There

Details: Category: Computer; By Tom McGuire; 01.Jun; Hits: 7712

Players: Infinite Genre: Action/Adventure/MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game)

The game \'There\' is in the small genre of MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game), which means that every person that you see in the game is a representation of someone else online actually playing the game at the same time as you. So, for example, if you are in a hoverboard race with six opponents, that means that there are six people online racing against you, not merely computer controlled characters that you are racing with. At the time of writing this review (July \'03), \'There\' is in what is called \'Beta\', meaning that the game is being tested before releasing it to the public. The release date for the full version has not been set yet. In \'There\', you can grab a buggy, hoverboard, hoverbike, hoverboat or hoverpack and race around a track. Or, you can rent out the venues (called Fun Zones) for up to three hours at a time, granted the time frame is open. The game will ask you what type of event it is (buggy race, conversation, tour, treasure hunt, etc.), what time you would like to have it, the entry price (more on that later), the title for the event, a description, and other options. Once you click \'Schedule Event\', it will appear on the page for the Fun Zone. At the scheduled event time, you can, if it is a race, set up the track for the race that you are having. You can add simple gates that the vehicles have to go through, or you can add ramps, elevated platforms, rings, and much more. If it is a treasure hunt, you can use preparation time in the event setup to place hints around. If it?s a paintball game, you can set up the range. The possibilities are pretty much endless. \'There\' has quite an extensive rating system. Depending on a number of factors, you get points for how good you raced, how well you shot your paintgun, how much you socialize, how good you are at hosting events, and more. Every time that you reach a new level, \'There\' gives you some incentives like an updated wardrobe or hairstyles to chose from. There are a lot of things one needs to buy while playing \'There\' such as a hoverboard, a new pair of sandals, paintgun or other various sundries. The currency in \'There\' is ThereBucks (or T$) and one US Dollar is equal to 1,787 ThereBucks. I just bought a paintgun with a 75 bullet magazine for T$3,499. To refill the gun, it costs T$1 per bullet, or about $.01 for 19 bullets. Anyone playing the beta version of There will be given T$10,000 to start with. You can earn additional ThereBucks buy hosting events, advertising, auctioning off items, posting a want ad, or, with a major credit card, buy more T$ online. By the way, the windows for setting up events, making purchases, and things like that are all done with a browser window. I was quite surprised when I was able to teleport from one place from another in \'There\' from my web browser.

Graphics

The visuals in \'There\' are not the most sophisticated, but they do get the job done. Chances are that they wanted to keep the frames per second to a maximum to prevent lagging for other users. There isn\'t really anything really bad, or really good to say about the graphics here.

Sound

Once again, the sounds are as good as the graphics are which is about average.

Appropriateness

From a Christian standpoint, this game can not really be rated. No one can rate an online game, since everyone can chat with each other, and it could be really kind words, or just plain trash. The appropriateness factor really all depends on how you and the people online with you are playing the game. There were some events that I saw hosted on \'There\' such as the Harry Potter trivia game, improvisation game, or the \'gender bender party\'. It is completely optional to attend these events and of course, I steered clear of them. I use \'There\' as a place to do online racing and paintball so things stay rather wholesome, however, \'There\' is really more of an online community where a lot of singles go to meet, and again, this aspect of game play is entirely optional if you choose to avoid it.

Overall

Currently, there aren?t that many glitches in \'There\', with the exception that I found my dune buggy stuck in the racing gates, and other small, easily fixed problems like that. \'There\' is constantly being updated, actually every day from 12PM-5PM EST for bug removal. I did have trouble, however, when I was trying to view pages from within the game (like you are supposed to), it kept coming up with an error, that the page could not be displayed. This was due to my internet filter taking out part of the code for the page. So, be warned; if you have an internet filter, be sure to disable it before you play on \'There\'. As I said at the beginning of this review, \'There\' is in Beta, so people are testing it for the developer. It is free to join, however, I signed up for the test six and a half months ago, and they just now asked me to join in the fun. If you decide to join, go to http://www.there.com and click on join beta test. Tell them that ?mcguire30? referred you, and you will jump to the front of the queue. The aspects of \'There\' which I have played (which are mainly racing, event hosting and paintball) have all been a lot of fun. The other \'social\' aspects such as hot tubbing, chat, etc are not appropriate for me and probably most of my readers, so when the full game is released, and if the monthly change (which most MMOGs normally have) is more than $10, it will remain to be seen if \'There\' will be worth it.