Since leaving the US and moving to Australia last year, I've had to get used to a lot of differences between the two countries that I really didn't know about before I packed up: sitting in the front seat next to the driver when you get into a cab, being fourteen hours into the future compared to the rest of my family, the way the entirety of the Commonwealth pronounces fillet like "fill-it." Chief among my culture shock is how comparatively poor internet connectivity is here against what I was used to in the United States. Overall speeds tend to be pretty lackluster and latency is a huge issue, especially when playing online games and MMOGs.

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Last week Champions Online started its week long open beta in preparation for the September 1st launch; those who had pre-ordered the game were given access to it (though I believe free keys were also available through a FilePlanet promotion at some point.) This is a game I have been looking forward to for a [...]

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October will hold the fifth anniversary of when I joined Second Life under the name I came to refer to as my "main" account. I dabbled in it under various other identities prior to that but I never understood what it was really for and would often get bored after a few minutes (or an [...]

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I think the time has come for me to accept the fact that I'm missing the draw of Warhammer Online. I got started with it when Direct2Drive was throwing an opening bash letting players start three days before the official launch if they bought it RIGHT THEN THAT VERY MINUTE which happened to coincide with [...]

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In an earlier entry I complained about the sense of culture-shock for a casual player in World of Warcraft when you switch from the largely solo-friendly leveling grind to the explicitly group-focused endgame. Recently biting the bullet I decided it was time to suck it up and try and find a guild, else I really [...]

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So my previous post got linked on WoW.com a couple days ago. Due to a linking mixup it happened a bit too late to get noticed in the initial read-through– fortunately or un- depending on your position I suppose– and I missed pretty much all the traffic from their entry. I mention 'unfortunately' because it [...]

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Last week GLAAD sent out a press release announcing their intention to start a project meant to combat homophobia in online video games and communities. On the surface this might sound like a great idea, unless you happen to actually be familiar with any of those communities, then the warning bells would be going off. [...]

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