I read somewhere yesterday that all inactive EverQuest II accounts have been made active for a few weeks of free game time.  I would have thought that I’d receive an email from SOE saying as much, but no, I had to find out about it elsewhere.  When I got seven free days in WoW, they sent me an email that practically screamed as such.

Fortunately I still have EQII installed so the patching process didn’t take long and I popped into the game for a few minutes.  Upon entering the game as my Berserker, I received a message that some of my character skill choices had been reset, and I noticed that my guy was mostly naked.  For whatever reason a bunch of my gear was in my inventory and needed to be re-attuned; there was no indication as to why.  As for the skill choices, I took a look at the screen and was completely lost.  I think it would take me a few hours to remember how to play my characters again if I ever decided to come back to EQII (which is extremely unlikely).

What I really wanted to do was check out the damage done to Freeport as mentioned in the Will of a Tyrant cinematic trailer.  The trailer claims that “war has erupted in Freeport” and that “chaos rules the streets”, but in reality, it all looks rather lame.  I saw a few staged fights going on interspersed here and there, but I would hardly call it chaos.  Not to mention the fact that the Frostfell decorations are up, which kind of detracts from the whole impression of chaos.

I logged off soon after, feeling very underwhelmed at the whole thing.

Both games received major patches recently and both released cinematic trailers for their respective patches.  The first one I saw was for EQII’s Game Update 54, Will of a Tyrant.  Here it is, courtesy of YouTube:

I’ve always thought EverQuest II could use some work in the advertising department.  The trailers they’ve released over the years have never really done much for me, but my immediate reaction to this one was generally positive.  I find it to be more “cinematic” than previously released trailers, with the sweeping camera movements, the music, and the semblance of a story behind it (albeit small), as opposed to randomly inserted action scenes without context.

Soon after, World of Warcraft released a trailer for Patch 3.3, Fall of the Lich King.  Once again, courtesy of YouTube:

World of Warcraft, in contrast to EQII, has never lacked for advertising, consistently releasing top quality trailers.  To me, there is an obvious difference in quality between these two trailers, and yes, I think the WoW one is significantly better.  The camera work, the pacing, and the music are all masterfully executed, not to mention the story.  Anyone who has played Warcraft III and its expansion will be familiar with the story of Arthas and its significance in Warcraft lore, and for over a year now, WoW has been re-telling that story, building its players up for the events depicted in the trailer.  For over a year now, players have been chomping at the bit to get at Arthas/The Lich King, and as I watch the trailer I can’t help but feel an epic sense of anticipation.  Even though the chances that I’d even be able to take part in any of the fights depicted in the trailer are slim to none, I still feel an urge to resubscribe.  That is some great advertising.

Isn’t it always the way that when you go ahead and post a blog entry re-affirming that your blog isn’t dead that you follow that up with a month long absence?  Craziness.  Truth is, there hasn’t been a whole lot for me to talk about lately.  It appears, unfortunately, that I’m not the only one to think so either.  A quick run through my blog list reveals that a few other gaming bloggers have taken indefinite breaks or have shut down outright.  The gaming world just doesn’t seem as exciting any more.

PC Gaming has definitely changed, there’s no denying it.  The PC section in the EB Games across the street from my office has been reduced to less shelf space than that dedicated to used Xbox games.  I’m talking original Xbox here.  I can remember a time many years ago when I could stroll through four or five entire aisles filled to the brim with PC games at Future Shop.  Now, they have barely one aisle, most of which is occupied by World of Warcraft boxes and various budget titles.  What is this world coming to?

Fortunately, while perusing that one aisle at Future Shop, I stumbled upon a collector’s edition of Dragon Age: Origins which I picked up.  I was planning on holding off on buying the game to give myself some time to finish some others, like Fallout 3, but I decided not to pass up the opportunity to grab the collector’s edition, what with its cloth map and all.  I’ve gone so far as to install it on my aging PC to see if it ran, which it did, but I’d still like to delay playing it for when I get a new rig, sometime in the mid-distant future.

I’m interested in trying out Torchlight as well, given the great reviews I’ve read, but the more I thought about it, the more it sounded like the game Fate which I had started playing not so long ago.  That makes sense of course, given it’s done by some of the same developers, so I’ve loaded that up again and have been enjoying it periodically.

