Marsquake

Also Serial Girl's 2nd account... Mike Rotchburns.

Also, I saw a Mr. Slave at the Cap AE building last night. If you report that name, (for copyright infringement), you can steal that too.

True story. I once saw a female toon (on another server) named Pinkslit. When I told her it may get reported, (I didn't find it offensive), she said "Watch it Brassy!" since I was on a toon named Doc Brass.

So there's another suggestion for you... Brass Balls.

The word 'dork" used to refer to a phallus, until it lost its connotation. Now lil girls are saying it in TV commercials.

So call your toon Ginormous Giganticus Dork!
That'll get past the censors.

Alternately if you wanna be a huge [censored], go w/ Dick Cheney.

Ok, so Canada's out.

Hmm... maybe Australia...

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Great discussion. Both sides have made some excellent points about whether "Kid $name" or "$name" make more sense for a player's $sidekickname. I'm definitely reading it all, and appreciate the input.

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I guess if you're not willing to budge on such a minor detail, (there really aren't 2 sides here), there's no chance in hell of convincing you that your Nazi arc has a morally offensive theme. You take too much glee in your creative output to consider the moral implications.

But, nevertheless, I suggest you rename that arc "Nazi's Win Forever!" Or subtitle it "A Shaved Head's Damp Dream," (title toned down, but hopefully you get it).

Then if people continue to play it, or tell you they enjoy it, I'll consider moving to Canada.

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With it being a silent movie, I'm now totally picturing a CoH version of Triumph of the Will. Is that bad?

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Yes its bad. Leni Rifenstahl's documentery is still studied for its skill and technical ability to produce propaganda. No one admires it for its content.

And that's why I still find "Axis and Allies" disturbing and disquieting. It is unrelenting and sytematic in presenting a total Nazi victory, while making the player a participant.

Novels, comics, some film and TV, have used a Nazi victory as setting or background for their stories. But the victory is never total. It never should be.

Each of your missions grinds an Ally under its bootheel, till the USA falls too. Then it ends... stops short.

I wonder if there's a relevant trope here. If not I'll coin it: The Nazis must never win, period. To not understand this is to not comprehend the true evil Nazis represented.

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While the "Kid" appellation is cute, it doesn't work in all cases. The arc works just as well without it.

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I said the same thing to the author in my comments. In addition, to the best of my knowledge, "Kid" is ussually gender specific in superhero or western comics. Kid Colt... Two-Gun Kid...

Kid Valkyrie just sounds off for some reason. Maybe Young Valkyrie would work better. Maybe substitute "young" for "kid" thruout.

Also, I know you review by request Venture, but would you consider a suggestion. The same author as "Young FP" wrote "Axis and Allies". It just may be the most villainous arc I've yet played. It sets up, and forces the the player along for the ride, the complete victory of the Nazis and 5th Column, including the takeover of the US.

This concept has been used before in novels, films and comics. The Red Skull conquers the world in the current Avengers/Invaders series. But there is always a way out, or at least the suggestion that its possible to resist, an ominous hint of doom for the Reich. In this author's arc there is not even a whisper of that possibility. Total victory, period.

"Axis and Allies" badly needs to be opened up at the end. Or at least make it part 1 of a larger story.

Morally, its the darkest arc I've seen. Just curious to have your opinion of it Venture.

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That said, I've found some of your reviews to be so laden with TVTropes lingo, they're pretty much impenetrable and... well... not fun to read.

I don't mind looking up one or two things, but I'm not going to do that a dozen times just to get through someone's post. I just skip over the ones in which you seem to expect that. And I kinda doubt I'm the only person who does it.

So, while I'm pretty much on your side regarding this particular Mary Sue issue, I have to disagree that 'people aren't having significant trouble understanding you'. Your review posts can get rather arcane, and I don't think it's my responsibility, as a reader, to decipher them. In composing them, I don't think you always--to reference Arcanaville's post above--meet the readers halfway.

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Yep, yep ,yep.

I had fun reading Venture's reviews till they became too laden w/ arcane, jargony terms. As Hydro says, becoming "impenetrable." So I've stopped even looking at the thread.

