Web Puzzles

MMOs In the Spotlight at E3 2010

E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is an annual event that is widely considered to be the most important expo in the video game industry. In 2010 it was held from June 15-17 in Los Angeles and featured exhibits from over 120 companies. Every segment of the gaming industry is represented at E3, including the growing share of MMOs.



Interestingly enough the behemoth of the MMO market, Blizzard and their game World of Warcraft, did not have an exhibit at E3 in 2010. Blizzard is expected to release their latest WoW expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, in the Fall of 2010 and some speculate that they are waiting until after that time to engage in a massive media campaign. The absence of Blizzard, however, meant that other, smaller MMO development companies had an easier time getting their product in the spotlight.

E3 2010 MMOs Coming Soon

Lord of the Rings Online and its publisher Turbine released information about the first expansion they will release under the controversial new "free-to-play" business model. Expected in late 2010, the content will include a new zone, updates to the current UI, superior graphic options, and, of course, the highly anticipated new LotRO store.

Final Fantasy XIV, by Square Enix, is the spiritual successor to Final Fantasy XI and was another big name in MMOs at E3. FFXIV is due for release in the Fall of 2010, and caters heavily to the Playstation 3 and Japanese markets. The general impression of reviewers at E3 is that FFXIV looks gorgeous, even if the gameplay is still currently a little clunky.

Another popular title that is due out soon is Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic. SWTOR was also a popular subject at E3 in 2009, but this year they promoted their Spring 2011 release date with both a gameplay booth on the show floor and a new cinematic trailer.

E3 2010 MMOs Coming... One Day

Of course developers with imminent releases will show up to E3 with playable demos and full cinematics, but the Expo is also the game industry's place to announce and advertise titles years in advance.

The popular tabletop war game Warhammer 40000 (and their Intellectual Property owner, Games Workshop) announced the development of Warhammer 40000: Dark Millennium Online. The announcement came with a much-watched trailer, and a somewhat disappointing release date of 2013. Dark Millennium received a lot of hype at E3 2010, but it remains to be seen if the attention can be sustained over the course of three years.

Also planning ahead is Interplay, the publishers of Fallout and Fallout 2. During E3 in 2010 they released a teaser site to announce the creation of Fallout Online, a post-apocalyptic MMO. Interplay released little more than a single image and a form to sign up for beta testing, but the response by the game press and players was very positive. The game is expected to hit the shelves in late 2013.

The 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo is the place for game publishers both large and small to display their ideas and work for each other and for the world at large. Between LotRO's new expansion this fall and the predicted arrival of Fallout Online in late 2013, it appears that the MMO industry has many new lands and surprises in store for its players over the coming years.

Travian Beginner's Playing Guide

Travian is a massively multiplayer online browser-based strategy game developed by a German company. Players choose to be a Roman, Teuton, or Gaul when they begin their account. They can then build cities, amass an army, and ally with other players to dominate their surroundings and eventually win the End Game.

Choosing a Server

At any given point, there are many simultaneous games of Travian running. A game runs for just over a year, until an alliance builds a World Wonder and wins the game. Speed servers also exist and run in about a third of the time. The server is then restarted and players can sign up all over again. There are many servers which are based on language or country. New players can visit Travian.com and then click on their country’s flag at the top of the page to find an appropriate set of servers.
Each server has a different personality that develops. Most players find that waiting for a few days after the server restarts works to their advantage. However, waiting too long to join will make a beginning player easy prey for advanced gamers. Try to join a server that has recently been reset.

Getting Started

After clicking “Register” on the main Travian screen, new players are asked to choose a server. They then need to select a nickname and enter their email address and password. It is a good idea for players to choose just one email address to use for Travian. This will prevent accidentally creating multiple characters on the same server. Players must also choose between Gauls, Teutons, and Romans. Each character type has advantages and disadvantages.
Once inside the game, there are five main screens a player can use to control their city. They are represented by round buttons at the top of the screen. The first is the village overview, which allows the player to view their village’s fields. The next button links to the city center. Players can build residences, blacksmiths, granaries and more in town. The third link brings up the map of the surrounding areas, so other villages can be scouted and attacked. Next is the statistics button, which displays player rankings. The final screen is the in-game messaging system, which allows players to communicate and organize.

