Precious and Fragile Things

Well, a literary celebrity at any rate.

It seems Mercedes Lackey (yes, that Mercedes Lackey) is both a huge fan of and an avid player of City of Heroes. She has a permanent account after she wrote a story arc for the Architect Entertainment feature of the game (where players can design their own scenarios to be played by other players), so we're not talking like certain supposed World of Warcraft authors who are all, "Teehee, I've played the game..for about ten minutes." She is a legit player and a fan, and she wants to save CoH.

Here's the letter she wrote to Taek Jin Kim, CEO of NCSoft:

Dear Mr. Kim;

This, like so many other letters, is a plea to save Paragon Studios and the City of Heroes, City of Villains, and Going Rogue games. And like so many others, I could tell you about the thousands of hours I have spent there with friends, the thousands of dollars I have spent within the games, or even how this game allows my husband and I to “meet” and play nearly every night with my father in law, the retired, and multi-medaled Master Sergeant Jim Dixon formerly of Delta Force. I could even tell you how this game is the only one ever to interest him.

Instead, I am going to make you an offer. I am a multi-award-winning, New York Times bestselling fantasy and science fiction author. And I will offer myself and my likeness to endorse and advertise, exclusively, all NCSoft products for a minimum term of five years and a maximum term of ten years, for no compensation or payment, if you will make it possible for the game and Paragon Studios (even in a reduced capacity) to continue to function, either once again under the NCSoft umbrella, or until a new owner comes forward.

I had in mind something like this: Advertisements with a photo of myself, imposed over a transparent image of one of my more striking characters, both of us in the same pose. Text: “I am New York Times bestselling fantasy author Mercedes Lackey. Creating fantastic realms is hard work, and when I relax, I like to play in someone else’s world. I play NCSoft Games. Anything else is unimaginable.” The tagline for the ad campaign would be “NCSoft: anything else is unimaginable.”

I hope, sir, that I have caught your interest, and you will consider this proposition.

Yours truly

Mercedes Lackey

Considering how book nerd culture intersects quite a bit with gamer nerd culture, particularly for games like City of Heroes, this is actually a pretty huge deal. Heck, maybe Lackey could even sweeten the pot by offering to write a short story tie-in, or maybe even a novel? Oh, who am I kidding? A novel tie-in for Mercedes Lackey would be more money than NCSoft would be willing to spend. Still, it has potential.

Do I think Lackey would pull in the sort of money and attention as a television or movie celebrity? No, but then even Neil Gaiman wouldn't have as much pull as Robert Downey, Jr. However, this is a start, and I think these protests to save CoH finally have some serious traction.

So, I was going to drop back into WoW last night, but Issue 22 dropped and I had to try ALL THE NEW THINGS!

Where should I start? How about with the changes to Stalker (because Selene)? First, the patch notes:

( Gushing about Stalkers. )

Final verdict: I'm more eager than ever to make that final push to level 50 so I can get Selene started on her Incarnate powers. I'm just awaiting the possible developer post that starts, "We may have made Stalkers a little too powerful," and ends with the words "incoming nerf." (I hope I'm wrong about this, of course.)

Oh, and speaking of Incarnate powers, since I do not like Task Forces and I'm still struggling to figure out how to best utilize the enhancement system, I've never done more than unlock my Alpha slot. With the newly revamped Dark Astoria, I can now focus on earning Incarnate shards and XP without the need for joining huge Task Forces. Last night Sam and I rolled out with NinjaWeazel and Ballari and went through Heather Townshend's arc and Mu'Vorkan's arc before we opted to call it a night for missions. Both of these new contacts offered a non-combat character story mission after the completion of the arc. So we got to see what's happening after we kick butt (and Mu'Vorkan's was especially superb), but that's getting into lore which I'll get to in a bit.

( Playing Dark Astoria. )

And finally, because this is getting long, let's talk lore. Of all the ways to bring in an ancient slumbering Lovecraftian inspired horror, NCSoft writers are on the right track. While I could make jokes about there being tentacles in both the MMOs I play (have you seen the Warlock tier 13 armor set in WoW?), I'll spare everyone "Tentacoo~" jokes and say that I am, quite frankly, thoroughly impressed. I don't usually get drawn into the story arcs I'm playing in CoH. My focus is usually on punching things in the face or shooting things with exploding arrows. Some of it boils down to personal taste, but prior to the release of CoH: Freedom, there just wasn't much of the story to draw in someone like me who isn't really enthusiastic about the whole comic book schtick.

