TheWayoftheWeb

Having played quite a few hours of Grand Theft Auto IV, the latest game in the series, I’ve become convinced that future evolutions of the game are far more likely to bring virtual worlds to the masses than Second Life ever will.

I’ve experienced the whole GTA series, including the original 2D games for the Playstation, the original switch to 3D, and the gradual expansion of the gaming universe and variety of missions, side missions, and alternative exploits (Why is it the press always focuses on the hookers, rather than the fact you can play darts, pool, or go bowling?). And now there’s a range of really enjoyable multi-player missions.

It’s a consistent world, with rules loosely based on those of reality - but bent for more fun. All it takes is a mechanism for an ongoing economy, and suddenly it’s a virtual world.

Second Life, by contrast, has the barrier of requiring a reasonable PC, a sign-up procedure, and learning how the world works…as opposed to ‘insert cd and play’.

This might be a risky prediction, but some figures do back it up. March 2008 saw 13 million Second Life accounts registered with no idea of how many were active.

By contrast, GTA IV sold 3.6 million copies on the first day of release, and 6 million in the first week. The previous instalment, GTA:San Andreas hit 21.5 million units in total. (Figures from wikipedia.org)

And with copies of the game costing around £40, people are definitely going to play it until they get their money’s worth. It already became the most played game on Xbox Live for the week of it’s release.

It’s got the fans, the brand reputation, and mainstream appeal on consoles which offer easy online access alongside home entertainment. And I know I’m not the only person who bought his copy on the day of release - and without reading a single review.

If GTA hasn’t become a persistent virtual world within the next couple of years, I’ll eat my copy of GTA IV!

I’m back, running at about 30% normal output! New child, no sleep, and the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 have all conspired to keep me away from the laptop and my normal RSS/Twitter addiction - but it’s slowly coming back!

I’m amazed at how many great things have appeared in the RSS feed in the last 10 days or so - and at the massive backlog if I wanted to read it all. Add in anything I’ve missed and will have to forego on Twitter, and countless other things, and it’s amazing how quickly a mountain of knowledge, information and chatter builds up!

Still, I’m going to have plenty of time in the early hours to catch up, with baby Oscar in one arm, and the mouse in the other…

Incidentally, GTA IV is as addictive as the previous versions (Although the shinier graphics do mean it’s a little disappointing that there isn’t as much variation in scenery as in GTA: San Andreas…). One interesting item is the use of a mobile phone which can be brought up on screen as needed with one button press…maybe it’s worth setting any desktop apps to run in the same fashion? And would these mean I could justify a customisable keyboard?

Before I went offline last night, I made an off-the-cuff remark on Twitter about how I’d really like to be able to incorporate my activities and social life on Microsoft’s Xbox Live into the rest of my digital social life.

Sites like Friendfeed might allow Twitter, Flickr, and anything else with an ‘r’ on the end, but I haven’t seen anyone tie in Xbox Live yet.

I log in today, check my replies, and the first one I see is from Engtech. And it’s a hugely comprehensive guide to how to effectively RSS your XBox Live info, quoting me!

Find out how to integrate and RSS your XBox Live information, here.

Last weekend my willpower collapsed and I bought Xbox 360 blockbuster Halo 3. I’d tried to resist, but when 31 friends are online, and 30 are playing one game, it’s near impossible to hold out.

On Sunday evening, over 900,000 players were online, and numbers have topped 1 million. That’s people online at any one time, and people that have paid not only for the game (Up to around £49.99 for the limited edition version), but have also most likely spent out on buying an Xbox Gold subscription for 12 months of online gaming.

Now imagine if your brand or publication had access to a code to make the main character in Halo3 run faster, take more damage, or even a special character design?

Think the chap that has paid £40 to get a game on release, rather than waiting for a discount, would find it easy to resist? Especially with the peer pressure of 30 of his friends waiting to be impressed by his new skills?

And whatever the brands, there’s a likely game to tie in. Whether it’s a racing game, an adventure game, a sci-fi shooter, or something oddball and cute like Viva Pinata.