I’ve also taken on a renewed interest in Fallout 3 after a few weeks off to play NHL 10.  I have a feeling I’m approaching the end of the game, so I’ll try and get that finished up as soon as possible.  It’s still a great game, very enjoyable, but I’m about ready to leave the desolate waste lands for some greener environments.  I’m thinking of heading back to Oblivion to play through the Shivering Isles which I have yet to do, just so I can cross that game completely off my play list.

I received an email from the EverQuest II team, outlining all the lovely bonuses I could get for pre-ordering the upcoming expansion.  I checked out the trailer for Sentinel’s Fate and I’m sorry, but I have to say, as much as I loved EverQuest II, they’ve never been able to make a compelling trailer to save their lives.  The beholder-like monster looks pretty cool, but other than that, there’s nothing in there that makes me desperately want to play the game.  That said however, I am toying with the idea of checking it out in February.  It still eats away at me that I stopped playing with my Mystic sitting just six measly levels away from 80.  Of course, now I’d have to get him to 90, but, you know… whatever.

There’s a whole lot of post regurgitation for you, a rambling, incoherent post if I’ve ever seen one.  Cut me some slack though, I’ve been out of it for a month.  Don’t worry though, I’m not dead.

My excitement for the series continued through books two and three, but started to wane a little by the time I reached the fourth book.  The world itself, and the over-arching story was very intriguing, but the books started taking longer and longer to get to their point.  It took an epic battle of endurance to power my way through the fifth book, The Fires of Heaven; a battle which, as it would turn out, paled in comparison to the one it took to get through the sixth book, Lord of Chaos – which many people consider to be one of the good ones.

I ended up taking a break halfway through that sixth book, putting it up on the shelf until returning to it over a year later to finally finish it.  That’s where I am today.  I look over towards my book shelf and I see books seven through eleven (with a twelfth – made up of three separate volumes no less – on the way) staring back at me and I wonder if it’s even worth it to continue.

I’ve been away from the series long enough at this point that while I remember the major plot, many of the details have been lost.  I will never go back and re-read the first six books because, quite frankly, there isn’t enough money that you could possibly pay me to do so.  If I ever return to the series I’ll just find some summaries online in order to get caught up, but it’ll still feel like something is missing.  I’ve bought all the books, and I like the story enough to want to know what happens, but I’m not really sure if I want to continue.  It doesn’t help to see people saying things in forums like, “books seven through ten are the worst in the series and are mind-numbingly boring”, I have to wonder a little if I really want to put myself through that.   Book ten, Crossroads of Twilight, has been described as “an 800 page novel where literally nothing happens”.

A friend of mine described the problem I have with the series perfectly.  He said that Robert Jordan would take twenty pages to describe two characters walking along a gravelly road, detailing every rock they stepped on, but the big huge epic battle at the end would be told in two sentences.  Basically, the series has become an incredible grind to read for little payoff.

That’s where I’m at with EverQuest II.  I’m trying to like it, and I really like the idea of being into it, but it’s been on the shelf for just a little too long, and working my way through the seven levels required to hit the cap is starting to look like one of Robert Jordan’s gravelly roads.

The main reason I left EQII a year ago was because I found the Rise of Kunark expansion to be a horrible, boring grind.  Quest after quest of “get me fifteen rhino horns”, followed by, “thanks for the rhino horns, but now I need twenty pristine rhino horns”, only to followed once again by “okay, sorry for all that work, but it turns out I really need super rhino horns”.  I couldn’t take it any more.

It probably didn’t help that I was levelling two characters at the time and doing the same content twice over.  My main character was a Berserker, which was just about the least wanted class in the game at the time.  Because of that, I decided to bring up my Mystic as quickly as possible, but by the time I had reached level 70 and started questing in Kylong Plains, most of the server population had moved on to the higher level zones.  I remember not being able to find a group for the life of me, so I soldiered on solo through to 73, and the grind just became too unbearable.

Upon entering the game last night, I found myself in Kunzar Jungle and opened my quest log.  I picked a quest at random and started working on it.  Fortunately there were no rhinos to kill.  It took a little bit for me to remember how to play the Mystic; its icons were even more foreign to me than my Berserkers were, but after a few close calls, I think I’ve got it down pat.

The graphics were still bugging me last night, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to get over it.  The performance also seems to have taken a hit since I last played.  I used to play on the High Quality or Balanced settings, depending on whether I was grouped or not and I have it on High Quality now but it seems a lot more sluggish than I remember it being, and Balanced doesn’t look quite as good as I’d like it to.

