Mobhunter’s posted a bit of outrage at the idea that our tax dollars were used to investigate the possibility of terrorists using MMO’s to coordinate an attack.
While the idea may seem a bit absurd, and I’m usually one to have great fun picking on such things, the anger is a bit misplaced.
City of Heroes started trickling out information on Issue 13: “Architect” and I’m already chomping at the bit. The title is a reference to one of the core components in this update: a mission/story editor that allows players to create their own adventures in the City of Heroes game and share them.
It’s been over two years since I posted my rant on “the missing gamer” (the DM/storyteller). We’ve seen MMO’s cater to the adventurer, the explorer, the socializer, etc, but even though the DM/Storyteller was the center of so many pen-n-paper games, few MMO’s risked putting so much power in the hands of the players.
A friend sent this link on Crysis’ release sales. Of note:
Crysis sold just 86,633 units last month, following its release on November 13.
Those disappointing numbers don’t surprise me. I’m surprised so many people expected so much more, but I’ve been ranting on skyrocketing system-spec requirements for quite some time. Sometimes it seems that developers are saying “we expect to capture 10% of our market- the 10% that has uber video cards” instead of saying “we expect to capture 10% of the 10% that have uber video cards” and thus getting some rather ambitious projections.
Zubon’s got a good writeup on the Carnival of Shadows- a Villain group in the City of Heroes universe. I agree with much, but wanted to challenge enough of it that I killed the reply-box before I remembered that longer replies could go to my oft-neglected blog here.
Go ahead and read it, then this will make a bit more sense. You can also read the history of the Carnival at the official site, but warning- much of this is “spoiler” information that you discover in the story arcs.
My comments after the break.
Jason over at probablynot is talking about mini-games for crafting. There’s a weird sense of déjà -vu for both of us, as we both recall talking about this topic somewhere at some time, but can’t find it anywhere.
For you non-MMO-playing readers, “crafting†is just what it sounds like. While some heroes may slay dragons or explore the far reaches of the wilderness, others make the armor that deflects that deadly blow or that sword that slices a new path through the wilderness. Crafting across different games comes in many forms, but almost all of them have one thing in common:
They’re incredibly boring.