WAR Minimum System Requirements

I know this comes from the Herald (link in title) but thanks to Book Of Grudges for their little news widget thing.

The minimum specs for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning:


PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

For Windows XP

· 2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
· 1 Gigabyte RAM
· A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
· At least 15 GB of hard drive space

For Windows VISTA

· 2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
· 2 Gigabyte RAM
· A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
· At least 15 GB of hard drive space

Supported Video Cards

ATI Radeon(TM) series

· 9500, 9600, 9800
· X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
· X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
· 2400, 2600, 2900,
· 3650, 3850, 3870
· 4850, 4870

NVIDIA GeForce series

· FX 5900, FX 5950
· 6600, 6800,
· 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
· 8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
· 9400, 9500, 9600, 9800
· GTX 260, GTX 280

Intel(R) Extreme Graphics

· GMA X4500

Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slowly. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants will have low settings selected, but should run satisfactorily.

Please note that attempting to play the game using video hardware that isn’t listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not run at all.

The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista.

I have one question. 15 GB? For what? o.O

Unity and the space/time continuum

Ahh blog titles. What fun we have together. Also a technical note, while I fiddle with the html, any links needed are on the sidebar or in the title.

For a great many people who may read this (honestly I've no idea how many do), the point may at first blush seem pointless.

Servers! Then when and where of them.

This is nothing to do with rulesets like core or Pvp or Rp or what have you. This is more to do with geographic separation, time differences and why I play where I do.

The where I play comes from a quick history lesson. My very first MMO was EA/Westwoods shortlived Earth & Beyond. There were three servers as far as I recall and all of them American. Galileo (my server and later I discovered the rp inclined one), Andromeda (An-drama-da) and you know... I don't recall the last one.

I live five hours ahead of the east coast of America and have always done, barring a two year stint in Canada. This oddly worked out very well for me playing an American game on American times and servers. When I had had my dinner, been with my friends and all the other little bits of life, people were home from work or school and getting their game on. Weekends if I stayed up late, Pacific people would show up and I was garunteed things to do pretty much all the time.

Fast forward to recent times. I'm playing City of Heroes. In the coalition we have British people, me from Ireland (honestly are there any other Ireland based mmo players?), EST people, PST people, a handful from Brazil and a bunch from Australia. Because of the time differences, sure it can be hard to get us all in one spot at one time. Inevitably someone ends up losing sleep. On the other hand, the world for me is collected in my coalition and there is almost always something to do, be it roleplay or teaming without me having to PUG it.

That's not going to be quite the option in Warhammer though for me. Mythic, for whatever reason they have, is separating servers. There are going to be Oceanic, EU and NA servers. Sure it may cut down lag as people wont have to connect to a computer half the world away. Sure it may concentrate the number of servers so more people at your play time are available in your timezone. It seems the best way from a technology and numbers standpoint.
Is it the best way for the rest of us? I don't think I'm sold on it.

They already recognise that gamers are going to connect at any time no matter where they are. I interviewed for the position of English GM for Warhammer here in Dublin (and I'm still waiting for a yes or no GOA) and it was asked if I minded doing late night shifts as the customer service and GM positions are 24 hour jobs. People will play through the night, all day and everywhere in between.

Obviously there are merits to separating servers, be it by load limit or by geography. Otherwise why would they do it? Not everyone feels the need. Eve, even though it is a different beast entirely, for the longest time had one main server. Tranquility. All the world was welcome to make a quick ISK or shoot down someone else chasing that New Eden dream all in the same place.

However because of this separation, arbitrary and spinks from the fantastic Book of Grudges wont be able to participate in the Open Beta blogger guild organised by Boathammer.
Because of the separation, I may find playing on NA servers a little quiet when I get home from work, and find I miss some of the best battles because I have to sleep sometime.

For the North Americans reading, you face the same question but in a smaller way. Do you pick a predominantly pacific server when you live in New York because you work late? Do you make do with lower server population because you are on at, for America, an odd time? Do you then do what I am doing, only backwards. Do you pick an EU server or Oceanic server so that despite odd working hours you will still have people to play with?

