Kiss me first...
With a “Salute” to Tipa at West Karana from whom I borrowed the idea (and I am proud to announce she has agreed to be a guest on an upcoming show) call this the “Kiss me first” edition…
Usually I get kissed before I get….
As we must all know by now, the Activision/Blizzard gorilla is now making it mandatory for all players to merge their accounts with a battle net account. To me that’s a bit like having to have a hunk of meat hung around its virtual kneck so the neighborhood dogs will play with it. Saying I MUST do it is part of what makes me feel like I usually get kissed first…making me use my email address as my user name is the rest of it. This little podcaster will be using a fake email address (or at least one set up for the purpose) to set up the battle net account. And if there is no way around this patently stupid breach of player account security? All I can say, other than usually I get kissed first, is that my financial security is worth more than a game. Message to Bobby Kotick : That is the sound of the other shoe you hear dropping.
The big kiss off…
From the department of “kiss off” is the fact that (and hear we should all roll our collective eyes at the foolishness of it all) we can all sleep soundly at night – the boycott of Left 4 Dead 2 (as announced on Gamasutra) is finally over. Yah baby…you know I wasn’t going to buy the game until I got some nebulous, unknown, ticked-off gamer’s approval right? Sure. And if you believe that I have a quit-claim deed to the Brooklyn Bridge I would like to sell you. Valve is all smiles I am sure. But not because the “boycott” is over, but I am sure they are happy with the free publicity.
Here’s another Kiss me first…
A big kick in the pants to the makers of my favorite new game, Aion online for successfully creating a reason for world pvp. Why am I a bit upset about it? Because of the reason behind it and Keen from Keen and Graevs has one hell of a good article about it. (Available here) Basically, without a connection between the two facets of NCSoft’s new game “Aion Online” (think of the two facets as the good guys and the misunderstood guys) which they call a “rift” it would be impossible for players from one side to reach the other. Now, for the first time, NCSoft has created a reward for the imbeciles who rush to the level cap first. They can launch themselves, and their ganking parties through the rifts and hop right into the lower level zones of the opposite side. Yes friends, this creates just one more reason to encourage players to rush to the level cap at a pace that would set a land speed record. Not only are you encouraged not to stop and smell the virtual flowers, you are encouraged to struggle to level 25 (and when it comes to levels 15 through 19 I DO MEAN struggle) to get the first point where you can pvp without (presumably) having your ass handed to you by a player 30 levels above your own. This, of course, only after he and his friends have worn it around as a hat for awhile. This is, of course, a presumption about the pvp action in what is called the “Abyss” because levels 15 through 19 (and here I haven’t got the faintest idea why) where so painful to get through that it was like the first year at MIT – my only guess is that they were purposefully trying to discourage anyone who isn’t seriously interested in pvp. Either that, or shoot themselves in the foot so they can get a medical discharge from some Army unit somewhere.
So, thats it for right now.
See you online,
Julie Whitefeather