5 Tips for Beginning Players

Starting to play a new MMRPG can be intimidating, but there are many resources to help Travian players find their way. Following these five tips will help new players learn more about the world of Travian and develop a successful town.

• Read the forums -- Each server has a set of forums filled with advice, guides, and players who can answer questions. New players should check out the beginner’s guides posted in the forums first.
• Do the Quests -- New accounts will find a Questmaster awaiting them when they begin playing Travian. The quests are designed to introduce new gamers to the basics, including constructing buildings, upgrading resources, and training soldiers. They also have useful rewards.
• Wait to Join an Alliance -- Finding a strong, organized alliance to join will help players build strong cities and dominate the game. Players will receive many invitations as their cities begin to grow. Wait
• Keep a Level Head -- At its core, Travian is a war game and players will be attacked on their beginner’s protection wears off. Don’t respond with angry messages or counterattacks, especially if the attacker is a member of a powerful alliance. Responding will just encourage them to attack again.
• Read the Rules -- It is important to comply with the rules of the game. Players in violation may have their accounts deleted. For example, it is illegal to have multiple accounts on the same server.

Travian is a fun and addictive game. Many players find it appealing because of the regular resets -- it is possible for anyone to learn how to play well and become one of the top players. Best of all, it is free to play.

Farmville Speed Tips

Farmville provides millions of people with entertainment and fun with online Facebook friends. But the number of hours spent on this game in order to enjoy all the different activities they offer are simply staggering. Here are some ways to maximize the fun and minimize the time spent.

Trap the Farmville Avatar

When harvesting, plowing and planting Farmville crops, as well as collecting from trees and animals, the user if often left waiting for the farmer avatar to slowly make his or her way across the screen, or catch up with the crops that have been clicked. This is a huge waste of time for the real-life farmer.

Isolating the farmer with fences or haybales where the avatar appears in the middle of the screen is a great way to speed up this process. Hedges also work, although for reasons passing understanding the avatar will occasionally choose to sneak through the cracks where they meet. Using haybales, the farmer can be confined to one single plot of unplowed land. Or create a larger decorative area in the center with fences. Remember that whenever the farm size is expanded the center point of the screen where the farmer appears will shift, and the isolation area will need to be moved accordingly.

Use Farmville.com to Claim Rewards

Claiming rewards (collectibles, eggs, coin rewards, fuel, building expansions and more) through the facebook feed can involve many wasted minutes of clicking down through old posts, searching through status updates and other feed posts for farmville updates. Farmville.com offers a "game feed" that consolidates at least the most recent of Farmville feed posts by all Farmville friends. Using the Farmville.com interface instead of the Facebook interface can save a great deal of time. The only downside is the inability to monitor facebook chat requests or other notifications from this screen.

Claim Farmville Rewards Using Browser Tabs

Probably the biggest time-waster when playing Farmville, even when using Farmville.com, is waiting for the screen to reload in between claiming rewards (especially when it turns out the rewards are all used up or expired). But it is not necessary to do this each time to claim items.

Simply open the Farmville.com interface in one window and click on each reward link by right clicking and using the "open link in a new tab" or similar command/process. Open all the tabs that are of interest and then go through and collect all at once. On the last tab, allow the window to completely refresh and all applicable rewards will be waiting in the fuel tank or gift box. Do keep tabs on the total number of gifts that can be stored in the gift box at once (announced as increased to 50 in a March 2009 podcast), especially if storing consumables in like arborists or farmhands in the giftbox. It may be necessary to stop once in the middle and empty the gift box before continuing.

Playing Farmville with Facebook friends can be fun and entertaining, but even more satisfying when using these tips to reach goals faster. For more tips, see Farmville Speed Collection Tips and Farmville Crop Speed Tips.

How to Make Money Playing Free on Texas Holdem Online Poker Sites

 There are a huge number of real money online poker sites for Texas holdem poker. Most of these do special introductory offers where the initial deposit is matched by a deposit of a similar size from the online poker site. It can therefore be worth signing up with a variety of sites and making a minimum deposit in each.