In the end it comes down to something Tobold mentioned on his blog about the future of grouping. Warhammer is making it easy for you to hop on and hop right in to a group doing what you want or join a public quest instantly so even the most casual of gamers can feel as though they took part in a meaningful manner.

But in the virtual world, where all are supposedly equal before the 0's and 1's, is the future of grouping still divided by geography?

Personally I will always go for NA servers. It's where my friends are. Friends I am only going to meet in person for the first time this January. Distance has never mattered before, it's just a pity it may matter now.

IP (Freely)

Intellectual properties are a wonderful thing.
When you are starting a game, there are many hurdles. Too much exposition and fluff and people will get bored. Too little explanation of the why of your gaming experience and people will find it shallow and unmemorable. So IP's with their already established stories, fans, rules and reasons are great right?

Welllll....I suppose it depends on the medium. Take Star Wars. The movie franchise (love or hate the new ones) is hugely popular. The books are fantastic (YMMV). The games are hit and miss and the MMO .... well all I will say on that is NGE.

Two big IPs are coming to an MMO near you soon (for a given value of soon). Star Trek and Warhammer.

First we'll deal with a question on Star Trek.

Originally when Perpetual were running the game, they had decided to move the setting for the game 25 years beyond the end of Nemesis. This was a fantastic move I think. It put it far enough away so that familiar faces would exsist, but still left expansion room for current books, movies and shows. It also put it just far enough in the future for the lads at Perpetual to make up any damn story they wanted.
So far I have heard nothing, though granted I've not yet looked hard, to suggest Cryptic is retaining that story, making a new one or just plonking every new player in the universe ten minutes after the end of Nemesis.

Warhammer on the other hand is being created with huge input from Games Workshop. They are helping the lads at Mythic pick the classes, the look and feel of the world, even having final say on certain things (as far as I understand it) like the removal of the Dwarven beertractor.

I wonder how far the interaction from Games Workshop can be taken, or the creative control that Paramount may exert on Cryptic. Take the other big Cryptic game, Champions Online. Cryptic can do pretty much anything they want as they now own the IP. What happens in their game setting is now lore and the books that will be released in tandem and after the game launch will reflect that. Cryptic can manipulate that IP any way they want. Mythic cannot however suddenly declare that all Dwarfs adore pink and should ride bunnies and that Chaos really isn't that bad, they just need a /em hug once in a while.

What do you think is best for an MMO? Free reign to manipulate the world anywhich way? Or should the companies have a fluff bible and strict guidelines?

Personally I favour the guidelines. As much as I trust Mythic, the majority of my interest in Warhammer Age of Reckoning isn't the RvR or Living Guilds/Cities or any of that. It's the fact that it is Warhammer. A game and universe that I love and enjoy playing in.

Another universe that I enjoy is the setting for World of Warcraft. I am currently re-reading Richard A. Knaak's War of the Ancients trilogy. It's a good fun read I think.
I however made the mistake of looking over http://wowwiki.com earlier.
Blizzard have not retained a strict control of their world and as such I see chaos creeping in. Print media is not agreeing with the RTS which in turn is different again in ways from the MMO. Sure the little separations are that, little. Sure this happens all the time, look at comic books and the Infinite Crisis idea.

For me though, for my immersion in the game, for my stories that I play out and for my own enjoyment, I am glad there is someone there watching Mythic and helping them keep the corners tidy (or as tidy as they ever are in the Games Workshop, 25 years is alot of backstory). An ordered universe can only make it easier for us to play surely?

That said, maybe WoW needs to release the Crisis of Infinite Azeroths and Cryptic release something that tells us what stars we'll be trekking.

Warning : If you click on the WoW wiki you are subject to the wiki effect (link in title).

Coming up for air

Previously I have blogged about how I would love to be involved in Community management amongst other things. To be there with a game as it grows, evolves, stabilises into a community and progresses.
If there is one community that can give me pause, it is the legions of Star Trek fans.

I love watching Star Trek. I was raised on the original series and on the Next Generation. I enjoy the books (New Frontier series in particular) and the other series. I am a born and bred sci-fi geek.
However, I cannot stand the majority of the Star Trek community. I'm on that narrow ledge, knowing enough about MMO's to know when people are talking rubbish, knowing enough about Star Trek to know when people are being daft and knowing enough about the mindset of "fans" to know I need to be careful.

