Probably should have for comedic value alone.

Yesterday in the post Court Ruling & Should We? I wrote:

“Cyberspace” what is it? What should it be?

“Cyberspace” is not inside your computer, nor the computer of people you are interacting with. Is it really inside a server somewhere in between? Or is that server simply a device which allows us to enter into “Cyberspace” as would be some space ship which would allow our us to reach distant solar system?

“Cyberspace” is a truly a place, some say it is not exactly real (which can be neither proved nor disproved) that is really a destination. As much a destination as an alternative dimension, or another planet in outer space. This place is an earnest and serious place where millions of us enter and leave it everyday.

Some give “Cyberspace” considerable thought, write about it, negotiate over international implications, or regulate it. regulate it… regulate it… regulate it… regulate it… regulate it… regulate it…

Should “Cyberspace” be regulated by any government body? Would they also regulate inhabitants of some distant planet revolving around some distant star? Maybe the question should be … Would we put up with government’s from some inhabited planet to regulate Earth?

How much right do we as a community of humans really have trying to control regulate force our ideas onto any alternate universe, dimension, country, or state?

click me for larger picture,

Today, thanks to fellow author TD Goodliffe’s post “Daniel Linden’s haunting words about SL at Standford Humanities Lab” pointing to the Washington Post article Does Virtual Reality need a Sheriff?, I find a quote by Philip Rosedale:

In the ideal case, the people who are in Second Life should think of themselves as citizens of this new place and not citizens of their countries.

“Rosedale said he hopes participants in Second Life eventually develop their own virtual legal code and justice system” stated the Washington Post.

These quotes leave me believing that Rosedale, Kapor, and I aren’t to far off on the basic idea of virtual laws. I have no idea how Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon), Pierre Omidyar (founder of Ebay) think along these lines of “freedom” in cyberspace, but I know for a fact that I am a “Libertarian.”

To me “Libertarian” means, in its fundamental form, I believe each person should have the right to do anything they want to do; as long as doing so does not interfere with anyone else’s rights. (I know this is over simplistic on the surface) Yes, I know that the uproar right now is over “age play,” but I also realize that once any form of “rights” is given up… it never seems to stop. Today it is “age play” tomorrow it could be something in which you or I participate.

The thing about true freedom is: if you want it, you have to fight for things you may not personally believe, but might set standards which will lead to the removal of rights you do believe in. Again the string which connects rights are tied together, and once one falls — another is tugged upon putting it in peril.

Rosedale’s statement, “I hope participants in Second Life eventually develop their own virtual legal code and justice system,” needs careful consideration and thought before being acted upon. Yet, shouldn’t an alternate world have the right to govern itself?

Resident’s of Second Life are residents of an alternate world, and are citizens from around the globe. No country’s governments should be able to set its own form of standards upon a global community. That should be left to the global community!

Could and should an “Avatar Bill of Rights” and a “Constitution” be established for cyberspace?

Holidays are always a fun time in the game, runescape. They just started their Easter event and will be running it for two weeks. The only other holiday event that I tried was during Christmas time and I got some antlers plus a Christmas tree for members. The holiday events can be done by a member or a free player but sometimes they will have a special item for members. The makers of this game like to have fun with these events and they do a good job making it silly and fun for the players.

I started out in Falador and went south to find the easter bunny. He was waiting in front of this hole so I started to talk with him. He had this strange idea that he could deliver all his chocolate bunny candies by animating them. I guess so the candies could walk to the children. Crazy ideas have crazy consequences. The person he asked to make these chocolate bunnies made chocolate kebbits instead! No child wants a chocolate kebbit to eat.

So it is now my job to help him out by collecting 10 kebbits and placing them in a chute. Once I did that I entered a door where I would need to get some colored eggs. This is where the strange part happened if it wasn’t strange already. I had to bowl with these eggs and hope to hit one of the chocolate kebbits walking around. If I hit one they turn into chocolate dust. Had to get 10 chocolate dust and take it back to the Easter bunny. He was very pleased and gave me a chicken leg and feet costume for helping out.

But it wasn’t over because I was given a magical egg so I can turn into a bunny. I needed to be a bunny to fit in a smaller hole where I could find a needed item. I got to a place with a lot of holes and had to try each one until I found the right one. The holes took me up to a farm where the farmer wasn’t pleased to see a bunny. Once I found the right hole and took back the item to the Easter bunny he gave me a chicken head and wings costume. Now I have a complete chicken costume and I can hop around with a new action button on the emote list. Weird and wacky but this was fun and entertaining before I had to go kill more monsters. Work is never done in runescape even on holidays!