Popular Texas Holdem sites such as Titan Poker, Full Tilt Poker, Celeb Poker, Pokerstars, and PKR offer real money games but also offer a large number of freerolls. These tournaments are free to enter but pay real money in prizes. Play money games are often also available which are useful purely for learning the game.

Many sites also offer a bonus for recruitment, although the person recruited may have to make a reasonable deposit.

How to Make Money Playing in Freeroll or Low Stakes Online Texas Holdem Poker Tournaments

Many tournaments are free or have a very low entry fee of $1.00 or so, but a very large field, sometimes 3000+ players. This is an advantage as it means the final payouts will be relatively large. The disadvantage is that the player’s luck needs to hold up for a long time before cashing.

To play these tournaments most effectively, a very tight approach is best. In the first hour of play, upwards of half the field is likely to disappear. A player who does not bet at all in the first hour will therefore already be in the top half of players. A good tip is to wait for a premium hand in position, and then try to double up. One double up an hour in the first two or three hours of the tournament will be enough to keep the player in a good position for the cash.

How to Cash When Playing Online Texas Holdem Poker Tournaments

Once the cash is approached, the player will need to change their tactics. In a large low entry or freeroll tournament, finishing in the top few hundred will guarantee a small cash. This is not to be sniffed at, as even a small cash means the player is not losing money – which is as crucial as actually winning money!
Once the player can see they are close to “the bubble” — the point where cashing starts — it is worth slowing down and waiting for others to make foolish moves and get themselves knocked out. It is worth having the tournament lobby list up so the player can see exactly who is due to get knocked out next. Getting knocked out right on the bubble is very frustrating, and not worth risking unless the player holds a very strong hand.

Avoid Tilting When Playing Texas Holdem Online Poker

Many players get knocked out of their tournament through foolish play, and foolish play is likely if a player is on tilt. “On tilt” refers to a state of mind where the player is betting recklessly and against the odds, often due to previously losing with a strong hand due to bad luck, or bad betting.

 
Tilting should be avoided at all costs, but this is easier said than done. The player must remember that as long as they are still in the tournament, they still have a chance of winning. Many, many tournaments are won by players who have come from behind. A player who passes up a marginal hand in bad position may be rewarded with a premium hand on the next deal.

How to Progress to Higher Stakes Tournaments in Texas Holdem Online Poker

Once the player is experienced in playing small stakes poker tournaments, they can progress to higher stakes games. The advantage of these is that the field will be smaller, so a smaller run of luck will be needed to make the cash. The players are likely to be better, which can also help as they will be more likely to play predictably.

The player will need to be sure that their strategies already mean they can at least break even with their tournament play, or make wins from time to time. That way, it is more likely that they won’t lose significant amounts. The aim is to win, but anyone who plays regularly and doesn’t lose money, is already a winner!

Lord of Ultima Resource Layout

Once the basics of resource production in Lord of Ultima is understood, the next logical step is identifying an effective layout for resources which allows for both adequate production and storage. There are many places to find information on potential resource layouts, including forums, the wiki, and through alliance memberships in LOU.

Overview of Resource Layout

This layout requires a minimum of 15 spaces in a 3 by 5 grid, either horizontal or vertical. Additional surrounding spaces can be used to increase production through the use of cottages. This layout is designed to support two resources, as well as increased storage for the two resources.

Setting up multiple grids of this layout, separated by cottages provides adequate production to support the city. This layout may need to built in pieces depending on the level of the town hall in the city.

Building a Warehouse to Increase Resource Storage

This layout is centered around a warehouse structure to increase the storage space for the bordering resources. Build the warehouse in the third row of the third column. A level ten warehouse will provide storage of 200K of each resource.

Build Specialty Buildings Next to the Warehouse

Determine which resources will be supported for this grid. For each resource, identify the specialty building. In this example, the specialty buildings are a sawmill for wood and a stonemason for stone. Build one of each of the two chosen buildings immediately next to the warehouse, on opposite sides.

