GlassGoblin

That might be able get me to play a MM.

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To date I only have two Hami-Os among all of my characters, and neither of them has been slotted. Back in those early days I was holding out hope that there would be some game decisions bringing negative consequences, but so far there's only Efficiency Expert (where the negative consequence comes from caring about the badge).

Is a dead horse a four-legged rig?

Oh, certainly, this should be a cakewalk. Except, you know, the cake is a lie.

I have to agree, too. I am sure a certain amount of the decision to open Beta to all VIPs came from Marketing -- giving everyone who subscribes early access to new features can be good PR, because they are more motivated to overlook small flaws to gush about the cool new toys only they get to see. When something goes wrong, though, and the reaction is negative, then more effort has to be expended in damage control. "Controlled leaks" and viral marketing are very rarely controlled enough for safety's sake.

These days, I'm not sure how much truly useful feedback comes out of VIP Beta, but there's certainly no low-level course corrections possible. That's why secret closed beta groups have to continue: to try to fix bad calls from the devs before the budget is expended on something that's unlikely to be well-received by the players.

Open discussion about leaked features is inevitable once the NDA is eliminated for pseudo-Beta, but I'd hesitate to assume premature exposure is all a Nemesis Plot by Marketing. It more likely makes their jobs more difficult, not easier.

Also, since it was revealed that there are certain players who are invited to preview the SSAs before they hit beta, and that a group of players were invited to pre-beta test the Incarnate system before it went to closed beta, it's probably a safe bet there's still a closed beta for every issue.

[goes to check the job listings]

She's not opposed to necromancy. She's opposed to OTHER people using necromancy.

Sheesh. I make an off-hand and largely facetious remark about eliminating the Praetorian tutorial in another thread, and then I discover that in this thread there's actual rage going on? Whoa, I need to be more careful about where I post...

That's the Omega slot.

Point taken. ;-)

Well, yes, that's what I meant by "bittersweet."

I wouldn't put too much stock in "chronologically separate," though, given some of the retcons we've seen in the past.

The bigger issue* is the difficulty in maintaining narrative consistency through repeat playings. I'm really more surprised that they are taking Statesman and Sister Psyche out of the game than I would be with them keeping pre-nuke Praetoria around.

*Bigger in terms of implementation challenge, not as in "OMG this is a big problem!"

Oh, there's certainly no reason for Praetoria to come to a halt, and no sign that it will, either. However, going through the 1-20 arcs as Resistance ("We will wrest control from Cole and save Praetoria!") or Loyalist ("The Emperor has our best interests at heart!") will seem a bit hollow once you know you are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Yes, but no one said it's a funny joke...

I've heard "rumors" that there is another Ward appearing in i23.

Damn it, that is exactly what I was going to post! But that's okay, I'll let you take the heat for it.

Rice-a-Romi, the Cimeroan treat!

Perhaps on Primal Earth lions and tigers can't interbreed without magical assistance (now THERE's a job), and the only viable spell comes with the mystical equivalent of evolutionary baggage.