Ravenswing

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You just shun and dislike them. Not everyone does.

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So, my question is, why do people frown 'godly' characters? In RP you are who you are, he's a god, he's a human. In RP OOC powers/ATs don't affect IC power, as far as I'm concerned.

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Clearly, it isn't just me otherwise:
a. You wouldn't have asked the question originally.
b. You wouldn't have been kicked from this SG, which was your original complaint.

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But if they could avoid getting their souls stolen, it wouldn't be godmodding, would it?

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If you're going to be pedantic (and you are, since you don't know before trying it whether they can stop it or not), then yes, it is godmodding.

"I attempt to steal your soul," is the correct form. This allows the other person to respond and does not state that your character has done something which they may not be able to.

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Btw, Raven, some RP characters can avoid getting their soul stolen/burned, so it can't be called godmodding, depending on the character.

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All my characters have a way to prevent it, Phantoms. It's simple: I send you a tell saying "welcome to ignore." I won't let some playground bully mess up my character so permanently. It's really that simple.

Face it, people who roleplay like you are the reason over-powered characters are shunned and disliked.

PS. Just to be fair, it isn't just overt godmodders who can turn your roleplay experience into a pile of cinders. I've had it done to me by really very good roleplayers who just don't think about the consequences of some plot or other they have been working on. I think I'll call it Ultimate Roleplayer Syndrome: you think the roleplay is so important that you don't really care what happens to the characters, as long as this idea for a plot you have works itself out.

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Given that BaB is known to have gotten "carried away" with some patrons on PD before, hence the chalk outlines and what the barman says, I've always presumed it's the use of offensive powers that are somehow, lets say magically, prevented from hurting people, but physical violence clearly CAN happen at some level.

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The only thing I'll say about that is that all we know for certain is that at some point in the past physical violence could happen. We don't know if it's possible now.

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We don't actually know that. We know that that's what a bartender says happened.

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3. I wouldn't call taunts/challenges godmodding. That rules out 2., as well.

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Boasting about illegal activities is a form of godmodding. Call it Passive GodModding. Essentially, you're admitting to illegal activities, but not accepting the consequences of them because, in reality, the other person can't do anything about it.

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OK, so a few people who have posted DO have god characters, and some think they're just boring to play.

I would disagree.

My character, still being quite godly, is still quite fun to play because it still fits in with OOC death penalty, you just come back from the hospital again.

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Being charitable, that would be because your character is no different from my character Jason Caine. He can't die. He was partially created as a reaction to the fact that no matter what you do in this game, you come back from the dead. So, why not create an immortal? Ping! Jason Caine.

I suspect, though I may be wrong, that my charity is unwarranted.

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And a few have said it was acting obnoxious, well it's just who the character is, it's like saying "I can drive a car" do you think that's obnoxious? Certainly not me...

You are just explaining your properties as a human or in this case, a non-human.

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AP has catalogued your 'crimes,' however, yes, if your character is obnoxious, then that's roleplaying your character to their personality.

Now, do you honestly thing anyone else should be forced to put up with it?

The answer to that one, btw, is 'NO!' Roleplay is (or should be) consensual, and it's also perfectly within the character of a SG leader to decide that he doesn't want two obnoxious braggarts in his group and kick you. You claim it was IC, well, complaining about it and chucking you out is IC too. Most people don't like behaviour like that. They avoid it, or they incarcerate the perpetrators if they can find a reason to do so.

You reap what you sow, and you sowed the seeds of your own destruction. (It's cliched, but I like it. )

Wow, I'm provoking people to read. I am a Role Model!

Something's wrong with this.

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First thing I noticed is that avatars of gods, gods, or immortals should always retain human emotions and therefore the ability to go insanly wrong in judgement.

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That depends entirely on what you're doing with them, and is logically incorrect. Having human emotions is not a requirement for things going insanely wrong.

At one point, War Crow had every single one of his emotions eliminated, aside from Duty. He became a danger to himself and every criminal in the city, and the Vigil (the precursors of the Unity Vigil) had to take him down to stop him.

You can, actually, get a very, very good character out of an entity which does not have human emotions, but is trying to fit in better with the society it finds itself in. Of course, that requires a reason for the creature to be trying to integrate, and if it is an uber-character, why should it bother...

