New efforts!

[pinballdave]

 :'(

No, the all time worst Christmas ever (in regards to the game) was Christmas 2012... right after we lost everything, gamewise.

[LaughingAlex]

It was released to Beta... and I also thought you were referring to characters in your initial quote (well, first I (apparently correctly) thought you meant I24, but then I reread and saw that the syntax made it seem like you were referring to characters).

Hmmm.... I didn't really like that all that much. It was good, but then there were these moments where they inserted moralizing that was hitting the reader over the head with "wars started for oil are bad!" Plus, the line at the end, that said something like

Spoiler for Hidden:

"In the Iraq war, a pride of lions was killed. There were also other casualties."

just seemed like it was trying so hard to be deep and all "the story of this group of lions was an allegory for how terrible war is!" but really felt to me like it wasn't taking seriously the lives lost - seemed like everyone else killed in the war got one throwaway line at the end of the book.

It's very hard for any story to do that.  Honestly my favorite book series that tends to oppose war is a fantasy novel series.  The Ice and Fire series may appear a high fantasy world, or close, but in reality it tends to do a good job of criticizing other book series and also criticizes war in many ways.  Its "Far easier to kill an orc than to kill another human just like you on an opposing side", and the fact that you see humans at war with one another when there is a very, very big problem occuring elsewhere and the attrocities of those wars makes you think.  Even more-so when you realize there isn't really a "this side is all good guys" faction.  Just those people like more than others.

Edit:  I should try reading, I think it's heart of darkness, maybe?  I also heard that the book "generation kill" is a good read, I didn't read it but occasionally am watching the tv series hbo made.  Likewise a game I really want to try out sometime, just not willing to spend money on it atm, is Spec Ops: The line, which is a deconstruction of modern shooters and also critical about the general nature of war.

I also was wondering, regarding city of heroes, is who were the good guys at the end of the praetorian war?  We removed a dictator from power but at what cost?

[Felderburg]

I'm not responsible for your thinking

Your avatar has the distinct look of a man trying to control my thoughts. Why else would he have a hand on his temple?

[FloatingFatMan]

Your avatar has the distinct look of a man trying to control my thoughts. Why else would he have a hand on his temple?

He's thinking:  "Hmm, shall I have you flayed and dipped in salt, or do I want a triple Big Mac with extra fries?"

[BadWolf]

I'd love to introduce folks with that mentality to stuff like Maus, Pride of Baghdad, Watchmen, Frank Miller's run on Daredevil (particularly the issue titled "Roulette," Daredevil #191), and the original Arkham Asylum.  Comics and superheroes can definitely be addressed on as much as an adult level as the greatest works of high fantasy.

Although to be honest, I didn't care much for the Maus MMO.

[Tubbius]

Although to be honest, I didn't care much for the Maus MMO.

Definitely a comic that should never be a video game.

[Teikiatsu]

I had my first dream about returning to CoX last night. I was standing in AP looking at the globals of new toons to see if I recognized any of them and sending tells to the ones I did know.   :-\

[LaughingAlex]

I had my first dream about returning to CoX last night. I was standing in AP looking at the globals of new toons to see if I recognized any of them and sending tells to the ones I did know.   :-\

Funny, I had a similar dream, that CoX was finally returning.  I was rebuilding a time manipulation character of some kind while hanging out in pocket D.

[Harpospoke]

Maybe not more accessible to the human psyche, but certainly more accepted by the general public as an "adult" thing.  People go watch superhero movies for kicks, but superhero cosplayers are seen as this weird outer fringe of society.  Comic books are seen as things for kids, when, admittedly, many comics aren't even remotely aimed at younger audiences any more.  In a recent Nightwing book I'd seen images from in an online article, there's a scene where Nightwing is talking to a woman.  He says, "My name is--" and the panel cuts off to shift to a sexually excited image of the woman in a nightgown shouting, "Dick!"  A different issue--one of the Avengers books from Marvel--flat out shows Sentry ripping Ares in half into a bloody smear.  However, the public perception is that "Comics are for kids or for mindless fun on the big screen."

Meanwhile, there's the undercurrent that swords and sorcery, high fantasy is automatically for adults.  With some exceptions like Rowling's Harry Potter series, Beagle's The Last Unicorn, Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, and Paolini's Eragon series that are generally accepted as being aimed at younger audiences, people point to works by Tolkien, Martin, Lewis, and Jordan to show fantasy as a genre designed for adults who want to dig deep in their storylines with allegory, political intrigue, honor, blood, sex, and more.  Many other literary classics, such as epic poetry like Beowulf and some of Shakespeare's plays, seem to fit this impression as well.  The idea is that if you're an adult, if you want to be able to talk about your reading and sound like you're smart, cultured, or generally accepted, fantasy is the way to go--especially when compared to those silly comic books.

Heh.

I'd love to introduce folks with that mentality to stuff like Maus, Pride of Baghdad, Watchmen, Frank Miller's run on Daredevil (particularly the issue titled "Roulette," Daredevil #191), and the original Arkham Asylum.  Comics and superheroes can definitely be addressed on as much as an adult level as the greatest works of high fantasy.

Good point.   Fantasy just has the advantage of being around a LOT longer than Super Heroes and Sci-fi.    When a genre goes back to Beowulf, it's got some serious seniority!    Kinda like how a new religion isn't taken as seriously as an old religion.  (Scientologists are "crazy")

You misunderstand.  You never really had i24, because i24 was never released to the live servers.  So how can you really miss it when you never really had it in the first place? :p

I suppose test server players might miss it.  :D   And I have to admit the tales of the improvements to Blasters has me in a small state of longing as well.   I can't say I "miss" it...but I could say I would  "like to have" it.

