Month: May 2006

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So You Read Message Boards For a Living?

MMO community managers have an ugly job. Public relations is never the cakewalk that it seems from the outside, but dealing with the teeming internet hordes is not always as pleasant as eating bees.

I have never had the job, but let us pause a moment to consider some of the things we put our poor community managers, board mods, and developers through. Anyone can feel free to add horrors that I have missed in the comments (or via e-mail). (If this is your job, we understand if you feel the need to use a pseudonym and censor specifics, but we will not be releasing IP addresses and we understand that any example does not relate to specific people, but rather is a statement of general tendencies or extreme cases, probably exaggerated for effect. Or maybe you want to make an example of someone.)

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Two Years Later…

I just realized it has been two years since I started this site. Two years. I’m honestly shocked. I had my first year at Blogger.com and then I moved to my own place (where 7 other people signed up to write). It’s been another whole year now since the move.

I figured it might be a good time to take a look at some stats because numbers are fun, OK?

In the last year we have had 285,661 people visit the site. In that same time there were 1,251,296 hits. And for data we transferred 13,290,855 KBytes. In the last month, we averaged 1,323 visitors per day.

Now, I don’t know what all these numbers mean, but they look big enough to me. I’m just glad my hosting fees have not gone up.

Thanks to everyone that spends a little time here and I hope we have provided a little entertainment for you. Here’s looking to two more years!

– Ethic

How Do You Manage EVE Faction?

EVE[EVE Online] I am back on the far side of the EVE Gate for another month. The last time I was here, I was working for the Gallente Navy, which made me lots of Gallente friends but the Caldari may hate me forever. Between the derived modifications and actually blowing up Caldari ships en masse in missions, the Caldari State stopped inviting me to parties.

This time, I have been working to balance that out. I am now in Caldari space, running missions for Caldari corporations. With some social skills, my gains from Caldari faction have been higher than my losses to Gallente faction… until they sent me to fight Gallente invaders. A single mission can do significant damage to the Gallente good will I earned last time. I am not even working for the Caldari Navy; my contact is with the Corporate Police Force, a friend to Hyasyoda Corp.

Is there a way to keep taking combat missions without blowing up one of the four empires? I don’t mind pirate hunting, but blowing up my own race is not a winner. Or do you have a better notion of how to manage faction?

: Zubon

Some Things City of Villains Did/Does Right

cov[City of Villains] We conclude Shiny Happy Week with the follow-up to yesterday’s post, the other side of our superhero game. Does it merit it’s own write-up? It is a standalone game, and I have more hours playing it than whatever the next MMO down the list would have been, so yes. We can talk about the things that City of Villains does uniquely that City of Heroes does not (or does not yet, or did not at CoV release, etc.). Also, I have remembered a couple of other things I wanted to note about City of Heroes, so flip over there to see my love for the sidekick/exemplar system.

I have, of course, written quite a lot about City of Villains, since I have been KTR’s lone representative there. New game, exciting things, so I have had various things to say here, here, here, here, and here, and those are the varieties of “CoV is pretty cool” posts. So you can look at those to see some things I have enjoyed.

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Some Things City of Heroes Did/Does Right

coh[City of Heroes] Cast your eyes upon Paragon City, a place devastated by interdimensional war but filled with the hope of a thousand heroes. The strange magic and science of the place have birthed a collection of heroes and villains, and others from around the world flock there to conquer or protect this seat of superheroic power.

I started blogging at Kill Ten Rats with City of Heroes, and you may have noticed it as my most frequent topic. It has been my usual game these past two years, although my account lapses today so I will be on break. What is it about City of Heroes that has brought me so much entertainment?

[edit: added comments on the sidekick/exemplar system below the break]

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Some Things Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates Did/Does Right

[Puzzle Pirates] Next we have an MMOArrPG. Oh, those clever puns!

Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates is not a game I have played a lot. I have played enough to sample most things, but I have not done everything and I have never gotten involved in the in-game politics of blockades and such. When I feel like playing the game of mini-games, I log on, find a shop or pick-up crew, and merrily play whatever amuses me. When I have had enough, I collect my pieces of eight and head out.

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Zxyrox’s Yearly Post

Well I felt I needed to write something, I’ve been busy both in Real Life and Gaming, and haven’t given it much thought.

As Far as WoW goes, im still not impressed, More raiding content that will seperate the guys in Blues and Greens from the Epic Super Soldiers, who will very soon be able to 1-shot said Blue/Green folk (which Blizzard will need to realise fast, as they have a large majority of Pvpers in the game who are fed up with the honor grind as it is, much less more Epics to drool over as they are getting cut into cubes by them).

Eve Online I’m having more fun with, getting back into PvP with my corp Amarria Auxillia, been trudging around Huzzah/CVA space destroying everything in our way without a death yet, having great fun, many tech2 cloaking devise drops and corpses for everyone, and of course many things going explodey. Which I have to say is a hell of a lot more satisfying than Killing Night Elves (I know someone will disagree with me on this) .

Real Life, still not fun, no new patches or content updates, and my Social Life has been nerfed. terrible server side lag and way too many noobs play. I think I’m hitting the cancel button soon :P.

-Zxyrox

Some Things EVE Online Did/Does Right

EVE[EVE Online] A new day, a new galaxy! While most games content themselves with taking us to a new world, EVE Online takes us to a new galaxy filled with worlds. You could control an entire system on the other side of the EVE Gate!

I do not need to say as much about EVE, I suspect, because most of our contributors here have played and commented. Still, there are some things I would like to address. After all, even if you do not enjoy EVE, you must respect what they are doing. The game has an independent vision, an increasing player base, and bold prospects for the future. It strikes out from the mainstream “Yet Another Fantasy MMORPG” approach and has a different take on what a MMO should be and do. Even the one-server approach is rare. I expect to return to EVE sometime soon.

Continue reading Some Things EVE Online Did/Does Right