And generally, I think gods should most definately not be entirely human. They aren't human. Playing them as such is one way to make sure they come over as arrogant god characters.

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(Virtual) immortal characters bring with them another problem. These character have seen and experienced so many. They lived through lives of others and saw their former friends and lovers die of old age. I have two immortal characters and struggled with how to play them.

The best way is what you can see happening in the Highlander movies. Immortality brings a constant problem of stealth.... Unless you want to be a. Worshipped like a god or b. Hunted down like a monster and being killed. Both my toons retained their human look at things. They are natural curious about new inventions. But sometimes can forget what age they are in. Time goes so fast for them... Like older people they tend to keep a lot of their old values. And it takes them slightly more time to manage totally new stuff. While old things they may be specialized in hold no value in the new world.

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Well, that's your opinion of what's 'best' for an immortal character.

Personally, I got sick and tired of the angst hanging over GG around the time I created Jason Caine and decided to make the world's first happy immortal. Cursed to live forever unless he can redeem himself for an act of mass murder, Jason has been around for 8000 years. He hasn't seen everything, because the world is always changing and, frankly, transport wasn't exactly up to much until the last century. He adapts perfectly happily to the world changing around him, because time passes for him at exactly the same speed as everyone else. He has a big vocabulary and likes to speak a bit like a courtier or something, but then, frankly, the same can be said of Shadowe, who is rather younger. It's an affectation, not a product of his nature. (Oh, he's never quite got the hang of all this same sex relationship stuff. He didn't think much of it in Athens, he's not going near it today. He is a live-and-let-live sort of guy though, so if that's you're bag, then go for it.)

The most significant point about him, though, is that after 8000 years, he's got pretty used to the fact that people die. He grieves for the death of friends and loved ones, but he doesn't let that stop him finding new friends and loved ones because, and here's the important bit, there are always more of them coming along and not enjoying those new people for fear of losing them is stupid.

Oh, and as for hiding your immortaility, well Jason really doesn't care any more. Someone dumped a cliff on him in the 19th Century and he didn't get out until the 20th, and suddenly there's flying humans all over the place. Compared to that, living a long time seems pretty trivial, so Jason will generally be fairly free with his age, or dropping hints about being at Waterloo, or having bedded one of the Medicis. If people want to worship him over it, he'll tell them to stop being idiots. If they want to hunt him for it, well, that would be very stupid of them.

There isn't, ever, a best way to play something. There are usually some ways that are really bad, but there's not a best way.

It's not so much morality as a desire to be human that keeps him in check, but yes. That's how I understand it, and I've had a few conversations about it, both in and out of character.

I've got Crow, who's theoretically capable of doing absolutely anything, but was 'locked down' by his own will so he doesn't know he can. As far as he's concerned, he's a capable magician and a good swordsman. If he ever snapped, ther'd be trouble.

And there's Annette, who's pefectly normal, except in very particular circumstances which are effectively reserved for fiction. If someone really wanted to try playing against that part of her life, then she's got ULTIMATE COSMIC POWER, but I can't see anyone trying.

And the new one, Leannan, is a Daoine Sidhe, powerful, but not excessively so, and with several well known drawbacks.

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I blame little sleep so apologies if I've inadvertantly annoyed anyone.

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I suggest blaming the lack of sleep for the unwarranted paranoia too.

Except I bet I've had less than you and I cnfrom corehent setouncex.

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So it's not Gods in themselves that are bad it's going overboard with the power a character has.

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Exactly. Which is why, yes, God characters set alarm bells off for me, but so does anything that has power way beyond the accepted norms for the game world. (That's any game world.)

To be honest, being a realtively normal character in a world where many around you are just uber-hard is ego-crushing enough without the same beings being able to toast demi-gods as though they were marshmallows.

In LARP, I have never had a ritual performed on either of my characters, and I carry no magic items. They have all been one hit point wonders with spells. I have stood around in battles, looking at the guys with the enchanted weapons, and the amulets of immunity to normal damage, and I have wondered off to find a drink, 'cos I'm about as much use as a chocolate fire guard.

Being around uber-characters in CoX is a lot like that. Soul flaying.

