Northwoods

It's the nature of the beast that the younger child gets all the attention while the older children get scraps. When PvP hit, most of the changes were for PvP. Sure, some PvE stuff hit (Croatoa) but it's been heavy on PvP since. Now it's CoV getting the attention. It's just the way it goes.

Sooner or later, however, some parents realize that the baby of the family is just a whiney brat and the older, more well adjusted children get some respect again.

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Sorry Bub,

You're not holding my attention or my dollars long enough for me to experience it.

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It's customary to give away your inf and salvege before you go.

Can I have your stuff?

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I found a pic of him....I think he stole the Ghost Widow costume!!

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See Jack?

(They never listen...)

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Only on Tuesday nights.

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Could you post pics?

Please?



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Jack, old boy, if you don't, I'm sure someone with photoshop skills will...

Nice catch!

OK. But we saw videos with Afterthought..eh, Foreshadow shortly after the anime costumes hit with I4, was it?

Is any of this new? Wasn't the Korean launch sometime early last year?

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::A giant spaceship sucks up the whole thread.. then spits out everyone in it as a zombie cat-girl::



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You do NOT want to see me looking like a zombie catgirl. Trust me on this.

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Poster: The_Foo
.
Understood. Pod people.
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(Teeheehee!)

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I would like to be the second to welcome the pod people.

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Long live our new Pod People Overlords! May their reign be merry and nerf free.

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And here I was assuming they had one heckuva office party and all got lucky. Why else all the good moods?

Lack of originality has its consequences

Howzacome Posi gets to wear a Santa hat AND a helmet? No fair, even if the radiation would kill off the entirety pf Paragon City if he had to take the helmet off.

The problem I had with this week's article is that it left me feeling...empty. I was really hoping for more substantial history this time rather than a vacuous cavity of prose. There was no style to it. There was no color. There was no substance at all.

Gil, I try to be supportive. I really do. But, this week's article was far too wanting. I hope to see better next week.

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Yep it makes me want to check out what else Top Cow has to offer in the way of comics. I swear Marvel sucks lately, and DC isn't far behind. I can use more comics like the one I read today.

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check out some of alan moore's works if you havnt yet. like Top10 and Tom strong. old stuff but must reads for everyone remotely into comic books.

regards,
Liam

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Oh, yes. Go to the Brits for some of the best there is (or was).

Damn I miss Sandman.

If I ran the zoo, here's what I'd do...

The path to "Incarnate" status should be a Hero's Quest. Not unlike Heracles, there should be a number of tasks to accomplish, all of them difficult, some which require a team, some which must be done solo. Perhaps even a task which you must accomplish as an exemplar. All of the tasks in the arc should have one thing in common: the quester must be directly involved. This can't be done for you. (Though I'm not opposed to the idea of one task that must be done for you.)

Each task should test the quester in a different area: strength, courage, humility, self-sacrifice, etc. All the virtues an Incarnate should possess.

Failure of one or two tasks would not lead to failure of the quest, per se, but may shape the final outcome: the lacking virtues could constitute a weakness of the Incarnate. There should be a critical mass, however, at which point the quest is failed and cannot be repeated until you've earned the right. Yes, it's harsh, but Incarnate must be earned. There should be no easy way to it.

I would like paths to the end to vary. Unlike current story arcs in which everyone runs the same missions in the same order, let there be 3-4 tasks which can be accomplished for each virtue. This would lead to high variation the quest from player to player.

A Hero's Quest always involves some manner of sacrifice. This should be no different. The quester must be required to relinquish something of great value. Not influence, but something that would really count. An important power, perhaps, or several levels.

Completion of the quest should incur a reward consumate with the risk taken, and would elevate the character into a new realm of possibilities and dangers heretofore unimagined. It's a whole new ballgame.

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Sure, there would be a hoard of “Incarnation of Justice”, or “Incarnation of Protection” backgrounds, but it would be neat to be the “Incarnation of Pratfalls” or the “Incarnation of Serendipity”. Just don’t be the “Incarnation of Superfluous”; you will never get a team.


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I suspect that most players will be the Incarnation of Multiplicity.

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About the only way to be wrong in your relating the stories of the greek pantheon is to say that someone else's version is wrong.

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Well, not to split hares (which would get one in trouble with animal welfare authorities) but if someone came along and said that Zeus was the goddess of Beauty and Fertility, I'm pretty sure we can agree that they were wong.

In mythology, there can be canon and apocrypha. I don't know the existence of a defined canon for the Greek Mythologies, but there are consistencies and variations. The consistencies would lend themselves to a de facto canon, would they not?