I only managed to get an hour and a half of play time last night, but in that short period two things really stood out for me, and not in a good way.  There were no less than 7 server wide announcements of people getting their Mythicals.  Those were in addition to the 5 or 6 I saw the night before in just an hour spent in game.  For some crazy reason I thought these Mythical weapons were supposed to be rare and difficult to get.  What will they introduce in the next expansion, Super Mythicals?  It seems as though raiding guilds are selling raid slots to those with a whole lot of money and dragging them through their updates, which, to me, just seems kind of lame, but I guess it is what it is.

The other thing that stood out for me is that the Kithicor server chat hasn’t changed at all.  I saw the same people being complete ass-hats that I saw in there a year ago.  For all the crap that World of Warcraft takes for its “immature population”, I have to say, the WoW server I play on isn’t half as bad as the immaturity and e-peen waving of Kithicor.  I pity any new player who chooses this server.

I hope to continue my observations over the remainder of my free period, but so far, I’m definitely not feeling a pull back to the game.  Release EverQuest III though and I’d probably be on board day one.

I’ve been thinking about EverQuest II a lot lately, especially as my interest in World of Warcraft continues to hover around the “rock bottom” range.  I’ve found myself eyeing the box for The Shadow Odyssey more and more in the local game store lately, but each time I talk myself out of picking it up.  I like the idea of playing EQII again, I just don’t think it’d go over so well in reality.  The fact of the matter is that I’ve sort of been drifting away from MMOs altogether.

Some of my greatest times in gaming have occurred in the three years that I played EverQuest II.  WoW may hold my subscription at the moment, but it’s never held that magic, nostalgic feeling for me that EQII did.  Imagine my reaction then, when I received an email the other day from Sony Online Entertainment inviting me to try EQII again for 14 days free.  The email was apparently sent to any dormant accounts with an Iksar character.  The only Iksar character I had was created just to check out the PvP server way back when it was introduced.  I abandoned him at level 20.

I immediately dug out my Rise of Kunark discs and re-installed the game and started patching… for about 15 hours.  Yikes.  The next day I launched the game and the nostalgia flooded back as soon as I heard the opening music.  I couldn’t suppress the smile creeping across my face, and I soon found myself back home on the Kithicor server’s version of Norrath.

It’s been over a year, maybe slightly less, that I last logged in to the game, and obviously much has changed.  I logged in as my level 73 Berserker first and I was fairly lost.  I saw a bunch of messages flash on my screen informing me of new combat arts, a new introductory summary screen (very cool), a new map system (extremely cool), and some black circle with crossed swords icon which I still haven’t a clue about.  I took a few minutes to familiarize myself with all of my long forgotten combat art icons, mounted up on my horse, and headed out to explore.

I hate to say it, but my first reaction was that the graphics looked amazingly dull.  I used to be one of the staunchest defenders of EQIIs look, but after a year and a bit of WoW’s in your face assault of colours, I couldn’t help but feel that EQII just looked so very bland.  It’s amazing how attached to WoW’s look I’ve become; it definitely comes as a surprise to me, because I hated it before i played it.

Everything seemed mostly the same yet very different as well.  East Freeport was completely empty; I guess everyone uses the broker somewhere else these days.  I’d really like to check out the Shadow Odyssey but unforunately, it’s not available as part of the 14 free days.  While in Freeport, I decided to check out Stargrace’s Norrathian Museum, which is just stunning in its awesomeness.  It’s a showcase of imagination that reminds me of some the things that set EQII apart from other games.  Well done Stargrace.

I ended up spending about an hour or two just running around, checking things out.  At this point, I think EQII is going to remain a nostalgic trip for me; I can’t see myself re-subscribing.  It’s mostly because I’m getting burned out on MMOs in general, but also that I think I’ve been away from it for too long.  The fun I had in EQII is too far removed now, and perhaps, best left a memory.  Never say never though.

WoW has often been lauded for its user interface, how simple, functional, and great it is.    Personally, I think it’s a piece of crap for one reason:  I can’t move my action bars around the way I see fit.  Yes, I know I could always download a user-made mod to add that functionality, but that sort of thing should be available right out of the box.

