The 100 most common words in the English language – how many do you think you know? You have five minutes to find out! I got 44/100, which was quite reasonable. (There are some words that are more common than you‘d think.)
A few clues for you.
Tag: Games
An ‘MMO’ is a Massive Multiplayer Online game. These are, as the name suggests, computer games that utilise persistent worlds whose inhabitants can interact with one another in any number of ways. Here are a couple of new MMOs – so new that they’re not even launched. You can sign up for the beta testing!
Kiwi Heroes is ‘complete with character advancement, special powers and abilities, extensive social and community features, and a world full of dynamic solo and group-based adventures and wondrous places to explore’ – and who could say no to playing a kiwi?
Wizard101 is set in a school for wizards (a la Hogwarts); you can level your character, choose a school of magic and cast spells, duel other wizards, explore far-off worlds, collect magic cards, and so on – it looks very cool. Wizard101 is currently in open beta too.
TypeRacer is a Flash game in which you race a car against others. Your typing speed determines the speed of your car. My measley 50 words per minutes seems to let me lead most races (though the current champion can type 219 wpm).
Not only is this game fun, it also qualifies as typing practice.
Some libraries in Los Angeles are having gaming nights – Guitar Hero, Wii Sports, and other console games. While we don’t have anything like that here – yet! – there will be a gaming night during this year’s SubText08. Wicked.
We do stock some good gaming mags in the teens collection; they often come with demo discs. Playstation mag, XBox 360, and Total Gamer.
Otago Museum’s SciCity is an interactive website that is laden with games. What’s notable is that you can create your own avatar, earn SciCity dollars that you can spend on technology, and chat with other users! It’s pretty addictive, but in the good, educational way. Otago Museum also produces the Cosmix Comic books, which are all online. We often have free copies in the library as well.
Roleplaying games are games in which the players take on imagined roles and play collaboratively. Dungeons & Dragons is probably the most well-known RPG out there. In addition to D&D (which aren’t in the young adult collection), we carry these gaming books:
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer : The Roleplaying Game – this is based on the television series that was so popular five or six years ago. Has it been so long already? Yes.
GURPS: Basic Set: Campaigns, GURPS: Basic Set: Characters, GURPS: Fantasy, and GURPS: Space – GURPS is an acronym for ‘Generic Universal Roleplaying System’. Which means you can play whatever you want; the rules can be adapted to any environment. You could roleplay shopping at the supermarket if you wanted (though ideally the supermarket gets attacked by, say, zombies).
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay : A Grim World of Perilous Adventure – Very grim. Has been called doom-laden. The forth-coming (and hyped) Warhammer MMO is influenced by the RPG.
- King Arthur : Pendragon – this game is based on the Penguin Classics edition of the fifteenth-
century Le Morte D’Arthur. You can swing your sword and explore dungeons; you can also manage your castle, enjoy jousting tournaments, and court faire maidens.
- Mutants and Masterminds – is set in a world where superheroes and supervillains battle for supremacy. Now you too can be Wolverine. Or Nightwing … or (even better) Nightwolverine.
The Warhammer Online Collector’s Edition has been announced; this will mean very little to anyone who doesn’t know what Warhammer Online will be. But for those in the know, good news! It will be packed with books, in-game extras and a graphic novel.
Word Sandwich is a game in which you must guess a five-letter word. It is quite difficult, but strangely addictive! My highscore was 3265, which is (apparently) quite terrible.
