I remember an earlier thread about women and gaming where there.com and second life were mentioned. I signed up for the there.com beta about at that time (2 months ago?) and finally got to try it for the first time yesterday.

wow. Now there's a case of someone taking millions of dollars and thowing it at something really cool.

I've never had a more positive experience with a multiplayer game. (I've also never played Everquest)

people have been saying MMORPGs are the future of gaming. Everybody wants to do one.

But I think online communities that are more focused on people having natural and positve interactions are a great platform to create games from. "There" is a lot like an operating system or a platform. And a damn fun one to be in.


Anyhow, it's reminded me how I want to make games more about connecting with people than about escaping reality...

I never got to play the There.com beta because they had some ridiculously stupid artificial barriers to entry for me... namely, the installer INSISTED that I had to upgrade my video drivers before I could play (ie, it wouldn't even let me TRY)... and number two, it also insisted that I set my default browser to be Internet Explorer (I use Opera by the way). I can *almost* forgive the first one, but the second is just so fantastically stupid I have to wonder what on earth the developers and program managers are thinking. Maybe only 5% of people on a PC don't use IE as their default browser, but BAM! there is an instant five percent of people that are NEVER going to play your game, for no reason whatsoever. Occassionally there is something I need IE for... something that just won't work right with Opera... so I have no qualms about starting it up and using it if I need to. I have never come across any software (ActiveX, Java applet, whatever) that didn't work because IE wasn't my default choice.

Remember people... just say NO to artificial barriers to entry. :) Let this be a lesson for all of us.