As for the boader debate over an Incarnate link to mythology, there is already an in-game link to the Greek Mythology: Many of the magic SOs are artifacts (physical or metephysical) of Hermes. Broadening the scope to other gods, and favors bestowed upon heros by them, is not that far a stretch.

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This son was Chronos. (in other stories he was just a son who castrated his father and destroyed him.. no swallowing involved) He was also prophisized to have his son slay him, and he thought it was still a good idea to eat his kids. however, Zeus' mom (various names depending on who is telling the story) wanted Zeus to live (I was just way too cool to die) so she wrapped a stone in a baby blanket and fed that to her husband.

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I believe the mother of Zeus was Rhea.

And as for the whole, "swallowing of the children," think. Zeus took that to new heights when he swallowed Metis before she gave birth!

I guess the trait ran in the family.

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The whole thing is obviously a propaganda maneuver by Arachnos to promote poor team tactics among fledgeling heroes who might try to emulate the actions of Statesman and his team as portrayed...

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OK. That's just crazy talk.

Unless...

grabs roll of tinfoil...
pull...tear.
crinkle, crinkle, smoothe.
crinkle, crinkle, shape.
crinkle, crinkle, add a nice brim.
dons hat.


OMG!!!! HOW DID WE NOT SEE THIS!

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What is Synapse? He is described as a "speedster", and the only power I've actually *seen* him using is Super-Speed. It seems so far that that is all he has, can anyone shed some light on this conundrum?

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I believe Manticore confirmed him as a blaster: an assertion supported by how quickly he fell in battle.

Weep for us blasters...

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19/21...I'm such a dork :P.

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Don't feel bad. 20.

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You know what I find funny? I made a post poking fun at the whole "5th Column was changed because of the Europeans" crap, and yet 90% of the replies have been from people thinking I was badmouthing Ramen.

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What I find funnier is that ramen isn't even European.

Maybe they don't have sarcasm on their planet and fail to notice if they're not concentrating.

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Seriously! I mean, Hero 1 was freaking British, people! But I've never seen anyone make a fish and chips joke! XD

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That's because fish and chips are serious stuff. A bag of chips, a filet or two of cod and salt and vinegar on the lot must be treated with reverance at all times.

Dreaming of tasty fish and chips...

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Quality Assurance - QA. Like Vyvyanne says, making games better one bug at a time. You start in this field as a pool tester checking bugs. You get a sheet of paper that lists a million things to check and try. It can be rather tedious. As you gain experience you can move up to be a sr. tester, a QACC (Vyvyanne, Valdermic), and eventually, a lead for a game. Attention to detail, unconventional thinking, and patience are required in ample amounts. See also, overtime.


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I would also like to further add to this. While it may be an entry level position, Quality assurance (Game tester) is still a very very important role in the video game industry.


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I have far more experience in other industries, so I'll speak about QA in more general terms.

There are two aspects to what people refer to QA. The first is really Quality Control: testing. This is an important step, but really the smallest piece of the puzzle. This is a gret place for a person to get their foot in. It's an incredible learning experience, or at least can be if you make it so. Treat it as a springboard, learn all you can about all aspects of development. A strong testing background will make you a much better developer. You learn to avoid mistakes by thinking beyond the coding, to the test and use of the system.

That bring up the more important, yet often overlooked aspect, true Quality Assurance. QA isn't about finding bugs. QA is about preventing bugs. A good QA Engineer will likely have started off as a tester, then do a long stint in development, then become a QA Engineer.

A QA ENgineer will work with the up-front product development, reviewing designs, being involved in planning, working to ensure bugs are either caught very early in the process (good) or never introduced in the first place (better). a QA Engineer often has to be more talented than the developers--they need to think in broader terms across a wider spectrum of problems. It can be challenging work.

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Whadya' mean 'no cool handle'! I've posted here before

I'm the other programmer going to E3. See you all there!

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States said "no cool handle," not "no handle."

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Just to counterpoint this: my best attack is my Zapp, with a 3 second activation time. You you know how may times this attack hit's nothing per day because the scapper/tank has taken down the whole mob before I can lock a clean target and fire the shot? Don't blasters deserve some of the fun, too?

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Not nearly as often as the blaster's taken out multiple targets right as I execute an attack on the now-corpse.

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Remember, not all blasters have (effective) AoE attacks. They can't be treated equally. My one Elec AoE one serves to get the attention of a crowd--it doesn't hurt them much at all.

That's the problem with comparing ATs--you can't simply compare A to B: Powersets make all the difference.