Slashdot Mirror

So here's my geeky lore-in-games-loving side of this. Does this not have the feel of Anarchy Online's backstory? Those familiar with the lore, and the online book Prophet Without Honour, they used mosquitoes to implant a hidden activation-required virus, that ended up making billions sick, and die... as a hidden agenda, while pretending that the mosquitoes were fixed to help prevent the spread of this super virus... then finishing the rest of the world off in a nuclear bombardment... Look around page 89-91 for the plans for those blood suckers... http://www.anarchy-online.com/anarchy/frontend/files/CONTENT/download/documents/prophet_without_honour.pdf

My work here is done...

Anarchy Online free play client download page

The free client allows you to play a game that is supported by in-game ads in proper context and a character perks system which includes buying game currency with real currency.

Blizzard has deleted at least 30 of my D2 accounts.
3 times, I've built up 10 accounts, then lost interest and had them deleted.
Now I whenever I get the itch to play D2 I play a mod instead, like Kingdom of Tenaii.

The above, and the fact that they were one of the early abusers of the DMCA hammer makes me prefer other game makers to them (see also http://www.eff.org/wp/unintended-consequences-seven-years-under-dmca ). Those are some of the reasons I play Anarchy Online instead of WoW.

Expect? Its already here...
Anarchy Online (run by Funcom) has already put ads into their game to subsidize free accounts. Any new free player is unable to turn off these ads (without some workarounds) and existing playing customers can opt-in to see ads.

Let's not forget that Blizzard was one of the early abusers of the DMCA hammer.

That plus the fact that they deleted hundreds of my diablo 2 characters is why I have never subscribed to WoW. Play an MMO for the non-add impaired instead.

That's nice, but lets not forget what they did to BnetD.
They were one of the very early abusers of the DMCA hammer, and they used it to shut down the source of what could have been a huge thriving mod scene. That there are as many mods available for Diablo 2 now is in spite of the travesty the committed.

- I bought my copy of D2, so don't accuse me of being a pirate. I'm a programmer and not being able to innovate on what was one of the most entertaining 3rd person online RPGs during that era caused me to intensely dislike the company. (Play http://anarchy-online.com/ instead of that noob fest which is WoW)

After level 100 they're going to sample your characters DNA and ship it off to this new planet called Rubi-Ka.
It will begin life there as a level 1 froob and progress through the ranks to a mighty level 200 (220 if paying the pusher).

Anarchy Online has been doing this for quite a while. They have two playfields, Rubi-Ka (free + ads) and the Shadowlands (paid). When you subscribe you have the option to shut off billboards. A few months ago they introduced a place to buy perks for your paid characters. They included stuff like vanity vehicles and pets.
The game is totally awesome and sucked me in for over a year.

There are a couple of problems with the paid/non-paid system though:
> Billboard system was very annoying and intrusive. They have the opportunity to make interactive, non-intrusive billboards and chose to make plain jane traditional ones with extremely loud sound that can't be disabled.
> Paid players have HUGE advantages over non-paid players in weapon capabilities. This totally breaks PVP between them. They should allow paid players to sell items from the Shadowlands to free players to even the playing field, make weapons from SL less effective when PVPing, or have a global Paid vs Non-paid PVP damage differential nerf.

It's great way to try out a game to see if you like it. If you play it for a month and still like it, you can subscribe. Don't upgrade your current account though, make a new account and upgrade it. You can dual-log and buff yourself/mule etc, and leveling paid chars is at least 2x as fast as non-paid.

The whole point behind BnetD is control and freedom. That they happened to be pirates was very unfortunate.

>

Here's my top 4 reasons for wanting BnetD (and notice that they DO NOT include piracy):
5 - Store characters on a server that will last longer than 90 days AND are non hackable.
4 - Allow/disallow Maphack at MY choosing. (Maphack is not a hacking tool, it is a UI improvement)
3 - Choose who can join my server. (No Spambots, just my friends + their friends)
1 - Mod support. All of the really great games were that way because of the Modding community.

Another reason Blizzard shut down BnetD besides piracy is that they would lose their ad revenue.

