I'm getting extremely tired of seeing that shiny new mmo that everyone raves about and finding out that the thing includes bunny peple/fox people/wolf people/bear people, etc. Does anyone else share my angst? I will not play PFO the day catfolk, kitsune or anything similar becomes playable.
I think a big part of the problem is the children. Yes, I blame children for a lot of things. In the video game industry, like the music industry and so many others, children are taken as a part of the equation in terms of development and marketing of products. They are a massive slice of the demographic, and companies want to make things that they will like. So when a game is coming out, you have two massive groups: The child demographic and the 18-34ish year old male demographic. Instead of developing separate products for each group, it is seen as convenient to kill two birds with one stone and target both groups. The problem is that children are stupid. Not only are they stupid, but they dislike games that are difficult and challenge their sense of entitlement. Kids like easy, simplistic arcade games that constantly reward them and never incur serious penalties. The idea that your body can be looted for it's powerful items on death or that you can be killed from being within the radius of a friendly spell is totally offensive to a child, who is a reward seeking machine incapable of appreciating things like realism and internal consistency when they can bite him in the ass. Basically, children are thrown into themepark games with helmets and safety scisors, which would be alright if it weren't for the fact that they are playing the same games as the mature players. With them as part of the game's target demographic, games are made simpler, more repetitive, and overall worse. I'd like to see a new approach where children have their own games and a more mature sandbox community is formed. Let the kids play world of warcraft or blues clues online or whattever the hell gets thrown at them. I think the age of the sandbox will be better if a higher proportion of the community is mature and realism/negative consequences for actions exist in a meaningful way.
The Leper Consortium Name: The Leper Consortium
Premise: The Leper Consortium is a chartered company with a simple agenda: To spread butchery, dark magic and hatred throughout as much of Galorion as possible. This means the typical member is either a psychopath or selfishly absorbed in acquiring wealth through thievery, pillaging and the like. We hold great reverence for necromancers, the undead, vermin, aberrations and other quintessentially icky or evil monsters. Although military conquest is our first and foremost priority, we will also want a solid economic engine of harvesters and crafters. If you want to be a member of a council of irredeemable supervillains who kill for sport and suck the life out of the world around them, The Leper Consortium is where you belong, period. We are evil without compromise. As an oligarchy, our government will provide many positions of power. We currently have two rulers: Verrun Hanotep: On the messageboards, you will know him as me. He is a psychopathic elven wizard/rogue with a penchant for raising zombies, stabbing people and teleporting away. Brom Karrak:: His avatar name on the boards is Down. This extremely unpleasant human barbarian loves kill things and will be an important front line tactician. Goals: Eventually we would like to expand from a chartered company to a settlement and even a kingdom. We want to dismantle the cities of the good to the best of our ability. In other words, war without end. What about the tax rate?: You may have noticed the extremely high official tax rate. This is an important decision which I would like to stick with. What a 50% tax rate, individuals will reap lower rewards but our armies will be extraordinarily well funded. This is how a professional army should work. Religion: Urgathoa and the slightly lesser known Ghlaunder are our two most important deities, but any god that promotes the dark arts or vile creatures is regarded with respect Tactics: Our devotion to military tactics in theory and practice is a big part of what makes us different from most other groups. As soon as beta is opened, we will want members on the inside taking ranks in soldiering and experimenting with tactics. I was tempted to say that we would use walls of Evil clerics with zombies, channeling negative energy to simultaneously heal the undead and hurt enemies.I was also tempted to say we would use a lot of poison. The truth is, none of us know what military tactics will be like in-game, but our members want to be among the first to explore perusing military careers. |
