If the earth still had multiple moons, would moonbats be that much crazier?
Warning: If you never played Star Wars Galaxies, this is going to be a long, boring post.
Long-time readers of both my blogs will remember that I have a bit of a grudge against Sony Online Entertainment. I ranted about what they were doing to screw up with the Vision(tm) of Everquest for a long time; then I jumped ship to Star Wars, only to find out what true evil was. Best damn MMORPG I ever played… until the CU. (Combat Upgrade, a.k.a. Cock-Up).
Now, SWG wasn’t without it’s flaws; in fact, it had quite a few of them. I was an Architect, and enjoyed the crafting system immensely, although the system that was supposed to guarantee us a market was broken. But for reasons that never made a bit of sense, SOE decided to completely overthrow the entire philosophy sytstem the game was based on, and radically revamped the concept of balance to make crafting classes non-viable. Then it got rid of them entirely, because there weren’t enough to make the economy run. Or for some other stupid reason. It never made any sense; suffice to say, my friends Master Plan and Dr. Heinous were in complete agreement; while MP forced himself to play a couple of times afterwards, he described it as simliar to playing in the ashes of a great amusement park, a shell of its former self.
Near as I can tell, they saw WOW coming and panicked. In combination with “successor team mentality” wanting to re-make the game in EQII’s image, SOE made a series of stupid decisions in a futile attempt to “out-Blizzard Blizzard.” To call it a fucking disaster would be charitable. Best estimates were that they lost 1/3 of their customers in the first 30 days after the CU went live, despite a strong push from the last SW movie and an expansion based on it. Things went downhill from there.
Well, I was going through some old files, determining which should be deleted to save space, when I ran across an old gem; a preserved pre-CU discussion thread, I had particpated in, trying to improve the game. It was a discussion on the Architetchs’ forum during which we tried to develop an alternative to the then-current poorly implemented GCW system, while at the same time, creating new roles and uses for as many of the various classes as we could– especially the crafters.
Looking back at it four years later, I’m struck the most by how it seems we were trying to create something similiar to World of Warcraft, which, IIRC, was about to take the market by storm. Essentially, we were going to divide the world into three groups: Rebs, Imps, and Neutrals, only instead of the “always on” manner of PvP in WOW, we were creating a system whereby overt warfare existed alongside more cloak and dagger operations; trying to slip people through starports, “secret” weapons factories, towns controlled by the rebels or imps…. If you wanted to fight, you could become an overt member, but if you just wanted to supply the fighters, you could remain covert and craft. And even then, you could get involved in certain types of missions — although some of them might have been a bit silly (“Cover the mayor, he’s about to replace the clone center!”). It wouldn’t be without its risks; scanners or patrols could catch a covert player and force him overt. I remember debating (internally, I never posted it) whether such flagging should result in an arrest (a few minutes of downtime), combat with NPC’s and whatever PC’s were waiting for you to slip up, an arrest with a cut scene of your character being interrogated…
I would have been much happier to play that game than EQ or WOW.
Anyway, here’s the raw preserved thread, below the fold. After so long, I don’t remember for sure who’s saying what to whom (except where it’s obvious by context), nor where the exact divisions were between one message and the next. For clarity, I’ve replaced the handle I was using at that time with my current blogging ID. Maybe one of these days, one of the SWGEmu groups will read this and go, “hey… that sounds cool!” and code it.
I can only hope.
Correction to the note about Penguin Heart below: I haven’t found subs on the usual lists. I may have missed it because of the name being in Japanese, or just plain overlooking it.
I have found the subs at sites I’m worried about frequenting, because I don’t know their rep: Fansub.tv; Veoh.com, Mininova.org. I’m always worried about going to sites like that and meeting up with a nice trojan.
Anyone know these guys?
Update: Pete advisies:
The solution to fear is a disposable computer: either a real one, or a virtual machine. Install Fedora there (it comes with SElinux enabled by default), download the .torrent file on a USB key, move it where your Azureus is, enjoy. Keep in mind though, the .torrent file and media files all can be a part of attack vectors. Can you survive the life of constant threat and not go mad?
Well, I decided a while back that the curve on learning Linux probably wasn’t worth it (for me, YMMV). I have taken the opportunity of building out Lyar last year to retire Misaki to bittorrenting duties. That and grabbing screencaps off of ZoomPlayer is all I use it for now. I do grab the direct downloads from Baka-Wolf using Lyar a lot of times, but they are generally a different cup of tea. They host the files themselves; AnimeSuki and most of the aggregators do not.
One of the computers died last week, so no anime order while I replace it. Motherboard went bad. KHAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!