Play Anarchy Online instead for free.

Not really. It's been about a year since I last played. I did play AO when it first came out, moved on after that initial year of playing. I still come back to it every now&then. It has been improving over the years, fairly easy to just jump on & play. There is plenty of shopping available; player stores. Crafting is a bit better now, there are stores that sell all the parts up to a certain quality level. Early levels don't have to depend on drops to get their parts.

The Alien Invasion expansion adds a raid-type event; a timed "capture the flag" type event against mobs(aliens). Fun & good loot. :)

You might want to check out VNBoard's AO forums and AO's own forums to get a better idea on the state of things.

Sounds like Anarchy Online is what you are looking for. Free client download and free to play. If you want to explore/play their expansion areas, then you'll need to pay. But the original area is large enough to keep one's interest for 30 or 40 levels. Even after that there is still enough content to keep one interested but the expansion areas offer better equipment&xp. The game is well established and well populated. Cedega does support playing AO in Linux.

Another free to play game is Last Chaos. The only time you have to pony up some cash is if you want to buy something from their item mall like an xp potion(+30% xp). The game is fantasy based, so it might not be your cup of tea. It is an interesting game, the devs have done some unique things. Example would be skill points, these are earned along with xp but at an inverse... high xp, low sp/low xp, high sp. They also have events every weekends; friday happy hour(random bonus stuff like double xp during happy hour) and sunday tea time(again random bonus stuff). Last Chaos is playable in Wine.

For a purely cooperative game, you might check out A Tale in the Desert. There is no combat in the game. It does offer a a native linux client. It has been a while since I played this one.

There are a wide variety of mmorpg out there, some just take a bit of effort to find. Maybe start your search at mmorpg.com.

I bet we'll start seeing 'BUY YOUR INGAME CASH HERE!' adverts like we see on many how-to sites for some of the more popular MMOs (namely WoW and my favourite, Anarchy Online).

I RTFA and it was complete bull. If they approve game demos and mods to their list why they didn't list any good games? :p

There's lots of really good games available for free. For example old commercial games that have been released as freeware (I'm a diehard abandonware fan). Just to mention few: Betrayal at Krondor, Beneath a Steel Sky, Descent: FreeSpace, FreeSpace 2, Hidden & Dangerous, One Must Fall: 2097, Railroad Tycoon Deluxe. Then there's open source games like America's Army.

There's also free multiplayer games: Freeciv, Allegiance, Starsiege: Tribes and even MMORPGs like Anarchy Online, Kal-Online or RuneScape.

Check these Wikipedia lists for more great free games:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_ga mes_released_as_freeware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_first-pe rson_shooters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_g ames

I'd say any of these is better than all the games mentioned in the article. :p

http://www.anarchy-online.com/ There is a free version and I pay $10 a month for all the add-ons. If you pay to play then you can turn off the in-game ads for real life products. There are however a couple ads for orgs and fictional in-game products. I heard it really sucked when first released, and it still has some bugs, but it is a lot of fun for those who want a simple experience and those that want something incredibly immense. On a plus side there are players from all over the globe, which is fun for me because I rarely have a chance to converse directly with people from France, Russia, or China.

Anarchy Online is free until January 2007 - should be good enough to see if you like it. :-)

Funny thing. The game that this is currently being applied to (Anarchy Online) only shows ads for those who did NOT buy the game and did NOT pay a monthly fee (aka fr00bs).

Read more about the over here.

You might like Anarchy Online however their Shadowlands expansion strayed heavily from the sci-fi into the fantasy realm and the entire game suffered, in my opinion. I played the game off and on for years but could never truly get into it after being forced to go through the content in that expansion.

To hit level 220 you pretty much were forced to xp in the Shadowlands zones, although they did add shadowknowledge (SK) gain from killing aliens for the latest expansion Alien Invasion. That was a more recent patch and I'm not sure how it has effected the game as I've been away from it for months.

However the base game has a cyberpunk feel, with "the grid" which is your travel option, actual flight in game with personal planes, war-torn futuristic looking cities, etc. You also install implants which boost your skills and statistics along with the normal armor/weapon loot. The classes are more sci-fi in title but do similar RPG things (doctor = healer, enforcer = tank, etc).

