Scythus

That's silly.





Nothing makes me feel better.

I could cite a few examples in our current society that have seen the continued erosion of human and civil rights in western civilization that should have everyone up in arms and yet everyone is still worried about the Kardashians or some other nonsense, but that would be derailing this thread even more. Suffice to say, people are sheep and they run away.

And that's why you'll all be forever doomed as sheep. Don't feel too bad, though, it's human nature to run away from resistance.

It's because people are docile sheep. When large crowds come together, claiming to be fighting for something, they're all bark and no bite. The first hint of repulsion from their opponent, they scatter.

No, but they sometimes feature rules that can be turned on or off, based on your preference. Too bad a friend of mine isn't here, he'd go into a giant rant about how video games could never be true RPGs.

As for the RPGA, seeing as I never went to an event, I could give diddly damn squat about them.

Pre-made characters were always optional though, and considering the number of times I've seen them in use (meaning... never), I'd hardly call them on the level of "staple" which implies a basic use. In fact, creating a character from scratch seems far more basic in the medium than pre-made characters.

So, can you point out to me how "optional" it is to play Marvel's characters in Marvel Heroes Online?

Maybe at your tabletop, but at the tabletops I've been at, we've always created our own characters.

Not surprising, that's where all the jobs are these days.

Hmmmm......

List of people who actually claimed that an emulator would be "illegal."

This second one is ironic:

Note that there are no Scythuses, pebblebrooks, Major_Pranksters, or NinjaPirates on that list. As stated earlier, a company doesn't need to "win" to put an emulator out of operation, they only need to make your legal fees so expensive that it'll put you out of operation anyway. Also note my earlier mention of what companies have done to P2P sites and networks, as it's a very similar situation due to the fact that the P2P tools are not actually responsible for any illegal operations that take place, yet they still get canned most of the time.

Legal battles are rough on the wallet whether you're in the right or wrong.

Good luck to them, but the Feds can turn this type of tactic into witch hunts.

Oh, I'm in full agreement. That's why I said NCSoft would be pissing in everyone's cheerios, because that's what jerks do. I didn't buy the "exhausted all options" bullhockey and will never be giving them my money ever again.

Oh please, Elizabeth Bathory had him beat by several hundred years.

What? With the things that companies have done to P2P websites and networks these days? It'll be the latter, and it will be extremely... well, I let's just say, I wouldn't want to be the people who coded the emulator.

Well, it doesn't need to be taken seriously on the same level. But I'd still like to understand what is going on and why my hero needs to stop this. Otherwise my character is just a robot without personality.

I actually view it more like going from reading Infinite Jest to reading something lighter like Conan or some other classic pulp story.

It's simple characterization. No reason to view him as a mindless robot.

Now this is just being disingenuous and conflating story with metagame. Anyone familiar with RPGs knows that this is a faulty argument from the get-go.

I do read books. Lots of them. And the reason for that is because I have an insatiable lust for stories.

"Inedible?" That's a bit unfair. It's not the Holy Grail of of writing, sure, but it still brings me the same level of enjoyment that reading pulp or comics has brought me. Not everything needs to be Dune or the Godfather.

Well, comics have always been an enjoyable hobby of mine, thus the reason I was attracted to CoH and the reason I'll head to CO when it's gone.

Are you implying an immersive story can't be fun? As a frequent reader of fiction and aspiring author, I have a major bone to pick with you if you think so. I like to know what the evil robot cowboys and sharks have been doing to cause my hero to be called in to pound them. Which brings us to....

Actually I always thought super heroes fight villains because the villains were breaking the law or threatening the world, not because they wanted to have an "lol" and be entertained.

Well, unfortunately I prefer more depth than... "I beat up villains because I can." That's why the story is important to me. I wouldn't bother with a lot of games if it wasn't for the story. Heck, even the old game Donkey Kong had a plot (albeit very limited): save the girl from the big gorilla.

CoH's story is hardly on the level of Kafka. That's comparing apples and carrots. CoH is no more deep than the comic book medium it's inspired by. I view skipping the CoH writing as skipping the word balloons in comics and just looking at the pictures.

And I'll never understand why anyone can do that. The story (motivation) is as important to me as the task.

That's nice. Not all of us are going to be going through it the 50th time, though. And with as much stuff I read (I read lots of stuff), sometimes I need a refresher occasionally.

Speed demons are speed demons. They probably don't even read whatever briefing that even exists. Personally? I like to make sure I'm informed of everything going on and approach with a plan (if one's needed). One reason I've never liked speed runs in CoH.

"15 minutes?" Doubtful. The most common estimate I've read on these boards and CO's is an hour.

Dear God.... They're really going out of their way to damage first impressions of the game over there, aren't they?