SiderisAnon

I played on one MMO where the staff would police roleplaying events. They would do things like ask disrupters to leave and would even move someone away from the area if they started griefing or got crude. Some of the roleplayers may have loved it, but it really didn't work out well as best as I can tell because I saw complaints from the non-roleplayers that the staff shouldn't be interfering and complaints from the roleplayers that the staff didn't do enough.

Even name changes can be contentious. After many years of pen and paper RPGs, I know that not everyone agrees on what an appropriate name for the genre is.



I think a policed roleplay server is certainly possible in the kind of MMO that has a large enough player base to support one or more roleplay servers (WoW, Star Wars, Everquest, and such). However, the cost of keeping even a single staff member in game 24/7 is quite high. They may be able to be doing other tasks at the same time in another window, but if they're expected to monitor global chats or whathaveyou, that's a full time focus.

You're looking at a minimum of about $200,000 a year per server once you include salary and the overhead of the staff. How many roleplayers are going to be willing to pay more for the privilege of accessing a policed server? I think they'd just create an unofficial roleplay server and deal with the griefers.

The poll should have an additional option for those of us who play about half and half.

I generally make about as many characters of my sex as of the opposite in a game. I don't keep strictly to 50/50 as I don't always like both sexes equally in a particular situation (such as a race where I don't like the appearance of one sex or the other). In Star Wars, I've also slanted my choices based on how much I like or dislike the voices.

I wonder how much of that average is people leaving their character logged in and hanging out somewhere while they send their companions out on crew missions? I've left Star Wars logged on for three to six hours before just to run missions. (Meanwhile, I'm watching a movie or working or something else other than actually playing.)

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Star Wars if failing and am not a doomsayer. I just wonder how much idling for crew missions skews those numbers Bioware gave out.

One thing t

If you get stuck because of terrain issues or weird leaping, remember that /stuck can get you out. Sometimes it kills you because it leaves you falling below the terrain (and you die at a certain altitude), but I've also used it numerous times and found myself bouncing up onto the top of nearby terrain.

o*Steps up on humor soap box*

Are these people fools? Do they not see the TRUE problem here? Have they seen these companions? Most are not even human. The ones that are human are often running around with people who are not. Do the people at Bioware not understand? Do they not SEE?

Who cares what sex the companion is, assuming some of these creatures even have a sex. These people are talking about the ability to romance an alien monstrosity! They aren't even the same species! They're not even from the same planet! For all we know, these alien monststocities don't even have souls!

Bioware is not promoting homnosexualtiy, they're promoting bestiality. Dirty, foul inter-species romance. This cannot be allowed! They must be stopped!

What's next, wookies????

*Steps off of humor soap box*

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An important bit of information has been left out of this article. Gamers First does not credit your $20 back to you. You get your credits returned to you ONLY when you spend their special "G1 Credit" currency. Any money you spend buying those GI Credits is money that they get to keep. You just get to spend the credits twice: Once during the sale and a second time later.

So, if you were planning on dropping a bunch of money on their credits, when the sale kicks in tomorrow is probably a good time, but if you were reading this article and thinking you could spend $20 and get $20 back in real dollars, think again.


From the Gamers First web site:
"IMPORTANT: This offer is ONLY valid on G1 Credit purchases that are made in the Fallen Earth Marketplace. Cash purchases and/or purchases made in other marketplaces are NOT eligible for this rebate offer."

For me, a MMO has to have enough solo content available that I can log in, play the game, and not waste time hoping to get someone to do the content with me. I have tried and quit a MMO before because the limited solo content was so absolutely boring.

This does not mean to me that all content has to be accessable to solo play. I believe WoW does this well during leveling with the availability of both group dungeons and solo quests. If I wanted to do group activities and had the time to wait, I could. If I wanted to just jump right in and play, or just avoid dealing with other people, I could.

Unfortunately, once you hit level cap, WoW and many other MMOs stop providing any kind of solo content. Everything is about the group. This could be great if you get in with a good raiding guild -- not that most of the playerbase has the time to commit to a lot of the raiding guild requirements -- but for most of us players who do not have the twitch skills necessary for high end raiding, we're stuck suffering through idiots, jerks, and full-on griefers who go into the dungeons with the intent of screwing up other people's play.

I play MMOs because I want there to be a world of other players out there. But do not force me to have to work with them in order to play your game. Frankly, if I am going to commit to getting together with a group of like-minded people every week in order to play a game, I'm going to get some dice and go play D&D.

Yes, please.

Yes, please.