The base game (with no expansions) is entirely free for new accounts so it's worth checking out here . Plus they use bittorrent for downloading!

Anarchy Online was one of if not the first Sci-Fi themed MMORPG.

The summary here is inaccurate as to how the ads are going to be presented. It makes it sound as if they're chopping blocks out of the interface for them (and that's already a kinda crowded interface).

According to this post by the developers:

"These images will be similar to existing in-character advertisement already found in the game today, example of this would be Bronto Burger advertisements."

They'll be on billboards, which are all over the game as it is. The game already has in-game (while also in-character) advertisement for the expansion packs, as well as the Alienware billboard near the entrance to Old Athen (which from my understanding isn't an advertisement for Alienware computers, but for the Alien Invasion expansion pack), but they're changed to fit character. The dev posts sounds as if the real life ads being run will also be made to fit the game's background:

"We are also doing our utmost to ensure that these advertisements blend into the environment without being intrusive or break with the spirit of Anarchy Online. All of the advertisements that will be shown are going to be screened by Funcom personnel where we will weed out any advertisements that we feel are inappropriate before they get the chance to appear around Rubi-Ka."

Also, it's not only "Likely" because of the free subscription, it is definitely because of it. Paying customers won't even see them:

"This is being done to maintain our ability to keep providing the best game for everyone while keeping the monthly fee as low as we can... I want to reassure everyone that the new advertisements that will be introduced to the game will only be affecting players that are taking advantage of our free offer. All paying subscribers will be shown in-character images in place of the advertisement."

Lastly, they did take the time to address privacy concerns. They assure users that they aren't sharing personal information, only registering that somebody watched an ad and which ad it was, not who watched it.

Anarchy Online is offering free client download and a free one-year subscription if you sign up by January 15th.

As someone who's played WoW religiously (2 lvl16 characters on Shattered Hand), I think it's a truly awesome game. It's gigantic, first off, and it's extendable. I like most of the stuff Blizzard comes out with so that may be a bit of a bias. MMORPG's are fun, some of them...I'm really excited about Matrix Online but this is the same thing that happened when SWG came out...Can we have *one* good Sci-Fi MMORPG please?!?

You might want to check out Anarchy Online. It's a sci-fi based MMORPG, and they're currently offering a free client download and free year worth of online play. You don't even have to give them a credit card number.

Watch out - as soon as you buy that expansion pack, you start paying monthly fees. According to the "*Conditions" on their website: "Should you wish to upgrade to any of the expansion packs monthly subscription and client fees will be added."

The first hit is always free.

You can download the core game from here for free (not counting your own bandwidth cost). And AO was one of the first to do this ... and was one of the first to offer a pay-for download.

Personally, I'd be happier to download it for free than to have to drive to pick it up at a store to pay for the media.

You can also pay for and download the expansions from the same page.

No, not a fanboy (I did beta test and played for a few months when it first came out ... enjoyed hacking the interface ... got tired of providing free tech support to others who didn't make sense of my scripts :), just providing a little clarification.

Have an entire Virtual Life. ... Where do I sign up?

here , here , here , etc.

Holy crap! Big Business will know how many times a Coke ad flashes by your screen while you spin around to blast an imp with your shotgun! Next thing you know the game will be FORCING you to buy the product!

Please. Besides, you could just stand in front of an ad for some company and tape down one of your keys to make you spin around endlessly, jacking up their numbers. :-P I recently came back to Anarchy Online and noticed that some of the billboards which had previously featured fake in-game ads now have ads for Alienware. Does it bother me? Nope. Would it bother me if Bronto Burger was suddenly replaced by McDonald's? Well, maybe, I like annoying people at the Bronto farm, but otherwise, nope. Is it really going to ruin your gameplay to see ads for potentially real products?

Although the part about working the products into the dialogue sounds interesting. Would they get the actors to re-record the entire sentence, or just the particular word, resulting in the Die-Hard-on-network-TV effect?

