Best Of

It was a great year for The Escapist, in short, despite the worst recession since the invention of videogames. That calls for thanks – thanks to our investors for their stalwart support of our efforts; to all the brilliant writers, producers, columnists, contributors, and community members who share their creativity with us; and most of all to the hard-working team of grognards who man the barricades at 2530 Meridian Parkway every day. Since we’re ending 2009 on a high note, it seems fitting to close out the year with a “Best Of” issue. I thus present four of our editorial board’s favorite articles from the past year. In “Kill Billy,” Brendan Main ponders his propensity for virtual goat-slaying. In “Gaming Isn’t Brain Surgery,” Rich Retractor explains how his career as a brain surgeon leaves little room for games – and why that makes them even more important to him. In “Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That,” Robert Yang recalls his experience developing a Half-Life 2 mod featuring gay characters, and the response it provoked. And, finally, Jeremy Monken recounts his last days a GM for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in “Casualty of Warhammer.” If you saw these articles on their first publication, I hope you’ll give them the second read they merit. If this is your first exposure, you’re in for a taste of some of the finest journalism that gaming has to offer. They are, after all, the Best of the “Best Online Magazine” on the web. Enjoy the issue, and enjoy the New Year! Next time you hear from us, it’ll be a brave new decade. See you… in the Future. Best regards, Publisher, The Escapist

title: “Best Of” ShowToc: true date: “2025-02-11” author: “Fred Borowski”

I played this one when it became free. By the time I did the community was small, tightly regulated but made regular events for newbies to learn the game. Gameplay was basically: Scouting. Pinpointing the enemy location. Getting all your team geared up, usually headed by a mission critical craft like a bomber or a capital ship. Travelling, sometimes stealthed. Combat. Halfway fun when it worked. Lots of ship and equipment possibilities. Too realistic flight physics for many (most?) people to comprehend, especially in a laggy enviroment. Funny fact I remember: Our team (most in very cheap scouts with “reparing” guns) was told to constantly fly into the main bomber and heal it; this allowed the bomber to fly way faster than normal while being healed constantly. Very weird gameplay. (exploit?) – Loge Ah, Allegiance – I knew all about that game back when it was actually on sale, and that the source code had subsequently been released and the title was now freely available, but I have never even been slightly interested in it even though I happen to freaking love space simulators. Why not? Multiplayer-only. Juxtapose whatever you want, hype the amazing and innovating gameplay, release to rave reviews, it won’t matter, those words are the kiss of death (of any interest I might have had in your game) – I don’t play multiplayer-only games. Or rather, I don’t play multiplayer-only games that are not online RPGs with no subscription fee. Allegiance, at time of release, was essentially the worst of both worlds – an exclusively multiplayer title that they wanted me to pay a subscription fee to play. I’ve made it very clear over the years that my “I will not EVER under ANY circumstances play a game that has subscription fees” stance is utterly inviolate – there is no even remote possibility of my ever capitulating and compromising that point, so as interesting as the mechanics of Allegiance sounded (and they did sound pretty damn interesting, in principle anyways), it was never going to work. Releasing the source code, modding the game, and establishing community run servers are all great moves that have extended the lifespan of what sounds like an excellent space sim, but none of that eliminates my complete lack of interest in a non-RPG online-only multiplayer space sim – that isn’t what I’m looking for from that genre, and my single-player campaign needs are ably met by Freespace 2 (the greatest space sim ever released, bar none) and it’s own source code project. – Gildan Bladeborn

In response to “The Game That Ate the Earth” from the Escapist Forums: This has value, it has value because you experienced it and because you shared it. If you had never finished the game, if not one person had ever played it. It would still have been worthwhile because you described the process honestly and concisely, which is perhaps more important than anything else. Which is ironic considering how much I hate being forced to show my workings. Thank you, thank you for going where few are brave enough to tread and for reporting back as man and not a half dead wreck. By your grace we all go forth a little better prepared and perhaps, we will stride just a little bit further on our journeys to create. – Azdron This story convinced me of one major thing; I had to download this and play it for myself. I’m only a few hours in, and holy crap. I can see why this project swallowed your life whole. It’s flipping huge! I’ve only managed to find ONE comm tower so far, and I spend more time getting my ass kicked than anything. But the setting is amazing, the dialogue interesting, and there’s a real sense of accomplishment each time I manage to garner JUST enough resources to earn that new bit of R&D I’ve been lusting after. The controls are a little gummy, but nothing too major. Honestly, for what it’s worth, you’ve got one new fan right here, based on this alone. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to try that comm tower again. Maybe now that I have these boosters I can actually finish it… – poiuppx