CG R2 #5 is downloading right now, but I read about it at Derailed by Darry. Insane mess. Like I feared, they’ve unrealistically shifted it back to the school. That’s stupid, and I’m not going to defend this show for any kind of plot quality any more; they’re just recycling elements from the first season. I don’t think I care any more, it’s not to be watched for the intrigue or battles, its to be watched for the “WTF are they going to do next?” element. Villetta in fishnet? Kallen in an animal costume? CC in a vat of tomatoes? Schwing! Damn, why did they move this series to daytime?
Still haven’t found Penguin Heart subs.
Maid Guy episode 4…. wait, I haven’t downloaded it yet? Ok, no more topless shots since the first episode (through #3), but the humor’s been pretty good. The hickeys all over Naeka’s neck when she finally made it home…
To-Love-Ru #4: another series that goes against logic and common sense to the point that you just have to chuck it and take the show for what it is. I just wish it was a bit more than brainless harem fanservice comedy. (Why? If you really want more from your anime, start checking out any of the quality shows over the last two seasons, eh? Shaddap. Talking to yourself again? SHADDAP!) Episode #3 didn’t jump the shark, it rode it. Naked. Episode #4 went for the tentacle pr0n. Watching the two squids arguing over the spoils had me rolling, as I imagined the dialogue:
“Hey, I want my share!”
“Sorry, buddy, first come, first served! But if you insist, you can have this one.”
“THAT’S THE GUY YOU SMARTASS! GIMMIE THE ONE WITH THE BOOBS!”
“A guy? Reeeeeeally, I just can’t tell these humanoids apart… and who the hell do you think you’re calling smartass, hose-nose?”
“LEAVE MY NOSE OUT OF THIS, DAMN YOU!! AND YOURS IS JUST THE SAME!!”
Kanokon has forgotten that it was supposed to have a plot and is borrowing absurdity from the other shows above. What kind of school has a Forbidden Storage Room with a Cursed (demon possessed) Bunny Girl Costume? And why couldn’t anyone think to put a coat over Chizuru? (Because we couldn’t SEE her then, idiot! I thought i told you to shut up?) Of course how she finally got out of it was obvious…. so obvious you have to wonder why they didn’t do it right off the bat. (Because then we wouldn’t have seen half the girls in the class naked. Sha….. oh yeah, point.)
You know, I think I’ve still got some unwatched Dirty Pair OVA’s.
Ace of Spades nails it: the real reason Japanese men bow, instead of shaking hands.
I wonder if he spent any time checking out Kanokon, Maid Guy, and To Love-Ru? (Warning! All NSFW!!)
Well, the new season has delivered us a bunch of new shows, most of which I admit I haven’t bothered to watch. I have made it a point to catch all three of the fanservice shows thus far, so at least I can talk about those. I also watched what I thought was going to be the most intriguing: Daughter of Twenty Faces. It turned out to be the most disappointing, so I’ll take a break from the fanservice to look at it.
The early translations of the plot were a little confused over whether the girl was the thief, or whether she was running off with the thief (turns out to be the latter). The first would stretch credulity more than a bit, but it might be fun. The second might be more logical, but risked being boring in concept. Still, it had a chance to be reasonably entertaining. What I expected to get was something like the 60’s crime capers, or Lupin crossed with It Takes a Thief. Suave good-guy/bad-guy as the protagonist, over-matched police, seemingly airtight security, and inventive tricks that leave the viewer amazed at how badly hoodwinked the good guys were. The show was indeed set in the 1960’s, and “The Thief Known as 20 Faces” even had a gimmick: he would always warn the owner what he was coming to steal, and when. And then he’d steal it, no matter what the security. Cool, right?
There appears to have been a failure of some sort today that claimed the last 48 hours or so of posts and comments. HM has restored part of them, but the pictures aren’t all back yet. I’m waiting to see what happens before I start re-uploading.
UPDATE: Upon contact with the host, they advised me that a scheduled hardware replacement had occurred (it seems I should visit my control panel and their forums much more often so I’d know these little things), and it was suggested that my posts ended up on the old server due to a slow DNS changeover. (Like FOUR DAYS slow). They copied the old database over to replace the “new” one, but the pictures weren’t a part of that, so I’ll have to replace them tomorrow.
If I have time.
UPDATE 2: Well, they transferred the new pictures directory for me. I’m glad I don’t have to do it, and HM gave me prompt service when I asked for it. It’s just that I’m still annoyed that it was necessary. It happened because the DNS propagation was absurdly slow; the new server was put in place on the 17th, but I was still unknowingly going to the old server on the 20th. Presumably, so were most folks.
Not that I could have gone to the new server even if I had known, without the correct IP. I have no knowledge of where visitors ended up, but I can guess from the lack of reaction to the pics/articles; I don’t expect comments like Jason gets, but I did think the lack was odd.
If anyone posted a comment and it’s gone now, that’s the reason.