Right then Leannan has a Wiki page. I can go to sleep.

Oh yeah, she officially comes into existance as a hero on Friday.

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Iam sure there are plenty of missing letters and grammar faults, if you see any be nice and comment.

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Honestly, I would have to almost rewrite the whole text. I'm sure your English is better than my Russian (? I'm guessing considering the setting that your Russian), however, you're missing out a lot of stuff and adding other stuff in.

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I write pretty fast so sometimes I do a miss or two, but I cant check it right now.

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My suggestions:
1. Slow down. Look at the sentence I'm quoting there. "Sometimes I do a miss or two" isn't English.

2. If the state of your written work concerns you (and it doesn't have to) then don't post it if you don't have time to check it.

3. Get yourself a proof-reader to help you spot mistakes.


I hope this doesn't come over too negative, but you did ask for criticism specifically about your English, not the story.

Welcome to Creative.

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Still, just in case I have slighted you somehow, here, five minutes of work.

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Thank you Z, let's have a look...


Think I'm going to have to go with... "it's not much worse than the GGOOC channel most of the time. Of course, I left the GGOOC channel because I got sick of listening to this kind of rubbish the entire time I was logged on and because various members had to be right all the time."


@Pahntoms:
I also think all three of you should have been kicked and I also don't appreciate you airing your pet gripes about mistreatment in an SG in the Roleplay section. This has nothing to do with Roleplay. I'm out of here.

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Yes, but that still doesn't explain why he left. Me and guy 1 didn't need to fight him, in fact we wouldn't, so why he's getting in a huff about it I don't know.

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Like I said, and both of the other two respondants, that great big wall of text is unreadable. I'm not going to pick through it to find the bits you want comments on. If you can't be bothered to spend a few minutes filtering something, then don't expect detailed answers.

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Let's take it into terms of actual superheroes/supervillians; Superman can kill Batman, so that terms of power should be the same in a MMO, shouldn't it? Otherwise it's not really superheroes and supervillians, is it?

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Except that Superman has, repeatedly for various contrived reasons, tried to kill Batman, and has failed. Your initial assertion is a load of rubbish.

Now, let's examine it in game terms, shall we?

My level 50 Natural Scrapper has at least some chance against any other level 50 character. (Of course, that assumes even PvP, which we don't have, but we'll go with the flow.) Now, let's imagine that I were, for some reason, to have to face-off my character 'Nitoichi' against (picking someone at random) White Warlock, who is a level 50 Controller (Illusion/something, sorry WW, can't remember).

If it's a fair fight, Warlock would plaster Ni over the scenery, paint over her and walk away without a scratch. Thankfully for Ni:

1. She doesn't fight fair and if she really had to fight WW, it would be from two miles away, with a high-powered rifle.
2. She would never have to fight WW anyway.

Now, that works because Warlock's player has a brain, and realises a totally invulnerable character capable of taking on armies without batting an eyelid sucks dark matter through a nanotube.

Or, to go back to your analogy, if Batman had to fight Superman, in reality he'd frag him with a Kryptonite grenade while the creep slept, or something similar.

My greatest and best current god character is Jason Caine, an immortal. He won't stay dead, no matter what. Shoot him, bomb him, nuke him, he'll be back eventually. However, there are ways to neutralise him and it wouldn't even take a genius to figure it out, and he also doesn't have any uber-plot-breaking 'my power's better than your power' abilities either.

If you want to pretend to be a kid in a schoolyard pretending to be a superhero, then that's nice, but stay away from me. The reason people don't like it is because, deep down, no one actually liked being bullied in the schoolyard.

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oh, and, we got kicked too...even though the leader knew it was all IC.

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Again, I can't really comment since the wall of text you've given us to read precludes me from doing so.

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Discuss.

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I can't discuss the actual case at hand, because I'm not going through that tangled mess of rubbish to find out what's actually going on.

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So, my question is, why do people frown 'godly' characters? In RP you are who you are, he's a god, he's a human. In RP OOC powers/ATs don't affect IC power, as far as I'm concerned.

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Lots of things I can generically cover in that though.

When you were six and you used to run around the schoolyard playing at being cops and robbers, or Batman and Robin, or whatever, there usually comes this point where you get into an argument about whether someone got shot or not.