– VonBrewskie Oh God. That game has left such positive and negative memories for me. I loved Shenmue 1, but abhorred how slow and annoying Shenmue 2 was. I wanted a third one if only to give some meaning to the grind session that the second game offered. But it was one of my first RPG’s and showed me a whole new world. It was great, and it introduced features that are standard today. People forget that sometimes. Hell, back then, it was my go to RPG for a deep story. (I was like 10 and the other JRPG characters annoyed me.) But it also reminds me of, excuse me, KotOR 3. Like how some people, me, have given up on ever truly seeing Revan’s, Carth’s, Bastila’s, the Exile’s, Atton’s, Mira’s, and the other characters have their story resolved through their eyes and not from the old holos someone finds in TOR. People make these great stories, and they can never finish because of issues and everything is left hanging. I usually don’t like having to make my own conclusions, because I think the original author knows the characters better than I do, but in this case I have to. I guess I’m peeved because I’m not that excited about the MMO, so I’ll do what everyone else is and leave it out of canon. Or maybe I just wanted a happy ending and TOR ruins that for me. Especially with Shenmue. Making up an ending was the only thing that helped me and my friend get past the fact that Shenmue 3 wasn’t out yet. And might never be coming. Ever. Ryo is lost on some random road, Revan is in Deep Space doing who knows what, and the Exile is on a ship with Atton possibly. Who knows with KotOR 2’s ending. What’s similar about them all? They’re all stuck there, possibly for eternity or until an ubergeek wins the super ultra lotto and can afford to pay the developers to make these games. Until then, I’ll pray Mass Effect and Dragon Age finally manage to make it to the Finished Third Game Celebration Party. – CleverCover

In response to “Hard Earned Victories” from the Escapist Forums: Well I haven’t played super meat boy yet, but by God did I enjoy VVVVVV. The simple thrill of finishing a particularly difficult section, dying dozens of times, which in the end takes seconds. It’s immensely satisfying. However, when looking at old school games, high difficulty annoys me a lot more, and for one simple reason: A lack of checkpoints. I found super mario world immensely frustrating because of it. I’d get through 3-4 levels without dying, then die a few times in the dungeon, sending me back to the levels I know I can do again. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’m willing to bet a lot of gamers would accept more difficult challenges if you didn’t have to repeat sections preceding it. Perhaps it would be a bit of a copout if every difficult game could only be enjoyable in this way, but it’s a very difficult balance. F-zero Gx has been the only game thus far where I enjoyed the “Hold your nerve” style difficulty; it was fair, and I had a reasonable chance of getting it on my first go, in spite of its difficulty. It also had short n’ stupidly hard bits too, which were also great. It’s a paradigm of a challenging game for me. – Outright Villainy Shamus Young has a couple of nice articles on this subject. One came out, what, two weeks ago? Essentially, it depends on the gamer. A gamer that wants to enjoy a world or a story doesn’t want difficulty to get on her way, at least not unreasonably so, and doesn’t want to get stuck because she wants to know what happens next. A gamer that wants to enjoy gameplay wants a challenge because that’s what gameplay is composed of: if a challenge isn’t hard she can just waltz up to the enemies and shoot them in the face, and use the tools a game provides to ‘make believe’ and play the game the way the devs intended when it’s not optimal is unsatisfying. Of course, a game with a good story that enslaves gameplay to it isn’t doing a good job. It’s like… It’s like a Weird Al parody. It’s funny and it’ll make you laugh, but you’re not going to compliment Weird Al on the melody, because he didn’t even write it. He’s just using it to deliver a joke. So your enjoyment of it depends on your enjoyment of the text, not on the enjoyment of the song, and in fact you may enjoy parodies of songs you don’t like even better. You’ll like it as a joke, not as a song. Likewise, a game that has great story but poor gameplay may be enjoyed as a story, but not as a game. (Before someone points out Weird Al doesn’t write only parodies, I know, and that’s why I said Weird Al parody specifically. I guess his polka medleys still don’t quite classify in my example. In sum, shut up.) Under that division, it seems that gamers that enjoy a challenge are being more true to gaming. But exploration, enjoyment of a world, is also something that only games can fully provide and is also something that an easier game will do a better job at delivering. It comes back to what a gamer wants and expects of her games. Looks like I just rediscovered the (genre) wheel here. – The Random One

title: “Best Of” ShowToc: true date: “2025-03-01” author: “Rhonda Douglas”