You don't mention Anarchy Online...
It's quite a good game, you might want to give it a try. In my opinion better than all the others you mention, except for UO (which is outdated now), and City of Heroes (which I love, but is better suited for casual players like me than it is for powergamers). I think it fell off the map due to one of the worst launches in MMORPG history, but it has since been fixed up into a solid game. There is a 7-day trial available, and check my journal for a couple of 30-day trial keys.

http://www.anarchy-online.com/

I totally agree. I am playing COH right now too, and it's a huge amount of fun. It is easier to make progress in COH than most other MMORPGs I have played, which helps. Character/costume customization is great as well (though even more is better - I hope they will continue adding options). Somehow the comics theme and flexible costume creation seems to encourage more role-playing than most MMORPGs I have played before.

One game that doesn't seem to be getting much attention here is Anarchy Online, to my great disappointment. The subscriber numbers in those charts make me fear for it's long-term survival... It is a great game. Right now I'm hooked on COH, but long term I think I will be back to spending most of my time in AO (if it survives). Hopefully the upcoming expansion pack for it will renew some interest in it... I guess AO was hurt very very badly by one of the worst MMORPG launches ever... But since then it has been fixed up into a very good game. The only big flaws in AO for me are the long level grind (which a lot of games have, and isn't really a flaw if you are more than just a casual player like me), and my disappointment that they started with a semi-skill-based character development system, but back-tracked over time to a much more rigid class-based system.
Anarchy Online has a 7 day trial available. It might require a credit-card, I am not certain. See http://www.anarchy-online.com/.
I have a couple of 30-day trial keys I was sent - I will post those in my journal for anyone that wants them.

They just announced second full-fledged expansion on the game. Shadowlands supposedly sold pretty well, and their subscriber numbers are slowly creeping upwards. I don't think they'd keep on investing towards new expansions and continued development of the game if they didn't get profit out of the game. Yes, AO is not a runaway hit, but I'd wager a bet that it's profitable. Now it's questionable will it survive the upcoming onslaugh of New Shiny Thingys (EQ2, World of Warcraft, other upcoming games), but if the new titles launch as horribly as SWG did, they just might...

Yes, it took them three years to fix the game, recover from a total disaster of a launch and add the fun bits, but right now I'd say AO along with DAOC (and the obivious EQ) is one of the best MMOs in the market. Yeah, it's hurt a bit by a *very* steep early learning curve, but once ya get past the first hill, it's quite fun.

I played it for about 2 weeks before I became completly bored with it. I kept thinking to myself.. what is the point? I level up so I can get better weapons so I can kill bigger animals so I can level up so I can.. etc.

This is what we call in the MMO industry, treadmilling. It's working hard to get nowhere.

Some games make it obvious and unrewarding, but many have managed to disguise the treadmill with entertaining content (and these games go on to become successful). It can all depend on the game you're playing. I've not personaly tried FFXI, but I've played a few other MMO games (E&B, AO, SWG).

I spent about 6 months on Earth & Beyond. It was a very fun game, very social, and the treadmill was not too bad in the first 2/3 of the game. The only real problem I had with it was that it had a short feature list (ie no automatic selling), and I was interested in trying something more sophisticated.

I spent about 2 weeks on Anarchy Online. I got tired of doing the missions, and it seemed like there was nothing else to do, since PvP was not a realistic option until I had finished treadmilling. There was also little to no crafting ability, and very few people were open to socialize with a "newbie". =(

I spent about 4 months on SWG. I got in on the beta testing, and had a blast exploring all the new stuff and chatting with people who were game enhusiasts more than they were 'l33t d3wds'.

Once the game was released, it was still a fairly fun atmosphere, but it slowly degenerated into 'l33t d3wds' and people became less socialable. Also, by this time I had seen most of the content that was available to the game, and new content was very slow to come.

I think the problem with SWG was that they were all tied up with bugfixes that they had no time to add significant content in the first few months of release.

Finally, I found Second Life. =P I can't really expect that I will ever get bored here, since 95% of the content is made by the people who play it. It's not really even a game so much as a large simulation world. This is the closest thing we have right now to a metaverse.