There's always one kid who won't die. He has some miraculous way of getting out of death, no matter what you do to him, and his awesome weaponry is always better than yours. Generally, taunted by this kid, an arms-race develops and the game spirals out of control.

God characters in Roleplay don't have to be like that, but they often are, and 'god' characters don't have to be gods, but are like that. They always have to be the best. An RPG book I had described this kind of player as "The Pro From Dover" they won't be happy unless they are the best in their field, and if their field happens to be something like 'magic,' or 'science,' or 'being the God Ares' then that pretty much means they are the best at everything.

The problem with that is that they end up being unplayable. There is no plot they can't solve in a heartbeat. There is no villain they can't defeat. They can wipe the floor with anyone. They are, in other words, boring to play and boring to be around (unless you have the mentality of a six-year-old).

And despite this, the player will insist on playing the character. The brighter ones, realising their character is a pain to be anywhere near, make arrangements to have them elsewhere most of the time when action happens.

So, that's why Roleplayers don't like 'god' characters, because they are boring to be around, break plots, and are most often played by people who haven't actually grasped what RP is.

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I would actually love to get 'into' pvp but its only Zonal pvp that offers any immersion imo....arena pvp is premeditated and totally unrealsitic so it just offers no excitment - its there soley because this is a trivial game etc.

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I feel like addressing that.

Zonal PvP in this game is a mess in backstory terms. Why can I attack anyone in Warburg, but not in any other PvP Zone? Oh, there's a very stupid reason given, but fundamentally it's because they wanted a FFA zone, and Bloody Bay (the logical one) was too low level.

OTOH, Arenas as arenas make no sense what so ever. They are a stupid idea. Why do they even exist blue-side?

If they had been set up as training simulators, Danger Rooms, then they'd make sense, but no, we have to come up with this spurious backstory about gladiatorial combat for a new age. It's dumb, and totally doesn't fit the rest of the story.

So, I'm afraid I disagree. Almost all the PvP seems, very much, to be enormously contrived, and considering that conflict between heroes and villains should be pretty much a given, making PvP seem contrived is quite an achievement.

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Prolly the rating between the two determines your individual rating and the rewarss you receive.

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Or, we could just go play WoW instead of trying to import it.

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Chess aint that competitive and well doesnt get adrenaline rushing.

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Clearly, you've never seen a professional chess tournament.

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As for WoW well ok you are wrong.PvP is a major feature and has a major audience involving a huge portion of the player base.

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Well, actually, you're wrong. PvP is indeed a major feature in WoW, and it has a considerably greater following than in CoX, but it's still a minority sport compared to those who just go do PvE. More of the 'non-PvPers' probably do Battlegrounds, but then, you can just stand around with your brain in neutral and still get rewards there.

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Which is obvious of the amount of development that goes into it the amount of PvP servers the amount of people participating in the arena ladder and BG's.

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The amount of effort put into PvP by Blizzard is related to their desire to push WoW as an e-Sport. People participate in BGs to get cheap epics. I suspect the number of people on the arena ladders will fall off this season now that your personal and team ratings count for equipment purchase.

WoW is all about the Epics and the Bragging Rights. Take those away for most (and the rating restrictions will take them away for most) and the membership will drop away.

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WoW saw a major shift in terms of casual play as well.No more necessity of organised guilds,no more forcing to invest countless hours gaming.Pretty much seems they picked up exactly what CoH did and adopted it to their own game.Fast accessible gameplay with up to 30-40 min time span with very nice rewards as well as pick up and play attitude through variety of pug tools that work awsome.

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WoW's casual play will never match up to CoH's so long as the population of WoW servers swaggers about in Raid gear crowing about the latest stunning item they got from some instance. Casual gamers cannot get this stuff, because they don't have an couple of hours to kill doing raids.

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Yes but the reason it failed is cause the PvP community wasnt listened to.

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Dual-builds. Suggested multiple times by the PvP community. Now implemented.

Result: complaints from everyone about having to fork out for two sets of fully setted IO enhancements.

Conclusion: Never listen to players regarding what they want. They don't really know, and complain if you give them what they asked for.

I think I'd put it down to the non-real-time communication mechanism rather than the age of the players. I've never found that age has much actual effect on yobbish behaviour.