There was a chap on the www.startrek.com boards when Perpetual were doing the game that thought a) the cell processor was a gift from God himself and could do anything we demanded of it and b) that as such Star Trek Online shouldn't be a game, but a fully interactive, 3-d modelled with real time star placement from Nasa computers enviroment where we could live Star Trek. Not play it, not imagine it, not toy with it, but have it as a virtual world as advanced as possible.
I thought he was a freakin loony (and if you're reading this mate, you still owe me $1, I told you the comet wasn't antimatter).

What was scary? People hmmed and hawed and found merit in his suggestion.
The kind of people who think that an IP should be taken so far beyond Roleplay and interactivity to the point where you reading the blog is considered work and your character in a virtual world is the "real" you, they scare me. I sure as hell don't want to answer any lfts in a zone I know they're in.

On the original topic, I wish the community manager of Star Trek Online well. They have a hell of a job ahead of them. Star Trek fans, MMO fans and the darker side of each. For once, I don't want the job for myself.


As an aside...
I may be blithingly oblivious to the same sort of underbelly in Warhammer Online, but I'll change that soon enough by watching forums more. The blogs related to WAR though fill me with confidence. Also I think the transition is easier as you are going from tabletop game or role playing game to online game.

Prediction : Star Trek Online vs Star Wars KOTOR MMO blog posts inside the next two weeks.

Something on sensors....

So it hath arrived!

Star Trek Online has been officially unveiled by Cryptic Studios.

Bullet point time!

• There is a quite obvious change from the Perpetual version, Klingon and Federation starting races rather than just the Federation
• There seems to be the implication we're all going to captain our own ships.
• Customizable ships as well as characters.
• User generated content.
• ... Console release.

So then. There are some good sounds coming from it. The two empires at start will please all those bloody noisy people from the old boards (I swear, if I see one serious "I want to be Borg", I will lose all reason). The Cryptic touch from City of Heroes of letting you customize everything!

Then there are the things that give me pause. I know MMOs are making a push into consoles, hell FFXI has been on them for years. I know Champions Online is doing it too. The reason I am wary is simple. Cryptic made a great game in City of Heroes in that you can pick it up for 10 minutes and feel good walking away after. Immersion is what you make it. Consoling this up ... how much of an impact will your ship really make in the universe if it's a 10 minutes here, 30 minutes there console accessible game? That may just be me being paranoid.

The only other thing that sticks out in my mind at the moment is Jack Emmerts letter to the community. Now, he may be perfectly honest and if so I am sorry for being a doubting Thomas, but why do I get the feeling if Cryptic made a game on bread mold, he'd post about what a huge lifelong fan of mold he is? That's my potshot at Jack "Forcefields are fine, lets not fix it" Emmert. I'll behave for now.

It's the final countdown

It's no secret I am a sci-fi geek.

It is also no secret that Cryptic Studios have taken on Star Trek Online from Perpetual (a game I used to follow on the official boards).

So... with some 30 odd minutes till the timer runs out, I wonder what they'll be announcing.
Sadly, I've got to go to work right now, so I suppose I'll find out closer to an hour from now.

Would like to buy : Patience

A quote from Wiki

Development history
Warhammer Online game development began under the company Climax Online. The project was officially canceled in June 2004 when Games Workshop determined that the roll-out costs would be too expensive. However, work on the game never actually stopped as Climax Online continued the project using their own funds until the company reported in late 2004 that the Warhammer Online project was shut down due to difficulty in securing a publishing agreement.
With the license available again, Games Workshop was approached by Mythic Entertainment, who were interested in acquiring the license and starting a new project from scratch. A long-standing relationship between several Games Workshop managers and the CEO of Mythic Mark Jacobs ensured that a deal was quickly reached. The Warhammer Online license was acquired by Mythic on May 18, 2005.