I had heard of SL back when it was in beta, but what finally hooked me to try it was when I heard that it let everyone write scripts to put into the objects they build.

When I finally did the free trial, I realized the world looked a whole lot better than the website depicted it, and that it is a lot more flexible and friendly than I thought was possible in an online environment (minimum age of 18 could have something to do with this).

I think I've realized the problem with most online games is that the developers can't keep things fresh enough for all the users. This is why I think online environments that give the players the tools to create ALL of the content will become more popular as people get bored of the levelling treadmills.

I guess SL is a lot like slashdot. The developers give us bits of things to get us started, but we create and enjoy most of the content. I think this is the best way to go, and will definitely keep things interesting (and very addictive) for a long time to come.

Anyway on the topic of game addiction in South Korea, I think it has a lot to do with:

Availablilty of Technology + Social Acceptability to Enjoy that Technology

In the United states, we have a good amount of the former, but not much of the latter.

In the US, most people use technology only a tool. We have no more interest in it than to get the job done, so they can go home and watch friends or hang out at the bar. We don't need to upgrade because their current computer runs Word 97 just fine and that's all we need. Also, we don't have many "gam

"For those who might actually be interested in what There is, it's a half-finished..."

Funny that they're charging $49.99 a year to play a half-finished game. Even funnier is that you (and many other people) have bought into it.

But I guess that's the state of many online games...

Of course the growth is still to come.

The growth will come when there are MMO games that do not involve HOURS of doing nothing. Because the devs will finally realize that doing nothing is neither intresting nor excieting.

The growth will come when there are MMO games that have fun things to do that don't get repetative after 2 days, or after 2 months or after 2 years.

The growth will come when there are MMO games that have a strong community of players supporting each other.

The growth will come when there are meaningful interactions between the players. Not "I OWNZ JOO!", not "Lets group up and XP", something deeper.

The growth will come when there are MMO with massive worlds, meaningful means of transportation and player property. The growth will come when the PVP is meaningful and fun. Not something put in just so that highlevels could do "something".

There is currently no MMO that does this.

You got that right! I got all excited about SW:G but it turned out to be overhyped and unfinished. Even without the technical problems AO proved to be really limited. You could say exactly the same for WWII Online and a stack of other big names.

But I can think of a handful of real gems right on the horizon. A Tale in the Desert is a breath of fresh air (although no PvP which kinda sucks) and RV in particular addresses every single one of the thigns you mention. And you're starting to get real diversity instead of just the goblins'n'wands or aliens'n'lasers that we've had to put up with. I mean I'm still not even sure what There is supposed to be all about.

Basically I totally agree with the article. I think MMORPG's have gone through a teething period and are just about to experience big growth. The people that start something off always suffer from the fact that other people just keep coming along and improving on it.

It's unfortunate that you didn't try going to AO's official forum as there are number of helpful players there who would have answered your questions and given you some guidance about game areas that would have worked with your preferred style of play.

There is a crafting system in place, again you would have found helpful players in the forums who would have helped explain the basics to you. Certain classes are better suited to this path than others, others curious should check out the Engineer Class Board for more details about how crafting works.

I'm sure that single-player got boring after a while, the missions are really a lot more fun when you play with a group. Perhaps if you had tried the in-game chat channels you would have found a way to socialize and a group of other players to game with. There are channels, turned on by default, that are used by players looking for teams. Other channels are also available for OOC chat. I had no problems finding others to play with, even being new to the game with a low-level character.

Sorry you had such a bad experience, I hope that other who try the game are as fortunate as I was when I tried AO. The forums and in-game chat are really the best tools for getting in touch with others.

The game mechanics can be complex, but that's part of the draw of the game for me. The gameplay system is fairly deep and, combined with the large number of classes, might seem intimidating at first. But others are there to help you get the hang of what goes on. Once you get past the initial learning curve, AO can provide fun and varied play experiences.

It's unfortunate that you didn't try going to AO's official forum as there are number of helpful players there who would have answered your questions and given you some guidance about game areas that would have worked with your preferred style of play.

There is a crafting system in place, again you would have found helpful players in the forums who would have helped explain the basics to you. Certain classes are better suited to this path than others, others curious should check out the Engineer Class Board for more details about how crafting works.

