Author: Zubon

Yesterday, Verizon was offering a free ringtone as a new year advertisement, presumably as a way to show off their new deluxe system and get people started on that sort of thing. This plan worked brilliantly, except that the system was unavailable, busy, crashed, etc. every time I tried to use it over the day. Twice, it even let me get so far as entering the code I would need to get the free song before reseting everything. So what did we learn from this advertisement? That Verizon has no idea how to make a stable network or serve its customers. I am surprised that they advertised this.

I was immediately reminded of when City of Heroes gave a free trial weekend immediately after releasing Issue 7. Apparently “Our system is so bugged as to be unusable! Would you like a sample?” is a very popular way to seek new and returning customers. Hey, why not invite massive server load before getting the bugs out of the system?

: Zubon

[City of Villains] I have been running a lot of newspaper missions lately. I realized that it is impossible to get a mission to fight heroes; they are all villain vs. villain. There are plenty of chances to fight heroes through story arcs in the late game, but again the majority of the missions are against other villains. Even when we fight the signature Heroes, the missions are often full of villains. If not villains, we fight Longbow, Longbow, and the Paragon Police Department (on mayhem missions, which also have Longbow).

There are two other hero factions at lower levels, Wyvern and the Legacy Chain, but that is about it. WISDOM and the Civic Squad just have their bosses/Heroes, not actual missions worth of things to fight. The big story arc that completes your villainous tale puts you against two (or more) of the signature Archvillains. We have five strike forces on the villains side: #1 mixes heroes and villains as we fight a demon (villain), #2 is mostly Sky Raiders (villain), #3 is a mix of Longbow and villains, #4 is almost entirely Circle of Thorns (villain), and #5 is the famous Lord Recluse Strike Force (only 1 mission against villains, all the signature Heroes). Our respec trial is Circle of Thorns again.

Can we leave the heroes some work? And get more heroes to work over?

: Zubon

Update: upon reflection, I have been unfair, because there are more non-villain factions in the lower levels. The Prison Guards (tutorial only), Rogue Island Police (up to level 10), and Security Guards are all police variants, and some of them are accessible in newspaper missions via bank heists (which seem to be a rare offering). Is it heroic to be private or public security in the employ of villains? There is a Sharkhead quasi-hero faction, the Scrapyarders, which I absolutely should have included. The Dockworkers are their not-heroic half-clones in St. Martial, who feud with the Family the way that Scrapyarders feud with the Cage Consortium; I don’t think of them as non-villains, so much as employees of villains who are on strike over workplace benefits, which is a role that the Scrapyarders also sometimes fill (so the Scrapyarders are good guys because they have Heroes championing their workplace rights? They are explicitly described as “former criminals and other troublemakers”). The Luddites are a less evil rogue villain group in Cap Au Diable. I am also told that the Russian military shows up in a mission chain, although I do not know if they are used as heroes or just competing villains.

So before you get to Grandville (the 40+ game), you have many chances to fight less- or non-villainous groups, although many of them are feuding employees of villains. They don’t crusade for the destruction of evil groups, so much as a more equitable distribution of their profits. Still, the time from level 40-50 is comparable to level 1-40, so it is a long bout of villainous in-fighting, sprinkled with Longbow and the occasional signature Hero.

Re-Update: I ran a heist newspaper mission at level 50 today. The enemies are Arachnos, not guards. So strike one hero fight.

Jeff Freeman says:

Also [provide evidence that you are listening] by portaling from your official (blog) site to interesting updates, threads, people, on fan-run sites. Point-out things you find great to say “Hey, we are listening and we love you!” as much or more than official forums currently do.

The log-in screen for City of Heroes includes a link to Mantid’s Emote Guide, which is a pretty cool thing. I totally want to be the guy who puts those shout-out links on the official page when some gaming company recruits me.

: Zubon

Our little gaming blogosphere has been kicking around a fews of stories about Second Life recently, as reporters uncritically pass along press releases with large numbers and convenient narratives. These stories rarely (never?) connect the 2,000,000 “residents” and 36,000 actual subscribed accounts, and if you have read any, you are aware of the depth of understanding demonstrated about the online world and Second Life’s place and relative stature in it.

That depth of understanding is usually displayed in the standard freak show story. “After Bob started playing World of Warcraft 112 hours a week, his wife left him, he lost his job, and his cat died of starvation not thirty feet from his computer. Bob is a typical of many in his ‘guild.'” Or how about, “Two teenagers shot some people today, and one of the owns a PlayStation! When will the legislature protect us from these ‘gamers’?”

When you think about how accurately your hobby or industry is portrayed in the media, remember that they are equally competent on other issues. That same quality of journalism appears in reports on local crimes, global warming, complex legal rulings, sports scores, and what is the best diet to slim down this spring. Why is it that you can read a story about something you know first-hand, see the analysis wrong and three names misspelled, then turn the page and take their word on whether environmental conditions are improving in China?

: Zubon

Buzzword check! Most of us have heard of “Web 2.0” by now, which is of course jealous imitation by people who are not as cool as Al Gore. In discussing my wife’s upcoming presentation in Second Life, I was introduced to the term “Library 2.0.”

Oh lord, are we really doing this, the way that we added “e-” to the front of everything ten years ago? “E-commerce!” Does anyone else have more examples? Or a way I can cash in on this if it is a developing fad? You’ve seen how much I write — I can pump out a management book on “Business 2.0” in a month, provided I have an advance from a publisher. With no real content! It will be the start of Book 2.0!

: Zubon

Remember, the holidays are a time for family and togetherness, so the PvP zones will be full of people working off anger and frustration. Play safe, kids.

: Zubon

Time Magazine has named both Scott Jennings and Saparmurat Niyazov as “Person of the Year.” Mr. Jennings is better known as Lum the Mad; President Niyazov is better known as the insane dictator of Turkmenistan. The two were last seen together here. Neither has commented on their shared award. President Niyazov is unlikely to do so, as he died of a heart attack upon receiving the news.

: Zubon

TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests. — David Foster Wallace

Everyone likes boobies. Everyone likes huge phallic swords that burn with purple fire. Everyone likes blowing up the bad guy.

Once you get past the “everyone likes” options, you are eliminating portions of your potential playerbase. You may be making a better game, but it is better only for those subsets of the world that like that sort of thing.

As we get more games, we see more refined and aesthetic options, as games find their niches. We also see more games trying to be that lowest common denominator superstar in the center.

So hey, your game’s population is tiny not because it sucks, you are just more refined and noble than the market leader. Now that other niche game, yeah, it sucks, and so does everyone who plays it. What a bunch of losers.

: Zubon

H/T: Ben Casnocha via Marginal Revolution