And with regards Beta

Beta timeline

• In the May 2007 newsletter, http://www.war-europe.com/ was announced live. It contained a beta signup section that allows players to sign up for a chance to enter the closed beta. According to the newsletter, the chance of entry is increased when the email address used in the sign up is the same as the address for the newsletter itself.
• In the April 2007 newsletter, a guild beta application was launched which allowed guild leaders to submit their organized pre-launch guilds.
• On October 10th 2007, the public beta servers were taken down and Mythic confirmed that the beta will return to alpha testing until December. Mythic will use this down time to incorporate community suggestions, rewrite code, finish work on character customizations, and polish the end game RvR content.
• In the first week of February 2008, three waves of beta invites were sent out.
• In June 2008 Beta 2 was officially closed, and preparations for the next phase, which would include the so called "Guild beta" begun.
• On July 11th 2008, "Guild beta" keys were officially activated and the next phase of the Beta began

That's just a quick glimpse for any who don't know, just how long this game has been coming. Earlier in the year (or last year, my recollection is fuzzy) we heard of another Warhammer project. A Warhammer 40k MMO. Now that itself doesn't even have more than a blurb on the THQ site. It will be ages yet while they flesh out the art, the systems to be used, the graphics engine, everything. In the world of top notch games, that's life. Quality demands time and time costs money.

What had me thinking of this all is the upcoming Jim Butcher Novels "Princeps Fury" and "Turn Coat", from the Codex Alera and Dresden Files series respectively. I love Jim Butcher! I love the two styles he uses, the two totally different settings, the different characters. I accept that for quality reading like I've had from him, I must wait about a year between books. White Night was released in April, Princeps Fury will be December and then Turn Coat will be April again.
I get two fantastic books from that author every year.

If he went faster they'd be shite. No two ways about it.

On the flip side, there is another author I enjoy. Peter F Hamilton. I very much enjoyed his Nights Dawn trilogy, his Greg Mendel stuff, a few of his standalone and I loved the Confederation Saga. He is currently writing the Void trilogy which is set in the Confederation saga universe, but some 1000 years in the future.
My problem? Hamilton does space opera. While I do enjoy it and while each of his books are meaty, they apparently take quite a bit longer to write. I got the first Void book, the Dreaming Void, last year. I am not due part two until next year. As a result, I've rather lost interest. Too much was left hanging and will be left hanging for too long. I will still get the books when they come out, but more for the sake of completing the story than any remaining Fan-boy WAAAANT!

Going back to WAR, some of the cities and classes were removed. I've not played in the Beta so I can accept the official stance that it is for the best. After all, I have no information to the contrary and while in beta, games can and will change. Everything is a sandcastle before the tide in Beta. It may last, it may not, it may even melt into an unrecognisable lump.

People called for Mythic to take more time, to finish what they thought they were owed. Not wanted, but owed. Do I think they should take the time? Nope. I have patience, I can wait for the game, I just really don't want to.

Sooner or later the hype/hope/happiness would fade and I wouldn't be as ready for the game then as I am now. There is a balance to be had between time spent crafting and quality.

Am I a fanboy? Or do I just need more patience?

I have the best toys

Imagination. That's where it is at.

That is what helps us play. What turns a stuck out index finged and thumb into a gun for Cops & Robbers. (As an aside thought, why is it called Cops & Robbers even in Ireland and England where "cops" isnt exactly the most common term for Police?)
With imagination and passion and ability, we are brought our games. We make our games great. Anyone can click buttons on a computer, but it is far more engaging to feel as though you are that Space rouge/Wizard/Dwarf/Superhero.

I have a fantastic toy right now. It is a Canon iRC5185i black toner cartridge. I removed it from the photocopier because it was finished, obviously. It is black, has a hand grip where you are supposed to hold and rotate new ones to loosen the toner. It has a sliding plastic piece at the top that moves back. Rather like a shotgun being racked.

You know what? I have a freakin plasma gun. Sure it may only amuse me for a few minutes, what with me apparently being an adult, but for those few minutes it is mighty. I can slay foes, defend innocents, change worlds.

