This is actually sort of old news, but I wanted to wait until there was more useful information to post. Microsoft officially canceled the Marvel MMO that Cryptic had been developing for them. Cryptic has turned around and partnered with Hero Games, creators of the Champions tabletop RPG and retooled what was going to be the Marvel game to be a Champions Universe game. There’s now a website for the game, and it looks pretty spiffy. Their feature list and dev blogs read like the Requested Features section of the CoH forums, with things like power customization, AT-separate power picks (but not an entire lack of ATs, which is odd), loot (which apparently doesn’t obscure your costume), more action-based gameplay, etc. Amusingly, the game won’t be based directly off of the tabletop system, but after the MMO is released, there’s a plan to release either a conversion kit or something similar to port characters from the MMO back to the tabletop RPG. It’ll be interesting to see what they actually manage to pull off and what’s pie-in-the-sky. Regardless, good luck to them.
Category: General
General
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Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.
.Historical L33t
IM- and chat-speak are not the wave of the future. They are the wave of the past. Language Log quotes Noah Webster’s proposed spelling changes:
Thus greef should be substituted for grief; kee for key; beleev for believe; laf for laugh; dawter for daughter; plow for plough; tuf for tough; proov for prove; blud for blood; and draft for draught.
They aren’t idiots, they are classicists. I still hate them.
: Zubon
Clear Communication via Panic
We have not had a dating article in a while, but Ctrl+Alt+Del demonstrates some great advice in a single comic. Flip back another day if you need context.
Do you see what is happening there? They are dealing with an emotional reaction as a mature, reasonable couple. She understands that her initial presentation of the problem may not have been the best, and accepts his reaction. He does not hold it against her, instead pressing for clarity. She provides it. Now that he has a better grip on the situation, he prefaces his emotional response with the appropriate disclaimer, providing context. She understands and sympathizes with his reaction. They will be able to address the matter in more intellectual terms once they work through their initial emotional responses.
Full marks for both parties. This is a good sign for their relationship.
: Zubon
Cease and Desist
Scott Jennings has been asked to take down a picture of a kitten. Wait, no, that can’t be right. Conveniently, there is an explanation. And more details at many sites. I would link to all of them, but that just makes it more convenient for the next round of cease and desist orders. But if you lose one, you can find others. In the comments?
: Zubon
NASA MMO…EG
As you probably know, NASA recently put out an RFI (Request for Information) regarding the development of a MMOEG (educational game). The deadline for responses was today, at 11:59P Eastern, but it looks like they killed the page early this afternoon (not found) and now the link is password protected. If you didn’t get your submission in before they did this (or at least wrote the right information down) you are probably out of luck.
Anyway, I’ve posted my own thoughts on what NASA might or might not end up with, but I am curious to see what the KTR community thinks. After looking around at random other blogs, reviews, and whatever, I get the feeling that the gamer community, as a whole, may have missed the point about what NASA is looking for and trying to build. Forgive me for not saving the link, but I actually saw some comments on a Second Life blog implying that NASA and Linden Labs (makers of SL) were planning on creating a research company in SL to research the viability of a MMO (??). Even more amusing (or perplexing, depending on your point of view) one commenter expressed some befuddlement at the idea that NASA would consider building a MMO independently and not just build a space station or something within Second Life. (“…”).
What do you guys think?
Safe Hobby
Remember, no matter how badly tonight’s raid goes, no one in your group will accidentally slash open your carotid artery. It’s a scary world out there, and you are only safe in your computer chair.
: Zubon
New Video Card
Holy crap, is this what the game is supposed to look like? I’m no longer watching a slideshow. I really don’t know how to deal with this. Things are fluid. I can see individual drops of rain and snow in power effects. Some things have entered the uncanny valley, where it is disturbingly no-longer-cartoony and a touch surreal.
(NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express)
: Zubon
A Reminder About Requests
[tell] cn i jon ur team 42 def
If you cannot be bothered to type a complete request, you must not care that much about the team. Really, if you are going to ask anyone for anything, at least go through the motions of using real words. Also, I am not trusting that guy to heal me.
Sadly, some of the best players I know type this way, so it does not work as a heuristic, but at least I don’t have to try to read that for an hour with no guarantee that this is not another idiot.
: Zubon
The Internal Lives of Mobs
Zubon’s post reminded me that I’d meant to write this up a few weeks back: Why are mobs so blind and stupid?
Earthrise
From the FAQ to Earthrise, an MMO scheduled for next year:
I’ve never heard of Masthead Studios before – Who are you?
Masthead Studios is Bulgaria’s largest game development company, with a team consisting of young and enthusiastic artists, programmers and game designers with experience from numerous gaming projects. Earthrise is Masthead’s first project, and is likely Eastern Europe’s most ambitious so far.
I respect the chutzpah. Maybe Bulgaria has a game development industry, but they expect that statement to impress an English-speaking audience. The company has never made anything, but it is the largest. I guess they hired a lot of people, or maybe it is a big building.
For the game itself, it looks like it is cribbing heavily from EVE Online’s mechanics and adapting that to the standard avatar-based game, with a more standard PvP experience and no 0.0. Comments are open if you would like to speculate whether a company’s first game ever, an MMO, will be released on schedule.
: Zubon
H/T: Massively