( Spoiler-free discussion on new plot. )

I have to admit ever since the realease of City of Heroes: Freedom and seeing CoH go free to play, I was worried it was the beginning of the end. Instead, with a revamped Veteran rewards system and the implementation of the VIP program, NCSoft has been doing far more right than wrong. The Shivans' attack on Galaxy City shook things up and provided an interesting story, and now the new solo Incarnate arc offered by an updated Dark Astoria has only improved the game's allure for at least this player. I still wish they'd do a little work on the ehancement system to make it a little easier to understand/a little more intuitive. Sam admits that even after playing CoH for years, he's still learning the ins and outs of it. The one person I know who groks it really well is a freaking astrophysicist (not an exaggeration), but eh, ultimately, there's more positive I can say about the direction NCSoft is taking than negative.

I know they've made some mid-level mission changes with Issue 22 too, and I look forward to checking those out as well when I can, but the initial indications are that I'll be playing a bit more CoH when I'm not raiding in WoW.

So, Sam and I have been hanging out for private one-on-one RP in the seasonal Winter Chalet in Pocket D, which means I'm also peeking at player info, trying to decide how I want to do my own description for various toons when I stop being too lazy. The results have been interesting.

Description: Youngest daughter of a beautiful succubus,seduced by Osiris himself.[Name] was exiled as a child to the mortal world for diobeying her father.Condemed for eternity after exhibiting the traits of a succubus.She was chained about her neck enslaving her to the mortal world until a mortal would find her worthy for ownership.For thousands of years she hid from mortals in fear of the legend.She was hunted by mortals seeking the lore of this beast.It was said that whomever could capture her would control the fires of hell itself.

"Chained about her neck enslaving her to the mortal world until a mortal would find her worthy for ownership." Hmmm, wonder what sort of RP s/he's looking for?

This next bit of copy-paste was from the Local chat. The character in question had an interesting idea for a background. There was some apparent research or perhaps even real-life personal experience with the character concept, so there's nothing funny there. There is, however, one thing about doing accents in online role-play. I tend not to do them, or if I do, I do so sparingly or use an accent that's easy to figure out. When this popped up in my chat window, I spent a good minute or two parsing out what was being said.

[Local] [Name] nods. "'s been 'ard lately cos 's th' 'olidays an' everyone's celebratin' wit' frien's an' family an' it makes me think o' 'im. So, 'm in th' corner wit' Mikuru, bein' alone an' slightly bitter abou' it."

[Local] [Name]: Been 'avin' a 'ard time wit' tha' an' also been 'avin' a 'ard time adjustin' t' me treatmen'. 've not been th' nices' person t' be aroun' lately when th' shot kicks in.

I'm guessing the player was going for British Cockney based on some slang terms thrown in in other parts of the conversation. There's good ways to convey an accent. This was not one of them.

And finally, to wrap things up, we have a wonderful romantic tale of a mortician and a murder victim. Truly, an epic love story for all time. (Warnings for mentions of necrophilia.)

Description: There is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about [Name]... most of the time. She comes from a normal family... sort of. Both parents are living... mostly. Her father is a famous mortician and scientist in Atlas. Her mother is a little more complicated. A young, unidentified murder victim who showed up on her father's slab one day. It was one-sided love at first sight. After autopsy, the whirlwind love affair began. Many science experiements and "private sessions" later. and her mother lived again! Well, as much as an undead zombie can live. So back to [Name]. She's a mostly normal, half-human half-zombie teenager with a habit of turning into a zombie at the strangest times...

I....got nothing.

So, Sam and I played a bit of City of Heroes since the kiddo has no homework (and his last day of school is tomorrow). We decided to take the remade Titan Weapons Pasha and Stalker Jodan back to the First Ward as we're working our way through there. It's a nice place and I dig the storyline, but holy crap the enemies there, particularly The Awakened. Here's my impression of what Pasha was probably thinking when we strolled into one mission:

"Oh hey, enemies we haven't seen before! Oh, look, they're holding up a silver platter and, hey, is that my ass I see?"

Despite the debt I accrued for dying (and losing all my patrol XP because we died a lot), I managed to work it off and gain a level, so it wasn't a total loss. I really, really dig the story line as I said, and the First Ward as a whole is an interesting place, but man it can be rather difficult to get through.

By the way, Titan Weapons as a power set? Freaking awesome even if I'm toting around Cloud Strife's Buster sword a razor sword that totally doesn't look like a just-this-side-of-copyright-infringement remake of a popular video game character's weapon rather than a generic great sword or bastard sword. (Seriously, NCSoft, we've got a freaking railroad crossing sign and an atomic hammer, you couldn't make a Claymore too? We've got kilts as a costume option, so it wouldn't be that far fetched.)