It is one of the things I wonder if I can do in Warhammer Age of Reckoning.
In City of Heroes I have serious roleplay characters yes (or as serious as I ever get). I also have various, a small giant insect (4' tall as opposed to other giant insects), a mutated puppy dog, three versions of a rampant AI childs toy (see below for Robo-Buddy) and a guy who gets covered in rocks because they really really like him. Roleplayers are varied. A friend recently told me she was for once glad not to be playing with me due to my latest incarnation of Robo-Buddy. To each their own really. It may bother her, but it amuses me and keeps me playing. I tend towards daftness rather than darkness more often than not because I enjoy being happy. My roleplay isn't necessarily right, nor is it technically wrong. It simply is what I enjoy. Why play a game you are not enjoying?

I know that in the grim darkness of the far future or the distant past, in Warhammer, there is only war.

That is fine by me. I however know there will be smiles, jokes, things to amuse and I hope very much, some methods whereby I can be as silly as I want or imagine as much as I want to give myself another few moments of fantasy funnies. Imagination is the ultimate sandbox.

Legion : Delivery Charge

Robo-Buddy Mk I v3.2 Upgradable model.


>AI system start.

>Delivery phase complete.

>>Accepting new modules
>>>Obtaining mace replacement
>>>Updating firmware. . . . complete.


Armor modification detected. Integrating systems. Redesignating Mk III v1.0


> Online

"Bob we're never going to get away with this..."

"Look, someone upstairs ordered the damn thing. The Widow doesn't have any kids, I'm not even going to ask about the Lord and the 'recruits' for widow and spider training don't get toys."

"..yeah but I mean sticking it in a Crab-can? The damn thing already grabbed my gun"

"There's talk, I've seen the guys out near Kalinda. Some of the soldiers and widows are breaking ranks and doing that Destined One stuff...no one will notice another ...errr short spider. C'mon it's not like he can get out"


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So! Double XP Weekend went rather well for me. Played a bit with Werit of http://werit.blogspot.com/ and worked my ass off on my (at the time) level 39 Ice/Cold corruptor. Several ITF's, one LGTF and a farming team later I hit level 50 and unlocked VEATs.

Thus for my own amusement and to the horror of my friends, there is now a Robo-Buddy Soldier of Arachnos running around at level 14 (I knew taking Monday off would pay off).


Thanks to everyone who helped!

I do have a personal list of goals before I ever leave the game completely. They are to get one level 50 for every heroic AT and one villain at 50. That's 8 level 50 characters.


5 down. Next up Warshade (lvl41) and Scrapper (lvl42). The final 50, a blaster, will likely be the hardest for me. However I have found the silliest concepts usually make characters more playable for me after all this time. Hence, the Puppy make make the change from Claws/Regen scrapper to Sonic/Devices blaster. We'll see.


In conclusion, Robo-Buddy watches you.

How close are your friends?

A topic was mentioned on the Book of Grudges (Link in post title) recently that has suddenly come to mind for me for two reasons. Firstly someone recently decided that I am no longer their friend and secondly, I saw an article a while ago on how Facebook and such sites are eroding peoples concepts of "friend".

So I have to ask, what defines a friend for people? Is it time spent? Is it an on going thing? I know someone that I haven't spoken to in years but still consider a dear friend, yet I also know people I have talked to recently and often, yet consider them little more than aquaintances.

In a wired world where popularity is less how well received you are by your peers and more by how large your Myspace count is, how does one work out who is there for a chat and who is there to, as the joke goes, help you hide the bodies?

I've played City of Heroes for almost four years now. I have met in the course of that mmo probably hundreds of people. Possibly thousands. I've found a niche in a coalition and through global channels and teaming, I seem to be rather well known and liked. I have friends I have made there, some I have even invited to my wedding. However, like in the Book of Grudges, how many of these friendships, built upon playing a game will survive if or when one of us moves to another game, or CoX closes?
People are social creatures, that is how MMOs get any play at all. The idea of playing with real people in a game that you both enjoy. Perhaps that is all the seed that friendship needs, but for any mmo players, look at your good buddies and guildmates you met in the time you've played whatever game you are in. Have a look at your lists and have a moment to think about them.

I, myself, have started cleaning my lists for my various online means of communication, networking and conversation. It isn't that I don't like some of these people anymore, it is more I need to be honest about the relationship. I need to know myself who I am going to make an effort for and who I am not.

