Category: Media

Catching up with the boards

I was a few weeks behind on the boards — which is probably okay, since a lot of it was beta testing this-n-that.

Btw, I’ve been watching over Margie’s shoulder as she betas I10 (both the original closed and now the open beta).  It looks like it will be much fun.

Stuff to pass on:

  1. Sonic Shields:  Now a much more close-fitting orange wavery effect, rather than epilepsy-inducing sonic cages.  I don’t think they look as good, but, then, the old ones didn’t (literally) cause me to vomit.
  2. Super-Strength:  A couple of the high-power attacks (KO, Haymaker) will actually make the screen shake.  Must … play … more … Velvet.
  3. Big interview with Positron about I10.  The “Second Rikti Invasion” will be an all-out event for a couple of weeks when it goes live, then settle down some.
  4. New Co-Op Task Force (45-50).  Yay!
  5. Spiffy I10 Teaser Video. (Hi-Res Version)
  6. Vanguard backgrounder.

Animaniacal

So we’re playing Rita and Runt, and we run the Faultline mish with the Arbiter ally to rescue Fusionette (again).

And when it’s done, I’m all, “Can we keep them as a pet?”

“Which one?” Margie asks.

“I call dibs on the Arbiter. You get Fusionette.”

Which made me realize that then instead of Buttons and Mindy we’d have Buttons and Mindy.

(None of which will mean anything unless (a) you’ve watched Animaniacs and (b) you’ve done the Faultline stuff.)

Got Rita and Runt to 17, which is pretty amazing. The dual scrapper thing is a lot of fun.

Mammarian Physics

While there’s room to criticize CoX for the default over-endowedness of its female characters, there’s nothing like this. Which is all the more amusing when you realize it was inspired by this — which is really pretty disturbing … (and quite probably
NSFW).

(Actually, while the, um, bounce factor in the video is, ah, impressively rendered — jeez, maybe they should spend a few dollars working on the cropping on the hair? I mean, especially when it vanishes into/out of those other prominent features to which attention is being directed? Yeesh.)

Novel interruptus

Per Manticore, the current line of CoX novels is done.

CDS will not be publishing anymore novels for us. For the record, that decision was made well before Freedom Phalanx hit the shelves. We are definitely looking into other possibilities for more CoX books but right now there are no official plans. Hope that helps clear things up.

Which is a shame, because the next novel planned, The Rikti Wars, is a lot more interesting to me than the previous two novel concepts (the 1930s founding and 1980s foundering of the Freedom Phalanx).

MMORPGs by the numbers

MMOGCHART.COM tracks subscriber numbers for MMORPGs. It’s kind of interesting to look at — in particular, related to CoX, it’s odd to see spelled out something that’s So Big in My Life is so trivial, subscriber-wise, in the MMORPG world. (Reminds me of my taste in TV shows.)
Granted, CoX is a top tier game, but compared to WOW, Everquest, Lineage I or II, Final Fantasy, or RuneScape, the subscriber base is a drop in the bucket. Or, put another way, we’re at 1.4% of the overall MMORPG subscriber world, tucked between Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies.
Interesting stuff.

Is it live, or …?

Les has a post demonstrating how cool computer game graphics have gotten … scary-good. Four pictures. Spot the ones that are generated with the new Crysis graphics engine and which are real.
I got them right — but only because the real photos were there to compare. Otherwise, I’d have been fooled after a cursory look.
CoX isn’t at that level, of course, nor should it be (a bit of cartoonyness is appropriate for comic books). But some day …
Hmmm. That raises a cool idea — wouldn’t it be neat to be able to choose an artistic style for your CoX install? CoX as drawn by Jack Kirby, or John Byrne, or Gil Kane, or Jim Sterenko, or Michael Golden, or Mike Mignola, or Arthur Adams, or Jim Lee, or Frank Miller, or … wow. That would be really cool. Tailor it to each toon, too — suddenly each alt is a different immersive experience, not just a different set of powers.
I would pay money for that.

