Whitebox ahoy!

I'll let this say everything.

So I jumped the gun, but it was "damned if you do, damned if you don't" with the whole anticipation factor.

Here's what I have to look forward to.

SEX SEX SEX SEX SEX SEX SEX SEX!!!

Oh shit.... sticky keys.

Another obligatory "dorp" post

Dynamis - San d'Oria was good to us last night AF-wise. I managed to walk away with a pair of these babies.



Now I just need the Bastok and Windurst pieces, then I'll be 5/6 on BLU relic. Then I think I'll work on the PLD pieces next.

The fallout continues

Seeing all the recent news, and a very interesting discussion at LBR has really got me thinking on a few things.

If you've been following the news surrounding FFXI in the past several weeks, you've likely heard about the 550 "witches" burned at the stake, and the rest either getting warnings or temp bans for the infamous duping exploit. The initial hysteria seems to have died down, but a number of people are still ill at ease as to whether SE will come back around with another wave of bannings. A number of linkshells that may have lost their leaders from this, be they guilty as sin or completely in the dark as to what was going on yet banned anyway, have eithere reformed or just folded altogether.

While I believe that a number of these were justified, I also believe that there are quite a few out there that were innocent and/or completely clueless that were affected. This, and the fact that this kind of thing has gone on for over a year before being fixed, and then turning around and taking such extreme measures only proves how detached SE really is from its playerbase in contrast to other MMO companies. Look at Blizzard with WoW or even Cryptic/NCSoft with City of Heroes/Villains. But in SE's defense, they also have a number of language and culture barriers to contend with. In North American fan communities, you have a handful of large community sites, often serving as hubs for information, like Alla, FFXIclopedia, BG etc. Now, in Japan it's a different story. The community is spread out over several much smaller websites and blogs, much like this one. Not just for this game, but for a number of others as well.

Then there's the long-standing issue of the disparity in service between Japan and the rest of its userbase in other countries. Granted, some of this cannot be avoided given resources and the aforementioned differences in the two fan cultures. If you ask me, they're really no different from Sega in this aspect.

What do I mean by that? Phantasy Star Online, and Phantasy Star Universe. For the uninitiated, PSO was spread across three different consoles and two different PC versions, each with separate servers. In all incarnations of the game, especially PSO Blue Burst, there were quests and items that never saw the light of day on the North American servers. In the Dreamcast, GameCube and XBox versions of PSO, Japanese, North American, and European players could play together. However this ended in Blue Burst with the Japanese getting their own servers apart from NA/EU users, which would happen again in PSU.

Going back to the matter of duping and cheating, all incarnations of PSO had some kind of duping. We're not talking about monomates here, but some of the most powerful items within the game. And with the console versions, there were even weapons that were far stronger than what were available by normal means thanks to cheat devices. Of course, Sega did very little to stem the proliferation of these items outside of banning anyone that removed an item that wasn't yet available online out of their storage.

Another thing about how SE treats their fans. Counter-Strike got its roots as a Half-Life mod. Valve liked what they saw, and picked up the mod and the two guys responsible and it evolved into a standalone game. More recently, there was the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix which came out not too long ago. Where did the music come from? None other than OCRemix. There are surely a number of examples of game developers adding fans to their payrolls as a result of work that they [the fans] have done based on their favorite games by that company. On the subject of Capcom though, where do you think all the robots from Mega Man 2 all the way up to 8 came from? Fans. Hell, they even pulled from outside Japan with the aid of Nintendo Power in 1992 for the development of Mega Man 6. Back in 2003, there was a 3D remake of Chrono Trigger by a group of fans that was turning out quite well. What did they get for their troubles? A cease and desist letter from SE in 2004.Remember that? Now THIS is how a Chrono remake should've been done!

I think that deep down, this is yet another interesting look into human nature itself. As much as many others including myself would like to believe the contrary, we're all self-serving and a tad bit greedy in some fashion. I know there are a number of people who in light of the horrid drop rates and the fact nothing had been done about it for over a year despite knowledge about it would've just said "fuck you" and kept on duping. Although the people that knowingly participated in this feel justified in their actions, does that necessarily make it right? No. On the flip side, is it right that this had an impact on a number of "hapless victims" and they have no recourse? No. But this really isn't a black and white issue for either side here.

I really feel that SE should re-examine how it handles things in this game including their response to something else like this when it does happen again, and not have such disregard for its fans. Otherwise its userbase for not only this game, but its "successor" will fall like lead after the initial novelty wears off.

Einherjar, Ultima etc.

So last night was certainly a boon for US as we finally managed to clear a chamber in ine-hair-yar (I swear, that's the correct phonetic pronunciation, not "ine-her-jar" as so many mistakenly call it), putting us one step closer to Odin.

Triple dorp from Ultima was also sexy. We emerged from the 4th floor of central Temenos with a cerebrum, a heart, and a claw going to three very happy mages.

Lately I've started coming /THF to a few events and the results have been pleasing thus far.




I need to hurry up and get palace access in sea so I can get vertical cleave and the other indoor sea spells. Maybe then I'll get up the motivation to plow through the rest of CoP and get my goddamn rajas ring.