aliasi.stonebender

I... don't agree with that assessment of CO's combat in the least.

Yeah, it's just dumb 'use end builder, use special attack'... in the tutorial, when you only HAVE two powers. If you try that not much further afterwards, you're quite liable to get spanked badly. There's been many a stronghold battle I got creamed at until I used the environment, remembered to block, and generally used my head.

Now, this may still be a disadvantage depending on how you feel, but the combat definitely gets broader once you hit the mid teens to 20s. The stuff that worked while beating on Irradiates in the desert works less well when you're in MC, and even less when you get to Monster Island or the 'upper' parts of the Desert/Canada.

Hm. I dunno, looking at that graph, the 'recovery point' seems to be right about where it would have been without the artificial "Openspace" spike. A little lower, perhaps, but not too far off.

So my out-of-the-rear guess is just the artificial growth - by every avatar with a bit of cash going "OH WHEE I CAN GET MY OWN SIM FOR LESS" and proceeding to load every fancy script they could onto a void sim meant for scenery - has been factored out and now we're about back to where it 'should' be.

Eh, for the folks who care more about concepts than phat lewts - which is a pretty big portion of the CoH player base these days - it's a BIG DEAL.

Finally your Green Lantern can have green energy blasts. Finally your bloody vampire of blood can have red-tinged 'dark' attacks. that kind of thing.

Yeah. I wouldn't count the 'top places' too much - it's botted beyond use unless you trim the top 10% off.

Which is not to say people don't engage in sex in SL all the time, but it's not the only pursuit, nor is it done as rudely as described here.

There WILL be content in i13, as both Midnight Club and Cimeora were supposed to get additional missions. i13 is basically 'everything but the Architect'.

SL is a social/creative place. Spending an hour just looking around and expecting some NPC to hand out a make-work quest like WoW is a bit like going to a nightclub, slouching against a wall, and complaining there's nothing to do.

I've heard it called a 'feminine MMO'....

I'm sorry, Ryzou, are you seriously suggesting that without your daily dose of Counterstrike you would run out and shoot someone with a gun, causing a chain of organ failures that ends with the victim dying and puking blood?

I used the melodramatic language to make a point; there's a very wide gap between even the most gory video game violence and the real thing. Also - as mentioned - let's not confuse 'violence' and 'murder'. The violence in most games, movies, and television shows is generally given a context that makes it acceptable. Even an ardent pacifist may concede that should you be on Phobos Base when demons break out of Hell, grabbing a shotgun is entirely called for. Counterstrike is nominally about counter-terrorists versus terrorists. Even the most 'pointlessly violent' game that gets touted in the media, Grand Theft Auto, has a certain amount of context. I've only played Vice City, but there Vice City is portrayed as a corrupt town through and through, and while your character is a nasty sort, the story does not REQUIRE you to involve 'civilians' - it's always gang members, other Mafia guys, or the (corrupt) police department.

To make a parallel with sex, we're looking at other legal or consensual-crime situations.

Hm. My comment didn't seem to get added, so... try it this way.

I think the difference is, we don't generally shoot each other in SL as a way to subliminate an urge to shoot someone in the flesh; it's a game from the get-go, with as much bearing on the real world as a kid playing with toy soldiers.

Sexual ageplay seems to be a way to indulge pedophiliac urges without breaking the law. I can at least see a little twisted nobility in that, but the point remains that some part of that person's psyche thinks having sex with kids is really, really cool. And that's kinda sick.