Welcome to the Dollhouse
[2006-06-30 16:00]

This comes from the desk of the What-Does-This-Say-About-Me committee of the If-You-Can't-Find-Free-Porn-On-The-Internet-You're-Not-Trying division of the Wow-They-Can-Do-That-Now? department.

It's a site called Renderosity. It's pretty amazing, all the nakedness aside. I've seen some of the contenders of the Miss Digital World contest, but some of the images on Renderosity are amazing in detail. I cannot imagine the amount of time and effort that has gone into some of these. I tend to be impressed by people who have skills and talents that I don't have. And since my own artistic talent is just a hair greater than my musical talent (which is pathetic), I'm impressed.

Of course, there's already been a movie starring all CGI characters. Plus, there's the best CGI character ever, and The Sims 2 uses 3D graphics wonderfully, as well. But those were all done by large companies and graphic-shops. The stuff at Renderosity has that DIY, home-grown feel to it. As computing power increases and gets cheaper, I can see these kinds of images and animations showing up in mainstream culture more and more. If Microsoft replaced clippy with, say, Claudia, I might enjoy my Office products a little more. Bill? Get on it!

Speaking of The Sims, whenever online folk discuss the Sims, there's always some statement about how it's geared towards girls, being the next evolution of dolls. Many guys in these forums will state how The Sims just doesn't hold their interest for very long. Well, for the record, I'm male and in my late 30s and I enjoy playing The Sims 2. I guess I have a lot in common with little girls. Actually, I think I like The Sims because I'm a little OC (and I don't mean Orange County). So any game where I can get ahead by washing my hands over and over is the game for me.