In this example, build the sawmill in row two, column three and the stonemason in row four, column three. When all buildings are at level ten, the warehouse bordering these buildings will be capable of holding an extra 75% - up to 350K of each resource for which there is a special building.

Build the Resource Buildings

Once the warehouse and special buildings are in place, build six of each of the two chosen resource buildings. Make sure that the buildings surround the existing special building on all sides, and build on one side of the warehouse. Level ten resource buildings produce 300 per hour, before bonuses.

With the 75% bonus from the special building, this resource layout will produce at minimum, 3150 per hour. Additional resource bonuses can be obtained by building cottages around the buildings.

Resource Layout Strategies in Lord of Ultima

The layout presented here is only one of many possibilities and does not take into consideration any potential bonuses from surrounding resource fields. Other layouts for resources can be found on the LOU forums or by asking alliance members in the game.

FreeRice - Online Free Fun Game Helps the Hungry

World hunger is projected to have reached a historic high in 2009 and continues to increase with 1,020 million people going hungry every day. Recent analysis by theFood and Agricultural Organization says that the increase in hunger is not the consequence of poor global harvests but is caused by the world economic crisis that resulted in lower incomes and increased unemployment. This also reduced access to food by the poor in many countries.



A solution anyone can be part of is by playing a free web game called FreeRice. Known as one of the best deals of the internet, FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program in partnership with Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. It is a web based game which gives knowledge to the player and food for someone in need. The goals of FreeRice are to:

• Provide education to everyone for free
• Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free

What is the On-line Fun Game About?

The game tests the vocabulary and knowledge of the participants. The player is presented with a word and four possible definitions, and asked to click on one. For each click on a correct answer, 10 grains of rice are added to a wooden plate which acts as a score card.

When the game was launched in 2007, it had only English vocabulary but it evolved and enhanced quickly as a result of continuing enthusiasm. Now the game is multilingual with words in English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. In addition to vocabulary, there are now questions in the game covering Art, Math, Chemistry and Geography.

FreeRice has a database containing thousands of words in each subject at varying degrees of difficulty. The player can choose the level of difficulty as the game progresses and watch the pretty wooden bowl fill with virtual rice, and know that someone in need is being helped.

How is Revenue Generated by the Free Web Game?

The answer is advertisements. Companies advertise on the website and in exchange donate money to pay for the rice and other expenses. FreeRice in turn underwrites the donations to buy and distribute the rice by the World Food Program. The web site keeps track of the grains by month. For example, in November 2009, 1.4 billion rice grains were collected.

There are about 48 grains in a gram of rice. In countries where rice is a staple part of the diet, the World Food Program provides about 400 grams of rice per person per day as partof a food basket containing other ingredients. This is intended to ensure a minimum of 2,100 kilocalories and other essential nutrients.

Who is Behind the On-Line Game Phenomenon?

FreeRice is the invention of John Breen, a computer programmer and online fundraising pioneer. He set it up so that the rice is distributed through the World Food Program.

Mr. Breen and the millions of FreeRice players can feel proud seeing the examples of where the rice from the popular internet game has been distributed:

• In Bangladesh to feed 27,000 refugees from Myanmar for two weeks
• In Uganda to feed 66,000 school children for a week
• In Combodia to provide take-home rations for two months to 13,500 pregnant and nursing women

When is the Game Played?

Like any online game, FreeRice can be played any time of the day or night. There are people who regularly spend 5 to 10 minutes a day when they start their computer or just before closing it for the day. Playing even 5-10 minutes means donating 500-1500 grains of rice a day. Each grain adds up to feed a hungry child.

Spread of FreeRice Game through the Internet Communities:

Cited as viral marketing success story, word of the game has spread. The game’s appeal is such that FreeRice ‘communities’ have mushroomed on Facebook and MySpace.There’s a group on Facebook called Free Rice Challenge that asks the visitors to play FreeRice and post the score on the group’s wall. The totals are added up to see just how much of that rice is coming from Facebook members.

Success of the On-line Game:

Since the players help the hungry and also gain knowledge in the process, the online game can be said as a win-win situation. The fun game has been especially successful among students and teachers with more school children expanding their vocabulary as they help someone in need. For adults the imagination of feeding a hungry person with the rice they fill in the virtual bowl makes it meaningful and interesting.