After playing EverQuest II, the pinnacle of MMO interface design in my opinion, World of Warcraft’s interface limitations become much more apparent.  I’ve been able to live with these limitations up until I’ve started using my Shaman’s Feral Spirit talent.  This talent allows me to summon a couple of Spirit Wolves to fight by my side for 45 seconds.  Once cast, a pet bar appears which allows me to control the wolves.  This pet bar appears above my bottom two action bars, which normally would be just fine, but I’m using an add-on called FloTotemBar which I keep docked in the same place the pet bar wants to be.

What I’d really like to do is move the pet bar up half an inch so that it rests above my FloTotemBar, but no, I can’t do that, because it’s stuck in place with some industrial strength digital glue.  I can move FloTotemBar no problem though, so I tried arranging it last night but that pet bar just kept getting in the way, and dad-gammit, I like FloTotemBar just where it is.

I prefer not to use add-ons.  At present, I use FloTotemBar, Cartographer, and Atlas.  Now, I’ve got to get another one just to move that silly pet bar which only appears for 45 seconds at a time anyway.  In EQII I had relatively unlimited control over my action bars, never mind just moving one a short distance, and I didn’t have to install a mod to do so.  WoW gets pretty much every thing else right, why not this?

I’ll preface this by saying that the Living Legacy promotion came at the wrong time for me.  It had only been a couple of months past the point I left EverQuest II, so I wasn’t really all that eager to go  back just yet.  I was, and still am, thoroughly enjoying my time in World of Warcraft.  Yes, I know, everyone and their dog has played WoW to death, but I haven’t, so it’s very new and fresh for me.  That said, I didn’t take advantage of the Living Legacy promotion as much as I thought I would.  I logged in a few times here and there, but every time I did, all the reasons that I quit in the first place came quickly flooding back.

So, keep that in mind as you read my responses.  Without further ado, questions are bolded, my answer will follow on the next line and some additional comments will be italicized :

Will you convert your trial EQII account to a paying subscription once your free play period ends?
No

Why won’t you convert? (Please check all that apply)
- I am bored with the game.
- I feel that my character is still advancing too slowly.
- I rather continue playing another MMO.
- I don’t care for the new content that has been added with the latest expansions.

How would you rate your overall Living Legacy experience?
In-game (game updates and social experience): Neutral (It was pretty much the same game I left)
Out-of-game (community and promotional events): Unsatisfied

How important was each of the following offers in your decision to come back and try EQII again?
In-game items – Not important
Free expansion and adventure packs – Not important (I had them already anyway)
Free gameplay – Very important (Wouldn’t have come back otherwise)
$5.00 discount coupon – Not important
Game update – Somewhat important (I wanted to see the in-game events)
Contests and community events – Not important

How did you first hear about the Living Legacy program? (Select all that apply)
Email blast
Fan site / Press site

What new content did you experience and how would you rate it?
I wasn’t sure how to answer this one, because none of the listed options were “new content” to me.  I had been there, done that, many times before.
The Fallen Dynasty Adventure Pack Content – Didn’t Try
The Splitpaw Saga Adventure Pack Content – Didn’t Try
The Bloodline Chronicles Adventure Pack Content – Didn’t Try
Desert of Flames™ Expansion Pack Content – Didn’t Try
Kingdom of Sky™ Expansion Pack Content – Didn’t Try
Echoes of Faydwer™ Expansion Pack Content – Didn’t Try
Rise of KunarkTM Expansion Pack Content – Didn’t enjoy
EverQuest II base game

Overall game experience
Then: Very Good
Now: Good

Overall polish and quality
Then: Good
Now: Good

Grouping/guild play
EQII has the best grouping mechanics in any game I’ve played
Then: Very Good
Now: Very Good

Solo play
Then: Very Good
Now: Moderate (RoK’s focus on soloing killed the game for me.  It may take a while before I feel any motivation whatsoever to come back and progress my characters past their current level of 73)

Tradeskilling
Then: Good
Now: Good

Social/community experience
For the most part, a fantastic community.  It definitely has its share of idiots, but they’re usually the exception to the rule.
Then: Very Good
Now: Very Good

Amount of content
Then: Very Good
Now: Very Good

Quality of customer service
I’ve never had to use it, which may say something in and of itself.
Then: Never Tried
Now: Never Tried

Time to resolve technical game issues
The game has always been very stable for me.
Then: Never Tried
Now: Never Tried

Ability to manage inventory, set game window preferences, equip weapons and chat with others
Easily the best UI I’ve seen in an MMO
Then: Very Good
Now: Very Good

Pacing of advancement/leveling opportunities
Then: Good
Now: Poor (Same as above, RoK ground the game to a halt for me.  With limited play time, I just felt like nothing was happening)