That is certainly Zak Smith’s best quote. It burnt into my mind when I read it. The idea of what monsters mean, really, and why our society (for instance) now loves vampires and is preparing for a zombie apocalpypse, interests me to no end. – The Random One Intriguing – on some level I’ve always been aware of the whole “nothing is as good or grand as that which came before” trope in fantasy settings, but I honestly hadn’t drawn the now rather obvious parallel with my personal favorite fictional universe until I saw it spelled out in this article: the bits about the treatment of technology (the anecdote about the pipe organ in particular) could easily have been describing Warhammer 40,000. That’s always been one of the various elements of the 40K setting I really dug – the mystical reverence of technology without understanding, civilizations with plasma pistols that believe proper maintenance and ‘prayers to appease the machine spirit’ are equally important, the monolithic decaying empire venerating the relics of the ancient past while remaining leery of the implications unearthing it might have (mankind’s collective technological height is labeled the “Dark Age of Technology” by the inhabitants of the ‘modern day’ Imperium, not because it was a literal dark age but rather because the enforced ignorance the “Priesthood of the Machine” brought about was missing from it) – there’s just something about the backwards notion that “ancient means way better” that I find fascinating. Which is essentially how fantasy settings like D&D’s treat magical artifacts: nobody wants a new sword when they could have one from the dawn of time itself – that one is obviously going to be way better. – Gildan Bladeborn

You have done well in your youth, learning skills which are woefully lacking in today’s generations. Personally, i think most kids should go camping and be given the opportunity to do the most basic of survival skills – build a shelter (even if this is erecting a tent), building and maintaining fire, learning how to keep themselves warm during a cold night, etc. As i grow older (i’m only 25 and i’m saying that? I need to relax…) i begin to find myself wanting to do the things i missed out on as a child, and camping was one of those things. A workmate of mine is an experienced camper, and we went to a small campsite for a weekend. He had a massive tent we could sleep in, and a small, portable gas stove to cook on. I had to buy a sleeping bag and an inflatable mattress to sleep on (for my weary bones to rest >.O) After a day of 4WDing through the park, we found a site and pitched the tent. He showed me how to start a fire, chopping the wood we’d brought with us, before we cracked open the beers and sat back, talking and drinking until the sun was fully set, my Ipod playing the easiest listening music i had on it (the OST from Battlefield Vietnam). He decided to forgo the gas stove and used the campsite’s hotplate to cook the steaks we’d brought with us. Even the tinned vegetables tasted good after they’d boiled in one of his camping pots. We continued to drink, emptying his esky and digging into mine, keeping ourselves warm by the fire and chatting, before finally we retired for the night. In the morning i awoke with my teeth chattering. My sleeping bag had done an excellent job of keeping my torso and limbs warm – but my head was frozen. I had not brought a beanie with me to fight the cold from my skull. Quickly pulling my baseball cap on did nothing – it barely covered my head, let alone my ears or face, so i resolved to get up. I was extremely hung over, and it was a powerful struggle to dress myself. Luckly i’d brought a hoodie jumper with me, but it did nothing to fight the morning chill – i had to wear my thick bouncer jacket over that. I forced myself out of the tent and looked at the mist surrounding the site, marvelling at the beauty only for a moment before i was sick in the bushes. The cold was biting at me, i could taste vomit in my mouth, and i knew i needed to get warm. I tried to start a fire, but every swing of the hatchet into the damp wood made my head want to burst wetly. Eventually i managed to get enough kindling together and arranged it like he had shown me, but the morning dew had made all the twigs and sticks we’d used the night before unusable as tinder. I resolved to tearing out the indexs from several books i kept in my car, so desperate for warmth i was, but it was no use – the paper was too dry, i didn’t pack it close enough or space it enough, the wood needed to be closer to it as it burned, whatever it was, i couldn’t get the fire going. I resolved to sit in my chair, pulling my hoodie tight over my face and crossing my arms over my chest until my friend awoke, went and puked himself, then started the fire. I welcomed the warmth them, but felt…jaded? For failing at what i had assumed would be a fairly simple task. Fire has been in human history for thousands of years, and men have been able to start them with less tools then i had, and with less materials, yet one hangover and i was forced to freeze until help arrived. I’m certain that even without the hangover i would’ve been forced to do the same thing – my knowledge of camping, of survival, was and is still very, very limited. It was a learning experience for the both of us. We both vowed never to bring such a large amount of alcohol with us the next time we went camping, and i promised myself that i would rectify what i felt was a letdown of the human evolution. I ate a whole loaf of bread on the long drive back – the only thing my turbulent stomach could keep down – and as i drove i realized that all the imagining of surviving an apocalypse would have been just that – imagining. If an invading force attacked tomorrow, i know that i would become a statistic because i would not be able to survive if i managed to escape, because i did not have the basic survival skills necessary to live in the wilderness. Thinking about it, it makes you feel very vulnerable, wondering how you would survive if the power went out. If the water stopped running. If you were left completely alone. – JohnTomorrow