Prestige and Honor: Understanding the Different Evony Stats

When getting started in Evony, few pay any significant attention to the countless stats of your player or your city. Most players feel that they have a slight understanding of what is occurring, but don’t really know what different things mean, or how to make best of each statistic. This is unfortunate, as it definitely holds back one's ability to succeed.

Understanding the Player Stats

To begin with, each user has a specific set of stats that should be noted. These statistics include Evony prestige, honor, and achievement points, and each is exactly the same for every one of their cities. Prestige is typically seen as a marker of one's "reputation" in Evony, and is what many people use to compare themselves to different gamers. The user footer will actually show you how your prestige compares with other players, and a lot of gamers regularly make it their mission to become one of the most prestigious players in the entire game.
Another noteworthy measurement is honor. Honor refers to how well you are doing in battle. If you are often defeated by your enemies, and have lots of resources looted from you, it is likely your honor will be low. Lastly, achievement points measure how well you have achieved the many achievements, which are actually different from the quests. Each of these measurements are important and should be upgraded as often as you can.

Understanding the City Stats

Along with your gamer stats, which are identical for every one of your cities, each city has its own exclusive statistics which also must be considered. The majority of these statistics are your city’s resources. These resources include food, lumber, stone, and iron, which are each acquired through sawmills, farms, ironmines, and quarries, and are essential for creating buildings, growing an army, and making upgrades. One other resource is gold, which you get from taxing your citizens, and is essential for advancing at the academy and upgrading to new levels.

Along with resources, your city also contains a few additional noteworthy stats that should be kept in mind. Loyalty describes how large your population is in relation to your maximum potential population. If you have a big population limit, but not much loyalty, you're not taking advantage of a lot of residents that you could control if your loyalty was bigger. To add to loyalty, you can either lower the tax rate or perform acts such as “disaster relief” at the town hall. Also, along with population, another imperative statistic is labor force. It is important to make sure that your labor force does not ever exceed your population, or else you won't be getting as many resources as you potentially could. If this happens, don't forget to set up more cottages and increase loyalty in order to add to population.

Conclusion

While many players may dismiss the measurements of their cities as meaningless, understanding your city and gamer stats is quite imperative for success. Only once you have comprehended what's going on in your city and what its weaknesses are will you be able to dominate Evony forever.

Playing A Shadow Priest on World Of Warcraft

 Hitting level 80 a Shadow Priest can focus on PVP or PVE. These two distinct pathways require very different play style and gearing. This article focuses upon PVE where the first step of a Shadow Priest is to run 5 Man Heroics. These Heroic runs will develop skills, improve group dynamics and provide essential gear upgrades to allow further movement towards 10 and 25 Man Raiding Teams.

Shadow Priest Role

The role of a Shadow Priest is to deliver high Damage Per Second (DPS). In addition to delivering the maximum damage a Shadow Priest must also maintain Buffs on party members and be prepared to dispel damaging magic when a party member is targeted. Examples of magic to be dispelled are forms of Crowd Control such as sheep. At the start of each instance run and after a member dies the Shadow Priest should apply Power Word: Fortitude, Divine Spirit and Shadow Protection. Each of these Buffs can also be applied using their group equivalents “Prayer of Fortitude, Divine Spirit or Shadow Protection” at the cost of a reagent, in this case devout candles.

Healing as a Shadow Priest

Whilst high DPS is the focus of a Shadow Priest they also bring a range of healing abilities to any Heroic run. If the healer is killed a Shadow Priest can take over healing of the party to prevent a wipe. Divine Hymn provides a very strong emergency healing spell to quickly heal the three party members with the lowest health. Power Word: Shield can also be cast during encounters to assist the main healer without breaking Shadow Form.

Gearing Up A Shadow Priest

Players running Heroics are a mix of those already well geared who are farming emblems of triumph and new 80’s attempting to improve their gear. Heroic drops are generally item level 200 with harder heroics dropping up to item level 232. Before starting 5 Man Heroics a Shadow Priest needs to improve the quality of their gear to ensure an effective contribution to the group.


