Is there ever such thing as finding a TRUE friend in an online game? You meet people, you befriend them, you game with them all day-everyday for months and sometimes years on end. You become close, as if you could read their minds, and you think they KNOW you by now, know how you are emotionally inside and out. But then one day you have a really really bad day, whether its at home or work or in game, but you have a bad day and many things come out, especially real life issues, and you snap. You do drastic things like 'quit the guild' or 'delete your character', etc. And then your "friends" blow up at you, get "angry" at you, saying things they shouldn't say. And all those months of "friendship" are gone in an instant. All because of miscommunication?

Is this how we perceive friendship in todays day and age of internet and wired relationships? Had someone "snapped" in real life, face to face, would we deliver the most hatred words and assume things that really are not true only because they are defined by the words you typed on the screen, yet never confronted in real life?

Is "friendship" really something you can find online or does a TRUE friendship need to be developed physically (not sexually) through hugs and face to face laughter?

Personally, I would have to say you can find a friend online, but never a complete TRUE friend until you are with each other in person, to share what life has to deliever in REAL LIFE, not just through a game, because even if you FEEL you know someone or they know you, you don't react certain ways in REAL LIFE as you would in a game when things happen. Why? Miscommunication.

I have yet to find a friend who has stuck by me in a game even if I am a fair game player or a loving person. I can go out of my way to do EVERYTHING I possibily can do to show I am a friend IN GAME (listening on ventrilo, sending ecards for emotional support, wishing birthday greetings, laughing and sharing stories, supporting someone, etc) and yet if I do something one day that seems odd, I am condemned, shunned, hated, and mistrusted. Things are said to me that, through all the months of gaming together and thinking you are friends, you think "how could my friends think I'm like that? Did they NOT know me??" Had it been a friendship in "REAL LIFE", a TRUE FRIEND would have called to ask if I was alright, stopped by to find out why I did what I did, and certainly TALKED TO ME! But no, in game friendships are easy to disban because there is always that internet distance that seperates us and it is too easy to walk away when things get bad and too easy to miscommunicate and not TRY to talk to the people you "love". It's too easy to say "keep in touch" and reroll a new character or move to a different game and change your email address and delete your Yahoo profiles. It's too easy to say "goodbye". To me, an online friendship can rarely be true because "friendship" is more than "assuming" you know the person, it is literally one big giant hug that can never be delivered through the wires.

Your thoughts?

As a professional marketing executive and girlgamer extraordinaire, I found that failed games were not uncommon in our competetive Internet-driven society. After several discussions on public marketing with both aspiring and veteran game developers, I found that many lacked sufficiant knowledge in the marketing aspects and left alot to be said to the publishers directly. Thus, games became dependent on publishers and much of a developers input was not enough to hold a profit. I took it upon myself to develop a short, yet rather useful guideline to assist new game developers with the preliminary stages of game development, that which should include the marketing aspects. Why do games fail and how does the creator prepare him/herself in preventing another dreaded statistic? Better yet, how does a developer recover from a failed effort? [Read my documentation] and then post your thoughts as a gamer or a developer yourself.

Technology is my work and my hobby. I enjoy anything that has to do with technology, Internet, Gamez, and Gadgets. The Wired World is always growing and tossing out new and intellectually stimulating ware for the human brain to absorb beyond its limitation. It's amazing and it will never get old or boring or tiring. So, I thought I'd share with you how I get those awesome screenshots, those quick PvP kills, and more:

Cleo-SLI
This is my computer gaming system.

• MEMBER: SLI-10569 digitaldiva73 
• CPU: AMD 64x 2.813 GHz 
• MEMORY: 4.047 GB 
• MOTHERBOARDS: ASUSTeK Computer INC. M2N32-SLI DELUXE
  
• DUAL NVIDIA GPUs: 4 NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 with SLI 
• SOUND: Creative Labs X-Fi Pro SoundCard 
• HARD DRIVE(s): 277.0 GB, 37.3 GB 

She comes complete with SATA-Raid Vault of 1000gb of storage and Dell 30' flatscreen monitor! Everything a girlgam3r needs!

Share your stats with us!

Recently I trialed the Lord of the Rings Online Stress Test and I have to say that the graphics are wonderful and brilliantly put together for a fantastic storyline, but I'm a PvP fanatic and with the lack of such luster, it won't attract as much audience as the bigger MMORPGs like Warhammer Online or World of Warcraft. However, for the casual PvE'r, it is an astonishing game.

Below are a few Screenshots I took while playing:

A short clip of my 5yr old playing World of Warcraft. Nothing big, daddy and I are just proud of our little gamer.

This video was on the Features Gamespot edition and had many many views, but I removed it since the comments were a deterrent from the main point. Some of the younger kids made some very rude, inconsiderate and mean comments about my son and my parenting skills. They were hurtful and heartless and as much as I tried to explain kindly to their postings, I found it was useless as they would never understand until they became parents themselves, therefore I removed the video to only allow respectable people to view it.