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I find the nature of the trashtalk in CoH PvP more indicative of the playerbase than of the nature of the game.

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While I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment, I'd just like to point out that:

a. Trashtalk in CoH is no worse than that which you'll find in any other MMO or online game featuring PvP.

b. You will never convince PvPers that it isn't required. The reasons why should be obvious to you and relate to that famous equation regarding Internet and Anonymity.

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Have you actually been into a pvp zone since i13, because they are empty, EMPTY as in no one there, at least before there was a few regulars, where are all these new people enjoying pvp you keep on about?

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The fire something or other that roasted me in Sirens at some random time of day last week suggests you're wrong. Various other posts on this thread suggest you're wrong.

Logically, if the Zones are empty, then you aren't in them, so you wouldn't know if anyone else was and so can't give an informed opinion.

(( The following is a backstory for a new character I came up with after failing miserably to go to sleep after watching Hellboy 2. The connection between the character and Hellboy is tenuous, to say the least. ))

Leannan - Coming of Age

Watching Dinah Ewers walk away from him, hips swaying as she strutted across the plaza in front of Galaxy Girl's statue, Jason Caine's thoughts turned almost automatically to their last meeting. Sleep being now out of the question, he said his farewells to the others there and summoned up an image of the doorway into the university library at Salamanca. The flare of light was little more than a special effect as he made the image a reality.

It was late, or early, and the day after Boxing Day. There should have been no one about, but as Jason entered the building he could feel another life there. Frowning, he wove protective magics about himself, even as he moved forward, his senses half in the 'real' world and half in the next.

Something was moving among the stacks, crossing to the middle of the floor. He moved silently for such a big man, sliding among the tall shelves. Rounding a corner, he found his quarry and relaxed.

"Miss Kirwan, isn't it?" he said. "What on Earth are you doing here at this time?"

She did not so much jump out of her chair as assume a standing position without seeming to move. Jason frowned. She was really very fast, or perhaps it was getting late. "I-I-I w-was..."

"Calm down," Jason said, his voice a soothing purr, "I'm not an ogre." He smiled his best, friendly smile. He knew her from one of his Magical History classes. There was something odd about her he had never quite managed to place. He had checked her family against the Mu database and found nothing, but there was still something not quite right.

Perhaps it was just physical. She had a sort unearthly beauty about her which her overall lack of confidence tried hard to hide. Pale skinned, with grey-blue eyes and porcelain features, hair of white gold that never showed any signs of curling, even in a damp, warm summer. She had a slim body with all the right curves, but the boys around campus seemed to ignore her. Jason had never quite understood why.

Another thing he had never understood was why she was failing his class. She was bright. In every other subject, she was one of the star pupils, but in his class she seemed constantly distracted, on edge. She did not pay attention. And, as now, she never looked him in the eye. He wandered closer, his eyes flicking over the books on the table.

"I, um," she swallowed and went on, "I was trying to catch up on your course. I'm, um..."

"Failing, yes, I know." He looked down. "Blake's Secret History of the British Isles I can understand, but I don't recall asking anyone to read Michelson's Lore of the Daoine Sidhe."

"Oh! Um, that's a personal project," she smiled, making light of it. "I'm just interested in old Fae lore."

"It's an interesting subject. I know others who know a good bit more about it than I. I could introduce you, if it would further your research."

"Oh, no," she replied, bowing her head, "no, I would never trouble you with..."

"Brigid, isn't it?" he said, stopping her. She nodded. "Brigid, you are something of an enigma to me." She frowned, and almost looked up at him, instead turning her gaze away at the last instant. "You are an intelligent woman, an apt pupil. Yet in my class, you are failing. You can't concentrate, don't seem to want to be involved. I do not mind the idiots who come to me seeking easy credits failing, but people with your obvious love of the coursework here I do about."

Sitting on a corner of the table, he pointed at her chair and waited while she slid into it. There was considerably less speed this time, but more grace than could be expected of a typical young woman. "Now," he went on, "stereotypically, I should invite a young woman of your beauty back to my flat where we could discuss your future and you could earn those extra credits, but, to be frank, I would much rather you earned them through something more erudite."