 Purchasing or making crafted items can significantly boost overall DPS, such as the Titansteel Guardian from the Blacksmithing trade. Running Normal Mode Instances will provide gear at item level 187 and Normal Trial of The Champion has drops at item level 200. Obtaining a mixture of gear at level 187 and 200 would provide the Shadow Priest with enough health, mana and spell power to run 5 Man Heroics. Choosing the correct enchantments and gems will also provide a valuable boosts to overall DPS.

Gemming and Enchanting A Shadow Priest

The priority stats for a Shadow Priest to obtain in Gems and Enchantments are:
Hit > Spell Power > Haste

After these; Critical Strike, Intelligence, Spirit and Stamina are important however most items will include these in conjunction with Hit, Spell Power and Haste.

Spell Priority for a Shadow Priest

Spell Priority refers to the order of spell casting to minimize wasted time and maximise DPS. Using an effective Spell Priority will greatly improve DPS on both Boss fights and trash. Inner Fire and Vampiric Embrace buffs should be reapplied to the Shadow Priest every time their duration ends. The healing boost provided by Vampiric Embrace, healing all party members for a percentage of shadow damage generated by the Shadow Priest, greatly assists healers when dealing with AOE damage.
To maximise DPS use the following casting priority:

Vampiric Touch (VT), Devouring Plague (DP), Mind Flay (MF) and at this point Shadow Weaving will have hit 5 stacks so the next cast is Shadow Word Pain (SW:P) followed with Mind Blast (MB).
VT > DP > MF > SW:P > MB

After this initial opening VT and DP should be reapplied as soon as they come off cooldown and MB cast every time it is available, generally after two MF. Pain and Suffering from the Shadow talent tree, an essential talent, will remove the need to reapply SW:P as MF will reset it’s duration. MF acts as a filler in-between cooldowns and to avoid negatively impacting overall DPS each spell must fully complete before recasting.


For effective AOE on mobs of more than three targets, cast VT on each target then cast Mind Sear rotating which mob is targeted on each cast.
Elitist Jerks provide a detailed breakdown for Shadow Priest Spell Priority.

Maximizing DPS as a Shadow Priest

Release the Shadow Fiend on every boss fight to improve DPS and also restore mana. Use Dispersion as it comes off cooldown to maintain mana through the 5 Man Heroic to avoid having to stop and drink. This is especially important with a geared group who will run from mob to mob without stopping. Trinkets should be activated whenever off cooldown and especially for all boss fights.

Running 5 Man Heroics

To make the most of 5 Man Heroic runs as a Shadow Priest obtain gear of at least level 187 from Normal Instances. Gem and enchant these items to focus on Spell Power and Haste while trying to pick up additional Hit. Utilise the Spell Priority detailed above and if required switch to support healing to survive difficult encounters

Avatar Customization in Second Life

Second Life is a booming online universe with endless possibilities. From dance clubs to real estate to self help seminars, residents of Second Life are never at a loss for things to do. Second Life residents can customers their avatars, the character that represents them in the online world, to look however they want. The user created shops and malls sprinkled all throughout Second Life are a cornerstone of avatar customization.

Shape and Skin

Choosing a shape and skin in Second Life is possibly the most important decision that a user can make when it comes to their appearance. When an avatar is first created, or born, it has a distinct new avatar look. Second Life is similar to real life in that first impressions matter, and if a user decides to stick with the avatar that she chose at character creation, she will have a vastly more difficult time socializing and working in the online universe.

Second Life body shapes are infinite in variety, and most can be customized to the user's liking. Prices come in a vast range, with some shapes being free at freebie malls and some being as much as $1,000 Linden (the Second Life currency) or more. For those who have limited funds, the Gerri shape collection is more than adequate and the shapes are a bargain at $190 Linden. Other shape shops include Body Doubles, Dragonfly Designs and LAQ.

A good shape won't do much if there isn't a good skin to go with it. Purchasing a skin is not something to take lightly, as it is probably the most expensive item on any avatar. While some skins can be found for free and are great for starting out, when it comes time to purchase one, it's best to take it slow.

