Vader Visits The Troops And Other Tales 41
Bungie will be making a lot of changes at the home office, doubling their staff to ramp up for Halo 3. Changes for fans of the City of Heroes comic are coming as well, as NCSoft announced early this week that they were signing Top Cow publishing to take over the book. There will be plenty of announcements next week at the Game Developer's Conference, where Nintendo will be discussing their plans for Network gaming. MMOGs are, of course, the most networked of games and there is lots of MMO-related news to share this week. Final Fantasy XI players have a new Vana'diel Tribune to peruse, and if you'd like to share some stories the folks over at videogamestudies.com are interested in your characters. Not a new story, but one worth sharing is the republishing of The Big Scam. The Eve Online tale of real-life scammery and backstabbery is well worth a read. Sharing online tales is fun, and 1up.com has excellent journals about their online adventures. Warcraft Stories, My Life in Vana'diel, Memoirs of an Urban Vigilante, and Hooked on Evercrack were all updated this week. Finally, Corpnews has a bright note from the world of Star Wars Galaxies to share as Lord Vader took some time to visit the troops in the field. Update: 03/07 17:18 GMT by Z : As CapeMonkey pointed out, I had the wrong barnyard animal in talking about the CoH Comic.
The Big Scam... (Score:3, Interesting)
The Big Scam is the First Great MMORPG Folk Story (Score:5, Interesting)
Despite a few articles claiming the article is gaming "journalism," nowhere in the document does it ever claim to be "journalism." Rather it's important because it is one of the first widely read MMORPG folk tales, ala Bunyan or Ichabob Crane. It meets the criteria of a folk story: like authors of all folk stories, this writer knew enough about the subject matter to make it sound plausible. Secondly, he (or she?) is addressing several major concerns with the game. For example, the studio's involvement is portrayed as hurting the honest players in the game. The player starts out wanting to play honestly, but then discovers that it is nearly impossible to do so. "The Big Scam" also paints the biggest power players in the game as arrogant and aggressive, but easily duped. And finally, it shows just how easy people think it is to scam innocent players in the game.
There's a lot of themes running through this story, and whether the actual facts are true or not isn't what makes this important. The issues the article addresses - and the resulting discontentment - are true, and that's why this is an important document. Plus, it's funny as hell.
Good story (Score:1)
Re:The Big Scam... (Score:3, Interesting)
Older players may remember the Morbor investment scheme which ripped off over 300 players. Now THAT was entertainment!
Open Source MMORPG News (Score:5, Informative)
Launched this week was the free art project LessShift [freeartfoundation.org] which allows anyone to run a Planeshift server that users can legally connect to (the Planeshift art license prohibits players from connecting to "non-official" servers with official art). We're currently in need of artists with 3ds max skills and/or Blender experts who can revive the Blender -> CS export tools. 2d artists, musicians and Quake/Halflife mappers are also needed.
All contributed art must be in the public domain or under a public domain compatible license (eg, x11, creative commons, GPL). Everyone is welcome to use the art bundle for any purpose (including developing other [once.net.nz] MMORPGs).
Re:Open Source MMORPG News (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Open Source MMORPG News (Score:1)
Re:Open Source MMORPG News (Score:2)
Re:Bungie lost most of their hard core fans years (Score:2)
Re:Bungie lost most of their hard core fans years (Score:2)
FYI - um Tribes was not a gigantic hit. Yeah, I used to play the first iteration, but Tribes is notoriously difficult to pick up and start playing unless you are willing to get your ass handed to you for awhile.
I agree that Halo is pretty generic and boring - at least to the average computer gamer. As far as consoles go, Halo was a little less common and introduced lots of people to online gaming.
Bungie's sell out was arguably a loss for computer gamers but a boon for console gam
Slashdot is run by Imperial Forces! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Slashdot is run by Imperial Forces! (Score:3, Funny)
Mirror Of Darth Vader Pics (Score:5, Informative)
Vader Arrives at Base 01 [nyud.net]
Vader Arrives at Base 02 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 03 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 04 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 05 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 06 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 07 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 08 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 09 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 10 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 11 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 12 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 13 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 14 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 15 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 16 [nyud.net]
Vader Visits Troops and gives a speech 17 [nyud.net]
Re:Mirror Of Darth Vader Pics (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Mirror Of Darth Vader Pics (Score:2)
Re:Mirror Of Darth Vader Pics (Score:3, Funny)
I can't believe they replaced my blaster with a walkie talkie!
Re:Mirror Of Darth Vader Pics (Score:2)
Correct me if I'm wrong but... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Correct me if I'm wrong but... (Score:1)
Was she wearing this? [leiasmetalbikini.com]
Dark Horse? (Score:1)
For a second there... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:For a second there... (Score:2)
Re:For a second there... (Score:1)
Re:For a second there... (Score:2)
I need to read, not skim (Score:4, Funny)
Of course, who knows - maybe the Darth Vader that visited in-game was George Lucas?
Re:I need to read, not skim (Score:2, Funny)
The character I'm waiting for (Score:3, Funny)
Let me know when slave Leah shows up. Raarrrrrr.
Re:The character I'm waiting for (Score:1, Funny)
YIFF! YIFF! YIFF!
(For those who don't know what I'm talking about watch the end of "The Shining" closely or visit 4chan)
Re:The character I'm waiting for (Score:2, Informative)
Pfff... (Score:1)
Re:Pfff... (Score:1)
Vader vs. Darth Vader (Score:1, Funny)
Dupe! (Score:2)