I'm sure that single-player got boring after a while, the missions are really a lot more fun when you play with a group. Perhaps if you had tried the in-game chat channels you would have found a way to socialize and a group of other players to game with. There are channels, turned on by default, that are used by players looking for teams. Other channels are also available for OOC chat. I had no problems finding others to play with, even being new to the game with a low-level character.

Sorry you had such a bad experience, I hope that other who try the game are as fortunate as I was when I tried AO. The forums and in-game chat are really the best tools for getting in touch with others.

The game mechanics can be complex, but that's part of the draw of the game for me. The gameplay system is fairly deep and, combined with the large number of classes, might seem intimidating at first. But others are there to help you get the hang of what goes on. Once you get past the initial learning curve, AO can provide fun and varied play experiences.

I'm a longtime Anarchy Online player (although I have taken a few vacations, the most recent a 6-month romp), it used to bug me to no end when people would get on the public channels simply to rant and rave over how horrible AO was back in the day (it personally didn't bother me a whole lot, it certainly pissed some people off to no end though) and that SWG was going to be akin to the Second Coming. Seeing SWG fall flat on its face at launch makes me so happy. I know none of the fanboys will equate this at all to the problems that AO (and every other MMOG out there) had in its initial stages, but at least it's a bit of justice for me.

I also glanced over the videos of SWG on one of the larger gaming sites (no clue which it was), I find it hilarious how glamorous they try to make the game look. The video I watched was basically someone running a quest. They talked to a couple people, one NPC (I assume) went with the character while they hunted another NPC down. A big, dramatic firefight ensues. The two NPC's and the PC go at it (read: stand still in the field) with their pistols, while the player's doing all kinds of sweeping moves with the camera and such to try to make the fight more interesting than it was.

There's been a longstanding problem with MMOG's (at least MMORPG's) in that combat is always a pretty central part of the game (tradeskills in some are right up there though, but typically the tradeskills facilitate combat, so it all comes back to that) and it's really pretty difficult to make combat interesting... It's evolved from the early days of Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior where you'd have your good guys lined up on one side of the screen and the bad guys lined up on the other side, you tell everyone to ATTACK, sit back, and watch the fun. It really hasn't changed too much since then, either. Sure, it's gotten much prettier and a little more complex in terms of setup, but once your characters start doing their thing, there isn't a whole lot for the player to do. I wait for the day that someone finally comes up with this brilliant idea to really draw the player in to combat... AO at least keeps me somewhat involved since my character sucks enough that when soloing I need to frantically heal myself while trying to keep a constant flow of damage heading towards the object of my frustrations...

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?s= 25d4136865a685c671b6a3220077497e&threadid=143417&p erpage=20&pagenumber=4

that is the link that used to show that forum post but it's either been erased or they delete old posts i dont know. There is no question that this guy is real though... pretty strange world.

Check out his reply from the AO forums and read 'TheDeacon's' response to the article.

Keep in mind the recent problems with the NY Times and their Editors/Reporters not providing or checking facts in their stories.

Here's a sample of a few of his replies (it's a pretty good read):

Let me tell you something. The article about me written by Seth Schiesel, AKA Amis (his ingame name) is such a roving pack of lies slandering the person I really am in real life that I'm flat out disgusted by the whole thing.

right now I'm too stunned and upset at the amount of lies, miscontext, misquotes and outright slander posted on the article to even log in.

I'll be filing a lawsuit against the New York Times for slander, as many of the things put in that article about my real life (and even ingame) are so horribly untrue or twisted and the truth stretched to paint me in a much much different light than the person I really am.

He paints me as a shy, akward, socially inept reclusive nerd which is such a contrast to the person I really am. I make racy jokes, but he paints me as a virtual rapist. I'm broke in RL, but he paints me as a suicidal, emotionally unstable man that lives in the slums (I live in a good neighborhood) and can't afford to buy food. This article is absolutely ruinous to myself, my business, my future. It's the lowest form of slander imaginable.

