I was sipping the coffee and figured another year had almost passed...why not toss up a blog post. It is bizarre since TypePad (the blogging platform) has changed a ton this year so I am not sure where everything is. I have a few updates on my adventures with regards to online gaming etc. Here goes!
Virtual Worlds Getting More Venture Capital
I keep reading more and more stories of VC cash going into virutal worlds. There, IMVU, and Linden all got some cash injections this year and the virtual world marketplace seem massive with hundreds of competitors. I not sure if this is good or bad news...it seems harder to make a buck as a content creator in the short term. Here are some links to the stories I read
Forterra (there.com) Raises $1.2M
Xbox Fun
I've been playing a little more Xbox again this year...mainly the bigger titles like Gears Of War2 etc. Xbox may be the new tv console of the future. Netflix is awesome through an xbox...it is reason enough to get an xbox just do stream the movies. In the UK, they already have mini virtual world type situations where you can watch a sporting event in xbox as your avatar.
Some of you may remember that I sold the domain name lips.com a couple of years ago...if you go there now you will see that it is the site for the xbox lips karaoke game!
Online Poker
I used to play online poker back when it first came out online but sadly I stopped. This year I decided to get back into it since I kept reading about kids making bank...playing poker online. I was amazed how far the game has come in 10 years online. I used to play on sites called Planet Poker and Paradise Poker, but these days the two big sites are PokerStars and FullTilt. You can see the giant sites here
I was shocked to see that some 18 and 19 year old kids were clearing $10,000 a month. A handful of players clear $30,000 a month, and a rare rare few do almost $100k a month. Crazy crazy numbers. There is an awesome website called Poker Table Ratings where you can pull up lists of the winners for each level for the week, month or year. Let me try and make a screencap of the top players at $1 $2 which is a small game at Brick and Mortar, but a huge game online with very skilled players.
There are 20+ guys and girls who have cleared $30k this year, playing $1 $2 online. There are actually more than that since this does not include bonus. There are much bigger games then $1 $2...the top earning pros mainly play $3 $6 and $5 $10 and grind approximately 1,000,000 hands per year.
Check this out...as a bonus, if you play the higher levels, in 1 to 2 years, you get a free Porsche...no lies...they have given away 5 of them.
Online poker is a lot like World Of Warcraft...it is a level grind. Players start as low as 1 cent 2 cent, and grind up. Here are the levels
1c 2c
2c 5c
5c 10c
10c 25c
25c 50c
50c $1
$1 $2
$2 $4
$3 $6
$5 $10
$10 $25
$25 $50
Like WoW, it takes a long time to grind up the levels. I estimate that it takes about a year to go from noob to $1 $2. And then it takes another year to get to $5 $10 and a third year to get to $25 $50...or about 3,000,000+ hands of play. If you are burnt out on WoW, you might give poker grinding a whirl. lol I am at the 10c 25c level and about to move to 25c 50c or maybe 50c 1. I've grown $1,500 to near $3,000 but it has taken four months and 400,000 hands. It is kind of like grinding levels 50 to 60 when WoW first came out years ago.
Computer Big Monitor Chit Chat
Sadly the rocket fast shuttle computer that I built in 2007 bit the dust. I'm not sure what happened...maybe an over-heating issue but the motherboard and cpu blew. I had just purchased a new mega 30" monitor which was so cool. The new 30s are monster sized and reasonably priced. If you dig gaming big...get one! Dell has a sweet one and Samsung does as well.
I actually went with the Samsung but in retrospect I would prefer the Dell because the stand tilts better and has the card reader.
I wanted to tell you about these big monitors because of a technical issue that happened after the Shuttle blew up. In my desktop computer, I had a big beefy gamer card so I could drive the monitor at 2560x1600 resolution. Since the economy has been sucking, I did not want to build a new computer...instead I wanted to plug my Gateway gamer laptop into the 30 and use dual monitors. Well...it turns out that NO laptop on earth can drive a 30" monitor at 2560 x 1600...yet (unless someone out there has found a way??) Email me (andy at wildbikini dot com) if you know how. The top laptop cards don't push that size yet...probably due to heating issues. So they best I could do was 1280 x 800...which sucks! It was a giant super mario picture. lol
I ended up storing the larger monitor in the closet for now until I can afford a new gamer box. Instead I am using my laptop with a 24" and I have to say that I really dig this configuration. All you need is a HDMI cable into the monitor, then use a wireless mouse and USB keyboard and you are locked and docked. Gamer laptops are so small and simple yet powerful that it is a great way to dual monitor and save space.
Those Are The Stories
Those are my stories for this year. I hope everyone is doing well and having fun online.
andy@wildbikini.com
