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Well then, I've got a half hour. Time to wing out an update. First thing I want to mention, Rickey's article over at Skotos on World building, go read it. A lot of stuff on the internet isn't worth reading, for example, this site. Reviews generally fall under that category as well, and by category I mean tripe. And if it's not a review you're reading, and not a pointless ramble, chances are it's a blog (nothing like reading: "today, I had oatmeal for breakfast. It was good. I'm going to work. Work sucks." which seems to be the general intellectual level of most blogs), or else it's an academic article which tend to generally be too academic for their own good.

Well, Rickey's article falls under the academic category, as, you know, he actually uses proper sentences and is all smart and stuff. But otherwise, it's readable and the content is excellent. Most of the stuff we already know, but I enjoyed his approach in breaking it down.

If you read it, I just want to make a small comment, which is that I don't agree that the 'Procedural' Method of world building should be put aside Algorithmic and Hand Designed. To me the procedural approach is more of a philosophy or a theory. It's a variable in how you approach your either hand designed, or algorithm generated world.

Anyways. Yeah. Gotcha.

Asides from that though, I need to quickly do a bit of self flogging. You see, I said something in my last update, which was wrong. I ironically mused that, based on subscription projections, Neocron might be the first successful MMOG sequel to make it out the door. Then it was pointed out to me, hey, there's this little game that exists, it's kind of like self-mutilation for fun, it's called Lineage 2...

That's when the memories I'd repressed, after experiencing the severe emotional trauma that was Lineage 2 surfaced, and like a leetle gurl, I wept. Still, I was wrong. Lineage 2 is a sequel, and it's, like, playable. And it seems there are people playing it. So I suppose it's successful on 'some' level. Though, I couldn't even begin to guess what their sub projections were on the game to make it worthwhile, or whether NCSoft no longer falls under the rules of 'subscription projection' and just falls under the 'evil genius attempt at world domination' category. After all, they do seem to want to flog the market with enough MMOGs where at some point in time, everybody will be simply required to have some sort of ALL ACCESS PASS equivalent for NCSoft, they we can flog ourselves with their personal rendition of 'fun'.

Now that's out of the way, one more thing to address. EverQuest 2. Somebody mentioned on the boards: "hey, you're all negative and stuff! Schdiggity!" (well they didn't say Schdiggity, but they should've, has more 'oomph'). This is, well, half true. I've been positive and negative. I've had my ups and downs with the entire project. So here's a sort of explanation on how I am generally likely to work...

In early, early, early ass stages of an MMOG, like, when it's first announced, assuming I see it as having merit, and not total crap or vaporware, I'll be all: "Yeah! Kick ass! Booyah!" to that general extent. Then mechanics are releases. That's my neutral era. That's when I play devil's advocate and compare each released mechanic to, oh, every other MMOG I've ever played. As the game gets closer to beta, and then, even release, that's when I become a hard ass. If there's things I don't like in theory, I point them out. I remain a skeptic. And am horribly picky (in case you haven't noticed). Then, once I play the game, I filter through my preconceived notions and check the game against them. If the game exceeds my expectations, I give it the credit it's due (ala World of Warcraft). Yeah. So. Expect me to be hard on EQII right now. Trust me, nothing more in the world I want than it to be mind bogglingly successful. I just have my doubts (but then, I had my doubts about WoW as well, and they invited me into beta... because, uh they're sadistic, and like the abuse baby.)

Anyways, like I said this is a half hour post, working on a World of Warcraft Manifesto again, so that coming up, and then, uh, I'm going to spend some time making fun of Star Wars Galaxies. It's just needs to be done.