Also, also, the Subjugator? Yeah, I didn't like the squid-attached-to-someone's-head concept any better when I ran Throne of Tides in WoW. (No, really, I was totally reminded of the Erunak Stonespeaker fight and Mindbender Ghur'sha.) I mean, I'm trying to get away from tentacles right now as Folami will, hopefully soon, have an entire outfit full of them. Seriously, she already has the helm, so she's walking around with a tentacle wiggling out of her face. And I totally have a dagger that looks like a wriggling tentacle ready for transmorgrification.)

...um, wow. This got really nerdy really fast. I'm gonna go away from the computer and make some baked BBQ chicken for dinner as I planned.

Elisha linked me to a YouTube video of the current beta testing for the new Titan Weapon power set in CoH.



And then this happened:

[10:27] <JadeNSC> ....so I can make Cloud?
[10:27] <Doctor_Gerbil> [10:23] <Doctor_Gerbil> I am so making a Cloud Strife knock-off with a silly name like Cumulonimbus Troubles
[10:27] <Doctor_Gerbil> [10:23] <Doctor_Gerbil> (Cumulonimbus is latin for 'don't wear suede')

Nah, we aren't Final Fantasy nerds at all. Also, after hanging around together for about five or six years, we totally don't occasionally inhabit each other's head spaces. That'd just be silly.

*settles in to read up on some Astrophysics filed away in here*

In other CoH news, Sam and I went trick-or-treating last night and I am kicking myself for not copy+pasting one funny bit of conversation between (the original) NinjaWeazel and Ballari, but here's a basic run-down of what happened.

* NinjaWeazel gets a treat and is rewarded a Crey Security costume.
NinjaWeazel: (Being his old flirty self despite knowing and respecting Ballari's orientation.) "Heeeeey, wanna get frisked?" *wink, wink*
* Ballari, roughly at the same moment, gets a Freakshow Stunner costume and puts it on.
NinjaWeazel: "...on second thought, no.

This is just a draft of something I'm working on for a toon on City of Heroes. I'd love to rp with her, but we'll see if I can ever break into any rp group on Virtue rather than having it be a pipe dream.

It needs work and cleaning up and I'm mostly posting it here to see how it reads to me.

( A work in progress. CoH character. )

I've started playing World of Warcraft.

[Pause for effect.]

My City of Heroes account is still active since it's a cheap monthly fee, and I'll still play there when Sam's available. He's about to start work again, which means he won't be as available to play as he has been and he's really the only person I ever get to play with on CoH.

As far as why I decided to try WoW, I've got a long-time friend on there I don't get to see often since he's still in SC (at least, I think he's still on WoW) and Sam's sister and her boyfriend play. Plus, I've never really been into the comic book superhero, which is what City of Heroes tends to be. WoW is more fantasy (swords and magic), something I can get behind. Also, it appears there's more roleplay options available in WoW. Honestly, it's really not anything to do with City of Heroes and just has to do with me and my personal tastes.

Uh, don't ask me what server I'm on at the moment. I have a bad memory for names as it is, and I know for a fact I can't spell it off the top of my head (it's the same server Sam's sister uses). I'm on Azjol-Nerub for now. :) I'll edit this post and put it in after I log on again. I can, however, say I went with a Night Elf (no one is surprised) Druid for my first character.

So. Yeah. I expect I'll be thoroughly mocked by a few people, but whatever.

After playing for nearly four months, a character of mine dings 50 for the first time. Now I can take a break from leveling her and use her to rp.

( Huge image under the cut. )

Sam was looking over my shoulder while I was on City of Heroes in Pocket D. I think he may be regretting it.

* Jade checks the profile of someone who started talking. "..."
<Sam> "...did I just see the word 'phallotorture'?"
<Jade> "Yes. Yes you did."
<Sam> "Well, okay then." *returns to his game on the DS*

I wish I had taken the time to copy and paste this guy's profile for y'all. Trust me when I say it was...interesting. Equally interesting were the other two people he travelled with, but that story wouldn't be as funny. Maybe another time.

A lighter post after my long-ass day.

A scene from this morning:

*Jade and kiddo are sitting on the couch watching TV.*
*Kiddo throws his arms around Jade's neck and gives a very big hug and a kiss.*
JADE: "Aw, what was that for?"
KIDDO: "Because I want a DS and Super Mario DS for Christmas."

Once he learns subtlety, he'll be really dangerous. And yes, we've been discussing the possibility he can get his own Nintendo DS for Christmas.

****

And it's true, since I finally have broadband, I've answered the siren call of an MMO. I've tried out City of Heroes/Villains and I like it. Currently I've got a villain over on the Virtue server (Level 11 Stalker). Once I get her up a little bit, I might build a hero, but being evil is so fun. I'm checking out the rp-scene too. So far it's been a mix bag of interesting and then so bad it's hilarious (more of the latter than the former).