[Sinistar]

1. Crashless Nukes.

2. Every blaster got a power change from their secondary that helped with survival (i.e., Conserve Power to Energize, a heal/+regen/end discount power).

3. Sniper attacks could skip the long, interruptable animation if you had a certain amount of +to hit.

That's pretty darn big to me. I can understand the disappointment.

EDIT: And finally having a set that synched up with Dual Pistols (Martial Arts! I finally get to kick something!)... sigh.

If only Tier 9 armor powers would have lost the crash....

[pinballdave]

I had my first dream about returning to CoX last night. I was standing in AP looking at the globals of new toons to see if I recognized any of them and sending tells to the ones I did know.   :-\

The live action dream where my robots and I were in a basement full of vazhilok lit Evil Dead style kinda scarred me

[Samuraiko]

I will probably end up spending the first 24 hours just standing in Atlas Park, with the music and the sound on, just soaking it all in that I'm finally back there. And chatting with 50 people at once while tells scroll by in my chat window like the numbers on the NYSE.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[blacksly]

He's thinking:  "Hmm, shall I have you flayed and dipped in salt, or do I want a triple Big Mac with extra fries?"

Why are those exclusive?

[Rejolt]

I will probably end up spending the first 24 hours just standing in Atlas Park, with the music and the sound on, just soaking it all in that I'm finally back there. And chatting with 50 people at once while tells scroll by in my chat window like the numbers on the NYSE.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I'm waiting for 30 minutes in: "LF Fire farm, 5 million a run" spammed in between "omg! I love your videos!"

[LaughingAlex]

I'm waiting for 30 minutes in: "LF Fire farm, 5 million a run" spammed in between "omg! I love your videos!"

If we all have to start over no ones going to even have a half a million influence :).  It'll be a race to get to 50 not for the sake of saying first 50 but for the sake of establishing an income for the account and getting influence and drops into the market.

Edit: A weird part of my dream, I had the oroboros portal unlocked and VIP unlocked instantly, strange eh?

[Rejolt]

If we all have to start over no ones going to even have a half a million influence :).  It'll be a race to get to 50 not for the sake of saying first 50 but for the sake of establishing an income for the account and getting influence and drops into the market.

Edit: A weird part of my dream, I had the oroboros portal unlocked and VIP unlocked instantly, strange eh?

I'm stunned at how fast people can level when they put their minds to it. From fedex exploiting the 2nd arc in Croatoa to Fire imps in AE... It's just stuff I never thought of or knew of. Any one remember how elobrate snake egg farming was to set up?

[ukaserex]

I enjoyed it and it actually encourrage me to farm more (well that and purple drops) Can't speak for other base maker, but the power for you to turn something that is not intended to be used in a certain way and turn it into a vision which looked very close to what you were trying to create was just so gratifying. I don't know if it is because I had to work for it by  farming the crap out of the Council map just to get the fund or that I had a plan, enacted the plan, and executed it to about 95% what is supposed to be, limitations of course is number of pieces you can have and certain thing just can be "fully" made how it supposed to look (Warbase made a Abrams a1 tank. It looked like a tank, but of course the barrel looks little funky, but considering the limitation with the pieces you can use, it was damn impressive)

The bases I enjoyed created was my Base City, complete with apartment structure, PC Cafe (where the invention station was located), a Satellite Portal Corp for the Porters, a bank for storage, a hospital, and a Buffalo Wild Wings. My final project was to create the USS Ronald Regan with a full flight deck and certain non classified parts of the ship. Unfortunately I only got to the flightdeck before the game ended

Would have loved to see the Abrams. In my former life, I was a turret mechanic. A horrible choice for an MOS. There aren't many turrets to work on in the private sector.

[Surelle]

I had my first dream about returning to CoX last night. I was standing in AP looking at the globals of new toons to see if I recognized any of them and sending tells to the ones I did know.   :-\

It's funny how everyone is having CoX dreams all at once, after two years of waiting around here.  I had one too- it made me feel happy and upset all at once, because of the clarity of the dream being so much starker than my memory of the game after two years-- but I had a really good feeling, like it was really going to happen; we'd really get CoX back this time.

Weird.  I put a screenie of the night of the closure on my desktop, and it's uplifting to look at it every day now.  Let's hope our inner lights are right.   :)

[MM3squints]

Would have loved to see the Abrams. In my former life, I was a turret mechanic. A horrible choice for an MOS. There aren't many turrets to work on in the private sector.

Ha I know how you feel. I worked in the nuclear steam plant onboard the Regan as a Machinist Mate. Bad thing, there isn't too many large scale steam generators, low pressure/high pressure turbines or distillation jobs in the civilian sector. Thankfully there was TAPs to help craft my resume with transferable skill and the GI Bill for College (oh ya whoever pays taxes, thanks for the education) Though the choices were limited (Right now I work with Master Data Management nowhere what I used to do) I do miss those day in the Persian Gulf 16+ hours in the plant where the temperature was 100+, 100% humility, smells like nothing but brine and 2190 TEP. It's strange but it grows on you.

[Felderburg]

Would have loved to see the Abrams. In my former life, I was a turret mechanic. A horrible choice for an MOS. There aren't many turrets to work on in the private sector.

You obviously don't know the right villains people.