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Landing

EVE[EVE Online] [Later update: this was probably not a real thing, at least not exactly as stated. While there may have been some official misconduct, the likely larger story is one faction from the game playing the metagame and “working the refs.”] Have you heard about the latest EVE scandal? You can read about it here or here; you can read about the previous (similar) one here, although that one did not include abuse of volunteer staff. Wasn’t it nice when the drama was just about players cheating each other? Is it an official perk for employees that you can ban people if their presence annoys your friends?

So I’m about to uninstall EVE. I am not currently subscribed, and I cannot think of anything that would make me re-subscribe at this point. Also, I do not plan to try World of Darkness Online, as I would hate to find my chantry deleted because someone’s friends’ Garou wanted a new caern.

: Zubon

Update: CCP responds. I am headed out of town, and with any luck there will be a more complete response from CCP when I get back. My apologies in advance if I have contributed to unfair accusations.

Guardians at the Gates 2: Empty Cities

Returning to a topic I started a while ago, am I on the cutting edge, or am I recommending that MMO companies commit suicide? There are several games that have tried some form of robust housing and city building/defense system, and almost all of them have been disappointing.

Asheron’s Call was the weakest performer of its crop of games, and its sequel did worse. A Tale in the Desert and Wurm Online are niche games. Shadowbane and Horizons have a recurring feature at GU Comics called “the Bug Zapper,” and Horizons still beats Vanguard as a model of how not to make a game. Star Wars Galaxies … yeah. Wish never went live. EVE Online is the lone winner of the pack, although didn’t it hit 100,000 subscribers before it added player-owned outposts and starbases? Age of Conan is the next test case, although its high violence and gore quotient may affect its results.

Is this just an apocalyptically bad idea? Perhaps the technology was not there in the past, but it is now becoming viable, like voice chat? It is not the sort of thing you can easily add to an existing game. You cannot just paste some cities on the side and call it good; that is meaningless. Where would you put it in Azeroth or Middle Earth? Shadowbane built around the idea, and it fit EVE’s existing structure perfectly. I know I am not the core MMO audience, since I do not play WoW, but am I completely in left field here?

: Zubon

Greater of Two Evils

So last night I received the message that my trial period is over. After spending about an hour pondering, I signed up for a month of the City. It’s disappointing to me that the choice for a subscription came down to “well, am I masochistic enough to see if I can get to mid-level and see if the grind is still as bad as it was?”

The answer to this question, incidentally, was yes.

Continue reading Greater of Two Evils

If I Had A Million Infamy

I made my first million Infamy last night. I remember my Heroes getting a million Influence back in the day. They were mid-20’s, had been miserly about enhancements, and even zoned out of missions a few times to sell so I wouldn’t miss any drops. And I needed that million so I could burn it on their first sets of SO’s. Without them, I was roadkill. Scrimp, save…it’ll be worth it.

My Mastermind dinged 16 late last night. And he made his million from just two drops. L’il bit different.

Continue reading If I Had A Million Infamy

Service Restored

coh[City of Heroes] I have previously complained about bugs and customer service waiting times in City of Heroes/Villains. I have had no significant issues since my return. Issue 9 had no game-breaking bugs, and what bugs there are are mostly contained within the new things (although the “fix” for perma-stealth with rescues/kidnappings is keeping me out of Warburg). Oz and others have commented on how lovely customer service has been.

I suspect these two issues are related. The more bugs there are, the more customer service needs to do, the less time it has. You will not have a 90 minute wait if the help queue is three people deep. I usually fear playing after a new Issue, but the game seems to be working rather well.

I have not had any problems with Comcast either. My internet connection has been stable for months. This is good, since the only thing that had been delaying my switch was AT&T DSL’s problem recognizing my condo’s address.

: Zubon

Oh, Hello Again Officer…

Last night’s CoV adventure was plagued with system issues and hiccups, to the point that I was apologizing for monopolizing the GM’s time in my petitions. It was as I saw the floating police lights appear in front of me for the third time that night that I realized how very far we’ve come in the customer satisfaction arena.

Continue reading Oh, Hello Again Officer…

Screw Google! And stay out of my games!

ITwire.com reports that Google recently filed a patent for monitoring player character behaviors in MMORPGs to build user profiles which are then used to target in-game advertising to players.

I used to think that the people over at Google were pretty smart. Apparently, they are dumber than a noob begging for gold. Oh wait, we should show that guy advertisements for credit card offers.

One would think that Google staffers would at least run a quick search on what a MMORPG actually is. They are supposed to have the world’s most powerful search engine, right?

Continue reading Screw Google! And stay out of my games!