Wilhelm2451 wrote at his The Ancient Gaming Noob blog about a neat idea — Naked Zones. This term does not describe an empty zone but means that you have to leave all your possesions behind when you want to enter it. You zone in without your equipment.

This could be an interesting idea for todays MMORPGs. What about a zone the size of the Echoes of Faydwer — Emerald Halls zone? Add a rapid progression in the zone place mobs that a raid could kill unarmored and without any weapons.

Fill that with alot of temporary no-zone loot that allows the raid to equip itself inside the zone plus add some quite good loot to zone/section bosses that is persistent.

This will allow players to prove skill that is comparable without the advantages that you have using your own stuff.

Ofcourse one would have to give the game a feature that upon zoning all equipment is getting stored somewhere so that players do not need to squeeze their belongings into the bank.

I like this idea — what do you think about it?

Found in this weeks Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue #55:

Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04), will be the next version of Ubuntu. It will succeed Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 (due for release in October 2007). The Ubuntu community continues to do what it does best, produce an easy-to-use, reliable, free software platform, but this release will proudly wear the badge of Long Term Support (LTS) and be supported with security updates for five years on the server and three years on the desktop. Everyone is welcome to think of and develop ideas for features that could be present in the Hardy Heron release. These ideas are written as specifications (detailed documents outlining how the idea would work and be implemented) https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu. Everyone is welcome to participate, everyone is welcome to get involved, and everyone is welcome to help shape the form of the Hardy Heron. Let’s work together to shake things up, make things happen and make the most compelling Ubuntu release yet. Start your engines