Archive for March, 2008
Listen to this: MiniCon interviews
Posted by Rockjaw in Links of Others, MMO-related, Pimpin', Press on March 31st, 2008
If you’d like to hear all manner of NCsoft staff talking up a storm (plus Draw the World Together artists like David Nakayama and Andrew Wildman, to boot) then Split Infinity Radio and MusicWorldRadio have you covered, baby.
I had the pleasure of talking over the weekend with Riff, AKA Scarlet Shocker, of MusicWorldRadio, and also with Simon, AKA DJ Villain, of Split Infinity. Both had plenty of questions to ask and I hope I answered ‘em well. I’d like to thank them both for taking the time out to come down to the event and do the interviews – I hope you had a good time guys, and we’ll definitely see you next year!
Keep reading for all the links and information you need….
Read this: MiniCon blogs
Posted by Rockjaw in Links of Others on March 31st, 2008
If my ramblings weren’t enough to sate you, a couple of more personal views have popped up on the MiniCon – one from a player who participated in Task Force: Omega, and another from the lovely Hazel, one of the official CrewNC Sidekicks.
Kerwooky.com is the domain of Richard, AKA Geoffrey (You can see how confused we get) and not only does he have this to say:
There was booze! There was 40 hours of gaming! There was very little sleep! There was sketches! There was auctions! There was womenz! (Well, about 5? but by geek standards, that’s a turnout and a half) There was a game designer to grill! There was everything else involved with lots of gaming and booze, like smelly people, which is probably one of the bad things.
… he also has a very grainy phone-cam video of himself and a fellow player beating each other in the Super-Sumo suits that Omega Sektor provided. Very sporting. Go read that, and then…
… go see what Hazel (real name) AKA Wild_Red has to say about her time as an Official CrewNC Sidekick. (Read: unpaid, but very appreciated through gifts and free food/booze, volunteer.) It’s worth reading just to see her admission that despite the slave labour, she really did enjoy herself:
I’m sure my fellow sidekicks will tell you at times we worked really hard and missed out on a some of the things we wanted to do/see. But it was worth it.
See! See, officer! Ahem. She also has (gasp!) pictures of herself at the event, some of which I might steal for an upcoming post. Wait and see.
MiniCon Day Two: Saturday
Posted by Rockjaw in Day Today, MMO-related on March 31st, 2008
I warn you: this post is long. Like, epic long, Task Force long… long. So grab a drink, maybe some popcorn, sit back, relax… and hear the tale of the 2008 Omega Sektor MiniCon, Day Two: Saturday.
Wake up, Rockjaw
Saturday started bleary-eyed in bed, where I woke up at about 6AM with half a hangover and not enough sleep. Both were my own fault, so I couldn’t complain.
I remember lying there in bed savouring the quiet time before I knew I had to get up, when out of the blue, some part of my semi-awake consciousness asked me a question:
“Hey Stephen; can you remember the PIN number for the credit card machine?”
Instantaneous reply: no.
“But if you don’t know the PIN, how are people going to pay for stock, merchandise and/or make charity donations with their credit (and debit) cards, hmmm?”
My eyes snapped open. A cold sweat broke out. Great start to the day.
Freakin’ Freakshow Freakalympics
Finished the Freakalympics story arc on my MA/Regeneration Scrapper last night – this would be in City of Heroes, if you’re just catching up. Seems like I’ve had that arc on my list for-ev-ah, but that’s more an indication of how little time I get to play these days than any problem with the arc itself.
The last mission – bust Mistah (sic) Static and crew – was cool. It takes place inside a customised map and really felt like a challenge as I was doing it solo, usually taking on five or six bad guys at once, although I’d levelled up in the previous Ourour… orobo… damn, still can’t spell that… in the previous time travel mission against some Rikti. So it wasn’t too bad.
Having said that; if I glide through the next 19 levels and never see another Freakshow, I’ll be happy. (I know, it won’t happen. But dang, that resurrection stuff gets old, especially when your other half is calling for you to come to bed.)
The gold bar theory of community
Posted by Rockjaw in Community, MMO-related on March 30th, 2008
Thinking about this today for reasons that might become apparent, might not.
A community manager once told me this theory he had about MMO communities, which I often quote when we’re left scratching our heads at the fact that despite our best efforts, a game’s community (or some part of it) is still screaming for our blood – even though we’re firmly of the opinion that surely, this time, we’ve given them all they want.
The theory goes as follows. (This works best when you think of a US context, by the way – where a mailbox can often be a short walk from someone’s house.)
If you mailed a solid gold bar to every player of your MMO game… they would complain that it was too heavy to carry back to their house from the mailbox.
In other words, you can please some of the people some of the time; but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
Or if you’re being more blunt… people will always find a reason to bitch about something, no matter what you do.
You said what?