The Freedom Phalanx

The next CoH novel, The Freedom Phalanx, even though by a different author than the previous installment, The Web of Arachnos (Robin Laws vs Robert Weinberg) suffers from many of the same problems — cliches, uninvolving characters, etc. — of its predecessor, but without the pulp charm. Set in the late 80s, it details the reformation of the FP by Positron and Synapse. The original FP has fallen apart over time as its members have squabbled and died off, leaving the heroes of Paragon disorganized and listless, and the life of the city increasinly chaotic, corrupt, and crime-ridden,
Ho-hum. The majority of the interest in something like this should come from learning more about the “signature characters” and the city of Paragon. As to the first, we do, but nothing there really grabs — Positron is smart and earnest, Synapse doesn’t want to be a hero, Manticore is an anti-social vigilante, Statesman is filled with “all my loved ones will die around me as I live eternally” ennui, and Sister Psyche is truly screwed up. Ho, and again, hum. That’s about the depth of the characterization, which can be surpassed by 90% of the novels (and 75% of the comic books, and 40% of the CoX character logs) out there.
And as to Paragon City itself — the book seems riddled with what are either fundamental mistakes (the gleaming corporate towers of Skyway City?) or reflect a pre-Rikti world that has radically changed since then. Hard to tell, and hard to care.
It’s not that it’s a bad book. It’s just not all that good of one. Suitable for light-fluff reading in an airport or something like that. Any of the locals who want to borrow (after that glowing recommendation) are welcome to.

The Glory of the First Person Shooter

I’d start to quote this fabulous essay as to why the author (as I) enjoys Shootin’ Things Up Real Good, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop …

And it suddenly hit me that I was spending a Friday night doing inventory management. Last time I checked, I get enough bean counting at my day job; do I really need to spend my weekends pondering whether I should carry an extra set of warhammers just in case I run into a merchant who might be able to buy them off me? Sure, I enjoy having a virtual life — but as a virtual accountant?
Yeah, no.
Moments like that make me re-appreciate the true value of a good first-person shooter: its raw, modernist simplicity. Like a cool, refreshing glass of water on a smog-choked summer day, a shooter cuts through the fog of everyday life.
That’s what made Halo the top-selling game for the Xbox, after all. Everyone blathered on and on about the immersive story, the fleshed-out characters, the great script, yadda yadda. But that wasn’t why they played it. No, they played it because of what the designers called the game’s ability to deliver “30 seconds of fun,” over and over again. And those 30 seconds didn’t consist of moderating a frickin’ guild meeting, if you know what I mean. Nosiree: They consisted of wasting every last freaky alien that wandered anywhere near your muzzle.

City of Heroes isn’t quite your standard FPS, but …
Well, I enjoy doing RP in CoX. I enjoy some of the organizational bits and meta-play and all that. I enjoy the story arcs and plot lines.
But, y’know? A lot of what I enjoy about it is pounding the bad guys into the pavement.
‘Nuff said.

All your heroes are belong to us?

Interesting thoughts and legal assertions regarding characters you create in CoH/CoV:

What Cryptic/NC is concerned with are generally:
1) Image of character — if you build it in the character generator. I’m not trying to say “we” own blue half capes, and I’m not trying to say we don’t. If you build a character in the generator, and then have it drawn, if it’s 100% the same character and you are profitting from it, then you might have a problem.
2) Character name & history – technically the character names/history that you create for CoH/CoV are owned by Cryptic/NCsoft. You can use them in fanfiction, etc., but you cannot profit from them.
3) History of Paragon City and all her associated characters (this is the obvious one, of course, and causes least confusion).
Obviously there are many characters with the same names in comic book history. And many that look similar. But if you take a character who exists on one of the servers, and use the same name and same look, and try to use it in a commercial enterprise, you’re entering dangerous waters. I’m not going to say if this is right or wrong — but if you can avoid all potential legal entanglements, why wouldn’t you?
Note: in the case of a character that existed *before* being created in CoH, and this can be proven, then Cryptic/NCsoft is obligated to force you to change the name/look of the character. So Rubberlad’s character, or let’s say I created a character from the old superhero game, Silver Age Sentinels, that I was involved with. In an exceptional case (like the Warren Ellis example I created earlier), Cryptic/NC might be so tickled to have a guest star that they would find a way to allow it. But in most cases the legal mine fields, and lawyer costs, and bad press, etc. is not worth it.
So once again. If you want to write/draw superheroes in a commerical enterprise, make sure they are original and don’t exist in CoH/CoV.

That’s Arctic Sun, one of the board moderators, speaking — well, not ex cathedra, but leaning on one arm of it.
So much for that new Torchielle TV series … though (aspects of) Psi-clone are possibly safe.
Certainly #3 is solid, and #1 could be strongly argued. There might be more questions raised on #2, if it ever went to court, though the legal uncertainty of it all would probably kill any media deal that was in the offing, regardless of the rights of it.

Don’t cross the Devs

In CoH, all you have to worry about if you get reported for misbehavior is being banned. In the new historical recreation MMORPG Roma Victor, offending player characters get … crucified.

