Advertise here with Carbon Ads

This site is made possible by member support. โค๏ธ

Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.

When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!

kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.

๐Ÿ”  ๐Ÿ’€  ๐Ÿ“ธ  ๐Ÿ˜ญ  ๐Ÿ•ณ๏ธ  ๐Ÿค   ๐ŸŽฌ  ๐Ÿฅ”

kottke.org posts about MMORPG

The end of The Matrix

Usually MMO games that reach the end of their usefulness are ungracefully shut down. The Matrix Online has cleverly built the closing of the game into the narrative of the world.

Ashes to ashes, decompiling sky to deletion. The Matrix Online is reminding us all that it’s slowing coming undone as the system becomes more and more unstable with each passing day. Ashes raining from the sky, eyes being seen in the clouds, zombies, agents, angels, and demons all appearing out of the system’s corruption to wreak havoc across the Mega City.

(thx, david)


Transcript from the final moments of Asheron’s

Transcript from the final moments of Asheron’s Call 2, an online game that got turned off on Dec 30 because it wasn’t making any money. “This world will be shutting down in 2 minutes. Please log out.” (via wonderland)


Interview with Edward Castronova, video game economist.

Interview with Edward Castronova, video game economist. Quite an interesting thought from him about using MMORPGs to test economies and social systems. “I think the smart thing for the US state department to do today is build a game about Islam but make it a democracy. And set it up so that every 16-year-old from Morocco to Pakistan can go into that world when they get a computer. Not say anything overt about democracy but have them play โ€” have them vote, for example.” (via bbj)


Ten ways in which MMORPGs will change

Ten ways in which MMORPGs will change the future. “For now let’s just say it’s the most instantly gripping, involving and demanding entertainment technology ever invented. The addiction rate appears to be about twice that of crack Cocaine.”


MMORPG and the Dunbar number

MMORPG and the Dunbar number. “Overall, these statistics still support my original hypothesis in my Dunbar Number post that mean group sizes will be smaller than 150 for non-survival oriented groups.”


Interview with Ludicorp’s Stewart Butterfield about Game

Interview with Ludicorp’s Stewart Butterfield about Game Neverending, Flickr’s MMORPG older brother.