Slightly off topic did anyone play the “Wargames” game? It was an RTS for the PC. – thenumberthirteen I think my most emotional gaming moment ever was with DEFCON. I remember I was playing a game online, and I was getting thrashed. I finally let off a salvo of nukes on Europe, and killed 100 million people in one fell swoop. “Woo!” I exclaimed. “I just killed 100 million people!” That was swiftly replaced with the infinitely harrowing “Oh my god, I’ve just killed 100 million people…” I felt bad for ages after that. No other game has done that. Still, it’s funny that Introversion’s actually just 5 people. Nice article. – Furburt

In response to “Every Game is the End of the World” from The Escapist Forum: My god, four pages of pure awesomesauce. It’s amazing how you opened my eyes to my way of escaping this world in favour for another. Like most, I tried to fit in. I tried to pretend I like girls, was someone who was a heavy-clubber and some kind of out-door survivalist. But I am not, I was born and raised in the DOS era, the love for gaming was nurtured by my own father, the game I grew up with was Wing Commander 3: Heart of the tiger. For me, it was an amazing benchmark in life. I enjoyed it immensely without any regret. I grew up with games and that love and passion never faded away. Giving up that for something that was alien for me turned out to be fruitless and I grasped back to my roots. Roots that were established long before I could utter one complex sentence. So, I consider this article an amazing shout-out for anyone out there who thinks they are ‘lesser’ or not ‘normal’ in the eyes of the others. We are all humans and our difference is our power in life. If we all conformed to one main ideal this world would be bland and devoid of any creativity and the wonderful things that happened to us despite the bad shit. – Straying Bullet That was a fantastic article. While for sure there are people that live both worlds, and while for sure what is said here applies to more people than the author seems to attribute to “we” (but you can’t really blame him), it rings so true in such an amazing way. I especially relate to the sensation of cheating on the real world. While you can’t abandon the people you know, how can you possibly swallow the world’s mandate on how you’re supposed to love, instead of embracing what you actually love? Ghandi said “be the change you want to see”, and the fact that believing in this world of constantly unfolding creativity is considered gaudy by so much of the population is astonishing and gravely unfortunate. Anything we can do to shake off what chains us to the vision of inadequacy they can paint us with is a welcome gesture, so that we can be free in what is really just human love and creativity, and more and more and more. Great article! Thank you. Also, this makes me angry I didn’t hunt down relic games after the guy who runs it found me in a bar in Vancouver and told me to come find him 🙂 – Guilen-

title: “Best Of” ShowToc: true date: “2025-03-05” author: “Diana Moorer”

I admire those who seek to use video games for things the developers never imagined, such as platforms for expression and protest. It is true that video games (all media, really) sanitize and romanticize warfare. With that being said, if I get into a game of Unreal Tournament 3 or Halo 3 and somebody is engaging in a peace rally, one of two things will happen: if you are my opponent, you will be marked as an easy kill and you will cost your team a good deal of points; if you are my teammate, you will get a polite yet stern earful about how this is a game, and there is an objective to be met, and if you do not want to work towards that objective then you need to leave. Sandbox games as protest? Brilliant. Criticizing a game for making war look pretty when war, is indeed, Hell? Perfect. Injecting protests in such a manner that it directly (and negatively) impacts somebody’s game play experience? That’s disrespectful. Of course, there are ways to criticize said protests and there are ways to just look like a fool. Telling somebody to “go play with their Barbie” is the latter. – level250geek The problem is that such an opt-in method of delivering your message is fundamentally democratic, while protesting is fundamentally undemocratic; it’s about giving disportionate focus to a particular view in a way that’s hard to disregard. The protestor’s mindset is that loud, annoying public demonstrations get their message out better than simply putting it somewhere people might pick it up and read it of their own accord. Plus, such games seldom work because, particular with FPS games, the actual way the game functions runs counter to the message you’re trying to deliver. Neither Haze or Blacksite could hide their derision for their own subject matter, and being asked to play through a game that’s constantly bitching at you for enjoying it and refusing to show any positive side to anything you do is stupid; the game just becomes a chore, only it’s an amazingly emo chore that keeps telling you that you shouldn’t be doing it. A game that proclaims it shows the realities of war still needs to show courage, duty, heroism and sacrifice if it wants to be anything but the opposite kind of one-sided. CoD: World at War is fairly good in that respect, not hiding the vicious, even monstrous acts that occur during the campaign, but also showing loyalty between soldiers, officers who want to get their men home, and so on. The logic that a game where you can die already really needs a list of real-life deaths to ‘give perspective’ or whatever, on the other hand, is just going to make tedious games that whine at the player for doing the things they have to do to finish the levels. – Evil Tim