[video=I3M0nzP85bkLuTPW]

I was scanning a few forums this morning about gaming and came across an old article about Sony Online Entertainment's news (now older news) regarding their Station Exchange. Some people were furious, others were rather relieved a more secure way of virtual character, money, and items could be bought, sold, or exchanged online. All in all the conflict lies in allowing virtual content to be bought and sold for a profit over a simple virtual game. I found alot of interesting opinions, but only one opinion left me with an even wider view to virtual money and securing my opinion about it.

you all are hypocrits (4:26pm EST Fri Apr 22 2005) what are you all **** about? what other things? (are suppose to be more important) what better things to spend your money on? is buying magic: the gathering cards for 300$ better? how about buying the latest video card for 600$? it's just for a game, so what's the point? how about buying a famous painting for a $1,000,000? nothing real about that so why spend the money? a game like everquest is as real as any computer game, as any hobby, as any form of art. it's here and it's gonna stay. real ppl play it (not me though, yuck, what do you think i am?) so lighten up. unless you guys are donating half your money to starving children in uganda or what ever i don't suppose you do anything more "real" with your money - by in perspective

The above statement made me think about the topic in a more broader perspective. I applaud the poster for his thoughts and for putting the words down in writing that I could not speak. I buy virtual items and money, and do you know what I do with it? I buy gifts in game for friends, things they have wanted for a while or I help a guildie level up their crafting, or I share it. I do it because in REALITY those friends online ARE my friends in real life. It is MY money. My husband is military and he does too. You are going to tell me that my husband, who serves his country and spends months away from family and saves deployment money up while he is gone, CANNOT come back to his country after risking his life for YOU to have the freedom to discuss this topic, and spend his money on what he wants? Albiet virtual gaming items that will help him catch up to his friends who DIDN'T get deployed or a new car so we can take a family vacation?

I agree with the poster that Hollywood celebrities can take their million dollar a month paychecks and buy glamours paintings and PAIRS OF SHOES for half a million dollars just because Marilyn Monroe wore them on a trip to Australia 60 years ago yet others sit here and argue that someone shouldn't be able to buy virtual currency or items or characters for whatever price they deem appropriate within their budget? Its different sides of the same coin people ... whether someone is a celebrity or a middle class working person, they are both spending their money on HOBBIES, INTERESTS, ENTERTAINMENT! I believe that if that is what people want to do, YOU HAVE NO SAY in what they spend THEIR money on unless you're a spouse or parent of the said spender (but that is a different issue all together). If you don't agree with it, FINE, simply move on, but don't flame others who do it

There are larger conflicts in the world and people have to argue about this? And all the responses in the posts with STFU or degrading comments to other posters who have legitimate opinons are simply 15yr old kids who are angry because they can't get mommy or daddy to cough up the dough and buy them that 1000 gold for $100.

Your Thoughts? Share them with me!

So there was an issue the other day on the WoW forums about some guy whose wife got upset in game about something someone did to her, etc ... and he wanted to find out what happened. People began to write in and some people stated that they thought if she was so upset about this then she needed to 'Get a life' ... I was beside myself and rather pissed off ... so here is the response I wrote:

I just want to stress to those people who claim his wife needed to 'get a life' if shes upset about a video game ...

I'm a military wife and mother of a 2, 3 & 5 yr old. My husband is in Iraq 6-7 months at a time and I am with my children 24/7 365 days a year. I cannot work because childcare is $1300/month and with my husband gone so much it would be even more so of a drain and mental stress on me as it is. I have no family close by and it is hard for me to get out and "meet people" as I'm not dragging my 3 toddlers with me to a gym or a cafe shop or a club ... so how do I spend my free time? ONLINE! In games like this! I get to meet people, I get to talk to people, I get to MAKE FRIENDS (esp other military wives who are in the same situation), I get to keep in touch with family, and I get to game with my husband when he is away. So ... THIS IS MY LIFE ... and I have no regrets because it doesnt change who I am ... I'm still a good mother, a good wife, a good friend ... so when something in a game like this happens, such as a friend screwing me over or people talking about me or someone ripping me off, you better believe I take it to heart because like I said, it doesnt change who I am and if it hurt me offline, then why would it not hurt me online?

I don't think Cherry or whomever his wife is should be condemned for feeling hurt or overly upset about something over someone or somethign that happened online to her because most of us don't change and CANNOT change our feelings about issues whether they are wired or said in your face. If you get pissed off about being ganked, then does that not have similarity to her being emotionally upset about something? Maybe then you should 'get a life'.

All in all, whatever happened to your wife, I sympethize because all my friends and everyone in my guild is someone I turn to when I have nobody else there. They have saved my life at times since I have NOBODY near me when my husband is gone and raising 3 toddlers is VERY VERY stressful 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ALONE!

So if you think she should GET A LIFE, then I seriously think you should GROW UP! Life is different in this century, its not about getting a life because beign online and in games like this is a part of our lives now, we can't avoid it, we can't stop it, and you sure as hell knwo you don't want to live without the internet world. So THIS IS YOUR LIFE AND MINE!


What do you think? Do people take these games too seriously or do our emotions justify themselves since our lives revolve around the internet now for the most part? Your thoughts?