I could care less what Mary Sue means or stands for. I tried to use it as an example of a term that is not self-evident. If you had to read any mainstream reviewer w/ a manual or dictionary open the whole time, (one or 2 terms would be ok, but a stream of them , NO), it quickly removes the fun factor from reading such reviews. End result, the reviewer is waving a flag of questionable expertise, ultimately alienating the reader. See John Clute as a prime example.
(Clute btw brought his tendencies to fiction writing of his own, when he wrote a SF novel so impenetrable, very few read it.)

So, Venture willfully misreads my statement about using my gf as a barometer. She was meant to be representative of the readers that found themselves bogged down by TVtrope jargon. There is a larger audience implied. So Vent Fails at Reading Comprehension For... now.

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... are you seriously implying I should change the way I write to make your girlfriend happy? I wouldn't change the way I write to make my girlfriend happy, unless she made me very happy first, If You Know What I Mean.

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So that's a no on the disclaimer?

I'm obviously being facetious, just as you are here. Overuse of these trope terms, "If you know what I mean", is as bad and gets as old as adding "That's what she said" to make a phrase suggestive. ...ba rum pump

Clarity is the objective. You probably read Policewoman's reviews. If not, I highly recommend them as examples of detailed and very clear analysis.

You took a deserved swipe at deconstructionism. Take a sample of communications/media papers, say 30 or so, and you'll get a generous sprinkling of jargon terminology. Everything from Freudian analysis to deconstructions. These are simply overlays. Just as your preference for TVtropes as shorthand is an overlay.

You're going to write to please yourself. So your style of criticism is a bit of a Mary Sue in its own right. But if you're interested in more clarity, you may become a better writer if you drop derivative terminolgy.

Otherwise... you wanna read a Freudian analysis of Alien ? Or a Jungian one of the original Star Wars trilogy?

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I really really don't get the dislike a lot of people are spewing toward Venture. Those people who become upset at his review of their arcs need to remember that they volunteered to have him rip-up their story-arcs!

And it's not like Venture has been talking in Rocket-Scientist lingo and then acting like we're idiots because we don't understand him. He mentioned that his lines come from TVtropes, and he assumes that you're intelligent enough to use Google.

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Several assumptions here are off-track. Dunno about anyone else, but I don't dislike Venture at all. I enjoy his reviews and thanked him for introducing TVtropes. As I said, its entertaining.

However, many of the trope terms are evanescent. It is actually far clearer to distinguish among the various types of Mary Sues and say specifically "self-insert", or whatever type of authorial wish fulfillment/aggradizement type is being used.
Mary Sue as a term is light as fluff, blowin' in the wind.

Many other terms on that site are obscure, arbitrary, or the opposite of self-evident. Venture is not treating us as intelligent by overusing those terms.

Btw, I am not a disgruntled author. I don't claim to be a writer and I don't plan to ask to be reviewed when, or even if , I get an arc finished.

So, not upset; don't dislike Venture; haven't written anything worthy. No ax to grind at all.

In the interests of clarity, reduce the overuse of obscurantist jargon. If not, include a disclaimer on the reviews stating the reliance on said jargon.

I propose that Venture run a disclaimer with all his reviews.
Something like:

WARNING: this review will rely heavily on terminology from TVtropes. It is intended as shorthand, but it may require you to read a webpage, or several for related terms, to comprehend.

As I've said, the website is entertaining, but it by no means has universal or even general acceptance in mainstream criticism. Many of the terms are arbitrary, or rely on obscure references that even the most versed in pop culture are unlikely to get. Xanatos anyone? Or the definition of a term evaporates almost as soon as you close the webpage. I read the lampshade page, but I couldn't define it for you w/out, once again, going to the site.

Shorthand is only shorthand if its generally accepted. So if venture intends to disseminate these terms... great. More power to 'im. In the meantime, there's always that disclaimer...

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What, exactly, would be improved if I said self-indulgent author insertion instead of Mary Sue? I would expect the vast majority of readers would say to themselves "oh, he means a Mary Sue". I don't expect any smaller proportion would ask me to clarify that term than have asked what a Mary Sue is.

...people around here can figure this language thing out for themselves, requiring neither a caretaker nor writers who restrict themselves to small words.

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Does that last bit count as reverse condensension to the general player or is it just plain patronizing of Talen?

