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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.

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Double XP Weekend of the Living Dead

Most of my supergroup is on leave from City of Heroes. Three or four people are still around, but many are visiting WoW and Nostale. Some of those losses could be permanent. I find myself playing more flash games lately, but I am still in Paragon City. This four-month gap between issues is a problem, particularly when the big items in the last patch were Ouroboros (recycling old content) and ultra-rares (encouraging mass farming).

Friday kicks off a double-xp (and influence, infamy, prestige, and maybe drops) weekend. I expect to see many old friends back, and I expect a lot of character progress. My wife is heading out of town, and I will be cooking extra tonight so that I will have leftovers for the weekend.

As usual, if you want a trial code or invitation back (former subscriber gone for 90+ days), I can send them.

: Zubon

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

Decapitation Good, Nipples Bad

It’s official: Virtual gore, decapitation, dismemberment, and over-the-top type fatalities are fine in the USA.

Virtual nipples are bad.

Thanks to Broken Toys for the heads up.

UPDATE: Funcom made a mistake. Nipples are included in the USA version. Full blood! Full fatalities! Breasts with nipples! Crom be praised! Not full nudity! Oh well.

– Ethic

Adaptation

Why would you live in Paragon City? Walking to the green line involves passing three cyborg hoodlums, a group of vampires and werewolves, and sometimes alien invaders. Your best case scenario is to carpool with the corrupt corporation that sometimes abducts citizens for experiments.

Parents seem to have adapted; I see many people named “shakedown victim.” In the “A Path into Darkness” story arc, one hostage leaves you a note:

Grabbed by jack-booted thugs. Luckily, ready for that. Paragon City and all. Check with your friend, sent message regarding where to find me.

Of course, that immortal citizen is frequently taken hostage, so he should be planning ahead.

: Zubon

Fist of the North Star, ftw?

Ok, apparently a Fist of the North Star “MMORPG” is about to go into beta. I say “MMORPG” in quotes because it really isn’t anymore a MMO than say, Quake or Unreal Tournament. Sure, gazillions of people can play, but not at the same time in the same universe. I’m beginning to wonder if the game industry even knows what a MMORPG is supposed to be anymore. I have already decided that the mass media has no clue (hell, those guys have even lost sight of what “news” is supposed to be).

For you younger folks, Fist of the North Star is old school manga/anime. You can see some graphics over here and a little more information here.

What is next? Ikea MMO? Ferris Bueller the MMORPG? or maybe “Speed Racer Online” and “One Tree Hill, the super fabulous MMORPG” (totally “next-generation” of course).

Yeah, I died a little inside when I saw this stuff. It seems like the industry is really trying to grasp at straws for “new” content by dregging up old properties. Even the few companies trying to do something original simply end up with chocobo racing omgmmorpgwtf!

I want something really original for a change.

Conventions of the Game

Pulling is inherently a weird notion. You have to wonder about the guy next to the one who was pulled. “Did Bill just get shot in the shoulder? Meh, I guess he can handle it.” These aren’t villains, they are horror film extras, wandering into the woods one at a time, where an insane gang of SCA-wannabes lurks.

That is far from a new insight, but other oddities struck me. City of Heroes enemies have relatively small aggro and pursuit ranges. I regularly run past enemies with no stealth on, since they will shoot maybe once or twice before wandering back to their spots. We call it “Tanker stealth.” “Intruders! We’re under attack! Ah, eff it, he’s way over there. Not my job.” This is why the archvillains lose: their henchmen are lazy and stupid.

I was playing my Sonic Defender tonight. Staying out of that aggro range, I flew merrily above my enemies’ heads to get to their drug stashes and boss. Sonic Defenders have huge, spherical force shields. “Guido, did you see a giant orange bubble zip by us? No? Maybe it’s just me.”

: Zubon

City of Shuler

Did you know that Douglas Shuler plays City of Heroes? Being nerds, you might know him best as an artist from Magic: the Gathering. Serra Angel was one of his. He recently posted a link to a poster he made. He made 3D models of all 41 members of his supergroup, and posed them on the Atlas Park steps. Remind me to recruit a professional artist to our supergroup. The best we have is someone who teaches pottery.

: Zubon