Joel’s Scattered Thoughts

Economics for the Citizen is a very well written overview of economics. (via digg.com)

Lifehacker has some good tips on how to Consolidate Firefox’s chrome - Lifehacker

I found this post on quitting World of Warcraft and the followup post to be very interesting and applicable.

I don’t think World of Warcraft is evil. I enjoy playing it. The trouble is that I tend to play obessesively and other aspects of my life suffer.

The question for me is: Quit entirely or drastically restrict my playing? (or do nothing and mre than likely regret it.)

I don’t know if anyone else is interested in this kind of thing, but I was recently reminded of Nick Yee’s papers about World of Warcraft. I was reminded of his work via this post on Terra Nova, which also looks at MMORPGs from a more scholarly perspective.

I especially enjoyed Yee’s paper on guilds - Tree House to Barracks. It’s interesting to see how he divides guilds - small (1 to 10 members), medium (11 to 35 members), large (36 to 150 members), and huge (more than 150 members). According to his divisions, LotD is definitely large, edging up to huge.

If you want a quick overview of what each class does in a group, look at http://epicguides.net/thegroup.html. Druid is probably the most flexible class - can be healer, defence, or offense.

Should you decide to make an Alliance character on an established server, you can look me up (Flint on the Andorhal server).

It can be fun to start on a new server. There will be lots of people your level with whom to do quests. Also you won’t be contending with an existing order. On the other hand, it’s easier to make gold on established servers.

Strongly consider taking two professions such as mining/skinning or herbalism/skinning as it will be easier to make gold. You can always choose a different profession later.

Good luck!

Copyright: How Long Should It Be? - Jim Baen’s Universe is a very interesting article on how long copyright should run. I especially like the way Eric Flint concluded his column. It kind of reminds me of something….

By the way, if you enjoy science fiction and/or fantasy, consider subscribing to Baen’s Universe for great stories and more great columns like this one.

I was asked for a list of RPGs for kids so here’s what I’ve found.

• Young Person’s Adventure League is probably the most comprehensive site I’ve seen.
• kids-rpg is a mailing list that has a decent amount of activity and discussion
• Shadows looks like a very good game for kids (and it’s free!)
• Risus is a lighter RPG that’s worth a look (it definitely works for adults too)
• Faery’s Tale looks like it might be interesting - it does cost about $10 though.
• Kids Roleplaying Game Review List has a couple reviews.

Terra Nova: Better dating through MMOs is an interesting article. I could see how gaming with someone would definitely give you a picture of their personality that you might not get otherwise.