Roma Victor is an online recreation of Britain in Roman times, where players live virtual lives as slaves and citizens of that all-conquering Empire. The world is currently in the final stages of testing and will officially launch on July 1st 2006, after which thousands of players will be able to live out their own virtual lives within ancient Roman-occupied Britannia.
Cynewulf, who is the first player within Roma Victor to receive this brutal punishment [for “ganking” newly-appeared characters], will be hung on a cross for a full seven days on full public display in the digital reconstruction of the provincial town of Corstopitum (modern day Corbridge in Northumberland, England).
Kerry Fraser-Robinson, RedBedlam’s CEO says: “Roma Victor has been designed from the outset to offer an historically authentic and realistic virtual world. Although crucifixion is nowadays synonymous with persecution and religious symbolism, in 180CE it was just one of many severe punishments used by the Romans to punish criminals and to send a clear message out to other potential wrong-doers. And since our online world is historically authentic, we feel that applying this punishment to cheats, hackers and other virtual wrongdoers is not only appropriate, but also adds to the gaming experience by resonating with classical history.”
Crucifixion is to be used as a form of player ‘ban’ within the virtual world of Roma Victor, with the length of the ban reflecting the severity of the punishment. For cheating by exploiting a bug and advancing his or her character’s skills unfairly, for example, a player might typically receive a seven-day ban; multiple or more serious offences will result in a longer (or even permanent) ban.

Nice. And people get to stand below the character and ridicule him, too.
Maybe banned players in CoH should be thrown in the Zig. Or handed over to Dr. Vahzilok for … experimentation. The possibilities are endless …
(via BoingBoing)

“R U a HLR?”

Interesting speculation about a healing-based MMORPG:

Picture an MMORPG just like the ones today, but everywhere you see combat, replace it with healing. A six-man encounter would be a surgical operation that required teamwork. Soloing would be a brilliant doctor doing drive-by diagnostics. Raids would be massive experimental treatments.
Rather than spawning mobs, spawn ill people. Instead of weapons, have medicines. Instead of managing aggro, manage fever. Instead of armors, we have disinfectants.
Quests would include tasks to find and gather new plants for pharmaceuticals, and bespoke missions to fix the sanitation in a remote village. Puzzles might involve finding the standing water where the mosquitoes are breeding.
You can level up by building up immunity to the most common diseases. Your abilities are new forms of intervention and diagnosis; some classes might use homeopathic medicine, others might be trained in a Western mode. And death? Well, that would be a case of fighting off the infection youself, and failing.
You could go pretty psychedelic and “virtual” on the visuals, if you chose, with plenty of full-screen particle effects to keep the “fight” interesting. You could even, if you wanted to betray the Hippocratic Oath, have Dr vs Dr combat biowarfare.
How would it play?
Exactly the same.

Which is all very nice, but … well, I wouldn’t play it. Does that make me a violent or evil person? Too bought into the clashes of physical conflict that make up the core of so much escapist fare (and myth and literature)?
I dunno, but City of Healers just doesn’t quite do it for me, for all that I (a) think doctors and other medical professoinals can be heroic, and (b) frequently take an Empathy power set.
Though it would be interesting if, amidst all the healing above, there was a call for a specialized subclass, security/guard types that would provide physical protection to most physician players, guarding them from wild animals, or drug thieves, or bioterrorists, or deranged patients, or lawyers, or rogue government agents trying to shut the clinic down.
“R U a FTR? HLP on Mish!”
That could be fun.
(via BoingBoing)

D&D Online

Nice article in the NY Times on the new online D&D game, which we can expect will pull in at least some CoXers.
From what I read, aside from built-in voice chat (bleah), I expect that D&D Online will fill a similar niche to CoX — roleplaying (to the extent that people choose) plus video game-style smashing and blasting. Folks looking for the former will be able to do so (just as they do on CoX); people looking for imaginative scenarios will little doubt find themselves in the same endless warehouses / caves / tech labs that CoH players deal with.
Which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s not a real substitute for a F2F game (and, to be sure, in some ways, vice-versa). Expecially if you get beyond the “hard rules” sort of games like D20 into more flexible/softer systems, what the players and GMs can come up with for the action in an F2F game cannot be matched by a computer system — whereas the visceral bam-smash of a video game (plus the convenience of timing, of quick pick-up action, and of virtual communities) cannot be beat by character sheets and dice.
Bottom line #1 — It’s not a competition. It’s a complementary set of entertainments.
Bottom line #2 — I don’t have any particular urge to migrate from CoX to D&D Online (unless, of course, all our friends did, and even then it would be a scosh dicey, so to speak).