The game is afoot.
Everybody’s making fun of /pizza. Leno’s using it in his monologue (a welcome change from his usual Ovaltine-esque bits); CNN is on board; the news has even spread across the big puddle to the UK’s Register (took a while for that).
Today’s Google news search — 105 hits.
It’s such a goddamn goofy idea. Not well implemented, and so damn goofy, but it’s only the beginning of Online Games as Portals.
Old game hags may remember EverQuest’s Instant Messenger: Offline players could message other EQIM users who were either in game or out — there was even a Trillian plugin for EQIM. I’m not sure if other online games offered such a thing, but every game I’ve played after that, players have asked if similar offline chatting was available.
Sony originally was going to charge for EQIM, except for the premium server players, but backed off and offered it for free with no support. It really wasn’t slick enough to pay for, but we loved EQIM — it was almost invaluable for EverQuest guilds, considering the tight raid schedules and all.
Come to think of it … was a good way to duck out of raids that were a bitch. (Vex Thal immediately comes to mind here.)
Currently in beta, IGC or In-Game Chat. Details from their site:
It’s a chat program designed to allow you to log onto any network where all your friends from the different games you play are at, and you can communicate with them, just like any standard IRC network, only you can do it from within the game. This means you don’t have to tab out, log out, shut down or restart the game.
Supported games include: City of Heroes, Half-Life 2, Lineage 2, The Matrix Online, Star Wars: Galaxies and World of Warcraft. Hot damn! And more features planned!
I realize, of course, that I can tab out of game and do anything on the web that I want. But, I don’t want to tab out — that’s dangerous. If I tab back to a corpse run, I’m going to be mad as hell.
Games as portals. Think about it.
I can see it now…in game commercials, discounts and even spam in your game mailbox. How about camping the Uber Free Pizza coupon that drops once every 8 hours from a random mob? I can hear the Ninja Loot cries as we speak!
I further see games charging a premium for non-spammed and commercial free accounts.
Imagine the immersion of walking into a tavern in game and ordering a beer and then the doorbell rings with your delivery! Wouldn’t that be something! No /pizza! You walk up to a merchant right click on him and buy food just like you buy arrows. It charges whatever CC you use to pay your subscription with and BAM! BOOM! You got food/drink!
Still gotta afk for bio breaks and to answer the door but I am sure they are working on that as we speak!
Answering the door is for noobs. 🙂
Have you considered a future in marketing? heh, I know you were being facetious, but those ideas aren’t bad.
XFire (http://www.xfire.com) supports in-game messaging between any number of different games.
The downside is that you have to run Yet Another Client, but it seems to work pretty well.
Errr, isn’t it Anarchy Online that is already pimping RL ads to the new free accounts? I’d look it up, but I have a naked NE dancer callling my name on the other screen.
Ya, AO did this a long time ago, over a year? I remember seeing the billboards for Notum Wars and thought “ok, it’s only a matter of time”, and it was.. Unlike the other tards that might do adverts in-game though, AO did it with class, it wasn’t offensive, and just came off as “cool”.. There it was, a billboard display for Alienware computers.. Fit right in!!
Damn you AO for not upgrading your graphics last year while you were doing the Alien Invasion action.. Damn that game had/has some of the coolest environments.. The Shadowlands zones are freaking beauty, and as I created a new character to play there I thought, damn, *still* using these same low-poly faces?? Let’s meld CoH’s char-creation/detail, bubblechat and smoothness with AO’s concepts and world.. Huzzah!