In response to “A Folk Hero for the Online Age” from The Escapist Forum: If Jesse James and Bonnie & Clyde hold as examples, griefers will all die in a hail of gunfire. Anyway, let me tell you about how successful griefers are in making a stamp on history: you didn’t name a single specific griefer in an article specifically about how they might be individually remembered. Not one. You mentioned games – EVE, Second Life, WoW – and the odd co-opted event – the Zombie Outbreak – but didn’t name a single specific griefer. They’ve certainly existed, but the fact that none were named speaks volumes for the griefer’s place in history. – UnSub I will admit, there are some times when Griefing can not only be funny, but not actually harm people’s enjoyment of the game. I’m sure most people here have seen Team Roomba’s TF3 Griefing videos. And if you have, you’ll remember the trivia contest thing one guy did, when he glitched the door jammed and wouldn’t let his team out until they answered his trivia questions. At first, I thought that was incredibly annoying. Then I thought about it, and I realized I would love for something like that to happen to me when I’m playing. Just to throw me for a loop, change my game experience a bit. On the other hand, the common griefer is just annoying, for the most part. Wall glitching, shooting through the floor, that kind of thing, they all are just exploiting broken parts of the game that, while they may seem cool to the people actually doing the griefing, ruin the experience for the people who are trying to play the game seriously. I for one am not a fan of spawning to find that someone has glitched their way into the spawn point just to shoot me over and over again before I can even play. I can no longer play Counter Strike because of how many people know all the glitches and stuff. There’s no way for me to win anymore. – xitel

Consider the idea of an “elected” board of officials. Imagine for a moment how easy it would be for griefers to overrun such a board and take control of it from the inside — and consider how incredibly tempting it would be for them, especially if such a board had any kind of power. All they’d need to do is talk their friends into making a hundred characters apiece, and voting once (or a million times each, if the vote is conducted foolishly). In real life, the penalty for being a sociopath is that you don’t get an extra life. If we lock you in jail for life or kill you or whatever, you’re dead; all games are over for you. Online, however, no punishment lasts any longer than the griefer chooses to let it last, unless he’s made the foolish “mistake” of actually caring about the game. – TomDavidson This article has to be a joke. Allen Varney wrote PARANOIA, for goodness sake. There is no possibility that he is as naive and silly as he portrays himself. The projected solutions to griefing are kind of hysterical, and seem rather PARANOIA-ish in themselves. But the idea that player-run government will eliminate griefing? That has to be satire/humour, surely? Everything we’ve ever seen from online communities (which tend towards, with all due respect, being petty-natured, vindictive, clique-y, and generally like the High School from Hell), and from people suddenly handed power, and, if one is even a little cynical, from human nature and history flies directly in the face of that. The Judge Dredd reference, I mean, come on, you’re kidding right, Allen? This is all a big a joke at the expense of The Escapist’s readership, right, right? With players in charge, the main things we can expect are anyone the leadership dislikes being labelled a “griefer”, and genuinely horrid individuals who are “in” with the leadership being given virtually free reign to do what they like. – Ruinx