Quality and quantity of rewards/loot
Then: Good
Now: Good

Ability to acquire items and abilities that distinguish your character from others in-game
This has always been a problem I’ve had with the game; everyone ends up looking pretty much the same and using the same equipment.
Then: Poor
Now: Poor

Which portion of the game has been most enjoyable for you?
I struggled with this one, because I also enjoyed the Mid Level (21-60), but ultimately, my fondest memories of EQII come from the Kingdom of Sky.
High Level (61+)

Did you participate in any of the live story events or new quest/zone content additions from the regularly scheduled game updates?
No (I never did do any of those cloud killing quests, and again, none of the zones were new to me)

Why not? (Please check all that apply.)
I rather play other game content.

How do you find out about the game updates? (Check all that apply)
Fan site / Press sites

What type of updates would you prefer? (Rank 1-4, where 1 is most preferred and 4 least preferred):
1. New zones (Preferably single-group dungeons for the 70-75 level range)
2. Live story based events
3. Content updates
4. Bug fixing and game polish (Never has been a problem for me)

What would we need to improve for you to continue to enjoy EverQuest II ?
More group play activities (70-75 please)
Better solo play activities (Less grindy in RoK please)

How would you rate EverQuest II in comparison to other MMO games you’ve played?
I still consider it among the best games I’ve ever played, and easily on par with, or surpassing other MMOs in most areas.
Excellent

If you are leaving to play another MMO game, which game is it? (Please check all that apply)
World of Warcraft

How many other MMOs do you subscribe to right now (Not including EverQuest II )?
1

How many other MMOs have you subscribed to this year (Not including EverQuest II )?
2 (Wow, Vanguard)

Please answer Yes, No, or Not Applicable to the following questions:
Did you enjoy playing Legends of Norrath? -No (not my thing)
Would you play Legends of Norrath without an EverQuest II subscription? -No
If you weren’t offered free play would you have come back to EQII this summer? -No
Do you expect to return to EverQuest II at some point in the future? -Yes
Is www.everquest2players.com your main source for information? -No
Did you visit www.eqlivinglegacy.com? -Yes
Did you see the Living Legacy online ads? -Yes
Are you going to purchase the upcoming expansion in the fall? -Yes (Most likely, we’ll see)
Would you refer a friend to EQII? -Yes (I tried in fact, but they won’t leave WoW)
If you were able to earn free game play by recruiting friends would you participate? -Yes
Did you feel like you were part of the Living Legacy celebration? -No

Please select your age range:
25-34

Please select your gender:
Male

Please provide us with any other additional feedback (255 character limit)
I played EQII for 3+ years and loved it. That is until Rise of Kunark came out. I was unable to play as much as I had in the past and watched everyone blast their ways to level 80 while I ground my way past level 70. It seemed as though there were no grouping opportunities in RoK for level 70-75 characters and the solo play ground to a boring halt very fast for me. I just couldn’t bring myself to continue. The Fens of Nathsar was a particularly boring zone. I plan on checking out the expansion, but honestly, I can’t see myself being motivated enough to work my way to the level cap unless some very interesting group zones appear for my level.

It’s been a while, so I may have some details messed up, but our small guild was working on the quest Capturing Day and Night, after one of our members had finally, after endless farming, gotten the Gold Dragon Scale needed to change Barakah into her dragon form.  When the call went out to the guild that we were going to kill the two dragons in Maj’Dul, we all headed up there to assemble.

Of course, some take longer than others, so while we were waiting for everyone to arrive, some of us started dueling, or killing random mobs that happened to be around us.  We were a very laid-back, casual guild, so this sort of tomfoolery was just fine.  When it was time to get serious, we always did so, but for the moment we were just joking around, passing the time.  Ventrilo, as always, was full of laughs and dirty talk.  Then, just as the last people were arriving to the courtyard, things changed.

The call to settle down and focus came from the raid leader who was about to inform the guild on how the encounter was going to go.  This came, of course, just as I had fired an arrow off towards a Sha’ir (61 Heroic), floating so innocently above us on his magic carpet.  He flew down towards me and I finished him off easily enough, just in time to focus on our upcoming raid.  Except, what I didn’t know at the time, was that if you kill one Sha’ir, another comes immediately after.  If you kill that next one, then more will come, and keep coming.  And come they did.