In the end it comes down to a simple fact. No matter if they are Facebooked, met on a raid, randomly im'ed or someone from Meatspace with a computer that you know from work.

Will they help you hide the bodies? Or are they just one more number on a list.

All the cool kids are doing it

So a fair few blogs out there that I have taken to reading recently are doing "playlists".
Specifically the list of characters they are most likely to try in Warhammer : Age of Reckoning.

Now, this isn't a dedicated MMO blog (God I wish I had the time to make it so) or a WAR blog (See previous brackets) or hell... even read by anyone.

Still here is Ardys playlist.

ORDER!

1. Dwarven Runepriest. I have a hammer on a stick, kick ass robes and runes just sound like a barrel of fun.
2. Dwarven Ironbreaker. They call me Lemming in City of Heroes. Hell I can get aggro just by being in a zone. So a tank who gets better the more people who focus on him? Sign me up!
3. High Elf Shadow Warrior. Quite a bit further down my "zomgwant2play" meter but still sounds like fun.
4. High Elf Archmage/Human Bright Wizard. Ardy likes to nuke. I'll probably lean towards the Bright Wizard seeing as my main will be a healer. That and the chance to explode because I fired off that much magic? Hilarious.

DESTRUCTION

1. Black Orc. I get to be big. I get to grunt. I get to smack my own side back out of a battle. How fun is that?
2. Dark Elf Sorceress. See Bright Wizard. Same rationale, this time with boobs.
3. Chaos Magus. If for no other reason than the disc amuses me.

C'est ca. So if anyone out there does read the blog and is going to play WAR, what'll you play?

Busy busy

You know... When I woke up Monday, the week was ahead of me and there were identifiable points.

Monday was to see Dad off to England. Tuesday was to see me getting money. Wednesday and Thursday were groups. Friday is the start of Double XP in City of Heroes. Then weekend. Glorious weekend with the Monday off (and not just because of double xp).

Oh how things can change.

Monday

• Shannon put her back out quite badly. I rushed home from work
• 4pm : The pain isn't subsiding so we call the ambulance. Shannon loved the gas they gave her.
• 5.30ish : Shannon is laid up in agony in hospital.
• 6-8pm : We sucessfully get Shannon a) medicated and b) from laying to sitting. Ask her about the bonding experience
• 9pm onwards : We get home. I spend the rest of the night helping a very very sore woman
• Fortunately Dad did not go to England as planned and instead went Tuesday

Tuesday

• Jonathan had slept maybe an hour. By sleep we mean, passed out, drooled, woke shortly after.
• Shannon discovered the ability to walk
• Jonathan was called into work despite ringing in "zomg broken person"
• Milk is delivered to work between 10 and 11. I found it in my hall, still, at 2pm. Oh well.
• Glorious sleep was achieved that night

Wednesday

• I stayed home for a little bit to make sure Shannon had mastered the concept of getting up and down. Otherwise ... how could she do anything for the time I'm supposed to be in work. Thankfully she's recovering quickly.
• I almost squished a mouse.
• I captured said mouse and tried to feed him. That whole cheese thing is a myth.
• He's living in a box at home and will be released later on. At the time he seemed injured and I didn't want to kill him or leave him in the backgarden as easy prey.
• Mouse has however shown improvement (or so I'm told).
• I discovered a love of bullet points

That's three days down. Two more to go this week. Annoyingly, I still need money. Hopefully, David will come through. If not, I have a plan.

Time management and community presence

Right now MMO communities and social structures fascinate me. It's already pretty much a goal of mine to make a name for myself in Warhammer Online.
A question I have though is, how?

Sure there are the various feats, blagging rights and so on one can do. However from what I've seen, the most renown comes from a presence on the forums. Any kid can button mash, catch a break and kill the big bad monster. The boards however are where the vocal minority and really, the cream (or to steal a joke from Discworld, the stuff that floats to the top) of the crop is.

Where though does everyone find the time?

Brendan Perry (Munky) is a chap I know from way way back in Earth and Beyond. I got a bit vocal on those boards and made friends through the irc service run. It was all rather nice really. I never understood where Munky managed to find the time however to a) run the site, b) read everything, c) play the game and d) still have time for anything else.