In response to “A Griefer’s Life for Me” from The Escapist Forum: To be fair, in anything, there is a time and place for it. Ironically, I wouldn’t wholly call what the article describes merely “griefing” in the derogatory sense. The author here is describing an honest to goodness high grade /prank/. There’s nothing inherently wrong or objectionable about a good prank. But look at it this way. A good prank can invite others in to laugh with the joke and join in on the fun. That’s what happened in this World of Warcraft anecdote. Most of what goes on in online games under the banner of griefing though, isn’t a good prank. Most of it is just trying to break the game for other players to make them made and spoil any potential for fun they have. It doesn’t allow them the opportunity to laugh along with the joke. They’re just a meat target. Typically, the old line holds true: trolls accuse everyone else of having no sense of humor, but everyone else is just trying to say “it’s not that I have no sense of humor, it’s just that your idea of humor stinks.” – squeakthedragon That actually sounds like a lot of fun! Usually when I think of griefers, I think of people who get in your way on purpose, or try to make it impossible to play. This endeavour actually seems like what the developers wanted, which is really where MMOs shine: the players get to decide how the game is structured. Most multiplayer games have a very rigid rule set of “go in to the server, try to complete the objective, leave”. With WoW and other MMOs, the objective becomes “go in to a server, make some friends, find what you want to do, how you want to do it.” I applaud the creative use of the PvP server here. In fact, I would actually participate in it (on the Alliance side, of course) if I ever played WoW. If the subscription fee is ever low enough, maybe I will. – NinjaKirby1322 In response to “The Escapist On: Griefing” from The Escapist Forum: Killing people of the opposing faction on a PvP server is pretty normal, they’re enemies after all so you kill them on sight. That’s what factions mean. The Eve ripoff seller, well, isn’t the whole point of the game to make money? I wouldn’t say that was a trick with no purpose, sounds more like a trick to make a ton of money quickly. Or did the money you pay end up flowing down the drain of the economy instead of going into that player’s pockets? IMO it’s not griefing as long as it’s done to a valid target, you’re allowed to do anything you want to enemies but turning on your own team is where the freedom ends, you do that and you deserve a ban. Many people add stupid extra rules to games, especially RTSes, that ban any strategy they are unable to cope with (often because they plain suck at the game) and, well, sometimes they don’t even spell them out. In Spring we have tons of people who complain about comnaps, comdrops, etc, all of which are high risk strategies that can either win the game immediately or lose it just as fast. Some people think those strategies are griefing but they’re actually accounted for by the designers of the games. – KDR_11k No, griefing cannot be stopped. Not like the guy said in the video, like just log out, go have a drink or something and when you come back, hopefully the giefer already left. That’s cowardice. If you give in to the griefer, he already won, because the ultimate goal of a griefer is to ruin everyone else’s fun to his own amusement. And if he manages to aggravate you to the point you quit the game, that’s the victory dance for the griefer, because he defeated you, he proved that you are a n00b, you suck and he is the ultimate demigod of [insert game]. You won’t ruin his fun by getting angry, and certainly not by (even indirectly) admitting defeat, in fact, you are making him stronger. Griefer lives off of the…well…grief of their victims, it’s in the name. If you take that away from him, he loses interest. The griefer feeds off of the pain, aggravation and misery of other players, but if you don’t show any of that, soon he’ll lose interest and move on. The best way to make a griefer leave, is to pay absolutely no attention to him. Mute him on voice chat and ignore everything he does. This is good for two reasons. One, you are not enabling him, and two, you won’t get angry and ruin your own fun. Sure, you are a level 4 Nobody on the server, and he is a lvl 86 Warrior/Mage/Awesome and he killed you in one hit “kekeke! LOL n00b!”‘d you, looted your lifeless corpse and left looking for other prey. Was that unfair? Sure. Was that evil? Yes. Can you do anything about it? No. So why get aggravated? You’ll just making him have more fun, if you run around cursing his name. Accept the fact that such bastards exist, ignore the hell out of him, and try to have fun with the other, normal people on the server. – Playbahnosh

title: “Best Of” ShowToc: true date: “2025-02-17” author: “Steve Haight”

I mean, no game should worth more than a suit ‘n tie office job, at least here in Hungary. But that’s probably the tiny speck of sanity talking in the quicksand of G4MeR. Aside from the ending, though, it was quite well written, I enjoyed it. MOAR? – Playbahnosh

In response to “Speech of teh Realm” from The Escapist Forum: Loved every word. I never played on a RP server (I dabbled in WoW for a time), but this actually reminds me of my old PnP games more then anything. Trying to progress the story, and some idiot has to ruin it by doing or saying something WAY out of character: “Steve, you can’t just stab the guy in the face.” “Why not?” “Because, you’re a good alignment! You’d never just stab the guy in the face.” “But he’s evil!” “He’s also unarmed and hasn’t provoked you. You can’t stab him.” “Well then I want to change my alignment.” “You’re already level 3! You can’t just suddenly switch alignments!” “Maybe this is a traumatic experience that causes my alignment to change.” “An old guy not letting us into a tavern?” “…yes.” Ahh…so much frustration and spilled coke. But still: Great piece! One of the more enjoyable ones I’ve read at the Escapist. – Baby Tea Why does “RP” also mean “write like you’re a character in a bad Sir Walter Scott novel”? People in the Middle Ages did not talk like that. Most of them probably just cursed all day anyway, so Internetspeak is most likely a more accurate portrayal than faux Shakespearianisms. Hmm, maybe “RP” means “write and act like you’re in a 3rd rate fantasy novel”. That would explain a lot… – anti_strunt I agree as well. This is why RP servers are dumb, because it takes everyone three times as long to communicate one-third the information. It is okay to say, “Which way is the tavern?” That is perfectly in character. You don’t need to put it all in iambic pentameter. – Grampy bone This piece reminds me of why I think RP servers are dysfunctional. There are several elements that I consider the cornerstones of fun and effective roleplaying that are deeply lacking on MMOG RP servers:

1. Scene framing and narrative flexibility. Think about how a pen-and-paper game is played. It’s not a set of real-time events. Instead, there are scenes. Game-players have the ability to vary the pacing of a scene. They have the ability to cut to the good stuff. They have the ability to cut away artfully when a moment has wrapped up. Think about how flexible the verbal communication that’s going on is, for that matter: the group can summarize, paraphrase, &c. as needed. All this allows a group to use direct dialogue where it’s needed, as a way to add emphasis and detail.
2. Background social communication. The players know each other. They communicate fluidly about reactions and expectations out-of-character, both as co-creators and each others’ audience. Some of the most effective sessions also involve active kibitzing from players that aren’t part of a scene. Both of these are very deeply stunted on an MMOG’s RP server: the simulated world makes it much harder to actually do anything with scene framing (while adding almost nothing useful to the mix because it’s so damn static), and many of the players are strangers to each other, only engaged in momentary interactions — so you usually end up with characters saying nothing important to each other and players with nearly no knowledge of each others’ tastes and expectations. It’s all rather stilted, clunky, and pointless. Kinda like it plays out in this story. — Alex – Alex_P

In response to “Jerry” from The Escapist Forum: Ouch. Well written, sparse on the details, but I’ve always preferred imagination to a page of rock. Read every word, which is rare. It’s also exactly how I picture the invention of strong AI. By a programmer getting caught up in a pet project. – SlayerGhede

In response to “Shangri La” from The Escapist Forum: Great story. Don’t know why, but it reminded me of some of the HP Lovecraft stories I used to read. Especially how the cold never seems to go away. – cthulhu257

In response to “The Moon Bearer” from The Escapist Forum: Agree. It’s mystery that we seek, not firm solution. We want to find out new things, eternally exploring new frontiers. First it’s the vastness of land, then sea, the air, the depth, the stars, and eventually fabric of reality and time itself. A very compelling story. The fine line between facts and myths, between religion and practicality, is amazing. I like the parallel that is drawn between the “gods” and “mythical Heroes–Armstrong”, and how the mystery kept people alive and hopeful. Let me stress again–absolutely amazing short story. It really resonates with me. – olicon

title: “Best Of” ShowToc: true date: “2025-02-13” author: “Birdie Lee”

I’m sorry to say it, but CoX has great gameplay, a compelling story, but its world is so dead. Its as if every fiber of the digital world screams out at you as you run down the streets “Hey look at me! I’m fake building facades!” And do you want to know why it feels so dead? There’s no bloody music, and the music they do have cuts off after a minute or so in the zone. After that you get to listen to the ambiance noises of cars honking and the wind whistling past your ears. Music helps to liven up the grind, and don’t deny that CoX after level 16 turns into a very ugly grind fest (unless they’ve modified the curve since my last visit). All I ask for is an audio option to loop the music, and I don’t think they understand how much that would improve and give life to the world they’ve created. If they’ve added that option in recent months I might be inclined to check it out again. – KeyMaster45 I find it interesting how the CoX MA works. From what I’ve seen it’s quite impressive, and it seems to be a lot easier that other game creators. If you’re not sure exactly what I’m talking about, check out the Left 4 Dead authoring tools, the G.E.C.K. for Fallout 3, or the Neverwinter Nights toolset. Making stories has never been easier to share, as most of the heavy lifting has already been done. Then again, the Little Big Planet tools are pretty easy to build with, but doing something great with them takes more effort. With more powerful tools you get more freedom to do what you want, but with great power comes, well a lot more work on your end to get everything to mesh together. – vxicepickxv