Taken off guard, a few of us who were in the immediate vicinity did our best to fight off the never-ending wave.  It quickly became more than we could handle and the Sha’irs started making their way through the rest of the raid force.  Vent went completely silent, except for the raid leader’s voice, “What the hell?  Who the fuck pulled the Sha’ir?”

Silence.

“That would have been our fearless Berzerker,” said someone who had obviously scrolled up through the combat log, looking to lay some blame.  “Everyone zone out, quick.”  Those in the raid force not yet dead sprinted towards the nearest zone line.  My head sunk.

When we came back and reassembled, there was no joviality, the entire atmosphere had changed.  I felt like such a tool.  The orders over vent were clear and simple, “everyone pay attention, and don’t pull shit”.  We got through the dragons easily enough, but I certainly wasn’t having fun doing it.  The rest of the guild (hopefully) forgot about my attempt to wipe out our raid force, but I never did, and never fooled around before a raid ever again.

I have to admit that before I read Wolfhead’s post I had no idea of who Richard Bartle was: “The God Father of MUDS”, “The Creator of Virtual Worlds”. I once tried playing a MUD early in my university days. I didn’t get it. I loved the text adventures that I had played on my friend’s Apple IIe but MUDs seemed like too much work. I never hung around with the right geeks to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons. It wasn’t until as recently as the past couple of months that I have tried playing D & D.

In regards to the Bartle controversy I actually had more fun reading people’s comments. There were many thoughtful responses as well as many hilariously childish responses.

As far as I broke it down was that the MMOGs that were out right now and under current development were being accused of being copycats of each other and innovation was being compromised over polish and streamlining. Why play Warhammer when we all have played World of Warcraft? By reading the actual text I know that this comment was meant as tongue-in-cheek and was taken out of context. The main message put out was that developers were not innovating and creating true virtual worlds. They were more content on following Blizzard’s business model and createing a “fishbowl” of a game. Fishbowl being a virtual world that never changes with a very strict set of rules that limits the player’s ability to mess around with things.

Do we really want the “Sandbox” virtual world that Bartle suggests that we should all be playing in? I for one have seen Second Life. It’s not a game. It is a virtual world created by players in a no limits environment. By abbreviating all MMORPGs (Massivley Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) as MMOs, people wrapped up in this controversy seemed to have forgotten the “G”. World of Warcraft is a really fun game. So is Everquest 2. They have different rules different limitations but I have played them both and they are really fun games. I used the word “games” many times to emphasize that I am not playing an MMOW.

WoW and EQ2 and all the other titles could be compared to playing the board game of Monopoly. Where Second Life, or the much talked about Virtual Worlds can be compared to Playdough. They are both fun, but different kinds of fun.

To answer my question I asked above, to come down to it, PEOPLE ARE JERKS. Yes Jerks. Given the opportunity to take advantage of, or humiliate another player for any little reason they will do it. And this is where my discussion comes into my experiences from World of Warcraft.

I imagine if the player base from WoW had the ability to create things that you can create in Second Life, I can guarantee that within 5 minutes there would be player made penis creatures attacking me with ghonnoreha fire balls.

Being a new player with no gold, I have quested gear. With areas completely devoid of players or others my level to complete instances with, the only other enemy players that I come into contact with are twinks that are speed leveling to 70. I think I win about 1 out of 3 PvP encounters. For this reason it has been advised to me that I should not expect to win a fair fight in Battlegrounds because they are filled with bored level 70s who have level locked lowbies with twinked gear. Already when I get beat at a PvP fight I get corpse camped and teabagged. One clever Orc that corpse camped me had learned how to take the orc language as it appears to me to say “A N A L”. Are you telling me that someone who took the time to translate Orcish into “A N A L” wouldn’t take the time to create a diarrhea emote? I know if I had the time to devote that is the FIRST thing I would do. For sure my character would have an “Ass-Helmet” with an everlasting sparkler sticking out of the business end.

Why? Because people are jerks. We take everything pristine and untouched and try our best to make a joke of it.

Blizzard know this and that’s why they have a fun fish bowl of and MMOG with multi-millions of subscribers and barely a fraction of those have heard of Second Life. Sony and Mythic also know this and want as many people as they can to subscribe to a game where their players wont get virtually pooped on.

The best business model ever: “Warhammer. A game where we are pretty sure you wont get pooped on”. You can use that if you want Mythic. But I require a royalty check in the mail each month along with my free subscription.