She was looking at him. Not directly, her face was still pointed down, but her eyes were looking up at him. "You think I'm beautiful?" she said. It was not the first reply he thought she would give and he frowned as he nodded. "What colour is m'hair?"

"Blonde. Almost white, really, with a hint of gold. I have a friend with hair somewhat like it."

"Ah," she said. "How would I earn this additional credit, Mr Caine?"

Jason's frown deepened. "Write me a paper on the Daoine Sidhe," he said. "I'll provide you with an introduction to someone who can help. Use him. He's a valuable resource and, sadly, we may lose him soon. Consider it fieldwork."

"He's gonna die?" she asked, frowning.

"'Pass on' might be a more suitable term. If you can find any other suitable sources, then so much the better. You'll find various supernatural beings and other entities gather at the foot of the Galaxy Girl statue in the evening. You may have luck finding sources there." He looked at her carefully, gauging her reaction.

"I'll be sure to check," she said. There was a faint Irish lilt to her voice. He would have to check the genealogy database again, but Kirwan was an Irish name. Other than that, she was giving nothing away.

"Come to my office Monday morning, I'll arrange that introduction," he said before standing and heading off through the stacks.


Brigid opened the door of the little flat she called home and slipped inside. The walls in the building were as thin as those found in any student accommodation. It was around five in the morning, but Brigid was not going to bed. In fact, the sofa-bed which represented the sleeping space for the flatlette had never been unfolded since she bought it.

She crossed the room and knelt before a small shrine which occupied one corner. It was simple, a stump of oak with a single candle burning on it. Bowing her head, she whispered her words to the goddess she was named for. "Wisest of all, bless this y're humble servant. I met him this evening, the one I've been tryin' t'avoid gettin' t'close to. He was nice, but I was right. I don't think he's every seen the glamour." She paused, looking down at her pale, long fingered hands. "He's asked me to interview someone about the Fair Folk. This might be m'chance t'find out where I come from. Unless it's some old codger Mr Caine's got locked up in a library somewhere."

Smiling slightly, she checked the candle to be sure it would last a while. Satisfied, she picked up a book, lay down on the sofa, and started to read.


There was no library, but there was an old man in a room in an old building which Jason said was in London. Brigid had been introduced to a girl named Annette who would be providing her with transport to and from 'The Club' for the week. 'Transport' took the form of Annette opening the door which should have lead out of Jason's office, but instead now opened into an entrance hall an ocean away. Annette, it seemed, had more to her than met the eye, rather like Brigid.

The old man sat in a high-backed, winged chair in front of a roaring fire. The room was hot, but the man looked cold. Jason had stopped at the door and allowed her to go on alone. "He doesn't like me very much," he had said, "I think you might get on better." Somehow, Brigid was not so sure. For one thing, the smell was threatening to make her lose her breakfast.

"Come closer, girl," the old man said, his voice thin, but carrying an air of command to it. Brigid moved further into his line of view. "Caine tells me you are interested in my kind. I'll tell you now, I'll not be explaining the inner workings of the Courts or our current misfortunes to some pretty young spriggan he's found in those cursed woods. Come closer, child, my eyes are not what they were."

Reluctantly, Brigid moved to stand beside the old man's chair. This close, she realised he smelled mostly of earth and plants, like a forest. His skin was pale, and dry like paper. She could see a thin spider-trail of veins under the skin of his face and hand. She guessed he had been handsome once. Now he was little more than a mobile corpse. Less mobile than some, in fact.

Narrowing his eyes, he looked hard at her face. "The glamour you wear cannot hide your form from me, young lady," he said. "What family are you from? Not high born I'll wager. Come closer. Let me see you."

Brigid gaped. "I... I'm not... My family name is Kirwan."

"Closer," he commanded, and she stepped forward without thinking. Old eyes widened, a look of shock spreading over the old man's face. "Kirwan, you say? Well, I say you're a daughter of the Aes Fororda, the Golden Ones. Your line was thought lost in the West, like so many others. You grew up among human children, yes?" She nodded dumbly in reply. "Your parents put you among them to keep you safe, I think. You're a Changeling, child. You always knew you were different, did you not?"

"There's always been the glamour hiding me," she said after a second's pause. "I've always known most people don't see me the way I see m'self in a mirror."