Actually, Mary Sue as a term is clear... as mud. You've said yourself noone agrees on an exact definition. This started as a term in Star Trek fanfiction for Haysus' sake. It presumes a certain level of geekiness.

I appreciate you introducing me to TVtropes. Its an entertaining site. I lost an afternoon just following links there.

I use my gf as a barometer on whether terms such as Mary Sue make sense. Even after an explanation based on the tropes site, it was still clear... as mud.

"Self-insertion" more than adequately indicates the mastur... I mean, self-love qualities of a Mary Sue character. It would just be a lot clearer to your readers what you mean.

In this one case, you're being too stubborn Vent.

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Arc #10855, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: bugged mobs, semi-gratuitous faction, throws the Idiot Ball, "just a bunch of stuff that happened"

...Things start getting hairy in the second mission, which is where the "Fifth Column Special Projects" mobs start showing up. This adds healers, psi damage and unfortunately some very buggy Ninjitsu mobs, which really should have been changed out at least until the bugs are fixed. These mobs are likely to be particularly troublesome for squishier builds when teamed with the aforementioned healers. The Special Projects sub-faction is semi-gratuitous; adding the buggy ones pushes it over the edge.

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I read your review after running this arc, and agree with most everything you said. There were WTF moments when we got one-shotted by the Assassin Lts. On the final map, your patriotic ally would actually go past the Schatten to fight the rest of the spawn... Every time! Its like he knew they were bugged. It became funny after awhile.

And why would you get auto'ed down to 45 for no reason on last map? I wanted my full lvl 50 arsenal available.

That said, this was the best 5th Column story I've seen to date. And one of the most fun arcs in AE so far.

I don't think the faction is gratuitous as much as an extension of the existing 5th Column. The new mobs are so well designed (except the buggy assassin), I can see them fitting in the main game. Robotenmeister was a favorite.

Also a sleeper cell makes perfect sense. Its the very definition of a 5th column, in this case a 5th within the 5th.

Are we allowed to coin new tropes? Here's a possible one. The Green Lantern. When Green Lantern/Hal Jordan was replaced by Green Lantern/Kyle Rayner there was an uproar from the fanbase. The DC editors responded by saying where were all you fans when we needed to sell comics? If you loved Hal so much, why weren't you buying his comics?
GL/Kyle turned out to be popular.

Posi said, as of 4/17, there were 794 arcs with the 5th in them. I'm guessing it's closer to a thousand by now. Would players be as nostalgic about them if they had not been removed from the game, and had been here all along?

That's the Green Lantern trope.

name: Giant Zombie hunt
arc ID: 31452
@Marsquake

This one's short and sweet. Made partly to give villains a chance to fight Adamastor (with a few glowies and destructibles thrown in). It also attempts to fill in a bit of prologue to the next great alien invasion, that's been hinted at since the arrival of Ouro. Maybe it will finally happen in I15.

Do we get credit toward badges for non-custom baddies killed in MA missions? Say like Banished Masks?

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Kinda totally off topic but... the content creator does published content still stay around if the creator deactivates?

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Does this mean you're having fun w/ the mission creator?

Would it make a difference in your determination to leave the game if we all told you that no way, no how, not even, nevah (unless you achieve HoF)... will your player generated content be preserved if you deactivate?

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Legion of Legends - If you don't know who Flying Code Monkey is, then you are blind. He made me love Earth Control and Kinetics, or was that Cinetico. Majik who made me the best Emp that I could be and Daemein... oh D... little D.

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Referring you back to your post. There's more than one monkey flying around...

Speaking of Legion of Legends... Was Monkey's kin named Dash? And who was the stoner he ran w/? Those 2 were quite a pair.

9. We never got Statesman that night cause he was too chicken**** to stand and fight. Kept TPing away when he was in danger. Mostly likely Jack's ego could not have withstood a defeat.

A piece of advice though. Nostalgia is great. Talking about all the fun we used to have... As long as its not meant to prime the pump for a sneakier form of recruiting for your new shiny toy (based on your last thread).

If you mean to say farewell and absolutely don't plan on coming back, please do it gracefully, and leave w/ your dignity intact.

A: cause Shadow loves Liberty.

Q: why are there interstates in Hawaii?

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10,000 seems kinda low for Freedom server not to be able to handle it. With total subscriptions between 120-150k, I would think there is close to 10,000 people on Freedom most the time. Maybe they should have added a few more hamsters to Freedom's and Virtue's wheel while updating.

