Sailboat

Sent one of my faves. Thanks!

What's with all the pins out in the middle of the oceans? Zooming doesn't even show an island for some of them.

Heh. I've been using American football (NFL) as a metaphor, because a lot of people understand that sort of fandom, even from their fathers, and it's not regarded as a loser geek interest.

Having your favorite team go out of business would break many fans' hearts -- people have resented for decades teams that merely moved to other cities. But that would be analogous to COH closing down one's favorite server.

Losing the entire game is like having all of professional football end. Forever. As in, "you never get to see it again."

"But there are other games out there!" = "There are other sports out there!" = "Try watching curling. Or shuffleboard."

"What about those other superhero games?" = "What about Arena football?" = Not even remotely the same thing.

Whatever this means, I was able to buy a piece of rare salvage that normally goes for 1.5-2 million for 120,000 last night (I think it was a Deific Weapon?). And I bought a Mastermind ATO (the +defense global) for 100,000.

But certainly not all prices had crashed. I wanted a Reactive Gas (and my team was waiting on me) so I paid full price, 2 million, after some unsuccessful bid creeping.

Happened to be standing around Atlas on Justice when you showed up asking for a fly-away shot, Samuraiko. I might even have made it into the shot; I was on The Rainy Knight.

Thanks again for what you've done for the community.

Can't quite see what I'm typing. Must be all this damned pixie dust.

Heh, in my case that turned up a little gem:

Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls: The Epic Poem!

Here's another thing you can do.

In case no one has heard -- and I wouldn't be surprised, the forums are understandably insane right now, and I find myself a bit numb -- the Titan Network people (the folks who have done SO MUCH for all of us, for years, for free, with planners and badge-trackers and everything) are gearing up for a longshot stab at saving the game.

See Meanwhile, in the Halls of Titan. Also, if you haven't already got a forum ID on the Titan Network Forums, go there and set one up. Give TonyV and his crew all the support you feel able to provide. I'm sure they'll need volunteers and money, but I think first and foremost they'll need some kind of show of support.

We've needed them for years, and Mot knows we need somebody now. But the Titans need us too -- they need to know we care, that lots of us are motivated to help them dare this feat, or it's not worth even starting.

I'm sure at some point there will be a way set up to send actual financial support, although I don't know of one yet. But it's just as important, even if you can't send money, to lend psychological support for this project.

So please, make a Titan forum ID, make a post here and on the Titan forums, send a PM, something.

I read it. It sucks to lose a game, but it sucks a lot more to lose a dog.

But we never really lose the people and animals we love...maybe the games too. They change us a little bit, and we go forward into the rest of our lives as the synthesis of what we were, and what we loved. In that sense they will be with us, because we are different for having known them.

Hey! Three day weekend! Early release from work! Home, chores, play with the dogs, and then to PARAGON!

Wait...what's this?

No, I am not crying. I'm a middle-aged man with a security clearance. I'll get over this trifle.

I'm not crying, not at all.

But I hope my wife doesn't open the door for a while. Just...you know.

Not that I'm crying, or anything.

Normally this wouldn't be a cool screenshot. Tonight, of all nights, I think it counts.

So there you go. Fine. Be that way. In this crazy, sometimes neurotic family, you were the unflappably nice one. But now you're gone, like all the rest. With that stupid, unbelievably awesome hat.

Tonight I dug out my first hero. Not played in a long time. His build is terrible. His costume is old-school.

And while Broadcast filled with a thousand voices, everyone reacting in their way, and Atlas filled with a hundred protest signs, I took to the sky.

Because flight was the first power that was unquestionably SUPER, after so many years on the ground in so many games.

And I flew to the place you know I had to go -- the Atlas globe.

And there he stands, even now. Holding up -- not a protest sign -- but a torch.

We go down fighting. We always have.

[what I said:]

Baffled. I just bought another YEAR'S subscription at the end of June. I Just bought a chunk of points. A lot of my friends have come BACK to the game, and most of them have RE-subscribed. Have we not thrown money at NCSoft for years? Has there not been buzz and new excitement since Freedom's launch?

I know nothing lasts forever, but forever is a long way away. Evil is afoot, there are a thousand thousand more adventures before us. What can we do to persuade you, NCSoft? ONLY YOU can save us now! For nearly a decade you have let us pretend to be heroes, and it was great. Can you find it in your corporate heart to be, at last, yourself a hero?

No e-mail for North America?

Personally I really like Agility for /Shield. Recharge, defense and some more endurance generation? Sign me up.