Skins can run as high as $2000 Linden for a pack of five or ten makeup varieties. However, for anyone interested in a Second Life career that requires a quality skin such as modeling or exotic dancing, it is well worth the cost and pays for itself rather quickly. Some high quality skin shops include LAQ, Curio and Redgrave.

Hair and Eyes

The default avatar hair tends to look like a mullet if you give it any length at all. Luckily, user's having the option of buying prim hair, or a user-created object that attaches to the avatar's head and looks more similar to real hair. Prim hair can be sculpted with no movement, or it can be long and flexi, meaning it will flow and move as the avatar moves giving it a realistic appearance. Some of the best hairs are a combination of the two.



Most hair retailers supply a wide range of colors and styles, and prices average $100 Lindens to $400 Lindens. As with any other item in Second Life, mid-quality hair can be found at freebie shops, and some hair shops have gift bags at the entrance with one or two free hairstyles. Leading hair merchants in Second Life include Magika, Analog Dog, Truth, Calico Creations and Damselfly.

Finding eyes is pretty simple, and using free ones will work just as well as paying for eyes. For those who choose to pay for them, they average $50 to $100 Linden for single colors with color packs increasing in price. Curio and Dragonfly both carry eyes as well as other avatar customization items.

Animations

Everyone starts out in Second Life with the same walk. The default walk is fast paced, hunched slightly at the shoulders and stiff. Despite this, there is still a chance to add a little swagger to an avatar's step by purchasing an animation override, or AO.

An AO attaches to the avatar but cannot be seen by other users and overrides the default animations by adding different walking, sitting, standing and flying animations to the avatar. It's controlled by switch, which is normally located in one of the corners of the screen when it's attached to the avatar.
A large variety of AOs are available in Second Life by visiting various animation shops, and are priced at $1,000 to $2,000 Linden. SEMotion and Vista Animations are just two of the leading suppliers of animations overrides.

Freebies

For those who cannot afford to customize their avatar at leading Second Life retailers, there are always freebies. Freebies are mid-quality when compared with more expensive items. However, for somebody just starting out in Second Life, freebies may be good enough to get a job and get used to Second Life.

NES Games on Facebook

The Nintendo Entertainment System revolutionized video games for an entire generation of gamers in the 1980s and early 1990s.


While the system has been out of circulation for over 15 years and it's very difficult to track down an original NES without paying a high price, old school gamers can still enjoy their favourite Nintendo games without having to pay thanks to the advent of Internet flash games, particularly the many NES applications on Facebook.

The following is a glimpse of what features the Facebook Nintendo programs offer gamers and what kinds of games they can play.

Facebook NES Games by Lance Strish

There are several NES applications on Facebook, but the most popular one was created by Facebook user Lance Strish. His NES Games application has over 22,000 monthly users.

In order to play these games, users need to install Java. It can be downloaded for free here.

Strish's program has over 3,000 Nintendo games that players can enjoy. Gamers can play classic NES games such as Super Mario Bros. 3, Mike Tyson's Punch Out and Metroid.


Gamers can write reviews and give ratings on each game they play so subsequent users can decide what to play based on which games are the most popular. Players can also tell which games are popular by looking at how many times a particular game has been played. This option appears just above the rankings option.


There is also a section that lists the last 20 games people have played so they don't have to scroll down each time to find a particular game they enjoy playing.

If games don't work because of a broken link, there is an option players can click on to report it.

Strish's NES Games Features

Lance Strish's application also has many features gamers can use to enhance their gaming experience. These features include an option to save game progress, use game genie codes, play in full screen mode and play with a friend.

These features require that the game be downloaded and it will cost one credit to do so. One credit can be purchased for 49 cents.

However, gamers don't need to buy credits if they just want to play the games for fun and don't want any of the extra features.

NES Games Message Board

Like almost all aspects of Facebook, Strish's NES application also has a message group people can use to communicate with each other.

People can post their video game inspired artwork, start discussion threads and post general wall posts about NES related topics.

To play Lance Strish's NES Games application on Facebook, click here.