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I'm surprised that the actual number is so low. With a subcription base of near 150,000, divided among 12 servers, a cap of less than 10k players means part of the subscriber base will be shut out if the event is big enough.

It seems the hardware upgrades have been modest at best. A certain other top MMO could gobble up the entire CoH/V population on a single one of their servers and still have room for dessert.

The sound and fury over the "no" issue may have sidetracked this thread. There are encouraging signs that the landfill that sometimes is these forums will begin to shrink. At least one TLDR post has been yanked since yesterday. (Isn't it wonderful that a poster takes the time to tell an OP that they didn't read his/her post? What goes thru they're heads, besides an impulse to pad?)

Don't care much about "no" responses, whether they come from lazy posters, spammers, post-count padders, or simply ppl who are hostile to what they see as "old/tired" ideas they're impatient w/.

The new posting policy is not meant to stifle debate, but to promote discussion. These are forums, not chat rooms. Any reduction of padding in its various forms is welcome. I wish the policy would be extended to the servers forums.

Whats this about nipple equality in your sig, BadStorm? I wanna hear more.

Seriously though, I'm ambivalent about these free accounts. I understand from a business point of view and I certainly would like to see the player base increase in size. But along w/ temp and trial accounts, I believe they're used for various nefarious purposes sometimes. For example, I strongly suspect that such accounts were used in a rash of base robberies on my home server, Liberty. The perpetrator(s) used lowbie toons to get into trusting (naive?) sgs who responded to their noob act. Working in concert w/ a high-ranking established sg, they robbed unprotected sgs of most of they're stored salvage. As far as I know, nothing was done about this, since technically "they weren't breaking the EULA". The offending toon(s) were then deleted. Then situation normal for the thieving sg(s), plus they're ill-gotten loot. Our group and others saw this as exploitation and theft of our playing time spent earning the salvage and enhs, though clearly Support did not.
(We also strongly suspected that this orchestrated effort was done by ppl w/ inside knowledge from closed testing of I9, since they seemed to anticipate the vastly lower drop rates for base salvage after that issue went live, plus targeting arcane salvage. But that's a topic for another time.)

Finally, it seems that these kinds of rolling, free access accounts are used for the current rash of spam tells about buying influence for real money on websites. Even if these are being investigated and blocked by Support, they'll simply move on to the next available temp/trial/free access account and keep doing it.

I admire good leaders in CoX. Last night on test a player joined our team, which had been running well for awhile, talked our leader into switching to her AV mish, then dropped as soon as it was completed w/out a word. We've all seen behaviors that are selfish in this game. It's one reason I tend to avoid PUGs, same as other players I know. Stick w/ friends, I say.
I'm a founder and leader of a VG. We've been relatively successful at building a base w/in the constraints of the existing system. Steady growth. However, I don't think any of it translates to RL applications.
One leadership seminar I attended was run by someone who had to have been a grade school teacher. We were told to cooperate on an arts and crafts project. I had the idea of making a daisy chain out of construction paper. We made her so proud!! And it brought back such memories of a more innocent time, when kids were lil' angels and no one broke the rules or was mean to each other!! (Apologies for the facetiousness.) ("The Office" is not far off the mark.)

The part of this equation of leadership in games to RL skills leaves out human nature. I love this game or I wouldn't be playing it, but I would not look for future leaders of America, business or politics in a MMO. The behaviors I've seen have been disheartening. It's a good thing some of these people are contained in a virtual environment.
Some are outright mean, selfish, or rude. On the other hand, w/ some of the business scandals we've had in recent years, maybe these are exactly the type of people who end up in corporate executive/mangement positions. See Enron, Tyco, Woldcom, BP, Hollinger and a slew of others. The lil' base salvage thief of today is the big corporate crook of tomorrow.

One last analogy. A good friend said her mom used to complain about the amount of time she spent watching the various Law&Orders on TV. She told her mom that she was studying law and court room techniques. (She's very funny.) Would this fly in front of a judge? "Miss, you haven't passed the bar, but you've seen how many hours of Law&Order? Ok, please proceed."
As I said, I love this game, but let's not make more out of it than it is. It is entertainment.