Pwn Joo

Pwn Joo
That is a pick off the boss villan "PwNxxorz". We kicked his butt. LOL CoH is going to have their new patch very soon and it is filled with lots of fun new goodies.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/522/522416p1.html

GOM Gets Crooked
Sadly, GOM got taken for three large ($3,000) recently. Some asshole bought $3,000 in SWG coin and then reversed the charge on paypal. The policy on payplam favors the complainer for intangible goods. GOM has halted trading of all currency except SL. I am not sure what they can do to stop this in the future. I wonder how the other sites do it. The FBI and RCMP are now involved...I sure hope they catch the guy since this is a serious crime. This is a tricky area with all internet sites that sell intangible goods...anyone can say "I did not join; I did not buy it; I did not receive it" and then it is almost impossible for the seller to prove otherwise. I can't think of a simple solution off hand. You could limit the value of sales to prevent large fraud...you could make it so a person has to buy several times and be in good standing...like ebay does it. Even so, these never completely stop fraud, they just minimize it and sometimes that is the best you can do. I hope GOM finds the perp.

Engine Masters
I have a new summer hobby...I was selected to be one of the 50 contestants in the 2004 Engine Masters Challenge. This contest is an engine building contest. I get to get good and greasy. :) I might blog post maybe once a week to my site Pirates Of Horsepower.

The Slide
There auction revenues continue to be on a slow slide...but really this has a lot to do with summer. Most games and internet sites consider summer the slowest months. When kids go back to school, things pick up. Here is the chart from Tarah's.
http://www.soulsong.org.uk/ThereDAQ/report8.html

Tribes3 Beta
Need a new beta to signup for? Craig the Programmer hooked me up with the secret page for Tribes Vengence.
http://support.vugames.com/betasubmission/

Tribes is a team first person shooter. Betas are fun and free so give it a try. I am not sure when they are opening the doors.