Even the pictures used were horrible. The first is dark and brooding and in the second picture I was about to bust out laughing, which also looks a hell of alot like crying and is just a flat out BAD pic.

Please keep any jokes off this thread as I feel serious about this. I can see some pretty horrid real life repercussions as a result of this article.

So much of what I said to him in the four days that he was here was taken FAR out of context and quotes that I had supposedly said were either entirely made up or the wording was changed to change the focus of what I was saying.

Sound familiar? Well about a month ago, another NY Times reporter by the name of Jayson Blair did the exact same thing. I just never had any idea something like this would happen to me. He told me that he was doing a general article about the community of AO through my eyes. Instead, a pack of lies gets slammed on the world's largest newspaper about me. The entire focus of the article was misrepresented.

The writer, Seth Schiesel is a reporter for the NY Times and his ingame character is named "Amis", a high level Omni MP. The article was so vicious and untrue at some points that it seems to have been written with malice in mind.

I'm so humiliated at some of the things said in that article. it shocks and amazes me how someone can so callously and deliberately say such untruths. I'm painted as a socially inept reject that never leaves his home, which is the opposite of who I really am.

It's one thing to flame someone ingame, but this goes way beyond that and extends into my personal life.....worst of all, 80% of what he says is an outright lie. The other 20% is an exaggeration or was taken out of context.

While it may not seem bad to many of you, if you knew me in real life, you'd know why I was so upset right now.

thanks alot Amis (his ingame name). Never figured to be stabbed in back like this.

Dolemite
______________________

check out this thread that points back to /. comments. Pretty funny, this guy is legit (and a loon)

Actually the person featured in the article has a few things to say:

Let me tell you something. The article about me written by Seth Schiesel, AKA Amis (his ingame name) is such a roving pack of lies slandering the person I really am in real life that I'm flat out disgusted by the whole thing.

right now I'm too stunned and upset at the amount of lies, miscontext, misquotes and outright slander posted on the article to even log in.

I'll be filing a lawsuit against the New York Times for slander, as many of the things put in that article about my real life (and even ingame) are so horribly untrue or twisted and the truth stretched to paint me in a much much different light than the person I really am.

He paints me as a shy, akward, socially inept reclusive nerd which is such a contrast to the person I really am. I make racy jokes, but he paints me as a virtual rapist. I'm broke in RL, but he paints me as a suicidal, emotionally unstable man that lives in the slums (I live in a good neighborhood) and can't afford to buy food. This article is absolutely ruinous to myself, my business, my future. It's the lowest form of slander imaginable.

Even the pictures used were horrible. The first is dark and brooding and in the second picture I was about to bust out laughing, which also looks a hell of alot like crying and is just a flat out BAD pic.

Please keep any jokes off this thread as I feel serious about this. I can see some pretty horrid real life repercussions as a result of this article.

So much of what I said to him in the four days that he was here was taken FAR out of context and quotes that I had supposedly said were either entirely made up or the wording was changed to change the focus of what I was saying.

Sound familiar? Well about a month ago, another NY Times reporter by the name of Jayson Blair did the exact same thing. I just never had any idea something like this would happen to me. He told me that he was doing a general article about the community of AO through my eyes. Instead, a pack of lies gets slammed on the world's largest newspaper about me. The entire focus of the article was misrepresented.

The writer, Seth Schiesel is a reporter for the NY Times and his ingame character is named "Amis", a high level Omni MP. The article was so vicious and untrue at some points that it seems to have been written with malice in mind.

I'm so humiliated at some of the things said in that article. it shocks and amazes me how someone can so callously and deliberately say such untruths. I'm painted as a socially inept reject that never leaves his home, which is the opposite of who I really am.

It's one thing to flame someone ingame, but this goes way beyond that and extends into my personal life.....worst of all, 80% of what he says is an outright lie. The other 20% is an exaggeration or was taken out of context.

While it may not seem bad to many of you, if you knew me in real life, you'd know why I was so upset right now.

thanks alot Amis (his ingame name). Never figured to be stabbed in back like this.