The Quest Part 1

Click for The Quest Part 2

I found some which were made in Runescape. The graphics aren’t as good as the other platforms but some good story lines have been made. I personally like the movies with music and voices rather than trying to read the words. You can also see other movies from other platforms at machinima.com.

More Runescape Machinima:

• Lydia- Quest of Love Act 1
• Lydia- Quest of Love Act 2
• Mr. Roboto Music Video in Runescape

Runescape is a MMORPG game on the Internet using java code. No program to download or install. Should work in any browser including firefox and opera. My first RPG game that I played with others was tele-arena on a local Bulletin Board Service in the 80’s and 90’s but was only text based. Runescape reminds me of that game but bigger, better and with graphics. I found the game when it first started but the graphics didn’t look as good as I wanted. 2 years ago my nephew was talking about this new game he was playing and showed me the improved version of runescape. Much better graphics and animation but nothing compared to WOW or Second Life. For me that is good because I can do other things while I play. The graphics could be compared to a game called Diablo.

This is outside Lumbridge Castle in Runescape

The game is free to play for everyone and does have a member section which costs $5/month. I’ve played the game for more than a year as a free member and had a lot of fun. There are three main ways of killing other players and monsters. Using a sword (melee), bow and arrow (archer) or magic (mage). There are quests to accomplish and skills to train. It’s not all about killing monsters because you can train in cooking, fishing, crafting and mining. Every skill can be trained to get better stuff which can be sold to other players who need it to go on quests, kill monsters or other players. This is the big part of why I stayed playing in this game. If I get bored doing one thing there are more things to do.

Warning before you enter the Wilderness!

There is one section called the wilderness where players can kill each other. When a player dies they will lose everything they have on or carrying except the 3 most valuable items. Lot of players get gold pieces, armour and weapons from killing other players. Some will train only one of their skills like magic so they can be strong in magic at a lower level. These people are called pures. There are different levels with rules in the wilderness. Level 1 wilderness would allow players to attack other players 1 combat level above or below themselves. Level 13 wilderness would allow players to attack other players 13 levels above or below themselves and so on. This is the reason why people who pk choose to be pure so they can look weak but have hidden strong combat, archer or magic levels.

When someone kills another player they get a skull over their head to warn others as seen in the picture below. If a person with a skull gets killed they will lose everything they are carrying and wearing! One of those risks you have when pking. The good thing is that none of the quests require you to go into the wilderness. I love going on the quests and training my skills mainly.

Person Killing or Pking in Runescape

As a free member you get access to a smaller world and able to do more than half of the skills available. Some of the good skills are for members only like Agility which allows you to run faster and longer, Fletching to make bows and arrows and construction to make your own house. I spent over a year as a free member and got my character to a level 60. I am now a member for 2 months which I will talk about in another post. Free players can go on over 15 quests which can be easy or very hard.

Some fun things to do in Runescape

There are over 100 worlds to log into and the max amount of players for each world is 2000. Paying members have different worlds to log into which are less busy. When I was playing on a free world it got very frustrating mining the same rocks as other players, trying to find a good place to kill monsters or being followed and asked simple questions found on the website. I am proud getting to level 60 without having to be a member. Took a long time and frustration but it can be done. A free player gets very little space in their banks compared to a paying player. Free worlds do not have mini-games where group of people can play a small game inside the bigger game. Some of these mini games are not dangerous to your character. So if you die in a mini-game you won’t lose anything.

Fighting creatures in Runescape

If you’re looking for a game to play with other people and won’t take over your computer then this is a good game to at least try! If you like it and want to be a member it only costs $5 a month and if you cancel you can still play the game but without the membership benefits of course. This is a big benefit to me compared to some other Pay to Play games. I could cancel my membership and still have fun training and chatting with others in the free world. You can also place a person on the friends list which will allow you to message them in any world! You can also see what world your friend is playing in so you can join them.

Runescape Related Websites with walkthroughs, tips and help:

• Runescape main Page – Only place to play Runescape!
• Sal’s Realm of Runescape – In my opinion the best for quest help!
• Rune Tips for Runescape – Well designed and easy to use site with plenty of help!
• Global Runescape – Another great place for quest help and monster database!
• Rune Headquarters – Great place with a lot of good info and tips!
• Runescape Wiki – everything you always wanted to know about runescape in a wiki of it’s own!
• Wikipedia Page on Runescape – More runescape stuff from wikipedia
• Youtube Video showing a kill of a very hard monster in the members world
• Youtube video showing pking from a pker view