The old man nodded. "Well then, maybe Caine knew what he was doing after all. You listen to me, girl. I tire of this world. I am the last of my line and most of my people have vanished beyond the sea. I'll tell you the history of our people, and you'll write it down so that Caine can put it in the Archive, but I'll tell you more than you can write, and you'll carry on our traditions. Do you hear me?" She nodded again, half convinced the man was mad. "What's your given name?"

"Brigid, sir."

He laughed a dry laugh. "I knew the woman you're named for. Let's hope you're as wise as she. Sit, Brigid the Golden, sit and listen."


"She'll need watching, Caine," the old man said, a glass of clear liquid in his hand while he sat watching the fire. "You say she lives in this Salamanca?"

"She does. She has a small flat there. In one of the student residences." Jason did not look at the old man. His own hand held a similar tumbler of whisky.

"If those creatures realise what she is, they'll be out to get her. She must be kept safe until she realises her full power, and I am not the man to do it any more." The old man lifted his glass and sipped from it, coughing as the liquid burned his throat. "I could not stop them from taking the others, and I must leave it to others to keep this one safe."

"I'll have words with some people I know over there. Zorielle seems interested in expanding her roll of magical students, and Michael will be glad of a fuller class." Jason smiled slightly. "I'll brief the Keeper, ask for Brigid to be placed on her team."

"Is that wise?" The old man's face creased with a frown. "Does this new Keeper not fight crime in some outlandish costume?"

Jason barked a short laugh. "You should meet her. You'd like her. She's a warrior, fights alien soldiers more than crime. And she wears armour. No, we'll hide our Brigid in plain sight. You've not seen it over there, old friend, the place is thick with magicians of all kinds. Even the ones who claim to be scientists are magicians of a sort. No one will notice one more."

The old man smiled weakly. "I leave her in your hands then, Caine, and those of our young Keeper."

"We'll take good care of her, Nuada," Jason replied, draining his glass. "You can count on it."


"There is one thing I must warn you of, child," the old man said as Brigid sat at his feet on Wednesday evening, the day before the new year. It seemed like she had been there forever, but in fact she had spent only three days in his company as he span her tales of times long past.

"The women of your family are known for the taking of human lovers, and you might find yourself considering the same thing." He smiled at the blush that spread rapidly over her cheeks. "However, there is a danger. You are leanan sidhe. If you give your love, and it is rejected, you'll be nought but a slave to the man. If accepted, he'll become yours, and your love will spur him to new heights in whatever field he chooses."

"But at a cost," Brigid said. She knew this story. "They sicken and die all too soon."

The old man nodded sadly. "So, be careful with your affections, Brigid the Golden." Quite suddenly he laughed his dry laugh. "Mind you, there's nothing wrong with just taking a man for the enjoyment of it."

Brigid's cheeks went a deeper shade of crimson. "I'd never..."

"Ha!" He cut her off with a wave of his hand. "You'll be coming into your power soon enough, girl. We used to hold parties that lasted a hundred years before the walls went up. Many a man or maid went sleeping with the fairies then. Or did you not believe Caine's history lessons?"

"I, um, I suppose y're right," she replied. "I just never considered it that way." She paused and frowned. "I bought a sofa that turns into a bed, even though I don't sleep, and a normal sofa would have been cheaper."

Waving a hand, he dismissed her objections. "There, you're mind knows itself even if it doesn't know why. Now, pay attention, there is much for you to learn."


There was a peculiar sense of dread hanging in the air as Brigid entered the old man's on New Year's Day. "I'm here," she said. "Ready for more stories." Her only reply was a soft cough and she moved forward slowly, almost dreading what she might find.

His face was even more sunken than it had been the day before, his skin had taken on a grey pallor. He breathed irregularly, and when he did, the breaths came with a shudder. "Sit, child," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "I've much to say, and little time to say it."

She hurried to sit beside him and he leaned close to whisper in her ear. "Forgive me, child. There is too much to say, and I have used up all my strength. I know of no other way." Then he breathed out; one, long, unbroken gasp that left his lungs empty.