Take the recent "Black Friday" for Warhammer. By the time Massively reported the thread on the Warhammer Alliance forum, and by the time I read it, the thread had become some 105 pages long. I missed a day on a hot topic and fell behind by 100's of posts.

Things like Eves Stellar Council and fansite boards represent, to me at least, an awfully large investment of time, one well worth making when you love a game. But I don't know where all that time comes from and still leaves some for the games we play.

As a result I look at the boards there at WHA and my own current City of Heroes. To all you board Gods, I salute you.
You have achieved presence and status. You have opinions and voices that can sway many. You post, you read, you help, you link and at the end of it all, you still find some time to play the game that was the reason you posted in the first place.

I want to be one of those guys, but I don't think I have the time skills for it.
That or I need a job doing it...

Hey Mythic, want another Community Manager?

Some feature cuts and a comment

A comment rebuttal to recent Warhammer news. (Link in the post title)

Suffice to say, Mythic put on the big boy pants and announced that some stuff just wont make the launch of the game.

Rather than push it back again, rather than push it out half baked, rather than not tell anyone (á la Funcom), they came out and announced the bad news.

Naturally the blogosphere is being riddled with comments along the lines of "WTF MYTHIC SUX cancelling CE 4eva"

My comment on the Massively blog (page 2)


I can't believe some of the complaints here.

Everyone wanted to know if Mythic had paid attention to Funcom and the AoC launch.Guess what, they did. Rather than balls up their game, they're telling us the bad news now rather than waiting till after launch and then admitting things aren't done.

Everyone should calm down. Like most, yes I find the news a little saddening.However I'd rather, as Mark put it, a fanbleedintastic game with some more bits to come post launch.
Also look at it this way, rather than 6 randomly populated cities, the moment they release the final four cities, there will be a huge boom in tourism there.

I bought two CE games. I'm keeping both and thumbs up to Mythic for having the balls to make the annoucement.

The clothes maketh the man

I need a suit. This is quite obivous.

So Shannon and I went to Black Tie on O'Connell bridge to obtain said suit.

Two positives, there was a competition one could enter to win a €3000 holiday voucher, and we found a suit that worked.
Negative, nothing in the store fit me, but I'm used to that.

So we made an appointment to come back and try on properly scaled items. I was measured and we were told we could enter the competition on our return as there was "no rush".

Yesterday we went back.
The competition was over and one lucky couple won the €3000 voucher. Turned out the last day for entry was the 30th of June and the guy who helped us previously neglected to mention that.
Secondly, despite having measured me, no one ordered in a sufficiently large white shirt, so we need to do it all again. I dont mind, I found the waistcoat rather amusing (though that too was too short).

Fun fact : I can't say waistcoat for some reason recently. It comes out as waistcoast.

Legion : Transit

>>Audio sensors active.. .. .. .. two users detected.
>>Power plant to 75% >>>Optical offence not installed
>>Set condition: Play

>Directive check

1. Operative mode
2. Transit mode
3. Low power mode

> Directives for Tranist mode loading.. .. .. ..

-Transcript from Sky Raider aquisiton party. 15 Miles off of Striga Isle.-
-Participants: Cpl Steve Jansen. Cpl Larry Cox-
-Whereabouts: Zigursky Penitentary. Reports of crushed ribs and ankles-
"Steve! Over here man, here's all the Crey stuff"
"Anything for Uqua? She's been buyin in all the goods lately I hear"
"Nah.. nothing. We ha.. wait a minute, this one here s'for Lord Recluse"
"You're shittin me!"
"Seriously, says right here. I think I hear something inside"
-Noise of wooden box being prised open-
"irective 2 : Garuntee delivery"
"The hell is thaaaaaAAUGH! OH GO"
-Transmission terminated at source-

Bartle Test for MMO's

Based on your answers you are ...
ESAK
ESAK players often see the game world as a great stage, full of things to see and people to meet. They love teaming up with people to get to the hard-to-see places, and they relish unique experiences.
Breakdown: Achiever 33.33%, Explorer 80.00%, Killer 13.33%, Socializer 73.33%