Hello Kitty Island Adventure In Closed Beta

Okay, it's not Hello Kitty Island Adventure. But it is Hello Kitty Online, which I just read this morning is in closed beta.

Then I threw up in my mouth a little.

You can see and hear the sickeningly sweet webpage here. Be warned though, you have to click off the sound everytime you switch to a new page.

Now why, you might ask, did I throw up in my mouth? This is a cute little harmless game for ten year old girls. But I know that 30 year old women will play this. The Hello Kitty crowd scares me a bit. Okay the tee shirts are cute, but do you have to have the Hello Kitty toaster oven and matching vacuum cleaner? Really?

Also how many creepy old men will play this to meet little girls? Ew, I know. But it happens. This is just a bad idea all around.

Looking Forward to Warhammer Online

First, let me get this out of the way....

Dear EA Mythic,

Please let me into the beta, please, please, please. I will be very good and helpful and good and I'm a woman. You need feedback from women, right? In closing, ...please.

Okay. This is going to be a WoW killer. Having played World of Warcraft for a few years, and quit last year (healing priests were NEVER going to be fixed!!!), Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) features the Warhammer universe, which is very similar to the Tolkein, D & D, and Warcraft universes. That's because they were all based on each other. Warhammer has been a tabletop game for years and has a very loyal following, although I have not played it.

That said, this game looks like loads of fun. The mmorpg is in closed beta at the moment, but EA Mythic has been releasing trickles of info regarding the combat, armies, careers, ui, cities, etc. It seems like a more thoughtful version of WoW, with a British sense of humor, and a focus on realm vs. realm combat. Supposedly it's being released in 2008. I think I remember seeing a Q2 2008 release referred to, but that may have changed, since we are still in closed beta.

The armies and careers are very intriguing. I like the idea of Destruction, but the female characters are just not what I'm looking for. They look more like what a teen boy would play. Although the Greenskins (Orcs and Goblins) are asexual, they are very male looking. I'm thinking I might have to go Order just because the female toons look more interesting. It will be interesting to see who the women gravitate toward.

Hopefully this won't turn into another Tabula Rasa, where I was really excited, then I played it and.... Yeah.

This Woman Will Play Tabula Rasa

Okay, okay, it's not a comic book... but I really really want to love this game. After kicking the habit of World of Warcraft (WoW), Tabula Rasa looks like just the thing to scratch that itch.

I want to be that kickass chick in the picture and blast all the monster aliens to Kingdom Come. I want to be a sniper perched on a hill and off the Bane one by one - is that weird?

This mmorpg (massively multiplayer online role playing game) should be out by holiday 2007, and is brought to you by Richard Garriott a.k.a. "Lord British". It's got quite a buzz and I had the chance to play a bit at Comic-con. The shooting aspect is just my style - sticky targeting (meaning I don't have to hold my breath so I don't accidentally move the mouse one micron and miss the target).

Tabula Rasa is in closed beta now (you can sign up here) which means they are still working out the release version. It looks like NCSoft, the publisher, is going for an easy play style. That means I can play the game for an hour at a time if I want to which is nice because I don't need an addiction right now (read: WoW). Let's cross our fingers and hope this one lives up to the hype.