In response to “In Defense of the Friend Code” from the Escapist Forum: It is an interesting take on a system I’ve not tried. I can see the charm in what you’re saying, having actively looked for the people you will play with. Having said that I’m glad I don’t have to. It’s easier on PC. Hanging out on the same server means that you naturally keep bumping into the same people. I did this on Action Quake in the late 90’s. There were no mics and it was 56k which seriously limited the servers you could get a good game on. Playing AQ you had to wait to respawn next round with all of the other losers so you’d chat with messages between rounds. This built up my “Friends list”. I normally knew my team mates and opponents. It was frustrating when my server local was full though. Now I play on XBL. Yes your friends list can quickly fill with strangers but I have learnt and tend to have regular culls of people I’ve not spoken to in a week or so. There is a hard groups of around 10 I play MW2 with whenever they’re on. There is a smaller group I play Endwar with as well. I know where they live, who their families are, what they do for a living, their real names and what they are interested in. I much prefer this to a friends list of hundreds I know nothing about. I’m just glad we didn’t have to dig out and exchange 12 digit codes. – bjj hero While I see his point, I still don’t think any of the good points he mentioned truly excuse how f*cking annoying friend codes are. It’s a well written and well thought out article, and yet defending the undefendable is a pointless task. – icecoldcynic

– copycatalyst Well, before I thought that Demon’s Souls might be interesting to try out, but now…you’ve gone and got me both intrigued and terrified of what the experience would do to me. Especially with the sleep paralysis comparison – I get that way too often and it completely freaks me out every single time (especially when I’ve just dreamed that I’d woken up in bed, only to later wake up [or not] another time, something which also happens to me far too often). I’ll have to make sure to have some friends around to keep me from losing it if I ever give it a go… – Flionk

In response to “Ditching the V-Word” from the Escapist Forum: Ray Kurzweil lost my attention when he said this. He was probably just ranting and brought up a not-quite-a-tangent, but it sounds like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Anyhow, “virtual” as used today, at least in a professional context, still holds a great deal of meaning. In all computer-related context as well as others you quoted right up until “virtual reality” it serves to mean as the distinction between the logical and the physical, or the method in which they are separated; a bridge of sorts between what we us and the way we organize our thoughts and the world around us. “Virtual space” is not physical space, it is an abstraction thereof, a representation of what we see and perceive, itself seen (and represented physically) differently by different people – virtual. Which agrees with Deleuze, by the way. A lot of the problems brought forth by this article is that “virtual” has also come to mean, in common parlance, effects that take place through and of such realms. A “virtual romance” is not indeed “virtual” but is of or through “virtual space”. However, I will concede that some uses are a bit out of hand, such as “virtual colonoscopy” which only describes taking an image through non-traditional means. Such things are probably just a means by which to distinguish techniques or from a legacy meaning. In the case of colonoscopy, probably to separate the non-invasiveness of the new technique from the infamous “hands-on” traditional technique. In any event, it is not uncommon for words to balloon in meaning up until they fall in disuse, usually when one or more new and popular words take up the meanings. Such is the organic nature of language. – pneuma08 Eh, it’s just a word. Wouldn’t your average American from 60 years ago be able to walk home and tell his mom he was very gay because he had found a job? Plus, it is a virtual world. If Kwolds Golddagger, Golden Barbarian ceases to exist, John Truman, Expert Accountant will continue to exist. If John Truman ceases to exist, so does Kwolds Golddagger. One might probably think about ‘virtual friendships’ and how such as real, but odds are that if someone is really your friend you’d end up having other ways to contact him, which makes it less virtual (even if through a virtual medium, as one of the fellows above me said). If your best pal is Kwolds Golddagger, and suddenly you need help for your mom’s surgery, either he will reveal himself to be John Truman to help or suddenly stop contacting you. There might be something about ‘virtual economy’, and how you are spending real money on fake things, but then again the money you are spending are bits and bytes on a bank’s website that have now gone to the company’s bank’s website. Even though we spend money as real, most of it is really virtual, based on the promise that the government and banks will pay up if we need it, even though they don’t actually have that many money. It works the same as real money – but a few years ago there was a rumour that the Argeninian peso would suddenly become devalued, so thousands of people rushed to trade their pesos in for dollars, and the government and banks didn’t have enough dollars to pay and it all ended up throwing the country into a recession. So you have the money, you can use the money to buy stuff, but if you try to take all the money out it’s not really there. It’s real, but not quite. I had an idea for a book that started with a violent war scenario. Then at the end the main character would say he’d need to log off and disappear. The next chapter would show him working at a drab desk job. At the end of it, he’d say he’d log off and disappear. The war scenario was a game inside a massive, worldwide simulation; even though they’re both as ‘real’, the job he works in is what pays his salary, while the war scenario had no long-term consequences. Now that would make me wonder. – The Random One