Read for yourself here: http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?s= 11d03b3f2a2d89b880b547768512bc25&threadid=1434 07
(about seven posts down)

_f

The forums at the AO site contain quite a bit regarding this article. Interestingly enough, a lot of the "he is a loser" comments made here at /. are refuted by thedeacon in his forum postings. One of which can be viewed here: Link

About 2/3 of the way down the page you will find the first of the rebuttals, and on the second page of the post you will find addtional information.

FYI, I don't play AO but have played other MMORPGs

I play Anarchy Online, and Thedeacon is a dick in game. I'm surprised that an article was written about him rather than a guild leader.

The only reason that his org Storm is so powerful is because it has 503 members who try to level as fast as possible, then they complain when they reach the top level and have nothing to do. Hence the:

For more than a year, Meta-Physicist players have lobbied Funcom to enhance their profession, widely considered the weakest in the game. Frightened by the prospect that Meta-Physicists would continue to be left behind, Thedeacon spent two weeks organizing a protest march, held last weekend.

Welcome to a MMOG, I guess.

Anarchy Online is a game much like Everquest. But it has kinda of a twist to it. The players make up the story line. There is a war going on, between 2 divisions, the Omni, and the Clan. The players have been given the foundation of the starting storyline, but the players (with the help of some special events) keep the story going by fighting the opposing side. It is based on a more technologicly advanced culture. Good place to read into the game's story line, look here.

Anarchy online

Two words: Anarchy Online.

Presumably, most people here have a fair familiarity with the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) phenomenon, but here's a rundown of the major products out there from my bookmarks, for anyone who's interested but not wholly informed. Feel free to correct any of this if my understanding of any of these games is in any way flawed:

Anarchy Online
Asheron's Call
Dark Age of Camelot
Everquest
Shadowbane (just released - very buggy)
A Tale in the Desert
Ultima Online

Horizons
Eve Online (final beta - close to release)
City of Heroes
Dragon Empires (in beta)
Everquest 2 (in development)
Lineage II (in development)
Star Wars Galaxies (closed beta)
Imperator (very early development)
World of Warcraft (very early development)

Most of these games don't release specific subscriber base numbers. However, a series of very good guesses is compiled here.

I don't know the detail's of Sony's planning (although 10^6 was even more focused on offline combat than Sovreign was going to be), but for persistent games in general, there is a 3rd option for preventing offline players from being attacked:

Force (major) PvP combat to be prescheduled.

That is, the enemy must announce the time of the attack (to within 30 minutes) from 24 to 96 hours ahead of time. That gives both your and their allies time to gather up for the fight, and helps ensure that the conquering of terrority is based on superior materials and tactical skill, and not luck of being offline at the wrong moment.

The in-character explanation for this behavior could be that the warriors are bound by a strong sense of honor, or that their bases are protected by magic fields which only can be eroded by a slow-acting magic spell. Something like the Shield Disablers of AO.

Of course, there are numerous flaws stopping this approach from being successful on its own- stemming from the fact that not everyone can skip work for an appointment made by a videogame. Partial solutions can be munged up. (For instance, the player can pre-script responses to the specific attack at that time, or delegate control of your forces to a trusted ally who will be online at that time. In a big enough clan, someone will be available 24/7. Or, the challenged player could be allowed to offer a reschedule)

It is not just the costs of the raw disk space, but the enormous time and expense required to maintain/backup/restore a large database. Your 25 cents will not go very far.

Also, the access times would increase with more data to churn through, causing complaints about lag. These raise their CS costs and also cause bad word of mouth on the boards.

They are trying to attract mainstream folks who have never tried evercrack and want something more than Sims Online. This means not catering to the muling that the average person would find unfair.

Volunteers are still being used on Anarchy Online's game .

Bear in mind not all games are based on US servers, and are not accountable to US class action suits. (If you don't want to be a helper, don't volunteer!)

It's a MMORPG, it's 3D and it's sci-fi. See this site for more info.

Apparently, they have publically appologized for the difficulties.

And for the folks saying that you should use consoles only for gaming: WTF? That's insane; you must be made of money. If I pay $1500 for a computer, there better damned well be many games that are not only savory and delicious, but nutritional, too!

-- Jim