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| From the OB's: 'Renaming the Shards (aka Servers) |
12/10/06 - 09:17 |
/em gets on soapbox
Concerning the Virtues of Villainy. And yes Villainy can be virtuous, or have its own set of virtues because villains do not see themselves as evil necessarily. It can be said that the 'Madman of Berlin' thought that he was doing what was best for his people back in the day, and that the Allies were trying to oppress the German peoples. Not that I agree with anything at all that he did or stood for (which I do not; note my euphemistic naming of the man out of deferrence to the people who may share his surname but are not monsters like he was). Because I prefer to play CoV doe not mean that I have an evil streak deep inside. It just means that I prefer the lay of the land and the stories and such that make up the Rogue Isles. I have even had a 'Heroes' player say to me; 'I bought CoV so I could use SG Bases, but I wont play it because I am not that sort of person.' Needless to say that I dont associate with that person anymore. I wouldnt want to upset his morality by causing him to play with my sort of person when I logged into my Heroes.
This mindset makes me boggle quite a bit. Villains are not necessarily evil; they just see what is right from a different point of view. Admittedly, the term has come to mean an evil person of some skewed mindset. In the beginning this was not so. Originally the term meant a village dweller; as in a person of mean (low) standing or parentage who was subject to the lord or honorable persons of the manor houses in Medieval European Feudal Society. Even the people who lived in the filthiest of cities or towns at that time were considered a step above the peasant farmers of the villages. Go figure.
At least even in this game my point of view is given some credence as I quote from the Virtuous Villain of St Martial;
'There's something going down, but if you're one of those, 'I want to eat human brains' types, then I got nothing for you. Look, we may be villains, but we still live here. I do what I can to make my life easier, but I don't go out of my way to hurt people who don't deserve it. I make my own destiny and I don't care about the laws unless someone's strong enough to stop me. But I ain't a monster.'
--Hardcase (Mission: Rescue Victims from Wailers)
Forgive what appears to be a threadjack, but isn't. I am just a little tired of the attitudes of some of the Heroes out there.
Thank you for your time, patience and consideration. Leave off with the renaming of the Servers.
/em gets off soapbox |
| WoW: Not Impressed |
9/29/06 - 09:01 |
Thought on Threads concerning the superiority of WoW over the CoX franchise from the Official Boards.
Well, since the tangent has become the primary focus here. I thought I'd throw out something that has been niggling at the back of my mind for a while now, and has been getting more and more confirmation with each passing week. Specifically that WoW as king MMO is a farce, at least partially.
How can I say that? Well, it does have HUGE subscriber numbers, but I have a feeling that a few well placed missiles into a commsat would reduce that number significantly. In fact, this has been hinted at, but never brought up, at least to my knowledge. I am not talking about the removal of the Asian playerbase of WoW, but I am talking about the Asian WoW FARM SYSTEM. Are WoW's numbers just a tad padded by the number of Corporate Lewt/Level Farms. Recent articles in PCGamer magazine have reported on their existence and business model. Personally, I find the subject fascinating. And for those waving the 'breakilng the EULA' flag; I believe that the periodic banning of thousands of accounts are only token gestures because the Asian farms are making money for the software companies. Is this a conspiracy? I don’t think so, just 'business as usual'.
Why would a company like Blizzard not be able to cleanse the game of gold/lewt/level farmers? There is no satisfactory answer. But consider what the Gold Farmers give the MMO:
*High Subscription Numbers
*Income (from subscriptions)
*Press Presence (from articles written on both the above)
It has been said; 'there is no bad press'. Presence is the name of the game. And now there is a new game looming on the horizon that seeks to combine the City of niche with the WoW economy. Imagine that.
Sure, you can buy Leveling/Influence/Infamy on eBay and a few websites, but the numbers for the City of games is nowhere near that of the fantasy MMO's because we don’t have an economy as such. And any mid/high level player knows how to make Inf in the game. There is no need to buy it with real money.
All that being said; I still think that WoW would have more subscribers than CoX because the fantasy genre has been weighted to swords and sorcery thanks to Gary Gygax(sp?) and AD&D. But does it mean that CoX, a casual player friendly game, is the 'redheaded stepchild' of MMO's. I don’t think so.
In baseball you need a Farm System, but does an MMO need one. With this kind of numbers padding I'd say; WoW's numbers don’t impress me much. |
| Meet & Greet in the O.C. |
5/14/06 - 06:36 |
Well, tonight was the NCSoft Meet and Greet at Howie's Game Shack in Mission Viejo. I got to meet Cuppajo, Positron, and a number of NCSoft Support Staffers and gamers. Yeah, baby; got me some cool swag from the Stack of Stuff that DJ Jester (w00t Radio) was tossin' into the crowd. I even learned some behind the scenes corporate stuff from Will Leverett (which I cant talk about under penalty of death, lol).
Positron was a well of information on the games. I would hope that CoH's Lead Designer would be. He still wouldnt let on as to when Issue 7 would be up on Live. Aargh! Cuppajo was as amiable as could be. I think I'm in love. Now, I just have to explain it to the wife. Hehehe. All of the NCSoft Staffers were aces, and friendly to the extreme. I can hardly wait til next time I get a chance to meet them again. |
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