Images raged through Brigid's mind. Battles, feasts, ancient songs. There were images of people in antique clothing going about their daily lives. Others of crowded courts with men and women finely dressed. Drunken reveries in feast halls and in woodland glades. Visions of earthen mounds, the gateways to another world.

She scrambled to her feet, her mind ablaze, and ran to the door, stumbling out into the corridor where she fell into Jason's arms.

The immortal held her upright for a second, and then picked her up. Looking briefly in the direction she had come from, he saw Nuada's body slumped over the arm of his chair. Silently, Jason carried Brigid to his own room and placed her on the bed. He left her there briefly to make arrangements for the old king's funeral, and then returned to stand watch over her as her body twitched and shook on the bed.


The name on her hero ID was Leannan. Jason had arranged it, somehow, through MAGI. It was kind of a joke, and she rather liked the it. Presenting the card to one of the Vigilants on duty, she smiled. It felt good to be without the glamour for the first time in her life.

"I'm Leannan," she said, her voice full of confidence, "I believe I'm expected."

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2)Didn't someone try and sue MS for some patented tech that it turned out Apple had been using for five years longer than MS, judge threw it out because the patent holder was just looking for a fast buck and not to protect its IP?

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Apple successfully sued Atari over the WIMP UI used in almost all computers these days. This resulted in the atrocious Gem OS UI and everyone believing that Apple (and Steve Jobs) invented WIMP UIs. Actually, they had been invented several years earlier by XEROX PARC, and published. However, prior art was apparently not upheld in this case.

(I don't like Apple much, and Steve Jobs less. They were responsible for crippling early development of windows OSes, and, along with IBM, are therefore responsible for the uber-power that is Microsoft. And yet, while Apple claim to be the lords of freedom in a world of Windows, their systems are more restrictive and more proprietary than Wintel systems are. Sorry, for off-topic rant.)

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I wouldn't mind waiting until level 40 for the badge it would make it more of an achievement to me.

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That's nice for you. Now, stop telling me how to play this game. I'm not in your face telling you how to play it.

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However thank god for this little snippet of info that left me less aggrivated, if it can be used as precedent that is. [ QUOTE ]
They filed in 99, but Meridian 59... one of the first 3d MMORPG's ("massively" originally referring to managing more than a few dozen concurrent connections back then) was released in '96. Looking at the patent, M59 demonstrates all that three years before filing (and 8 years before the award). IIRC, Brian Greene (who STILL runs Meridian 59 servers as "near death studios") has been an expert witness for establishing "prior art" (thus nullifying the patent) in similar cases.

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Where did you get that from? IIRC, 'prior art' doesn't apply in US Patent Law, but it does in UK Patent Law.

There used to be (and probably still is) a public key encryption program named PGP. This was technically legal in the UK, but not in the US because it broke US Patent Law. The patent, filed by RSA, was invalid in the UK because the techniques they had patented were published in an academic paper prior to the patent filing.

It's possible that 3 years of prior publication is a bit much, even for the Americans, however.

The joyful world of the US Patent system strikes again.
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Worlds.com Files Suit Against NCsoft for Patent Infringement
On Christmas Eve, Worlds.com filed a complaint against NCsoft for infringing on its virtual world and MMO patent. Worlds.com, which was one of the early virtual world developers from the '90s, made waves earlier this month when it announced that it had selected an intellectual property firm to defend its two patents related to scaling virtual spaces and enabling users to interact and chat in 3D environments.

Specifically, the suit claims that NCsoft has infringed on patent 7,181,690, "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space" through its games, including City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dungeon Runners, Exteel, Guild Wars, Lineage, Lineage II, and Tablula Rasa.

The complaint seeks to recover damages for the infringement and asks that NCsoft be prevented from infringing on patent 690, which covers scaling. Based on NCsoft's headquarters in Austin as a source of the infringement, the complaint was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division.

Worlds.com Inc. v. NCsoft Corp is Civil Action No. 6:08-cv-508.


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Source

So, once again someone's looking to make a fast buck, has a patent on something flaming obvious, and has picked the target they believe least likely to be able to defend itself. Probably end result: another duff patent bites the dust.

If you're interested, and mad, enough to read it, the actual complaint can be read here.


PS. GR, if this should be somewhere else, please move it. I figure it's game realted enough to be here.